🍿22: The Last Duel
This week's best trailers and a feature review of Ridley Scott's The Last Duel.
"ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!"
~ Gladiator, 2000
Something special this way comes…
Oh, what a treat we have in store for you… The next issue of Salty Popcorn (4 November) is going to be a musical (not that kind of musical) bonanza as we welcome Stygi from Midweek Crisis to act as SP’s first-ever guest editor.
Midweek Crisis is a bi-weekly newsletter that focuses on music and is complete with Spotify and YouTube embeds for each featured track and a weekly playlist, making it easy for you to listen to the songs you’re reading about.
While Stygie takes the wheel, I’ll be the guest editor for that week’s edition of Midweek Crisis (3 November) and I’ve chosen 10 of my favourite songs to have been featured on the big screen.
Sign up to Midweek Crisis today and don’t miss out!
Salty Popcorn Pub Quiz
The SP Quiz is next week! This is the last reminder you’ll get, so if you’ve not booked your tickets already, now’s the time!
When: 13:00 | Sunday 31st October
Where: The Cinque Ports, Margate
Cost: £3.83* per person | Premium SP subs go FREE.
*This has been adjusted to include EventBrite’s booking fee.
Now for the headlines:
Winners of the BFI London Film Festival have been announced with the award for Best Film going to Iranian family film Hit the Road. Read more.
Emily Blunt is “in talks” for Christopher Nolan’s next film, Oppenheimer, which will star Cillian Murphy in the lead role. Read more.
Indiana Jones 5 gets pushed back—again!—along with a handful of Marvel movies. Read more.
The trailer drops for Halle Berry’s directorial debut Bruised, in which she stars as a troubled MMA fighter looking to get back in the game. Watch here.
Salty Popcorn is 100% free but you can support this independent publication by paying just £5 per month. In return, you’ll be the first to access upcoming premium features.
Upcoming Releases
The Lost Daughter
UK: 31 December // USA: 31 December
For her directorial debut, Maggie Gyllenhaal casts Academy Award Winner Olivia Coleman (alongside Dakota Johnson and Paul Mescal) in this upcoming Netflix thriller based on a book of the same name by Elena Ferrante.
While on holiday, Coleman becomes obsessed with Johnson and her daughter, which cause her memories of motherhood to come back and unravel her.
Being the Ricardos
UK: 10 December // USA: 10 December
Starring Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem in the lead roles, Being the Ricardos is inspired by the true story of Lucille Ball (Kidman), the star of the 1950’s American sitcom I Love Lucy.
Fact of the week
In 2018, Matt Damon made an unrecognisable cameo appearance in Deadpool 2 (click to watch). I’ve not seen the film myself but while researching Damon’s filmography, I saw that he was credited as none other than Dickie Greenleaf…
To those of you familiar with The Talented Mr. Ripley, I won’t need to explain this reference and if you’ve not seen it then you’ll just have to watch it…
Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Jude Law and Philip Seymour Hoffman, it’s currently showing on Netflix in the UK and is by far one of Damon’s greatest performances (alongside Goodwill Hunting).
Review: The Last Duel
Star rating:
4.5 (out of 5)
Where to watch:
USA: Only in cinemas
UK: Only in cinemas
Runtime:
2hr 33m
Director:
Ridley Scott
Blurb:
In medieval France, Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer)—wife of the knight Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) accuses his best friend and well-respected nobleman Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) of rape. This leads the two men to fight to the death in France’s last judicially recognised duel - and yes, this is based on a true story.
The review (NO spoilers):
Ridley Scott delivers a raw medieval drama with a semi-feminist perspective of a world “where all that matters is the power of men”. With a star-studded cast, this dark period drama is a bitter treat that will keep you glued to the screen.
Jodie Comer outshines her Academy-revered co-stars Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Ben Affleck despite the onscreen bravado of their characters largely overshadowing her own. Regardless of the grand gestures and despicable deeds of the knights, squires and lords, none give the same multi-faceted performance as Comer - though I daresay that Driver comes close.
As Marguerite de Carrouges, Comer portrays a full spectrum of emotion that only goes to showcase her talent and I suspect it was this performance that helped her secure the role of Joséphine Bonaparte in Scott’s upcoming Kitbag.
Although some scenes were ever so slightly too long—almost to a point of being dragged out—I thoroughly enjoyed this film and its brutality. While there is some spectacularly bloodthirsty violence, it’s sparse enough to not detract from the narrative. However, it’s worth noting that this film is not for the faint of heart and the pivotal scene between Comer and Driver is particularly difficult to watch.
Scroll down for the critic’s cut and what’s coming in the next issue.
If you liked The Last Duel…
A Knight’s Tale
2001 | UK: Amazon Prime (£2.49) // US: Netflix
When William Thatcher (Heath Ledger) discovers that his master Sir Ector is dead, he wears his armour to impersonate him at a jousting tournament, which he wins. From there, William goes on to lie about his identity to compete in more tournaments for the sake of winning fame, glory and riches.
Rated as PG by the BBFC, this is a good family-friendly film for a Sunday.
In the next issue:
Watch The Sound With Mark Ronson
UK: 30 July // USA: 30 July | Watch the Trailer
A little different from SP’s usual film roster but it’s Stygi’s choice and it does look awesome
The Critic’s Cut 🚨SPOILER ALERT🚨:
Something that took me by surprise with The Last Duel was how the story was retold from the individual perspectives of different characters. The trailer didn’t give me the impression that this would be the case but I’m glad that the narrative unfolded in this way as I really enjoyed looking for the subtle differences between each retelling.
However, what surprises me even more is that while this method of storytelling feels very familiar—I can think of a few books that do this (Gone Girl, The Butterfly Collector—I can’t think of many films that use this technique.
If you can think of one (or two) the let me know in the comments below as I’d love to watch more films like this.
Yay, it's so cool to see the announcement of our collab! I'm super excited about it ✨
The casts of "The Lost Daughter" and "Being the Ricardos" caught my attention. I have a long-lasting soft spot for Olivia Coleman, and I loved Paul Mescal in the "Normal People" series 💖. Also after seeing "9 Perfect Strangers" with Nicole Kidman, I cannot wait to see her in something different. I'll save them in my must-watch list. And "A Knight's Tale" seems like a great, easy-watching candidate for my upcoming movie night this weekend 🍿. Thanks for this issue, it's great 👏