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The Quiet American (2002)
The Quiet American
Veteran journalist "Fowler" (Sir Michael Caine) is coming to the end of his time in Vietnam. Despite the fact that French colonial influence is waning and the Americans are desperate to stop the Communist insurgents, his employers just don't think he needs to be on-site to file his dwindling number of reports. He has a local interest in "Phuong" (Do The Hai Yen) though, and wants to stay put while he organises a divorce from his British wife. To keep his bosses at bay, he organises a trip up country to interview the powerful "General Thé" (Huang Hai) to get the lowdown on what is really happening in the countryside. Coincidentally, he also happens upon the newly arrived "Pyle" (Brendan Fraser) who has come to doctor the increasing number of wounded as this conflict erupts. It does seem a little odd that this man wants to follow "Fowler" on his perilous mission and soon a twist in the tail emerges that uncovers a complicated operation involving the CIA with nobody quite whom they appear to be. The story is told in continuous flashback, so we do know what happens at the end before we get there - though not the cause. What's interesting is trying to find out just how involved, complicit even, the Briton was in that denouement. Some of it was filmed on location which added to the authentic look of the film and there's quite a decent chemistry between an on-form Sir Michael and the usually pretty wooden Fraser as the two men see their friendship gradually disappear in a well paced rear view mirror of mistrust and duplicity.
The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
The Life of Emile Zola
Emile Zola liked nothing better than an opportunity to cause a bit of scandal and over the years that made him a wealthy man, but earned him the enmity of pretty much all of the Establishment. France was still finding it's political feet with the second empire giving way to the third republic, the Germans were across the border heavily armed and the French military under considerable pressure to keep their country safe. It was this last point that led to the infamous "Dreyfus" affair. The High Command essentially framing a young officer (Joseph Schildkraut) for treason and banishing him to the aptly named Devil's Island. There's some disquiet about this process in Paris and Zola (Paul Muni) decides that only he has the profile (and the wit) to make some accusations that will see him in court defending a libel action whilst giving him a well publicised platform to criticise the army's behaviour. The busy courtroom drama that ensues serves well to illustrate the difficulties in fighting for the truth when the state and the generals have no interest in perpetuating this story. It's also at this stage that the film is at its most entertainingly combative. Donald Crisp is quite effective as his defence solicitor and the assemblage of familiar faces on the unformed side - notably Louis Calhern, show us just how devious and malevolent these people can be when they are turned upon. It's a bit verbose at times, but then it is about a writer, and the ending is all a bit rushed. It's not really a story about the life of this acclaimed author, it's more a critique on the trial and on the state of France justice. I could have done with a little more about what made him tick but William Dieterle chose the more dramatic and straightforward path. That's a pity, but Muni and the sparingly used Schildkraut both deliver well.
Nightlife (1976)
Nightlife
Remember those screen-savers you used to get that were seen on the television to help soothe and calm people or to to help them nod off to sleep? Well this example of some gorgeous underwater photography could readily accomplish that too. Some of these organisms could also easily inspire the most fantastic designs for the sci-fi genre too as we see a myriad of creatures that exist beneath the waves off the Irish coast. The colours, shapes and movement of these animals is nicely captured without the aid of any commentary, and the clever use of classical themes complements the peaceful and the more menacing, the comical and the threatening and it's quite a fascinating ten minutes to watch.
The Morning Spider (1976)
The Morning Spider
A spider is just trying to go about it's sticky business in the undergrowth but nothing is going to plan. It's web is completely useless at catching flies, the other insects just giggle at it and it can't even get a decent night's sleep for the noise of the cicadas and the caterpillar taking off it's shoes - one at time. Indeed this is not a very menacing beastie at all and the chances of it ever getting a meal of any sort are highly dubious! Until - well let's just say it has a stroke of genius, or does it? Might romance suppress it's appetite for a while? It reminded me a little of one of the early 1970s editions of "Dr. Who" replete with (annoyingly) synthesised soundtrack and plastic foliage but it's quite creatively crafted as the poor creature does exemplify the theory of if at first you don't succeed. It's too long and just a little repetitive but has shades of a silent film to it that I quite enjoyed and the conclusion takes quite a poignant pop at human indifference to nature quite effectively.
