Bryan Woods

Heretic

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Hugh Grant with hands folded in prayer

What happens if you turn wayward, dithery rom-com Hugh Grant all the way up to 11? Heretic is the answer, a through-the-looking-glass turn by Grant whose good guy/bad guy turn as a householder giving two young Mormon women a night they won’t forget is this movie’s main event. First we meet the young women – Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) – in a scene designed to demonstrate to us their everydayness. With their coy chat about Magnum condoms, penises and online porn, Bates and Paxton also demonstrate to each other that they are everyday normal young women, just ones who happen to members of the Church of Jesus Christ … Read more

65

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Adam Driver ready to shoot something

“Adam Driver fights dinosaurs” seems to be the social media consensus on 65, in which Adam Driver does indeed fight dinosaurs, but also fear itself, in a surprisingly good and tense thriller directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the guys who wrote A Quiet Place. The buzz was not good even before it opened, and the studio kept this film away from the press, allowing only one screening right before it premiered, to minimise negative publicity. Clearly, they felt, something had gone wrong. Which is odd because Driver is a proven quantity, so it should have been something. Sci-fi – also a winner. Dinosaurs – who doesn’t love a dinosaur? And yet… The … Read more