TMW #13: Nosferatu, We Live in Time and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 reviewed
The week's biggest cinema and streaming titles reviewed, plus our festive-TV faves
Merry Twixmas movie lovers,
And welcome to the Christmas to New Year netherworld, where the rules of time and space no longer apply. Maybe that explains why the only film releasing in cinemas today is the somewhat lacklustre Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Don’t race to the cinema for that one. Our advice? Hit up your local popcorn-plex for a double-bill of Robert Eggers’ gothic gem Nosferatu and prestige weepie We Live in Time from Wednesday.
If you’re a paying subscriber you can also read what the team put in front of their eyeballs between rounds of mince pies and liqueurs over Christmas. No Trailer Club this week, as everyone dropped the good stuff in the run-up to Christmas and, well, we didn’t think we had 100-words on Zachary Levi’s The Unbreakable Boy in us - that trailer speaks for itself.
Christmas may have been and gone, but there’s never a bad time to treat yourself, or a dear pal, to The Movie Wingman. Subs start from as little as £5 a month, and you’ll unlock bonus writings every week - can’t say fairer than that.
Don’t forget that the Wingman chat is now open, why not pop in and say hello? Or leave a comment below. We’d love to hear about all your movie-themed Christmas goodies. See you on Tuesday for the Wingman quiz of the year and plenty more festive fun.
Jordan (Matt and Matthew)
Reviews
Nosferatu
15, in cinemas 1 January
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Robert Eggers’ remake of the 1922 silent classic has dread running through it on a molecular level. It drips with atmosphere. It feels as if the film itself wouldn’t survive contact with daylight. From the first black frames, it puts a long-nailed hand around your throat and doesn’t loosen its grip for the next two hours. Eggers has done it again.
The 41-year-old writer/director is on one hell of a streak so far, following The Witch (2015), The Lighthouse (2019) and The Northman (2022). Nosferatu is further compelling evidence to add to the case that Eggers does not miss. A passion project that’s been in the works for years, Nosferatu feels like the perfect confluence of director and material.
The one negative is that if you’re familiar with the previous incarnations of Nosferatu and know Eggers’ game, there’s nothing massively surprising to be uncovered. But you don’t need surprise when it all unfolds so masterfully, firing on every conceivable cylinder. If anything, a degree of familiarity with the plot allows you to indulge in the aesthetics, performances and mood, and to marvel at the steady, relentless build of horror as Count Orlok’s diabolical design comes to fruition.
There’s also novelty, in this day and age, to savour a horror film that prioritises slow-burn escalation over jump scares. That keeps its monster in shadow. If that sounds like something you don’t have the attention span for, it’s your loss. Go with it (ideally seeing it in the darkest auditorium you can find) and it’s an incredibly transportative experience, with the growing tension steadily building from stomach knot to full-on suffocation.
Another excellent part of this package here is the cast. Lily-Rose Depp borders on revelatory as Ellen, a young, newly married woman who accidentally becomes the object of obsession for the malevolent Orlok (the Dracula stand-in, with the original film being an unauthorised riff on Bram Stoker’s classic novel). Her writhing physical intensity, soul-sapped torment and accent (this is an American vision of Germany in which everyone has English accents) are all spot on.
Though you barely see him - and in those brief glimpses, he’s truly unrecognisable physically and vocally - Bill Skarsgård is magnificent as the complete and utter Count. From the moment Ellen’s estate-agent husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) arrives at his Transylvanian castle, Orlok oozes pure malevolence. He’s a frightful creation, and while Skarsgård is carving a niche for himself representing ultimate evil, Orlok is very different to It’s Pennywise. Skarsgård and Depp stand out, with the film revolving around their inexorable connection, but they’re well supported by Hoult, Emma Corrin, a freaky Simon McBurnley and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (who really needed this to balance out Kraven the Hunter), and returning Eggers collaborators Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson.
