May’s TTR is a relatively short one (very apt for the premise of this corner of DOTT, I think). Most of the movies I’ve watched recently have been horror movies (and I wonder why my nightmares have increased…) due to the new addition to DOTT, Terror Tapes! There will be more to see there very soon, but for now, here is a handful of other movies I have caught up with recently (or, in a couple of cases, watched again for the first time in a long while).

May’s TTRs consists of: Blade Runner 2049, Crossroads, Enola Holmes, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, The Lost City, Mean Girls (2024) and Peter Pan & Wendy.

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Writers: Hampton Fancher, Michael Green, based on the book ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ by Philip K. Dick
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Harrison Ford, Jared Leto, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, Sylvia Hoeks, Mackenzie Davis, David Dastmalchian, Edward James Olmos

This movie was recently re-released in Dolby Atmos, and so a friend and I went to see it. I was, almost quite literally, blown away seeing it on a very large Dolby screen with quite intense surround sound. It certainly made Roger Deakins’s cinematography all the more striking and Hans Zimmer’s score and the soundscapes more intense and immersive. Set thirty years after the events of the 1982 original Blade Runner, a new, younger replicant and blade runner named K (Gosling) tracks down Rick Deckard (Ford) after discovering a long-hidden secret, one that could change the world for replicants. I was personally never a huge fan of the original (frankly, I struggle enough with the density of Philip K. Dick’s stories as it is), but 2049 keeps things relatively fresh and simple in comparison. Gosling’s straight-laced performance works well for his replicant character, and the story is continued in an interesting way, something that most sequels don’t manage to achieve.

Director: Tamra Davis
Writer: Shonda Rhimes
Cast: Britney Spears, Taryn Manning, Zoe Saldaña, Anson Mount, Dan Aykroyd, Kim Cattrall, Justin Long

Finally, finally, every Britney Spears fan got their wish: Crossroads FINALLY came to streaming! Spears plays Lucy, a young girl about to graduate high school, but decides to go on a last-minute cross-country trip to see her mother who abandoned her when she was very young. Along for the ride are her estranged childhood besties Mimi (Manning) and Kit (Saldaña), and their reluctant chauffeur, Ben (Mount). This film was released in 2002, I was 13 years old, and most definitely part of its target audience. Thus, it has a special place in that part of my heart that never grew past about 16 years old. Has it aged well? Not particularly, but it gets massive nostalgia points, and is also quite a time capsule for the music and casual fashion of the early naughties. Not to mention, it was written by Shonda Rhimes before she was, well, Shonda Rhimes. I will never not enjoy Crossroads.

Director: Harry Bradbeer
Writer: Jack Thorne, based on the book ‘The Case of the Missing Marquess’ by Nancy Springer and the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ character by Arthur Conan Doyle
Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Helena Bonham Carter, Louis Partridge, Burn Gorman, Adeel Akhtar

As you may surmise by the title and name of the titular character, this story revolves around the younger sister of Sherlock Holmes. Enola Holmes, a Nancy Springer-created character, finds herself in the shadow of her older brother, until one day their mother disappears, and Enola takes it upon herself to investigate and discover what happened to her, all without the help of her detective brother. It’s a fun little adventure for fans of characters such as Nancy Drew or the Hardy boys, and there’s a lot of rather enjoyable fourth-wall breaking. It sets itself apart from usual Holmes dramas by being much lighter and more humourous, clearly intended for a younger audience, but still enjoyable for older Holmes fans, too.

