Kristen Wiig

Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie

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Gabby in human form

If you’re over the age of eight, Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie is probably not something you’ll have come across, or the Netflix show it sprang from. Its star, Laila Lockhart Kraner, probably won’t mean much to you either. Your loss? This intensely likeable, positive, bright and sunny excitement isn’t a “something for everybody” offer. But if you’re in the right demographic – the producers go as low as pre-schoolers and that seems about right – who knows? As is traditional for shows given a movie breakout, the writers send the format on holiday. So Gabby heads off with her Grandma Gigi to Cat Francisco, in Gigi’s VW Camper Van – number plate KTTY WGN – where … Read more

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar

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Barb and Star order cocktails in the pool

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is not funny. It’s lots of other things – warm and friendly, accessible and energetic, but funny it ain’t. It’s billed as a comedy. And it’s written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, who wrote Bridesmaids. But it’s still not funny. Strange. It gets off to a strong and funny start – an American Korean kid (Reyn Doi) cycling down a suburban street lip-syncing to Barbra Streisand’s Guilty while delivering papers. And stays funny when the film swerves into different territory as Yoyo (Doi) is granted admittance to the underground lair of an evil mastermind, Dr Evil in most respects, except that Kristen Wiig (unrecognisable) … Read more

Wonder Woman 1984

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Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman gear

And so Wonder Woman 1984. Last time we saw Gal Gadot’s lasso-swinging Amazon she was helping to win the First World War, and now, nearly 70 years on, here she is again in the era of Armani suits and “greed is good” and in a year most closely associated with George Orwell. This is a big, heavy, beast of a film that’s too long, too slow, too dull, and if that is a political message about democracy that writer/director Patty Jenkins is trying to sneak in there, someone should really have told her not to. Gal Gadot remains a wondrous Wonder Woman, though, a flawless paragon of superherodom, and the story gets off … Read more