Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to do a handstand! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the drama “We Live in Time,” the satire “Rumours” and the edgy family film “Bookworm.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: In “Bookworm,” a new family adventure film now playing in theatres, 11-year-old Mildred’s (Nell Fisher) world is turned upside down when her estranged father, the washed-up magician Strawn Wise, played by Elijah Wood, agrees to take her camping to find a mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther, claim the $50,000 reward, and pay off her mother’s debts.
CAST: Elijah Wood, Nell Fisher, Michael Smiley, Morgana O’Reilly, Nikki Si’ulepa, Vanessa Stacey, Theo Shakes, Millen Baird. Directed by Ant Timpson.
REVIEW: A quirky and original (if slightly edgy) family film, “Bookworm” is an old-fashioned adventure, one that sets a father and daughter off on a camping trip that turns into a tale of survival and self-discovery.
Elijah Wood is “Bookworm’s” above the title star, and he delivers a memorably odd performance as a showy illusionist, with a big bag of tricks, but little idea of how to be a father. It’s a funny performance, driven by an irrational hate for magician David Blaine, but it is Nell Fisher as Mildred who steals the show.
She is precocious but never precious, smart but not a smart aleck. It’s a natural kid’s performance that helps anchor the film’s quirkier aspects.
Together they’re an engaging odd couple forced to put aside their differences—his reluctance to be a parent and her indifference to his parenting skills (“You’ve failed as a man and crapped the bed as a protector,” she tells him.)—and get to know one another to complete Mildred’s mission.
Set against the backdrop of Canterbury Plains in New Zealand’s southern region, “Bookworm” sees Wood on another adventure in familiar territory, and while this one is not as epic as his N.Z.-shot “Lord of the Rings” films, it satisfies in a less-is-more sense. It’s idiosyncratic and features some language and peril (see Michael Smiley’s excellent villain) that is definitely not the norm for kid’s flicks, but its story of reconciliation is relatable and has a great deal of eccentric charm.
Family reunions are often fraught with tension. Old wounds are opened by familiarity bred by contempt but few reconciliations have turned as dark and twisted as the father and son get together in Elijah Wood’s new thriller “Come to Daddy.”
Wood is Norval, a self-described music industry big deal, raised by his single mother in Beverly Hills. After receiving a letter from his estranged father requesting a face-to-face meeting, he makes the trip to a remote California home to meet a man he barely knows. He’s met by Brian (Stephen McHattie), a flinty, drunken older man with a sharp tongue. When Brian tries to impress the older man by dropping Elton John’s name, Brian calls him out in an embarrassing and cruel way. The situation doesn’t improve with the introduction of alcohol and soon the situation becomes dangerous.
That’s it! No spoilers here. Trust me when I say that unless your family gatherings include torture and excrement dripped shivs, you haven’t experienced a father and son situation quite like this before.
Darkly humorous and disquieting, “Come to Daddy” is a gonzo thriller that revels in the off-kilter nature of the escalating intrigue of the story. As the running time clicks through to the end credits the stakes for Noval surge in increasingly outrageous ways. It’s all good, gory fun that plays up the absurdity of the situation while still maintaining the complexity of the father-son relationship. It’s a mish mash of revenge, squeamish violence and surreal family drama that should please midnight madness fans but leave others reaching for a barf bag.
