Franklyn (15)
Dir. Gerald McMorrow
Reviewed by Matt Adcock
Welcome to ‘Meanwhile City’ a dark place where reality hasn't got a prayer… This is a tasty, intelligent, strange and disturbing noir thriller that messes with you head and works a contrived build up to one climactic scene where the path of single bullet will decide the fate of four lost souls.
Brit director McMorrow does a decent job with some weird and wonderful characters intermingling their stories, none more cool than masked assassin Jonathan Preest (Ryan Philip) who looks like a spookier Rorschach…
Lots of the fun can be had trying to work out how the freaky faith obsessed sprawling gothic steampunk megacity called ‘Meanwhile’ fits in with our own existence in present-day London. Or why sexy but seriously unhinged student Amelia (Eva Green) is filming herself in various suicide bids? Also there’s the riddle of how and why Esser’s (Bernard Hill) son disappeared, is he dead, is someone else, has he gone mad? And then there’s the cleaner… WTF?? That cleaner had my friend John and I scratching our heads long after the credits had rolled and most of the other plot strands had be resolved.
Anyway, the main storyline sees jilted young Milo (Sam Riley) who is struggling to get his act back together whilst also obsessing about Sally (Eva Green) – his childhood crush... His best man is worried about him, as is his mental mother.
There are some genius comedy moments mixed in with the gloomy main plotlines. My pick of the bunch is when Preest is asked his religion, “What’s yours?” he replies only to be told: "I'm a Seventh-Day Manicurist…" genius!
Franklyn is flawed but it channels enough good ideas from other movies, some deft nods of the head to classic sci-fi movies and still brings plenty of new creative stuff to the table to make it worth checking out.
You’ll need to think about it though and preferably have decent IQ to really enjoy it. As Sally tells Milo at one point: “life's too much of an adventure as it is, without making anything else up.” Doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy made up nonsense like this…
Arbitrary Darkmatters final rating of: öööööööö (8 - Good stuff)
Darkmatters quick reference guide: Action 7, Style 8, Babes 7, Comedy 7, Spiritual Enlightenment 8
Dir. Gerald McMorrow
Reviewed by Matt Adcock
Welcome to ‘Meanwhile City’ a dark place where reality hasn't got a prayer… This is a tasty, intelligent, strange and disturbing noir thriller that messes with you head and works a contrived build up to one climactic scene where the path of single bullet will decide the fate of four lost souls.
Brit director McMorrow does a decent job with some weird and wonderful characters intermingling their stories, none more cool than masked assassin Jonathan Preest (Ryan Philip) who looks like a spookier Rorschach…
Lots of the fun can be had trying to work out how the freaky faith obsessed sprawling gothic steampunk megacity called ‘Meanwhile’ fits in with our own existence in present-day London. Or why sexy but seriously unhinged student Amelia (Eva Green) is filming herself in various suicide bids? Also there’s the riddle of how and why Esser’s (Bernard Hill) son disappeared, is he dead, is someone else, has he gone mad? And then there’s the cleaner… WTF?? That cleaner had my friend John and I scratching our heads long after the credits had rolled and most of the other plot strands had be resolved.
Anyway, the main storyline sees jilted young Milo (Sam Riley) who is struggling to get his act back together whilst also obsessing about Sally (Eva Green) – his childhood crush... His best man is worried about him, as is his mental mother.
There are some genius comedy moments mixed in with the gloomy main plotlines. My pick of the bunch is when Preest is asked his religion, “What’s yours?” he replies only to be told: "I'm a Seventh-Day Manicurist…" genius!
Franklyn is flawed but it channels enough good ideas from other movies, some deft nods of the head to classic sci-fi movies and still brings plenty of new creative stuff to the table to make it worth checking out.
You’ll need to think about it though and preferably have decent IQ to really enjoy it. As Sally tells Milo at one point: “life's too much of an adventure as it is, without making anything else up.” Doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy made up nonsense like this…
Arbitrary Darkmatters final rating of: öööööööö (8 - Good stuff)
Darkmatters quick reference guide: Action 7, Style 8, Babes 7, Comedy 7, Spiritual Enlightenment 8
"Eva Green - crazy but fit!"
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