The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977)
The Absent-Minded Waiter
A couple arrive at a fine dining establishment and specifically ask for the table serviced by "Steven" (Steve Martin). This man can barely hold his pencil up the right way and the ensuing service is shambolic at best. Not unreasonably, she (Teri Garr) isn't very impressed with her husband (Buck Henry) for suggesting this place but he's clearly got a plan - and it could be the gift that keeps on giving. We had a slew of compendium sketch shows in the UK in the 1970s and this would have fitted easily within one of them, only not at what seemed quite a long seven minutes. It's just too ridiculous on just about every level, and isn't really very funny either. Not really for me, sorry.
Éxtasis (1996)
Éxtasis
"Rober" (Javier Bardem), "Ona" (Leire Berrocal) and "Max" (Daniel Guzmán) are restless and need a change. How to fund their ambitions? Well that's when they start robbing their family businesses until an incident sees the latter man with an hole in his foot and doing some prison time. It's there that they hit on the idea of fleeing his estranged father. "Daniel" (Federico Luppi) is a successful theatre director and hasn't seen his son since the boy was nine. "Rober" is to pinch his friend's identity and see if he can't dupe the man. What becomes clear is that the older man is all too willing to set aside any scepticism and embrace his new "son" and that is rather where the wheels came off for me. The jovial elements of the drama dried up and the thing became a rather meanderingly cynical story that didn't really seem to root very much in reality. When his son starts sleeping with his girlfriend "Lola" (Silvia Munt) I began to lose interest as it sort of stumbled along to a contrived denouement that didn't really make too much sense. Was "Daniel" just a lonely man looking for the joys of a son, or was he really the most stupid of men? It has it's moments - all in the first fifteen minutes, and perhaps there's a moral about leopards and spots, but it's all just a bit too far-fetched and disappointing. Pity.
The Party (2017)
The Party
Yikes, if you thought Abigail had a noxious party, just be glad you didn't get an invitation to this one! "Janet" (Dame Kristen Scott Thomas) receives a call telling her of an important ministerial promotion in the government and some of her friends are coming round to congratulate her. Meantime, her husband (Timothy Spall) is sitting listlessly in a chair supping some wine. As the plaudits fly around the room, he casually makes an announcement that rather rains on his wife's parade. This, however, is just the start of the evening's woes as it turns out that just about everyone has some kind of secret to keep and tempers are about to flare! Spall's "Bill" is probably the most impactful of the characters. Though he actually says very little, he still manages to set the cat amongst these dysfunctional pigeons with aplomb. Thereafter, it's not the most plausible of scenarios - if only because few of these characters would ever be friends in a real scenario. Bruno Ganz delivers some ridiculous one-liners decrying just about everything the West has to offer and Cillian Murphy seems to spend most of his time looking for a flat surface. It's all perfectly toxic, but woefully undercooked and seems more contrived to force animus than to be a remotely realistic gathering of people who share the same friend - even if she is a politician. It's short and sweet, but has too much of the stage play about it and leaves too much of the story outside.
The Green Knight (2022)
The Green Knight
Callum Adams is the easy on the eye adventurer at the court of the legendary King Arthur. He needs a quest, though - he's restless and wanders the seemingly pretty lawless countryside getting into scrapes as he goes. Then at a banquet, an huge and mysterious knight arrives and dares someone to cut off his head! "Gawain" steps up to the plate only to discover, well you know the myth. It's a story of courage and faith, and had this had a bit more of a budget then it might have delivered a bit better. As it is, though, what we really get in a rather meandering series of single-shot photography peppered with very little dialogue, some rather wooden acting and a few feebly choreographed combat scenes. It does look quite authentic though, and is rescued to an extent by some intensity from the last ten minutes but it's still quite a long watch for not much action.
Piccolo corpo (2021)
Small Body
At the start of the 20th century, the young "Agata" (Celeste Cescutti) has a difficult pregnancy that results in the birth of a child that doesn't survive long enough to be baptised. She'd distraught. Not just that she has lost her daughter, but that her child has lost it's chance of eternal peace in Heaven. Then she hears of a remote church far to the north where it is rumoured that they can resurrect the dead for just long enough to perform the ceremony. With her baby in a box and the clothes on her back, she sets off alone and ill provisioned for the trek. Along the way she encounters "Lynx" (Ondina Quadri) who offers to guide her but who is really just part of a lawless band of bandits who decide she'd be useful as a wet nurse! Luckily, they too are set upon and both are freed to continue their journey as the winter closes in and conditions become physically and psychologically desperate. Needless to say, there's not a great deal of trust between these two women but to survive they need to co-operate and maybe there's a chance of salvation for everyone. This is quite a touching story of superstition, certainly, but it also demonstrates the lengths to which a mother will go for her child - even when it lives no more. Cescutti works well delivering that determined and vulnerable role and both her and Quadri take this simple story from auteur Laura Samani and imbue it with quite powerful characterisations. There's not a great deal of dialogue but what there is, partnered with Fredrika Stahl's score, offers us a quest of near biblical proportions that is well worth a watch.