Director: David Yates
Writer: Steve Kloves, based on the book ‘Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them’ and characters created by J.K. Rowling
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Mads Mikkelsen, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Katherine Waterstone, Alsion Sudol, Callum Turner

This entire franchise has been doomed for quite a while, caught up in myriad controversies with its actors and creators. To add insult to injury, the release was interrupted by COVID, so it never stood much of a chance. It did manage to turn a profit, but it suffered critically. In this sequel to The Crimes of Grindelwald, Gellert Grindelwald (Mikkelsen) is intent on destroying the Muggle world, but his close friend and romantic interest Albus Dumbledore (Law) refuses to let him achieve it. Dumbledore recruits Newt Scamander (Redmayne) and his pals to help him put a stop to Grindelwald’s plan. This is one of those films that is decidedly average – the story is ok, the plot muddles along just fine, the performances are exactly what you’d expect – but it doesn’t really stand out amongst other blockbusters that it was supposed to compete with (namely its own predecessors, being the Harry Potter franchise). It will likely suffice for die-hard fans of the Wizarding World, but is unlikely to ever gain a newer audience. The Fantastic Beasts franchise was supposed to consist of five movies, but it’s all a little up in the air right now, so it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not there will be any further instalments.

Directors: Aaron Nee, Adam Nee
Writers: Oren Uziel, Dana Fox, Adam Nee, Aaron Nee
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Brad Pitt, Oscar Nuñez, Bowen Yang

Romance novelist and ex-archaeology researcher Loretta Sage (Bullock) is kidnapped and sent to find a treasure mentioned in one of her novels by crazy billionaire Abigail Fairfax (Radcliffe). On witnessing her kidnapping, the cover model for her book, Alan Caprison (Tatum), launches a rescue mission to get her back. If the premise sounds bizarre, that’s because it is. It has its humourous moments, particularly from Radcliffe, but Tatum struggles to find his footing and our girl Sandy B honestly seems rather bored throughout. Like a strangely warped Indiana Jones (though truthfully it’s no better than Dial of Destiny), the film skirts its way through multiple genres and isn’t quite sure where to land. It’s a little bit of fun, but not the most interesting or entertaining of films.

Directors: Samantha Jayne, Arturo Perez Jr.
Writers: Tina Fey, based on the musical by Tina Fey and the book ‘Queen Bees and Wannabes’ by Rosalind Wiseman
Cast:  Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auliʻi Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey, Avantika, Bebe Wood, Christopher Briney, Jenna Fischer, Busy Philipps, Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, John Hamm, Ashley Park, Connor Ratliff, Mahi Alam, Lindsay Lohan

We all know the plot of Mean Girls by now, right? Cady Heron (Rice) attends high school for the first time after living in Kenya and being homeschooled by her mum (Fischer). She becomes friends with Janis (Cravalho) and Damian (Spivey), and they devise a plan to infiltrate the ‘plastics’, a group of popular mean girls consisting of Regina George (Rapp), Gretchen Wieners (Wood) and Karen Shetty (Avantika). Truthfully, this version doesn’t outdo the 2004 original film, however it does add an extra element of fun by being a musical. Rapp is a particular stand-out as Regina, her talents as a singer unparalled and almost, almost, getting ahead of Rachel McAdams’s original portrayal (but not quite). It’s certainly a fun take on the classic movie we all know and love, and even more so with the addition of some of the original actors and a squeal-worthy cameo from our own queen, Lindsay Lohan.

Director: David Lowery
Writer: David Lowery, Toby Halbrooks, based on the book Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie
Cast: Alexander Molony, Ever Anderson, Jude Law, Alyssa Wapanatâhk, Jim Gaffigan, Joshua Pickering, Jacobi Jupe, Molly Parker, Alan Tudyk, Yara Shahidi

Marketed as a live-action remake of Disney’s 1953 animation Peter Pan, the story follows much of the same but with additions that follow more of J.M. Barrie’s book. Peter (Molony) visits the Darling household to whisk away Wendy (Anderson), John (Pickering) and Michael (Jupe) to Neverland, where they will never have to grow up. Wendy, her brothers and Pan’s Lost Boys are kidnapped by Captain Hook (Law), and Peter and Tinkerbell (Shahidi) must rescue them. As much as this retells the story of the animation, it has so much more depth to its characters, particularly Hook and his relationship and history with Peter. The young actors do a splendid job in their roles and are able to convey a decent range of emotion. There have been many, many adaptations/retellings/reimaginings of Barrie’s characters, but this one is worthy of being in a top ten of all time.