Nosferatu is a film to luxuriate in, if you can luxuriate in something while squirming in discomfort. From the cinematography to production design to costuming, it’s immaculate, and Robin Carolan’s skin-prickling score cranks everything up another gothic notch. That it all concludes on a final shot that haunts long after the credits simply confirms that you’re in the hands of a master. Succumb. (Matt Maytum)
In short: In crafting an update on a genre classic, Robert Eggers has made one of the best vampire movies in years.
Stay for the credits? There’s no post-credit scene, though you might want to sit back for a few minutes to recover.
Unexpected face-fuzz award: Orlok rocks a pornstache that surprisingly doesn’t diminish his fearfulness one jot.
We Live in Time
15, in cinemas 1 January
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
With its sexy-but-accessible stars, bit-parters you recognise off the telly and running joke about Weetabix, there’s something very old-school-British-romcom about John Crowley’s (Brooklyn, The Goldfinch) non-chronological love story. The wildly unlikely meet-cute - love at first near-fatal road accident - is straight out of the Richard Curtis playbook, while being able to tell where we are in the story thanks to the female lead’s hairstyle is pure Sliding Doors. But while it matches many of its forebears LOL for LOL, We Live in Time avoids the more ingratiating, twee excesses of the 90s/00s Working Title/Miramax era. It’s a better film about time than, say, About Time.
Working from playwright John Payne’s (The Last Letter from Your Lover) script, Crowley hops smoothly and intuitively from one juncture to another in the relationship between divorced brekkie-cereal rep Tobias (Andrew Garfield) and rising-star chef Almut (Florence Pugh). The latter’s late-stage cancer diagnosis is the emotional fulcrum on which the back-and-forth plot pivots; familiar turf for domestic drama, but reinvigorated thanks to the honesty and intensity of the scenes where the couple attempt to map out their uncertain future.
Striking sparks from the get-go, both stars are funny, charming, raw and relatable; Pugh in particular handles the heavier stuff as skilfully as you’d expect, while her laser-focused portrayal of Almut’s passion for her profession underscores how this is as much a film about striving as dying. (Matthew Leyland)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
PG, in cinemas now
⭐⭐☆☆☆
Despite missing Sonic’s video game heyday by some three decades, Jeff Fowler’s CG-hybrid movies have proven a surprise hit, and the blue blur’s upward trajectory shows no signs of slowing down (commercially at least) with this third instalment. The headlines are that Keanu Reeves has joined the cast as the voice of vengeful nega-Sonic Shadow (think John Wick with sneakers) and you get twice as much Jim Carrey for your money; the comedy legend returns to play Dr Ivo Robotnik, and his 110-year-old grandfather, Gerald. The non-Carrey human characters - inexplicably central to previous films - have been largely sidelined here for the better, and it’s an undeniable treat to see Carrey in full goofball mode (the Carrey/Carrey dance sequence is a highlight), but this is the filmmaking equivalent of having Tangfastics thrown at your face for 110 minutes. Add another star if you’re a Sonic mega-fan or under the age of 11. (Jordan Farley)
Squid Game S2
N/A, streaming on Netflix now
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
The long-awaited follow-up to Netflix’s biggest show ever, Squid Game’s second season is a brutal and compelling re-match, with one important caveat: you’re only getting half the story. After a brief sojourn into a galaxy far, far away, Lee Jung-jae returns as Seong Gi-hun. When we catch up with him two years post-victory, he’s putting his blood-money winnings to good use by tracking down those responsible, only to be dragged back into the games when his carefully considered plan goes wrong. Taking its time to get back to the main event, the new games play on Gi-hun’s (and audience) expectations in smart ways; some are the same, some different. While an expanded voting mechanic, with players now choosing to continue or leave after every round, cranks up the interpersonal tension with somewhat repetitive consequences. The drama of watching simple games play out with life or death stakes is no less potent, but if the pacing feels off in this seven-episode second season it’s because the games aren’t close to finished by the time the credits roll, with a lot of set-up resulting in very little payoff. At least there won’t be quite as long to wait this time – the third and final season drops next year. (Jordan Farley)
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Movie Wingman to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.