Dramarama (2020)
Dramarama
Whilst the premiss of this is nothing remotely new, the acting from these youngsters is actually quite engaging at times. It's their last day before all heading off for their new lives in colleges across the United States, so they get together for a Victorian-inspired murder mystery evening. Things are interrupted when their pizza delivery boy turns out to be "JD" (Zak Henri) who fancies himself as a bit of a wise-cracking Lothario and is rather scathing of their entertainment. Before he leaves, he invites his friend "Gene" (Nick Pugliese) to a party later and that sows the seed for the ensuing, predictable, dissent amongst the group who now proceed to fall out then in again with a teenage regularity. Though the elephant in the room is never actually addressed, it's pretty clear as the conversation develops that none of the gang have ever dated - and with sexual tension (and friction) increasing we sense that there is something that "Gene" is gagging to tell his friends, but he just can't bring himself to. The drama is the usual mix of temperamental and hormonal stuff, but it's surprisingly effective at throwing you back to when you were a teenager (especially if your sexuality didn't quite conform to "norms") and at how decisions on life and love are being made by folk really nowhere near mature enough to handle or understand them. On first look it's not going to amount to much (and "Oscar" (Nico Greetham) just reminded me of the annoying "Kurt" from "Glee"), but the individual efforts do work quite well once we get going. Think "Cluedo" only there's no need to weapons, just tongues and secrets.
Pili (2017)
Pili
Bello Rashid is the eponymous lady who sees an opportunity to take over the local kiosk in her small Tanzanian town. Thing is, she has HIV, no money and two young children who she is desperate to see educated and cared for. Going into business for herself could be the best way to achieve that, and so she approaches the local co-op for a loan whilst she tries to persuade "Mahera" (Nkwabi Elias Ng'angasmala" who owns the shop to let her rent it from him. A combination of events now seem to conspire against her as she must juggle her own medical needs with the needs of her family and her aspirations in a world where everyone is in a similar boat. "Pili" is no stranger to difficulty and at times her character elicits sympathy - especially with the rather odious "Mahera" but at other times she comes across as unrealistically self-centred. More generically, it does offer us a look at life in a community where HIV is rife and where the use of protection is scorned by ignorance and stigma. It's that latter point that is especially well made here. What people will do to avoid shame, especially in a tightly knit and gossip-prone society. The film is all just too lacklustre, though, and whilst I did sympathise with "Pili" and her plight, I didn't especially like her rather weekly depicted character. The acting is all just a little bit flat and this film relies too heavily on the audience's own sense of pity and/or disgust rather than deliver us a story that we can engage more fully with. It's watchable enough, but disappointing.
Le tout nouveau testament (2015)
The Brand New Testament
Next time you are asked to name some famous Belgians, you can add God to the list. He (Benoît Poelvoorde) is a bit of a slob though and lives with his long-suffering wife (Yolanda Moreau) and daughter "Ea" (Pili Groyne). Their son "JC" has moved out and despite his mother's longings, they've lost touch. Now this deity loves nothing more than to cause misery to both mankind and his family, and this irks young "Ea" into doing something about it. She uses his computer to send a message to everyone on earth telling them how long they have left to live - in the hope that is will completely ruin her father's credibility. Not content with that, she decides to recruit half a dozen modern day apostles to change his philosophy a little. To that end she climbs into their washing machine (that's their physical conduit to earth) and sets about recruiting her new friends. Her encounter with the vagrant "Victor" (Marco Lorenzini) makes for a good start as she encounters the whole gamut of society from rich to poor, happy and healthy to anything but, and it turns out that she has quite a decent amount of her own humanity to dispense as the comedy gathers pace and delivers really quiet well. It is satire at it's irreverent best offering a personification of God that could hardly be more different from that put forward by the church, and the surreal nature of some of the characterisations is really quite funny. A glowing fish that just wants to return to the sea; Catherine Deneuve finds new love in a seriously unlikely place; there's some walking on water and when her dad comes after her, well there are some frustrations for him too as he realises that he has no superpowers down amongst the great unwashed. Star of the film? Well that has to be "Kevin" (Gaspard Pauwels) whose message telling him he has 60-odd years left to go encourages him to do just about anything reckless and stupid fearlessly - boy is he in for a shock. Groyne delivers well here as does Thomas Gunzig's writing and whilst it's not exactly sacrilegious, it does ridicule nicely people's psychological dependency on the existence of and belief in an higher power. It's whimsical not spiritual.
