For those not familiar with cult films, 'The Disaster Artist' is about the making of notorious box office flop turned midnight movie sensation 'The Room'; written, directed, produced and financed by eccentric man of mysteries Tommy Wiseau, who also starred in it. Wiseau allegedly spent around $6 million on the film, with an opening box office week of $1800, and kept it in two theatres for 2 weeks to qualify for the Academy Awards...without success, in case you were wondering. 
According to most, 'The Room' isn’t just a bad film: it’s the worst film ever made, and/but 99 minutes of non-stop laughter. This earned the film an Audience Award in New York, and it later turned a profit through the Midnight movie circuit while reaching cult status. And nearly 15 years later, it’s still playing regularly in theatres such as the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square, in case you’ve missed it until now ('The Disaster Artist' actually begins with various film personalities-JJ Abrams included-talking about this phenomenon more than 10 years on). ​

Based on the book The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made written by Tom Bissell and Wiseau’s co-star and friend Greg Sestero, 'The Disaster Artist' tells the story of Wiseau and Sestero, from their first meeting during a scene class in San Francisco, up to the film’s Hollywood premiere. With James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow and Zac Efron in the cast, I went in expecting pure comedy from start to finish. And the film has plenty of hilarious moments, starting with James Franco’s first appearance as Tommy in a hysterical rendition of A Streetcar Named Desire, part Frankenstein’s Creature, part 40-something hipster-Goth-90s-rock (ie 120% Wiseau). Franco’s commitment to the part is spectacular, and completely fitting to Wiseau’s own “just let it go” philosophy.

Against Dave Franco’s self-conscious all American Greg, we have a classic comedic pair from the get go. But what keeps us involved in the story is something else. Franco’s commitment goes beyond walking around a film set directing his cast literally butt naked (except for some penis covering pouch. What was that?) then filming a bafflingly ridiculous sex scene during which he seems to be making love to his co-star’s navel. Franco also shows Tommy’s cracks. Ok, very bad timing. I DO NOT mean his butt crack. Well, that too (you’ll see…). But there are also the cracks that allow the light to get in, as Franco’s Tommy is also vulnerable, sensitive, dark, generous, childlike, tyrannical, exasperatingly stubborn.... It’s all there, making the character larger than life comedy gold, and yet completely 3-dimensional and believable. Even moving at times.

Similarly committed are Dave Franco’s Greg, whose mounting frustration with his friend (yet love for him) is equality anchored; and Seth Rogen’s Sandy Schklair, Tommy’s dead pan script supervisor for 'The Room', who remains true to himself and his view of Wiseau to the very end, unlike many others which will have demanded some sort of bonding moments between Tommy and Sandy. 

This fantastic balance between comedy and drama is also thanks to a great by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber (who also penned '500 Days of Summer' and 'The Faults in Our Stars') and to Franco’s overall direction. (The only time the film lost me was early on due to a choice of guerrilla style camera movement that felt quite jarring, but it didn’t last very long at all.) ​

After a world championship win in the previous film, the third installment of the Pitch Perfect franchise finds the Bellas lost in the pangs of post-graduation depression. They work various unappealing jobs, from food truck to Veterinarian’s office, while Beca (Anna Kendrick) and Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) stay the closest to singing. The former soon quits her job as a junior producer a record label and the latter struggles with her one woman street show "Fat Amy Winehouse". So when Aubrey (Anna Camp) tells the girls about an opportunity to play on a USO tour around the Mediterranean, they seize the occasion to reunite one last time... 

Warning 1: Anyone who’s seen 'Sex and the City 2' might get a tingling sensation of déjà-vu here, seeing familiar characters in an exotic location meet attractive men and do a bunch of outlandish things for no apparent reason. 
Warning 2: Anyone who’s seen any instalment of 'The Hangover' franchise may also suffer from déjà-vu as the opening sequence showcases the Bellas singing Britney to a bunch of thugs on a yacht off the French Riviera, until Fat Amy attacks said thugs and burns down the yacht. We then skip to 3 weeks earlier… 

On the plus side, in spite of having completely forgotten 'Pitch Perfect' and not having seen its sequel at all, I was able to catch up and follow 'Pitch Perfect 3' from the get go. Another plus was seeing the 12 year old girls who had been watching it as well step out of the movie theatre with delighted grins and joyful energy. Their parents were grinning too, by the way. ​

Added to this daddy issues duet, we also have a trio of underdeveloped romance stories: Chloe (Brittany Snow) getting together with Chicago their US military guide (Matt Lanter) after a series of mildly embarrassing exchanges, Lilly (Hana Mae Lee) falling into an offbeat bond with an equally eccentric musician, and Theo (Guy Burnet), DJ Khaled’s right hand man, falling for Beca though it’s never fully delved into but given his longing gazes, one can only assume it’s not all just for her talent. Between the contest, the romances, the daddies and the girls respective futures also a theme, there seems to be too much going on already. And then it all turns action thriller with a group kidnapping that definitely snatched my suspension of disbelief away for good. Explosions and side romances can be fun, but do not a strong comedy make. 

