Cleaner (2025) Movie Review

Cleaner is a 2025 British action film directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, Dirty Angels, The Protégé) starring Daisy Ridley, Taz Skylar and Clive Owen. It was written by Simon Uttley, Paul Andrew Williams, and Matthew Orton. 

Joanna "Joey" Locke (Ridley) is a window cleaner, and former soldier, working at a high rise that gets in trouble when environmental activists take control of the building during a shareholder gala held by the corrupt and dirty Agnian Energy Company. When things turn uglier and uglier, Joey kicks herself into gear and attempts to take down the armed and dangerous activists. 

Some fast action that's decently shot decorates this otherwise unremarkable and painfully average action film. First off, the entire plot makes very little sense, to the point where the forced and contrived scenario loses steam and logical integrity. This is aggravated by the fact that you don't even know what the writers are going for with their message, it seems very blatantly anti-activist at first by portraying activists (completely unrealistically) as some sort of highly organized and well funded terrorist group. Activists having these many resources and financial support (specially left wing activists) is something not only unheard of but a complete fantasy to begin with. I think the writers were also aware of the fact that the activists were simply correct, so they decided to force a "real bad guy" who takes things "to the extreme" for no real motivation outside of simply trying to portray a position so radical that it makes the radicals look tame. You see why this is confusing? Anyway, the movie tries to make things right by having an unrealistically fair ending where justice is served but it never acknowledges the type of economic and political system that let the greedy company commit crimes in the first place, so it just ends up as an "isolated case" instead of doing any real criticism.

The other thing that's weird is the inclusion of an autistic stereotype that never goes beyond that stereotype, forcing the audience to hear some irritatingly tone deaf dialogue, subjecting us to degrading scenes of autism-in-fiction tropes. That entire character was of very little use to the plot as he only helped a bit in the action and his computer knowledge wasn't even that interesting or impactful of a trait to make the difference.

Daisy Ridler is alright, giving a solid enough performance to make clear that she isn't sleepwalking through the film but she is sort of wasted in a movie with a script that's basic and nothing else. The action sequences are not bad but they are competent and flashy in a run-of-the-mill type of way that makes the spectacular factor wear off real fast, not to mention that the action basically starts about an hour in. Gotta point out that they barely take advantage of the whole "window cleaner" device and it's choreographic potential.

With too many flaws to properly recommend to everyone, Cleaner is only suggested for those who can stomach the tropes mentioned and a lack of fights and shootings during the first half. A Die Hard clone with little bite.

Love Lies Bleeding (2024) Movie Review

Love Lies Bleeding is a neo noir crime drama released in 2024 and directed by Rose Glass. It stars the divisive Kristen Stewart and the action girl newcomer Katy O'Brian, alongside Ed Harris and Jana Malone.

Its trailer shocked and surprised people who thought that low budget indie crime thrillers were not being made anymore, at least not with enough refreshing elements to create enough noise and anticipation. The film also promised another relatively mainstream lesbian relationship that shatters conventions, Bound (1996) being the last previous film of its kind to do it to this scale. 

Did it deliver? Let's see.

In 1989, gym manager Lou (Stewart) meets beefy bombshell Jackie (O’Brian), who has been travelling in order to win a bodybuilding contest. They begin to date and their relationship and personal issues intertwine with the criminal organization run by Lou's father.

Unusually grungy, dirty and stylish neo-noir oddity, composed of corporeal obsession and savage impulses of sex and violence, love and hate. Love Lies Bleeding is a recent watchable outing in the alternative cinema field the Hollywood system has provided over the years, offering a very crude and somewhat delirious story that might puzzle some. Similar to Bound in many respects but increasing the extravagant elements of the story and adapting it for modern audiences.

Stewart actually works her way out of her typical blandness, to be fair, I think her method is fine in certain films and the disheveled, depressed, unemotional character she interprets here plays to her strengths. That's not to say she is dull, she delivers more nuanced emotions than in her usual roles, while still managing to stick to her understated style. Katy O’Brian has been a favorite of mine ever since I saw her work at Lucasfilm and Marvel, so I am glad they are able to use her more extensively here. Katy has great chemistry with Stewart and both are not only a cute couple but also create an interesting contrast in many ways.