Das weiße Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (2009)
The White Ribbon
It all starts when the local doctor (Rainer Bock) is knocked from his horse by some wire carefully strung between two trees. Incapacitated and sent to the (not so) nearby hospital, his is just the start of some fairly brutal mishaps that befall this small rural community as Europe drifts towards the start of the Great War. It's a sort of feudal existence for this community were everything stems from the baron (Ulrich Tukur). When his young son is violently assaulted, tensions run high in the village and as more atrocities emerge they all start to turn on each other and suspicions run high. It might be, though, that the children of the pastor might hold the key. That's what the narrator, and rather naive teacher (Christian Friedl) eventually concludes, but as he investigates as surreptitiously as he can, we find a great deal more going on amidst a village of child molesting, cruelty, adultery and basically anything that could easily contribute to the negative mindset of those carrying out these acts of pretty calculated wickedness. Each of the villagers has their moment in the cinematic sun as we are taken, almost door to door, on a tour of their foibles and peccadilloes. It delivers quite a potent look at the almost, sometimes literal, incestuous nature of country life where people live in fear of losing their patronage and their survival depends on the harvest - and that depends on a God who is represented by Burghart Klaußner's enigmatically characterised pastor. This is a conflicted man more concerned with a status quo than necessarily with the truth. There is mystery here, but that rather fades into the background of quite a disturbing character study that is puzzling and intriguing.
Good Enough: A Modern Musical (2023)
Good Enough: A Modern Musical
"Jamal" (Jay Towns) is the upcoming basketball player who arranges an hook up on the internet. He is surprised to find that it's college television anchorman "Trevor" (Trey Mendlik) who turns up. That doesn't put them off, and indeed they meet more than once as the latter man begins to fall in love and the former has to come to terms with his own identity. Can they make a go of it? Well jeopardy wasn't high on the writer's list of priorities with this predictably turbulent tale of finding your feet, but it's a little more engaging than your run of the mill gay drama. That's maybe because the supporting characters are a bit stronger. France Jean-Baptiste and Beka both work quite well as the mothers as does Pete Berwick as the layabout and rather odious father of "Trevor" who manages to mix his racism and homophobia in quite a toxically entertaining fashion. It's peppered with some decent enough songs that help it showcase some of the issues faced by young people coming out, and by those dealing with unhappy marriages, drugs, yes all that usual melodrama stuff - but again, it sort of works better than you might expect. It's essentially a project for the stage, though, I think. Cinema doesn't really do it any favours as the audio mix is pretty dire as is the voice dubbing for the songs. In many ways it's no worse than the over-hyped "Theatre Camp" (2023) and won't scare you away. It's aptly named.
Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Four Sided Triangle
For a while, this first Hammer sci-fi offering is actually quite interesting: two childhood friends develop a machine that can replicate anything - animal, vegetable, mineral - you name it. When "Robin" (John van Eyssen) marries their childhood friend "Lena" (Barbara Peyton) his co-developer, "Bill" (Stephen Murray) contrives to makes an identical version of his own whom he calls "Helen". Now the fly in his ointment is that "Helen" is too good a duplicate - unfortunately she loves his mate too - and so poor old "Bill" is faced with a real dilemma. The story is quite fun, but the acting is pretty mediocre and the dialogue a bit too staccato to keep the story flowing. The effects, such as they are, are a bit on the basic side too with sets that wobble and glow like an old edition of "Dr. Who". It's not terrible, and as a first effort in his genre from a studio far better versed in horror genres, is an ok watch from writer/director Terence Fisher.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Quick question. So it was a virus that led to the role reversal between the speaking humans and their ape counterparts? Now the apes have the upper hand and humanity is back in the caves. What I don't really get is why everything is in ruins and why there's an escalator in the middle of a forest full of zebras? Speech is crucial for communication, granted, but as the apes now thrive amidst the ruins of human construction I couldn't quite figure out why it was all decimated in the first place. Was there a war? Did I miss it? Anyway, Simian society still claims derivation from "Caesar" and in typical human fashion is just as divided. The apes live a peaceful life stealing the eagle's eggs from precariously perched nests so they can rear them themselves - and the eagles don't really seem to mind. The militaristic gorillas raid their village and drag them all to the seaside resort of "Proximus" where he is trying to break into an human, subterranean, vault. The raid caused havoc amongst the peaceable apes and left only "Noa" to try to free them. En route, he encounters "Mae" (Freya Allan) - an human who can speak, and upon arrival she befriends another talking person "Trevathan" (William H. Macy) who are both expected to help reach the treasures of the vault. She knows what's in there, and with the help of her new friends hopes to salvage what she was sent to retrieve - but without allowing any weapons inside to fall into enemy hands. It takes far too long to get going, this, but once we've established who is who and the story has kicked in, it's quite an exciting tale with some great visuals effects and just a little philosophy to keep it from falling into a trap of franchise mundanity. The acting isn't really up to much, but an enthusiastic effort from Kevin Durand as the menacing leader and some authentic looking acrobatics not seen since Johnny Weissmuller make for an entertaining episode in what is clearly a soap-style plot development where this is but an episode in a what happens next scenario.
Das Leben der Anderen (2006)
The Lives of Others
This isn't so much a thriller as a glaring example of the corrupting power of the state, and of those charged with crafting and implementing it's policies. "Dreyman" (Sebastian Koch) is an East German playwright who is popular with the communist elite because his works manage to extol the virtues of their people's republic. The minister "Hempf" (Thomas Thieme) goes through all the supportive motions with him, but meantime asks the Stasi to keep an eye on him. The very ambitious "Grubitz" (Ulrich Tukur) selects his meticulous colleague "Wiesler" (Ulrich Mühe) to manage the surveillance and off we go. What dawns on them very quickly is that they are being used by the politician to discredit the writer for an altogether different reason. He has designs on actress "Christa-Maria" (Martina Gedeck) who just happens to be the girlfriend of their new quarry. She has very reluctantly agreed to his advances in the past, but on the basis that resistance would be pretty futile as he is not a man to be crossed. If they needed proof of that, they just have to look at the ostracised "Jerska" (Volkmar Kleinart) who is now reduced to living in a glorified flat share and who cannot get any work. The hitherto unshakeable loyalty of "Wiesler" starts to wobble a bit now. He dislikes being used and as his surveillance continues, he realises that maybe his targets are not the right ones! Gradually, the internecine and political elements close in on all of them and as pressure grows to deliver results, things take a tragic turn for just about everyone. It's quite a potently paced and cleverly written indictment of totalitarian regimes, this. The people live in fear and so conform; the state controls all aspects of the infrastructure of daily life and those who have climbed the greasy red pole soon display all the Orwellian credentials of his "Napoleon" from "Animal Farm". Plaudits must go to Gedeck who plays well the conflicted character who must juggle her love and her life and to Mühe who shows that as a former master of the indoctrinating arts, "Wiesler" too might be capable of change. Of humanity even. There's a fun scene where one of their colleagues is telling a joke about Erich Honecker and is accidentally overheard. We see him again later - but neither character is doing the job they signed up for!
We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
We Need to Talk About Kevin
"Eva" (Tilda Swinton) and "Frank" (John C. Reilly) do make for quite an unlikely couple but that they become, marrying and having a son. He's the eponymous child with whom she simply cannot bond. She only has to look at him and he bursts into tears, or fills his nappy. She must persevere, though, hoping as he ages that things might improve. Fat chance! Indeed, when the couple have a daughter, this seems to make matters between her and him (now Jasper Newell) even worse. He's not a very pleasant character, it has to be said, and as he ages further (into Ezra Miller) he knows exactly which buttons to press ensuring both her compliance to his wishes most of the time, and that has the most miserable time whilst he plays up to his father and pretends friendship with his sister. Now dad maybe didn't think it through when he gave the youngster a toy bow and arrow set, especially as that becomes a more serious hobby for a "Kevin" who has malevolent tattooed on his forehead. You just know things are going to end badly, but maybe not quite as horrifically as they do in the conclusion. I like Miller, and I think here he adds a strong degree of calculation to his portrayal of the flawed "Kevin". He also worked increasingly effectively with an on-form Swinton whose exasperation becomes more palpable as she reaches the end of her tether, time and time again. It's delivered by way of a retrospective, so we have some clue as to the fact that something heinous happened, but we have to follow the plot to discover just what led to the scenario in which we find our story related. There's not a great deal of dialogue and what there is is reminiscent of many a parental conversation with a non-communicative child whom it's tempting to just throw under a passing bus! It is a disturbing watch, but not for the sake of it. It's one of those films that gets under your fingernails a bit, and that's down to Newell, Miller and Swinton creating a psychological maelstrom that's quite chilling.
