A Quiet Place: Day One (2022 film)

Category: Creature horror

Directed by: Michael Sarnoski

-----

One of the most famous quotes ever to come from the pen of English essayist Samuel Johnson was that "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel". The quote is not actually about patriotism itself, but critiques the insincere use of patriotism and how some individuals exploit the concept of patriotism for self-serving purposes. And if I may bastardise the quote for second, Damo the middle-aged movie reviewer thus states "prequels are the last refuge of creatively-bankrupt movie studios - who may or may not be scoundrels".

And I start off with this because the first "A Quiet Place" movie was a surprise smash hit - a surprise smash hit to the point that Paramount Pictures decided to do Paramount Pictures things and pump out a sequel. I haven't seen the sequel, but I get the impressions it didn't quite hit the same creative and box office heights as the first. And so we are faced with the age old question - what do you do when you can't advance a story further, but want to milk more out your IP? The answer - you run it back to the beginning.

So now we have "A Quiet Place: Day One", chronicling the very beginning of the monster invasion of Earth (which takes place in New York, because of course).

The plot:

Lupita Nyongo plays Sam, a woman dying from cancer and living out her days at a hospice in upstate New York, alongside her cat Frodo who keeps her company. Sam reluctantly agrees to go on an day trip to a New York City theatre (on the promise of pizza afterwards) for a marionette puppet show. Sam sneaks out for a quick bit of personal shopping then back to the theatre right at the end, and right when she thinks its pizza time, we see meteors flash across the sky and the patients are ordered back on the bus to evacuate and head back to the hospice.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man (2026 film)

Category: Historic gangster drama/TV series tie-in.

Directed by: Tom Harper

Similar to: The Dark Knight Rises (but in Birmingham).

-----

I wouldn't consider myself a Peaky Blinders fan. I liked it, sure, but not enough to make Red Right Hand my ringtone or to get a Peaky Blinders haircut - I was much more a fan of how they recreated the time period. The series did a fairly good job of presenting the ethos and spirit of post-WW1 Britain, but my main gripe with the series was how Tommy Shelby kept on surviving assassination attempt after assassination attempt. That, and the very last episode which verged on outright ridiculous.

But as they say, no good deed goes unpunished, and given how popular the series was, there was always going to be an attempt to revive the IP in some form be it a movie or a series return. So with that in mind, we get the feature-length movie Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.

Oh man. I'm not a fan of that subtitle for starters...but here goes!

The plot:

The movie starts off in Germany where we see a large-scale operation where counterfeit British banknotes are ready to be shipped to England in order to ruin the British war-time economy, the transport of which is being facilitated by Beckett (Tim Roth).

Melania (2026 documentary)

Category: Documentary

Directed by: Brett Ratner

----

There's an old saying from Madame de Stael that goes:

In life, one must choose between boredom or suffering. 

In light of that, shall I add, that on the very rare occasion, life gives you both at the same time.

With this in mind I bring you my review of Melania, a documentary film released earlier in 2026 that chronicles three particular weeks in the life of current United States First Lady Melania Trump in the lead-up to the January 2025 inauguration of her husband, Donald Trump.

Just to make clear - I'm reviewing this as a film watcher and keeping any thoughts about US president Trump or his administration, be they positive or negative, aside. If you're after a Trump-bashing exercise, this isn't it.

But even as a film watcher, I have some fairly strong opinions which I want to get to, so let's get into a plot recap first:

There honestly isn't much of a plot or a story here.

Sunshine Women's Choir (2025 film)

Category: Musical drama

Directed by: Gavin Lin

Similar to: Glee, but in a prison.

----

Regular readers and the bots that scrape this website will know that foreign language movies aren't really my thing - out of the 70 or so movies I've reviewed so far, only a handful have been foreign. Not out of hatred or anything, but just that one tends to feel more comfortable with the things they're familiar with. 

However, I can now add another foreign movie to the list - Sunshine Women's Choir, which marks my first Chinese-language movie. My wife wanted to see this since it had quite a bit of hype from its release in Taiwan, and look, discounted movie tickets and a night out with the family aren't the worst combination in history.