Instead of packing the script with so many things and all much to superficially, the film might have benefitted with more focus and depth (yes, it’s a light comedy, but light comedies need depth too). For example, Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) aka Bella’s latest addition, is a songwriter. Yet except for a few platitudes, nothing is made of this. If DJ Khaled is to sign Beca as a rising star and if the Bellas are to clearly surpass their opponents, didn’t the finale scream for a Golden Globe worthy original song instead of a George Michael cover? And wasn’t there more to show about Aubrey’s hidden fear or singing and the place it had with each and everyone of them? And how on earth can they do all those numbers with absolutely no notice and no rehearsals to show for it? Maybe a rehearsal would have been a better moment to break the news of Chloe getting into Vet school, instead of wrapping up everyone’s story rushedly at the very end.

​There are firsts for everything. Baby Driver gave me a new first; the first time ever - as far as I can remember - where I disliked a film's protagonist in less than 5 minutes. How is that possible while everyone around me loved the film from start to finish?
Let me set the scene: three people approach a bank with guns and masks while a young man sits behind the wheel of a car, innocently listening to music. And he's got great taste in music, I tell you that! He starts singing along, tapping the wheel, as we all do. But then he starts going overboard, banging on the outside of the car and making a huge fuss about how much he is loving his music all the while grimacing in the most arrogant cocky way that only a sure as heck, arrogant, cocky kind of late teen/early twenties male can do. I despise this person immediately. I want him to shut up and stop what he's doing, thinking he's the king of the world without the charm of a young DiCaprio. And I usually love Ansel Elgort. But this introduction to Baby made it really hard. I like self-assured, confident people as much as the next person, but I despise arrogance. I. Cant. Stand. It. Even if the guy wasn't supposed to be an inconspicuous getaway driver - which he is spectacularly failing at - this display of "I'm the greatest person in the universe" isn't endearing at all. At least in my book. Thankfully our friendly neighbourhood (not as much friendly as violent) bank robbers don't take long and we're off on our first car chase. And this is where Baby Driver truly shines.

Director Edward Wright decided to time all action sequences to the music Baby is listening to. It is absolutely brilliant! The choreography in conjunction with the earworm-worthy music makes for a mesmerising style that almost makes 'Baby Driver' into an action musical of sorts. The action pieces are fantastic. The chase sequences are fast, precise, insane and utterly exhilarating. And the film doesn't stop there. Plenty of non driving action scenes appear in the second half of the film, not any less impressive than their car chase big brothers. Wright knows how to give us shiny visuals combined with awesome soundtracks and 'Baby Driver' is no different. It looks great, it sounds even better. If only it had established a likeable protagonist I would have loved this film. 

Elgort is joined by Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, Eiza González and Lily James. Despite the star power the characters are mere caricatures than fully realised people. Everyone is introduced with a code name and you never really get to dig deeper, even with our hero. Yes, we do find out his parents died in a car crash when he was young; which also gave him his tinnitus. And that he grew up with a loving, deaf foster father (how hard it must be for a deaf, black, wheelchair bound man to be considered as a foster parent on his own baffles my mind), who he is clearly very close with. But all that feels like reading someone's online profile. You don't really get to know the person behind it all and that is where the film ultimately failed for me. I did not care about any of the characters.

We have pretty much all ingredients of your usual superhero origin story in 'Baby Driver'. Little boy witnesses his parents death in a car accident, gets an ailment (tinnitus) which somehow turns him into a superhero as he has to listen to music constantly to drown it out, and apparently that enables him to be the world's greatest driver and parkour artiste. Unfortunately Baby never turns into the superhero he is set up to be. He is clearly uncomfortable with the violence he is being part of and when he finally springs into action it felt hollow, because he was causing as much violence, carnage and - if I'm not mistaken - death as the people he was going up against. What was his point again?

Style over substance. That sums up 'Baby Driver' for me. Nothing wrong with that, but personally I need charismatic and/or memorable characters. And there were none. On top of all that the film wastes a great opportunity at the end, where we are instead greeted by an almost inconsequential resolution to the events we've witnessed. Our lead character seems unchanged by what he endured. Character development: non-existent. The action was great and I'll remember the soundtrack, that's something.