Rich and Strange (1931)
Rich and Strange
A good advertisement for a holiday cruise this definitely isn't: a combination of sea-sickness; decks packed to the gunwales and some overtly snobbish fellow passengers make me realise why I quite like planes! Henry Kendall and Joan Barry come into a windfall inheritance and decide to celebrate by going on such an holiday - and soon discover that it isn't all it is cracked up to be. Using some of Hitchcock's expertly hones silent film skills, we tell the story as our nouveau-riche couple slowly realise that wealth isn't everything as their behaviour and attitudes start to adapt to their new surroundings. Don't look for any traditional suspense or thrills in this; it is a much more pedestrian assessment of shallowness and flummery with some quite poignant observations of a rather pointless existence.
Rancho Notorious (1952)
Rancho Notorious
Now this doesn't start off very well - we have a really terrible "chuck-a-luck" song that makes you squirm a little. Stick with it though as "Vern" (Arthur Kennedy) sets off to track down the murderer of his gal who was slain in a hold up. Meantime, "Altar" (Marlene Dietrich) gets the boot from her hotel singing job but not before, with the help of "Frenchy" (Mel Ferrer), she wins quite a large sum on it's rigged wheel of chance. The two threads of the story knit together when "Vern" arrives at a remote ranch that's now owned by her and that offers a sort of sanctuary for those fleeing the law - so long as she gets 10%. Dressed for dinner, she wears a brooch that used to belong to the murdered girl so "Vern" determines to find out where she got it - and then avenge her death, upsetting the delicate equilibrium amongst his fellow crooks. Kennedy was never very engaging to watch, but Ferrer is a little more charismatic here as the deadly muscle for Dietrich's hard-as-nails songstress-turned-criminal. On that note, Ken Darby has penned a few unremarkable songs for her which did rather take from the pace of the adventure but do imbue her character with a little of the charm she so effectively uses to make a fortune off the backs of her miscreant companions. The ending is all a bit rushed, but the star manages to hold it together well enough for ninety minutes that I quite enjoyed, though most likely won't remember.
The Lady in the Van (2015)
The Lady in the Van
As the writer himself acknowledges at the end, he's augmented this a little but most of it is already the stuff you couldn't make up! He buys a new home in a well-to-do street in London's Camden only to find the area "blighted" by a curmudgeonly and smelly old woman who lives out of her rusting old van. When it comes time for her to move on, she ends up parked outside his new home and prevails upon him to use his facilities. That's just the start of a friendship that develops over fifteen years in which Bennett (Alex Jennings) discovers that this is an interesting and talented lady. It's quite easy to make judgements about her (Dame Maggie Smith) in the beginning, but as we go along we begin to realise that her supposed temporary existence has come to suit her perfectly, even if it does irritate her more respectable neighbours. The story of their relationship is told by the renowned playwright talking to himself much of the time and this series of conversations questions not just her existence but his own too. His narration is witty, perceptive and entertainingly expressive and the whole thing is enigmatically topped off by an actor who seems to be having an whale of a time portraying a woman of true character. It is a little bit long and does rather run out of steam towards the inevitable conclusion, but it does make you stop and think a little about homelessness, ageing and just how satisfying life can (or cannot) be.
Calamity James (2023)
Calamity James
Dylan Blore is quite good in this daft depiction of a young lad who, from an early age, is diagnosed with "acute misfortune syndrome". Basically, this means that if it can go wrong for him, or those around him, it will. He is very aptly nick-named. His parents struggle to deal with this with his dad (Mark Bonnar) ending up doing a bunk. Only later does he reappear and whilst trying to do a bit of damage limitation on his absentee relationship, accidentally might just find a lucrative use for the accident-prone "James". It's borderline slap-stick at times, does play a little to Scottish stereotype and you'll never remember watching it afterwards, but it does raise a smile.
