The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)
Director: Francis: Lawrence
Screenwriter: Michael Lesslie, Michael Arndt
Starring: Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andres Rivera, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Viola Davis

Everyone loves a good origin story. Whether that origin story is worth telling is a different matter entirely.

When The Hunger Games was released more than a decade ago, its massive success (both with fans and at the box office) opened the floodgates for countless other young adult dystopian adaptations. We got The Mortal Instruments, I Am Number Four, Ender’s Game, Divergent, The Fifth Wave, and The Maze Runner, all of which failed to garner the same praise as The Hunger Games had. Though this trend didn’t make it out of the mid-2010s alive, The Hunger Games series has continued to endure thanks to the quality and consistency of the performances, writing, directing, and production design across all four films. Its themes of war, rebellion, oppression, and the power of love, are more timely than ever.

It was inevitable that Hollywood would eventually circle back to The Hunger Games, especially considering the new trend that has emerged in recent years: nostalgia. In the years since The Hunger Games series ended, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Ghostbusters have all been resurrected to varying degrees of success, each new entry seemingly struggling to justify its reason to exist. But The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes somehow manages to escape the same fate. Based on the 2020 prequel novel of the same name by “The Hunger Games” author Suzanne Collins, the film stands on its own, reigniting the same spark that made the original films so popular, without ever using those films as a crutch.

In Songbirds and Snakes, we return to the world of Panem 64 years before Katniss Everdeen stepped into the arena. The country is struggling to rebuild following the war, the dark days are barely behind them. The Hunger Games is in its 10th year, but Head Game Maker Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis) is struggling to figure out how to get people to keep watching her sickening reality show. Amid this, a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), years before he will become the powerful and cruel dictator we know him to be, is desperate to save his family from financial ruin. Though his father helped to create The Hunger Games, his suspicious death left the family penniless. Coriolanus lives in a constant state of possible eviction with his grandma’am (Fionnula Flanagan) and older cousin Tigris (Hunter Schafer), who will go on to become a stylist for the games and later an ally to Katniss in the resistance against The Capitol.

At the academy, Coriolanus is informed that there will be one more test before graduation: seniors must become mentors in the upcoming games. “Your job is to make them into spectacles, not survivors,” Dean Highbottom (Peter Dinklage) tells them. Coriolanus ends up being paired with Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a fiery tribute from District 12 and member of the Covey, a traveling musician troupe. Lucy Gray doesn’t have much in the way of fighting skills, but she is a performer and the arena becomes her stage. She also has a habit of slicing snakes on people that have wronged her. When Coriolanus and Lucy Gray form an unexpected connection, he ends up risking everything to make sure she makes it out of the games alive, but the threat of rebellion in the districts and Coriolanus’ ambition begin to tear them apart.

Songsbirds and Snakes works for a couple of different reasons, chief among them being the fact that almost the entire production team behind The Hunger Games returned to make it. Francis Lawrence, who took over for The Hunger Games director Gary Ross with Catching Fire (2013) and stayed until the end of the series (2015), returned to direct, along with producer Nina Jacobson. Returning production designer Phillip Messina and cinematographer Jo Willem manage to recreate the look of the original series to ensure that it feels as though no time had passed between the final instalment and this prequel, while still giving the film its own visual flair. While The Hunger Games is not tame by any means, the luxury and gloss of The Capitol’s state of the art technology gives everything a glossy sheen. In Songbirds and Snakes, everything is primitive and wild: the arena is a crumbling concrete dome, there is no late night talk show, no fancy training center or tribute living quarters, everything feels rough and unpolished and ten times as dangerous. The color pallet, although reminiscent of the original films, is decidedly darker. The production and costume designers took obvious inspiration from the 1940s, and particularly Nazi Germany, especially in regards to the battle rifles used. While The Hunger Games used analogue technology as a jumping off point for its futuristic designs, Songbirds and Snakes takes that to another level. It’s easy to see how this Panem will eventually becomes that one, decades later. The film is one of those rare big-budget spectacles that actually looks as expensive as it is.

The Hunger Games succeeded in part because the novels were adapted with care, the filmmakers making sure to keep important details and characters and moments that made the story work in the first place. The narrative wasn’t tossed into a blender and then thrown up on screen. Suzanne Collins’ rich world building remained in tact throughout the four original films, and the same goes for Songbirds and Snakes. Every film in the original series is nearly 1 to 1 to its novel counterparts. Fans eager for another faithful adaptation will not be disappointed. Songbirds and Snakes stays almost entirely true to the spirit of the novel.

