🍿#19: The Nest

Amazing facts about one of the world's greatest actors, some truly awesome trailers and a competition winner announced!

Sep 09, 2021

“I don't mean to brag… but I'm the greatest!”
~ White Men Can’t Jump, 1992

We have a winner…

That’s right folks, following the referral prize featured in the last edition of Salty Popcorn (featuring The Night House), a winner has been chosen… A round of applause to long time subscriber Jake L. who’ll now have to choose between 3 months of Netflix or Mubi.

Well done Jake and thanks to everyone who took part.

Now for the headlines:

A fun and exciting teaser for The Matrix Resurrections has been released and a full trailer is expected to launch later today. I won’t spoil the fun… Click here to enter the Matrix
After its UK release was postponed due to lockdown fears, it’s been confirmed that The Green Knight, starring Dev Patel, will hit both cinemas and Amazon Prime on 24 September. Read more.
James McAvoy improvises his way through the entirety of the upcoming film My Son. That’s right, apparently, he wasn’t ever handed a script for the film and the ending was as much of a mystery to him as it will be to the audience. Read more.
David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, said he’d be up for making more prequels following The Many Saints of Newark. Read more.
More films have been added to the BFI London Film Festival (6–17 October), including The French Dispatch, Last Night in Soho and The Power of the Dog. Read more.

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

Don’t Look Up

UK: 24 December // USA: 24 December

Director Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice, Step Brothers) directs an all-star cast in this story of two low-level astronomers (Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio) that go on a giant media tour to warn mankind of an approaching comet that will obliterate Earth.

I’ve been looking forward to this trailer for some time and while I wasn’t expecting a comedy satire, I’ve no doubt that McKay and his cast will deliver.

The Guilty

UK: 1 October // USA: 1 October

Adapted from a Danish film of the same name, The Guilty stars Jake Gyllenhall as a police operator who tries to save a caller in grave danger. It’s not long, however, until he discovers that nothing is as it seems…

This one was submitted by SP super-fan Mia.

Facts of the week

I learnt a lot of interesting facts about the late Christopher Lee yesterday, let me enlighten you:

He was witness to the last execution by guillotine to take place in France.
He came close to marrying Swedish royalty and was even given the blessing of the king of Sweden.
He was the inspiration for the character James Bond, written by his step-cousin Ian Fleming who asked him if he’d want to play Dr No in the first film. Lee accepted, but by the time Fleming got around to talking to the producers they had already cast Joseph Wiseman. Of course, Lee did get to play Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun.
He’s the only cast member of the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy to have actually met J. R. R. Tolkien.
Finally, he was part of a heavy metal band that made it to the Top 100 when Lee was 91, making him the second-oldest living performer to ever enter the charts.

Review: The Nest

The Nest (2020) - IMDb — Courtesy of BBC Films

Star rating:

3 (out of 5)

Worth a watch?

Maybe, this one is up to you.

Where to watch:

USA: Only in cinemas

UK: Only in cinemas

Runtime:

1hr 47m

Director:

Sean Durkin (The Ritual and the upcoming Hellraiser reboot)

Blurb:

The life of an ambitious entrepreneur Rory O’Hara (Jude Law) and his American family takes a twisted turn after moving into an English country manor. This isn’t a horror, it’s an intense look at a family struggling to keep things together.

The review (NO spoilers):

Despite its premise having plenty of potential, The Nest’s plot turns out to be surprisingly drab. However, it takes a while for this to become apparent as the first half of the film is genuinely quite gripping.

We’re thrown into this seemingly happy family living in the US when suddenly they’re forced to move to the UK, almost on a whim. On one hand, we have Rory (Jude Law) who has spent years trying to turn his life into a rags-to-riches success story. On the other, we have Allison (Carrie Coon) whose willingness to put up with him and his facade is coming to an end.

While it’s clear that the O’Hara family are crumbling under the pressure of financial strain and big change, there’s a feeling that something truly catastrophic is going to happen, but such expectations go unfulfilled.

The problem is that nothing really happens. While the events that do take place should be fairly momentous, their gravitas goes almost unnoticed and what we’re left with is a film that feels almost as displaced as the family it’s focusing on.

There’s nothing wrong with films ‘about nothing’, there are some amazing films that have been ‘about nothing’—Lost in Translation, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Nomadland—but they often focus on the characters, their relationships and their inner turmoil, which is something that The Nest somehow didn’t manage to do well enough.

What I will say is that Law did a good job of playing Rory and I couldn’t help myself think it was like watching a grown-up Dickie Greenleaf in a world where he didn’t grow up with a silver spoon.

All that said, it would seem I’m among the minority to have felt so underwhelmed. While audience ratings sit at an average of 41% on Rotten Tomatoes, the consensus among critics sits at 90% with most giving it a solid 4 stars. For a difference of opinion, read Benjamin Lee’s review for The Guardian.

Scroll down for the critic’s cut and what’s coming in the next issue.

If you liked The Nest…

Moonlight

2016 | UK: Virgin TV Go / Amazon Prime (£1.99) // US: Showtime

Moonlight isn’t really anything like The Nest, but it’s probably the best ‘about nothing’ film I’ve seen. Set in Miami, a young Chiron (Alex Hibbert) finds guidance in Juan (Mahershala Ali), a drug dealer, who teaches him to carve his own path.

If you’re in London, Moonlight is even showing this Sunday at the Electric Cinema near Ladbroke Grove.

In the next issue:

The Green Knight

UK: 24 September // USA: 30 July | Watch the Trailer

The Critic’s Cut 🚨SPOILER ALERT🚨:

Somewhere in The Nest, there’s an irony to be had. Writing for The New Yorker, Richard Brody said “Jude Law Plays a Banker Who Buys Into Money’s Lies”. This is interesting, not because there’s truth to Brody’s words but because the O’Haras’ unravelling intensifies as the money runs out.

The pinnacle moment for me was the argument between Rory and Allison that makes for a real turning point in their relationship. It’s here that it becomes clear that Rory’s aspirations of affluence are a greater priority than his family’s wellbeing.

I couldn’t quite tell if he realises this himself or if he’s blindsided by what money can buy, such as “the best school in the country”. But when Allison asks why it all matters so much to him and he shouts back through gritted teeth: “Because I deserve it!” That’s when we see him for what he is and it could well be the first time he sees it for himself.

Do you know someone who’d like a taste of Salty Popcorn? Feel free to send this issue on.