Tarot (2024)
Tarot
A group of twenty-somethings have rented a "literal" mansion (I wish writers would find out what that word means and use it properly!) and are having a few fireside beers outside it whilst subjecting us to their dull relationship issues. Needless to say the gang are a politically correct assemblage that tick just about every box and are frankly all pretty well deserving of what's to come. On that front, the clue's in the title. Exploring the house looking to top up their supply of booze, they find a locked room full of all things occult and that includes an unique set of tarot cards. Rather foolishly, but typically disparagingly, they demand that "Haley" (Harriet Slater) read their fortunes. Next thing they are dropping like flies - all in a manner they gradually realise is akin to the results of the tarot reading. As they gruesomely dwindle, they realise that they are going to need some help and so thanks to Google spook, they find a woman (Olwen Fouéré) who informs them of the bleak history of their toxic tarot and tells them that the cards' destruction might be their only road to salvation. Thing is, can they survive long enough to get back to the house? There's nothing at all original here, sorry. We've seen it loads of times before and the uninteresting dynamic between the characters is even more predictable than the denouement. To be fair, the candle-lit visual effects are quite effective at times, but the acting is pretty dreadful and the whole frat-like presentation left me looking at the clock after half an hour. It's a shame. The whole astrology and mythology surrounding the tarot could have offered us a rich vein to tap into and exploit, but here we simply get a rather lazy and formulaic light-horror enterprise that's really devoid of much imagination. Literally.
M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931)
M
If only this were to be shown in every school classroom across the land. Children would never go near a stranger ever again. Mind you, they might never go near anyone at all again, either... A rash of gruesome child abductions and murders is sweeping the German capital and the only clues seem to be letters written by the purported killer to the newspapers. The police are doing their best but the public clamour for results, a constant stream of mis/disinformation and an increasing degree of urgency are leading to knee-jerk reactions and a general rounding-up of the criminal classes, but they are not stopping the crimes. With the lynch mobs looming, it may be that one blind balloon seller at the fun fair might have a clue. He may not have actually seen the killer, but he thinks he could recognise the voice - and maybe prove crucial in apprehending the killer. The detection stages of the film are intriguing to watch. In days when the notion of the "law" being an independent and fair institution were still developing, the public tendency to carry out their own justice proves just as much an hindrance to the investigators as the killer does. Indeed, their in-fighting and mis-trust might actually be helping perpetuate his reign of terror. It's the last fifteen minutes of this film that really stands out. An excellent effort from Peter Lorre bringing to an head the battle of the lawless and the lawful, and to that end Rudolf Blümner also shines as a man prepared to risk much to see that right is done - when it would have been so much easier to go with the baying flow. It's delicately and menacingly paced for two hours with a dark and gritty photography, scoring, lighting and a quite sparing but potent dialogue building to a denouement that is really enthralling. Big screen if you can - it looks so much murkier and grimier.
Yi dai zong shi (2013)
The Grandmaster
I'm a fan of Wong Kar-Wai's films but I reckon that I still prefer Wilson Yip's 2008 version of the Ip Man story. Set amidst the turbulent times in China that saw the end of the rule of Manchu dynasty, the embryonic republic established and then the Japanese invasion, we meet a man (Tony Leung) who lives peacefully in the small town of Foshan until he meets Wing Chun grand master Gong Yutian (Qingxiang Wang) who is looking for a successor. That is the beginning of a journey that will see him become a grand master of the martial art himself, whilst meeting, marrying and surviving! It's a superb looking film but for me just a little too over-stylised. The combat scenes are creatively choreographed but the use of the slowed-down visual effects didn't always work. Leung and the director are clearly on the same wavelength, and the story itself is a fascinating look at the rise of one culture through the wreckage of an ancient one. It's also clear that women too had their place in this society - and it wasn't always where stereotype might assume. A strong contribution from the adept and nimble Ziyi Zhang (Gong Er) demonstrates that well as battle lines between the old and new, the powerful and the aspirational are drawn and a good old dose of ancient tribal warfare sets up a proud story of heritage, loyalty and skill. Though a little soporifically scored at times, this is an enjoyable mix of history with touch of romance and plenty of action, and is well worth a couple of hours.