Despite the pressure of being the first entry in a widely popular franchise in nearly decade, Songbirds and Snakes is not trying to replicate the story beats of The Hunger Games. Suzanne Collins crafted an intriguing origin story for her main villain, and that is partially responsible for this, but the filmmakers can also take credit as they didn’t feel the need to replicate moments from the original series or reference characters and events that haven’t happened yet (in the timeline of their in-film world). The closest they get to a wink and a nod is when Lucy Gray tells Coriolanus that the plant she’s holding is Katniss. Of course, those looking to have a little bit of the original series injected in their veins will not be disappointed either. Composer James Newton Howard knows exactly when to employ his Mockingjay theme. The structure of the film is also different and not just a carbon copy of the previous films, which almost always ended in the arena or in some type of explosive battle. Songbirds and Snakes takes the opposite approach. The first half of the movie is spent preparing for and executing the games, with the latter half dedicated to the unravelling of Coriolanus and Lucy’s relationship. Although, the movie does lose some steam once the games are over.

As far performances go, Songbirds and Snakes has a strong main cast that helps elevate the material and convey the complex inner lives of our characters even when it’s not necessarily found on the page. In addition to an impeccable American accent and a really good blond wig, relatively unknown English actor Tom Blyth manages to step into the shoes previously worn by the prolific Donald Sutherland with ease, although he doesn’t quite have Sutherland’s flair for the dramatic. But he’s just as charismatic to watch, and although he makes the character his own, it is not hard to believe that he is the younger version of a character we already know. He has a similar face and a similar voice, but there’s a hint of humanity in him that he has all but abandoned when we see him in The Hunger Games. In Songbirds and Snakes, there’s a vulnerability to him, but there’s also a darkness lurking just below the surface and Blyth balances that very well. Rachel Zegler is perfectly cast as Lucy Gray, brimming with charm and confidence. It should be no surprise that Zegler has a fantastic voice, thanks to her screen debut as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Josh Andres Rivera is an absolute scene stealer as Sejanus Plinth, classmate of Coriolanus whose sympathy for the rebel cause becomes his ultimate downfall, and Hunter Schafer, who burst onto the scene as Jules on the HBO series “Euphoria”, is enchanting as Snow’s cousin Tigris, although her talent does feel wasted on such a small part. Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City) is absolutely hilarious as Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman, first television host of the games and presumed relative of Caesar Flickerman, who was played by Stanley Tucci in the original. His one liners in the midst of children killing each other highlights just how crass and and out of touch the people in The Capitol are. His performance never feels forced or over the top, as Tucci’s sometimes did.

All in all, Songbirds and Snakes is a worthy entry into The Hunger Games canon, offering a rich and intriguing peek into the past. It’s not as emotionally satisfying as the original series, but with only one film as opposed to four, that’s a difficult height to reach. Still, in an industry overrun with remakes, prequels, sequels, and reboots, Songbirds and Snakes understands how capturing the magic of a series so many already love is easy, you just have to tell a really good story.

Score: 22/24

The Golden Globes, known historically for being one of the leading ceremonies of awards season, has announced two new awards for their upcoming January 2024 show.

The first of the new awards is the Golden Globe for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. The Golden Globes website states that this award nominates those films that are the ‘highest-earning and/or most viewed films that have garnered extensive global audience support and attained cinematic excellence.’

In order to be eligible, films must have grossed a minimum of $150million in their theatrical run. $100million of that total must have come from the domestic (United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico) box office. Streaming films will be considered based on viewership data acquired by recognised industry sources. Eight films can be nominated, and their inclusion in this category will not rule out their eligibility in other categories such as Best Motion Picture and Best Animated Film.

Tim Gray, Golden Globes Executive Vice President, expressed his desire to rectify attitudes towards awards season, stating that “these films have typically not been recognized among industry awards, but they should be.”

This decision is reminiscent of the proposed Oscar for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film put forward by the Academy Awards in 2018. This announcement was met with criticism due to a lack of clarity regarding what it was actually awarding and for potentially diminishing a blockbuster’s chance at a Best Picture nomination. A month after its announcement, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences retracted their decision and nothing has been heard of the award since. It will be interesting to see how the Golden Globes version of this award is handled and if the organisation will commit to it in future ceremonies.

The second of the new Golden Globe awards is the Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television. This award will celebrate achievements in traditional stand-up comedy from broadcast, cable, and streaming – so long as the project has a recognised distributor. A total of six nominees will be chosen in this category.

These announcements come following criticism of the Golden Globes over the past few years, directed at their former parent company The Hollywood Foreign Press Association. In 2021, most of the criticism addressed a lack of diversity in the voting body, which hadn’t seen a black person join since 2002. This resulted in the 79th Golden Globe Awards being widely boycotted, with US broadcaster NBC refusing to broadcast it. The decision to promote more populist films through the new award could be the organisation’s attempt at repairing their relationship and reputation with filmgoing audiences.

