Movies and TV: Clayface, Klara and the Sun, Nobody Wants This 

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On Newstalk, with Ciara.

Ciara Kelly (0:08)

Welcome back to The Hard Shoulder. It's time now for What To Watch on the big screen and small. And I'm joined in studio by Ken Doran, film reviewer and entertainment journalist, Sarina Bellissimo. Thanks a million for joining us guys on this wet and windy Thursday, where it's perfect time to talk through something to keep us by the screens really, isn't it? Ken, your first pick, we were literally just asking, all of the ads I've seen of this make this look like DC is kind of going horror, is it?

Ken Doran (0:34)

Yeah, Clayface, it's an interesting one. I think, yes, it's kind of scary. Body horror is the perfect way to describe it. If you're any way squeamish, you're probably going to end up watching this kind of through your fingers for most of it. Like I wouldn't be too bad, but even I was kind of like in my seat, wriggling a little bit.

As you can imagine, as the name suggests, Clayface, it's a kind of a story about an actor who gets disfigured and in a bid to try and regain his life back, undergoes this kind of risky medical procedure. And, you know, as a kind of superhero movie does, he gets essentially his body is made out of this kind of clay so he can change his form. But then depending on his emotions, he kind of melts and deforms and kind of turns gloopy and globby and, you know, this kind of stuff. So it's it's a bit weird, but it's it's quite funny, like it was surprising how many laughs there were in it. But then at times as well, kind of tragic, you know. So this is the new kind of thing, as you say, from DC. This is since James Gunn has kind of taken over. He's kind of put his own, you know, he's the Kevin Feige was for Marvel. He's kind of taken over the reins. So he's not directing or, you know, writing everything, but he's kind of filtering out all the good stuff and the bad stuff. This seems to be another kind of very particular entry into this, you know, genre that we're kind of getting fatigued from, you know, superhero movies.

So it does a few things differently. This is about a villain as opposed to a hero. And, you know, that's not a spoiler to say. They've kind of pushed this that Clayface people will know he was a Batman villain from the comic books and series and stuff. So we're focusing on that journey of a man going kind of descending as opposed to ascending. And then it has this kind of depth to it as well, which is this person who has their whole life taken away because they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. And it's not really his fault. I think the film does a really good job of, you know, it's not about liking everything he does, but you can understand why he's doing it and sympathize with them. You know, the film kind of strings you along where, you know, like he gets attacked and disfigured. And, you know, once he gets these new powers, he goes on a bit of a revenge quest. And as a viewer, you're kind of thinking, yeah, I'd probably do the same thing. So the film kind of takes you up until a point that you're along the way on this journey with him. And then it goes a step too far as to why he's a villain. And you go, oh, OK, maybe I wouldn't be on this guy's side. Well, I think that's one of the kind of strengths of it. It has that depth that maybe a lot of superhero movies or comic book movies are kind of lacking nowadays.

Ciara Kelly (3:19)

Yeah, because they seem, Marvel in particular, seems to be scrambling around for some sort of an answer to the morass they found themselves in. Like you said, there's just so much superhero content for the last, what, 12 years, really? Even longer. If you go back to 2008, it kicked it off really with Iron Man, didn't it? Does this sort of stick the landing then of picking up what, to a lot of people, will be a relatively obscure character and making him the star of the film?

Ken Doran (3:42)

Yes, I think that's the secret. Or at least that's what James Gunn has found his strength in, is picking the more obscure characters because I think it comes to less baggage and less expectation. And that's the problem Marvel has now, is they're fully banking on the IP or the recognizable elements of bringing back Robert Downey Jr., bringing back, that's their bread and butter. Whereas because DC under, there was the Zack Snyder movies and whatever happened there, they were floundering. Now, it feels like they have a clear direction, which is take something obscure, so there's no baggage, there's no preconceptions, do it really well, do less of it. There's a lot less than Marvel at one stage. It was like two or three films a year.