Carefully controlled compositions, elaborate camera work, impressive production design and some good looking cinematography decorate this thrilling storyline and fluidly express the intended emotion/tone of each and every scene. The filmmaking is top notch by itself but the flaws are present and somewhat prominent. For example, the film drags during its middle part, it has the stereotypical and misguided representation of abusive relationships Hollywood uses (I can excuse it here because it's thematically important, speaking about family and people who you love but also hurt you) and the surreal scenes are somewhat useless or just odd without much weight to them overall.

It's a solid movie but hardly one that's unskippable. I think it's decently executed, the technique is more than competent and the premise was intriguing but it ran out of fuel and wasn't as hard hitting in it's emotional aspect or plot points/revelations as it should have been. A good time but it’s perhaps not a masterpiece. It also features female bodybuilder representation and lesbian themes done in a very organic manner.

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) Movie Review

Geena Davis and Renny Harlin were married, so he put her in his movies. The first one was Cutthroat Island from 1995, which was a bomb. The second film he made with her was an action thriller titled The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), which co-starred Samuel L. Jackson. Unlike Harlin's previous film, this one featured a strong script by Shane Black.

While everything seemed promising, the film ended up underperforming at the box office. Some people think the bad taste Cutthroat Island (an even bigger bomb) left on the audience was another factor as to why Long Kiss performed rather underwhelmingly. However, it gained an audience over the years and now has a cult following.

Samantha Caine (Geena Davis), a woman with amnesia, gets her life changed when she hires a private investigator (Samuel L. Jackson) in order to find out about her own past. This uncovers and brings out of the shadows her former rivals and puts her life, and her family's, in severe danger. However, Samantha slowly regains past abilities she had forgotten about that will allow her to fight for her loved ones and discover all she had wiped from her memory.

Long Kiss is a highly entertaining flick that delivers the goods and manages to engage you with it's likable characters, strong writing and constant stimulation through action. It features the witty dialogue that you would expect from Shane Black, sometimes with very unnatural results. You will also find some very quirky and slightly comedic sequences that might feel a bit odd, like when Samantha discovers some of her assassin training while cooking, which isnt a bad moment, it's actually sort of inventive.

I will say that it's more than just action, it stablishes and develops quite efficiently the conflicts and dramatic weight of the story. As with many Shane Black movies, and most of Renny Harlin movies, there are a lot of exagerated elements along with some somewhat low key ones. There's always a clash in styles. Sometimes you are watching a scene that might fit among the first two Lethal Weapon movies, and the next one you are watching a heavily stylized scene that increases it's unreality (the hallucinations, the cartoonish villains). Its a bit jarring but it also keeps things interesting.

In that vein, the action itself seems perfectly grounded in paper, but when you see it executed you see people flying around and stuff blowing up in people's faces without any real consequences. If you were to simply laid out a description of the action scenes then it makes perfect sense but Harlin wanted to turn it into something greatly exagerated and almost ridiculous. Its like Nikita (1990) by the way of Stephen Chow (maybe not THAT crazy but close to it).

Samantha is a main character that surprises you, especially at the beginning. The script gives you left turns and reveals things that you might not be expecting, from contradicting a superfitial characterization to humorous surprises just for comedy sake and Samantha a part of that, but it sort of gets turned into a very normal "assassin with no memory ofher past living a normal life now" type of premise. Could have been worse, I will say this is certainly among the top examples of such plots. She struggles constantly between her motherly sweetness and deadly killer instincts, a good conflict for her character to face against, which ends up wrapping up very nicely during the climax.

Speaking of the climax, that's a huge highlight, very reminiscent of the first two Die Hard movies but compacted into just one explosive (literally) sequence. Again, it's yet another Harlinesque spectacle that has very little realism when it comes the explosions and some physics but makes it up with very solidly constructed sequences, shot by shot, it's all perfectly timed and directed.

Completely recommended for anyone with any type of appreciation for action movies and who really enjoy smart and well made action blockbusters. I kind of get the sense that Renny Harlin is probably an unsung hero of the 90's era of female action cinema, between this and Cutthroat Island, he gave us two mainstream efforts.