The most recent ceremony saw Martin McDonough’s The Banshees of Inisherin be rewarded as the biggest winner of the night, picking up three awards including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Steven Spielberg‘s semi-autobiographical love letter to film, The Fabelmans, was awarded Best Motion Picture – Drama, with Spielberg himself earning the award for Best Director.

The 81st Golden Globe Awards will take place on Sunday, 7th January 2024.

Minority Report (2002)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenwriters: Scott Frank, Jon Cohen
Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow, Steve Harris, Neal McDonough, Kathryn Morris, Lois Smith, Peter Stormare, Tim Blake Nelson  

Far more than just another Tom Cruise running and jumping movie (though he still does plenty of both in this) Minority Report is pretty deceptive as a blockbuster. As one of Steven Spielberg’s (relatively speaking) under-appreciated directorial efforts, now celebrating its 20th anniversary, what better time is there to give this ground-breaking Philip K. Dick adaptation one more shot? “I’m sorry John, but you’re gonna have to run again…”

Washington DC, the year 2054. The PreCrime Initiative which predicts crimes of passion and apprehends perpetrators before they can cause harm, is a daily reality. Exploiting the gifts of a trio of psychic “Precogs”, the DC Police Department have virtually eradicated violent crime in their city and are preparing to roll out the programme across the country. The system works, every time. But everything changes when Chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is named as a future murderer of a man he has never met. 

Delayed multiple times due to scheduling conflicts and passed from director to director for years, what started being pitched out as a sequel to another film adaptation of a Philip K. Dick short story (the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring Total Recall) eventually landed with director Steven Spielberg who was attracted to the story being “50 percent character and 50 percent very complicated storytelling with layers and layers of murder mystery and plot.”

The rules of this world 50 years in the future are quickly and elegantly established, not through over-explanation in Scott Frank and Jon Cohen’s lean script but primarily through clean visual storytelling. We witness Anderton’s daily routine play out and get a quick sense of what is different about this world and what is the same. Even the exposition that brings Colin Farrell’s Danny Witwer up to speed when he first arrives at PreCrime serves the purpose of planting all the relevant details to solving this mystery in the back of the viewer’s mind and sets up Witwer and Anderton being manipulated, their ironclad laws bent and broken as the plot thickens.

The way the Precog vision is realised is an incredibly effective visual; cold, distant and eerie. It is also intentionally limited, focussed enough that the viewer’s mind (as well as the psychic dreamer’s) tends to focus only on the details the storyteller (whether that be Spielberg or the film’s big bad) wants you to see, allowing for the rug to be pulled out from under you, and Anderton, multiple times.

It’s amazing how close this film got to predicting near-future technological developments. A lot of these ideas may have been well on their way in the early 2000s, but it would be amusing to find out how many concept/development meetings at the big tech firms ended with “I love it, but make it more like Minority Report”. Motion controls, VR, HUDs, personalised advertising, widespread retina and facial recognition software – the gang’s all here!

Much like with Blade Runner, the film adapts the core premise of Philip K. Dick’s 1956 short story and freely expands on it in order to create a grotesque mirror of the American Justice System. It packs an even bigger punch now, because you know plenty of people would vote for pre-emptively incarcerating potential murderers if it was an option. “The fact that you prevented it happening doesn’t change the fact that it was going to happen”.

This is among Spielberg’s most philosophical films as well, being all about fate or lack thereof. It plays with this concept throughout, from the horrific implications of the flaw in the “perfect” system and the fact that, in theory, nobody can act spontaneously (“Put the gun down John, I don’t hear a red ball!”). Anderton’s son Sean’s unsolved disappearance is a tragic failure which grounds his experiences and leaves his life without much meaning; the only real closure he ever gets is hearing a “what if?” story from Precog Agatha (a haunting Samantha Morton).

Of course we follow a grieving, broken father stuck in the past; it is a Spielberg movie, after all. The film also has one of the best jump-scares since the head popping out of the boat in Jaws. He has a lot to answer for in how a lot of modern sci-fi films look too, from many of the same assembly line action scene gags cropping up in Attack of the Clones (filmmaker besties will talk) to JJ Abrams’ shiny, lens-flarey Star Trek reboot that would likely never have turned out the way it did without exactly the same aesthetic being used in Minority Report. The sick-stick and the sonic gun, despite only being used once apiece, make their mark as some of the coolest ever future weapons, and the police spider drones are such a creepy idea. The birds-eye-view of their relentless apartment search for Anderton offers the hilarious sight of a couple stopping their full-blown domestic mid-flow to be scanned before immediately resuming their argument. 