When I was told that we're seeing Sunshine Women's Choir, I initially thought it was about the Melbourne suburb of Sunshine - and yes, there is literally a suburb in Melbourne called Sunshine, named after the company that built a manufacturing hub in the suburb around WW1. A movie about a group of women from a working-class immigrant suburb forming a choir wouldn't have been a bad premise for a movie, but it turns out this movie is about a bunch of women in a prison who form a choir instead.

Let's get reviewing, shall we!

Plot (really badly explained):

Inside the northern women's prison of Taiwan (implying there's also a southern women's prison in Taiwan), the pregnant Hui-Zhen (Ivy Chen) gives birth and raises her daughter. In her cell (which looks more like a creche than a place where people do hard times) are three other women who help raise the girl - the more senior Yu Ying (Judy Ongg), the middle-aged Pei Ying (May Suen) who has a male pen pal/love interest on the outside, and Xiu Lan (Amber An).

The Brutalist (2024 film)

Genre: Historic drama epic

Directed by: Brady Corbet

----

I hestitated for a very long time before deciding to start this movie. I've always wanted to watch it becasuse I think Adrien Brody is one of the best actors of this generation. But seriously? Three fucking hours? In that time I could watch a standard-length horror movie, get a Thai massage, get some ink done and have time for coffee afterwards.

Now, the title of the film refers to the architecture style known as Brutalism whose features are exposed concrete/building materials, straight geometric shapes and bland colour pallettes - not anything to do with fighting or MMA.

So I'm torn - a three hour Adrien Brody movie just simply has to be the most epic movie in history. But a three hour movie about an architect - epic? Really? However, some time back when I was on holidays from work, I decided it's now or never - put my feet up, get a packed lunch, shut myself off from the world and hit play.

The plot:

The movie plays out in five parts - Overture, The Enigma Of Arrival, an intermission, The Hard Core Of Beauty and Epilogue: The First Architecture Biennale.

Talk To Me (2022 film)

Category: Teen supernatural horor

Directed by: Danny and Michael Phillippou

Similar to: Hereditary, It Follows

-----

I avoided this movie for a while because the name of this movie is very similar to a software application I support at my work whose implementation and support have caused me headaches - to the point that merely typing the title of this movie reminds me of said work, the last thing I want while I am on annual leave and watching movies.

But once again, I am also guilty of cutting off my nose to spite my face by delaying watching this - this movie turned out to be quite decent! I'll get into my full thoughts after a plot run-down, but if you're a fan of movies like Hereditary and It Follows, you'll also like this one.

The other thing to note is that this is another high-profile horror movie to be filmed in South Australia as The Babadook and Snowtown were filmed there as well. Maybe South Australia is competing with Tasmania to be the horror capital of Australia - God knows South Australia has some skin in the game on that front, to the point that Top Gear once famously quipped:

"Being home to serial killers, and sharks, and probably also serial-killing sharks, and heavy rain, Adelaide is thus a grand place to drive away from."

The plot:

The movie begins at a large teenage house party and we follow Cole (Ari McCarthy) who is in a rage trying to find his brother Duckett (Sunny Johnson). Duckett, as it turns out, has locked himself in a bedroom whose door Cole smashes down. Leading his brother out and castigating everyone present for filming his meltdown on their phones, Cole turns around and is suddenly stabbed by his brother who then proceeds to fatally stab himself.

Choose Or Die (2022 film)

Category: Supernatural horror with sci-fi leanings.

Directed by: Toby Meakins

Feels like: Jumanji meets The Ring meets Pixels

-----

I honestly didn't know what to expect when I saw this come up as an option on my streaming service, except that it was only 84 minutes. A sense of relief came over me that it wasn't no 3.5 hour epic like The Brutalist. There's nothing wrong with Hollywood epics - some of them are my favourite movies - but there's just something about the 90-minute format that is comforting. Like being under a thick blanket on a cold night while you tuck into a bag of snacks.

And horror movies - you should know by now I loves me a good horror movie.

So is Choose Or Die, a 2022 effort directed by Toby Meakins, a good horror movie? Find out after the plot recap!

The plot:

The opening scene sees Laura (Kate Fleetwood) berating her son Gabe (Pete McHale) about an unspecified, but serious incident as there are mentions of police involvement. The two eventually bemoan how the dad of the family, Hal (Eddie Marsan) is uninvolved in family affairs due to his electronic gadget obsession in his "man cave". We then see Hal shut the door and start up a text-based computer game called CURS>R on an old green phosphour CRT screen.