Sweetheart & Shadow in the Cloud

I’m in a writing-reviews-kind-of-mood, and thought a recent viewing – SWEETHEART – was worth a write-up. But also another similar film that pairs nicely with it that I saw earlier in the year too – SHADOW IN THE CLOUD.

Both focus on a strong female lead, fighting against the triple-whammy of survival in a hostile environment, sexist and controlling men, and – haha, most importantly to me – scary supernatural monsters!

SWEETHEART

SWEETHEART is a Blumhouse production, so it’s made on a lean budget – but makes the most of it and looks pretty damn good. The opening half hour is almost like a gender-swapped version of CASTAWAY, with Jen (Kiersey Clemons) washed up on the shores of a small tropical island. There’s evidence of an abandoned camp from years ago, but otherwise the island appears to be completely uninhabited. However, she soon discovers that’s not entirely true. There’s something living in the ocean nearby, and it comes out at night to hunt on land!

It’s basically a creature-feature B-movie, but well made with nice cinematography and an engaging lead. Some of the secondary characters you meet later aren’t nearly as convincing, but the direction (by J. D. Dillard) is tight and it’s all got a good amount of stylistic flair. I was solidly entertained and I give it 7 / 10 (on the EDGE scale – where 5 out of 10 is completely average). I saw it on Sky Movies via NOW TV.

Watching it, it strongly reminded me of a film I saw earlier in the year – SHADOW IN THE CLOUD, which I massively enjoyed. That film really should have had a cinema release and I would have loved to have seen it with a big crowd!

SHADOW IN THE CLOUD

SHADOW IN THE CLOUD is set in New Zealand in WW2. Maude Garrett (Chloe Grace Moretz) has to take a vitally important classified package to Samoa, commandeering a place onboard a B17 Bomber – much to the chagrin of the crew, who force her into the only spare space – the gunner’s cockpit canopy underneath. Over the radio she can hear their lewd, dismissive conversations about her. But outside the plane – she thinks she sees a glimpse of a Japanese fighter shadowing them in the clouds. But that’s not the only threat – there’s something on the plane with them. Something not human, and it wants to destroy the plane and kill them all!

It’s a ridiculously entertaining slice of B-Movie Schlock, but bolstered by a terrific central performance by Chloe Grace Moretz who absolutely kicks ass. The run time is a breezy 83 minutes, and it absolutely flies by. The first act is very restrained, building up tension gradually. But when it lets loose – this film goes completely bonkers. Now, not everyone will like that – I know it’s gotten some stinkingly bad reviews in IMDB! – but personally I had a total blast with it. From the beginning of the second act this movie is just a huge rollercoaster thrill ride, with a pounding synthesizer score and not-half-bad visual effects, courtesy of WETA. I thought the director, Roseanne Liang, did a great job adapting Max Landis’s very thin original script and making it into a slice of B-movie gold, with a solid helping of female empowerment on the side 🙂 I give it 9/10 (but bear in mind I do love schlocky monster movies!)