It’s interesting how effectively director Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour acts as a complementary work to Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. Both take place during the same timeframe and focus on the same event. Yet whereas Dunkirk details the ongoing conflict occurring during Britain’s bleakest period, Darkest Hour details what occurs back in Parliament as Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) is reluctantly elected Prime Minister. Darkest Hour boasts great cinematography and a fantastic performance from Gary Oldman, complete with a makeover that makes him virtually indistinguishable from Churchill. The film does take several liberties with history, including the film’s best scene where Churchill jumps car to ride the London Underground with British civilians. The scene is entirely fictitious, and blatantly so, yet is so rousing and poignant that its fabrication is easy to forgive.
Dealt:
Dealt is a well-made documentary about a card trick expect coming to accept and appreciate the cards he’s been dealt with in life. The success story of Richard Turner is a fascinating journey, with the documentary doing an impressive job balancing his backstory and current day situation. The film ends on several very touching scenes, including a victory that may have felt cheesy in a biographical feature, yet is moving and satisfying here. Dealt also serves as a secondary account on magicians and card manipulators, showcasing a lot of mindboggling techniques while conveying how vigorously Turner practices to be so good.
Thelma:
Thelma does something I love in fiction: mixes genres together. The film is part coming-of-age romance, part mystery, and part supernatural thriller (the film is also labeled under horror, but there’s little here that’s genuinely frightening). For the first half, it’s such blend that makes Thelma so thoroughly engrossing. I’m invested in the romance, engaged in the mystery, and intrigued by the supernatural. Add in its thrilling erotic undertones and Thelma could have been an all-around delight. Unfortunately, Thelma has issues balancing its coming-of-age romance with its other genres—the former completely (as well as quite literally) disappearing by its second half, before coming back to steal priority in the final scene. Thelma’s ending confounds me as to whether the director is going for a happy or deceptively sinister tone. I prefer to think it’s the latter, as it fits with the film’s general mood. Thelma’s second half is messy, but there are enough overall positive qualities to recommend the film as an entertaining genre-splicer, despite having so much more potential.