Some things seem to exist in the film purely to add a little colour and richness to the world. Just about everyone seems to have a streaming cold, which possibly means something, unless it’s just a genre-appropriate Chinatown reference. Peter Stormare’s mucus-y sinister appearance as a backstreet surgeon/organ harvester (“Nothing quite like taking a shower with this large fella with an attitude you can’t even knock down with a hammer”) strengthens this possible connection by playing his part very much like he’s in a Polanski picture. Spielberg rarely goes this dark in a genre piece.

Did we need the scene where sentient vines attack Cruise to wake the audience up just before a big talky scene? Not really. Should they have thought about how stupid it is that Anderton can get back into PreCrime using his old eyes in a little plastic baggy without setting off any other security measures like facial recognition? Probably. But these are nit-pick queries that can mostly be answered with “because it’s a movie” and don’t threaten to unseat Minority Report as one of the great contemplative and mind-melting mysteries on film. 

Score: 22/24

Critically, the Boston born filmmaker is a well respected name too, thus far in his career earning three Oscar nominations for acting – Actor in a Leading Role for Good Will Hunting (1997) and The Martian (2015), and Actor in a Supporting Role for Invictus (2009) – as well as an Oscar nomination for producing (Manchester By the Sea, 2016) and a win for screenwriting (Good Will Hunting, 1997).

In this list, we here at The Film Magazine are focusing on the thirty-plus years of Matt Damon’s acting career, judging each and every performance to compile this ultimate Top 10 list of Matt Damon performances.

Let us know your favourites in the comments and follow us on Twitter to make sure you never miss another list like this one.

10. Gerry (2002)

Matt Damon teams with Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea; A Ghost Story) in a story about two friends whose relationship is tested when hunger, thirst and a complete lack of belonging comes between them.

Directed by Good Will Hunting’s Gus Van Sant, Gerry is both compelling and completely bewildering, whilst being an outstanding feat in filmmaking. 

Damon is forced into a different kind of performance in this minimalist, near-silent feature. Playing Gerry must have not only been a completely new experience, but also a hands-on lesson in the art of filmmaking – as a performer, that could only have brought challenges.

With an average shot length of 60 seconds and only 100 shots throughout the entire film, Van Sant’s experimental approach rests the core of the film’s impact on the shoulders of Damon and Affleck, the pair showcasing their magnetic screen presences in each and every frame.

9. The Bourne Identity (2002)

Matt Damon’s first outing as Jason Bourne showcased him in a completely new light.

At the time, Damon was an actor that we had only seen in emotional dramas such as Good Will Hunting and Saving Private Ryan, or comedies from the likes of Kevin Smith. Bourne gave Damon the chance to push himself, and to transform into a modern action hero, his titular spy being an amnesiac trying to rediscover who he is in a high intensity thriller from director Doug Liman (Swingers).

Although he may have seemed like an unlikely choice for the Bourne series, Damon excelled in the role, performing many of his own stunts, and it was thanks to this film’s success that he shot from well respected independent cinema actor to Hollywood superstar.

Recommended for you: The Bourne Collection Ranked

Jaws (1975)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenwriters: Peter Benchley, Carl Gottlieb
Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Carl Gottlieb and Jeffrey Kramer
Plot: When a great white shark terrorizes the shores of a quiet town, the local sheriff forms an unlikely team to hunt the man-eating shark down, before it hunts them.

Catalyst to the summer blockbuster trend, to naming all great white sharks Bruce and to fearing them above all others is Steven Spielberg’s marine thriller/horror, Jaws.

Famous for nearly bankrupting the now top-bill director, the often-parodied horror not only changed the way Hollywood spent its summer, but it changed the world for great whites.

Based on the novel by Peter Benchley, Jaws is set in the seaside town of Amity ahead of the busy summer season. Newcomer, former New Yorker and water-phobic Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) discovers the grisly remains of a local girl, suggesting that not all is calm in the sea where soon hundreds of unwitting tourists will be swimming.

The money-grabbing Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) is reluctant to let Brody raise the alarm, insistent that the corpse fell victim to a boating accident. His only hope lies with a changeable poacher Quint (Robert Shaw) and a clean-cut marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss).

As more blood clouds the water, Brody must keep a clear head while keeping Quint and Hooper from bashing each other’s in, and avoid the rows of razor sharp teeth waiting for him under the waves.

Combine the tense plot with a perfectly suspenseful and iconic score from John Williams and you have a timeless classic that turned a picturesque beach into the iconography of nightmares for leagues of cinemagoers.

Never again will we see an animatronic shark inspire so many to hunt and kill great whites, which in a bittersweet twist only further pays respect to the brilliance of Spielbergs’ directing – and solidifies Jaws as the movie that made it “unsafe” to go in the water.

23/24

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