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Reviews
Great Expectations (2023)
Permanent Winter
Taking inspiration from the success of Ianucci's recent multi-ethnic adaption of David Copperfield, this version is created to reflect a contemporary vision.
A far cry from David Lean's memorable 1946 black and white film (with the unforgettable appearance of Magwitch in the early scenes) and the 2012 BBC miniseries, with a career launching performance by Vanessa Kirby as Estella.
Winter chill dominates the first episode, Christmas is cold comfort for the mentally shackled Pip. We may think that the Romney Marshes are a desolate place, but the temperature drops again in the final scenes when we meet the 'permanent winter' of Miss Haversham's suspended desolate mental landscape.
Olivia Coleman borders on horror genre with her depiction of a manipulative permafrosted Havisham, and promises much for later episodes. She stands out amongst a very strong cast.
65 (2023)
Enraptored
Classic B Movie material, minimal cast and sub plots, singular driving intention to the storytelling line.
Brevity is a virtue and this film doesn't wander off at a tangent for three hours, it's a straightforward shoot em up with a variety of mostly malign reptiles. The only vaguely cute one gets promptly eaten.
We have to get from A to B, mercifully only 15 kilometres, whilst trying not to become lunch, or get totalled by falling space debris.
Would love to have seen more of the smaller more insidious bugs (stuck on your neck, invading your mouth while sleeping) and less of the big cliché monsters.
Matilda: The Musical (2022)
Let them eat Chocolate Cake
We're you still singing the tunes the next day? Yes, me too, and it led me down an online rabbit hole of YouTube videos around the topic of Tim Minchin and the making of this film.
It is a very strikingly multicultural female film; Matilda, her mother (an unrecognisable Andrea Roseborough), Miss Honey (Lashana Lynch, last seen as the fierce Izogie in 'Woman King'), The Trunchbull, and even Sindhu Vee as Mrs Phelps the librarian all dominating the action.
Arguably my favourite scene was however dominated by the diminutive but rebellious schoolboy Bruce Bogtrotter, taking on the mountainous chocolate cake, at first with a large spoon, then scooping it up in both hands. For those of you who originally found Matilda through the book, we all remember the fabulous Quentin Blake line drawing of Bogtrotters trial and triumph.
Bardo, falsa crónica de unas cuantas verdades (2022)
A journal of dreams and truths
The opening of the film is how I imagine magical flight to be, a swooping, bounding, slightly tenuous airborne existence.
There are clever segues, moments of magical realism, wonderful set pieces and some very mature reflections on multigenerational family life and relationships throughout.
Almost every scene has a counterpart, that informs, embellishes and closes the other, giving a great sense of dimensionality and meaning.
Comedic, yes, but more wry smile humour than laugh out loud, and always there as patches of light against the darkness.
With age comes so many layers of memory and experience. Silvering moves beyond documentary film making and into a form that mixes his personal and cultural heritage with the subject matter he portrays. He rails against his ex colleague Luis, whose view of journalism remains within the realm of fact, of corporatism, and social media.
One last thing, Mateo and the long shadow of the dead child hangs over the family. This is disconcertingly portrayed, and remains a profound moment of tragedy within the story. The final reconciliation is a scene of great beauty.
The English (2022)
Racist killers and thieves in the Midwest
So much to like in this dark dark drama, set on the bright midwestern plains of late nineteenth century North America.
Colonisation is a dark force wiping out, enslaving and culturally overwhelming the native Americans. Like all their empire building, the English attempt to control and monetise it from a great distance.
The drama makes it way through a succession of new territory citizens, morally warped by their circumstances; bushwhackers, grifters, outlaws, and thieves, but it's not until halfway through the series that the real villain of the piece, Melmont, played with Iago like malevolence by Rafe Spall, shows his bloody hand.
As he does so we learn that Emily Blunt's Cornelia, has a powerful motive for removing herself from polite society to the genuinely perilous Midwest. We also realise that she is not any where near as frail and endangered as she appears in the Tarentino like set piece that dominates the first episode with Ciarán Hinds. Events thirteen years previously have made sure that she is already dead, both literally and in many ways spiritually.
The extraordinary cherishing bond that she forms with her unlikely bedfellow Eli, played by Chaske Spencer, who is also a closed spirit, having died inside through personal tragedy, is at the heart of this story. His impeccable moral compass (and the literal compass) bind and guide the two of them.
Full of references to classic westerns, in music, settings and costume, this is visually very rich, especially in HD. Thoroughly recommended.
Amsterdam (2022)
A complex truth
There's a warmth at the heart of this movie that has stayed with me, it's about the way that friendship, love, diversity and respect are stronger values than power, autocracy, racism and violence.
It's a beautifully complicated and nuanced story, spread over two inter war decades and two continents. We see the horrible visceral damage to an entire generation from the Great War. The flowering of the mad Dadaist / Proto-surrealist / Expressionist art during the inter war years. Over the ocean in New York, the post 1929 depression makes the rising fascism in Europe look strong when compared to Roosevelt - and the men in grey suits plot a palace coup in the White House.
The storyline is part love story, part crime caper, and part 'save the democracy of the western world' parable to compare to contemporary society.
House of the Dragon (2022)
Game of Tropes
Paddy Considine is always solid (see 'Pride') , as is Matt Smith (see 'Doctor Who'), but they don't have the greatest script here.
The imagined towns are a curious mix of the Byzantine, Gothic and Romanesque, and yet the drama is more Baroque.
I'm sure it will improve, but it's a bit saggy and trope laden.
La Belle Époque (2019)
1974 - the coolest year
You had to be there I guess, and you had to meet a fabulous woman in a bar. And I guess that's why this movie totally hit the sweet spot for me.
Did Sandie Shaw ever sound so good?
West Side Story (2021)
Both sides of the coin
My daughter chose to see this movie, having little knowledge of the 1957 original, which I've seen twice.
She went on quite the rollercoaster, wincing at the perilous fight sequences and delighting at the quality of Maria's singing voice (my daughter is classically trained, and has an acute ear for quality).
For me, well I'd forgotten just how many fabulous tunes there were in the storyline, I thrilled to the choreography, and once more suspended my disbelief at the frankly implausible story line.
This is a really great revision to the presentation of the story, the casting is terrific, the sets extremely dramatic, and the passion very real.
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
This is the summer of love
The period flavour is beautifully executed; the music, the misogyny, the race riots, the police brutality, the close knit mafiosi family.
What makes this movie so compelling is Uncle Dickie, everybody's favourite uncle, who, as the story unfolds, appears to have a rather problematic sets of family values. Rather than resort to counselling, Dickie allows the red mist to descend, leading to some unfortunate outcomes.
Two very strong female actors are worthy of mention; the always reliable Vera Farmiga as Livia Soprano, and Micheal Di Rossi as Guisssepina Moltisanti, scene stealing pretty much every time she appears.
Some wonderful ensemble work here, worthy of Scorsese or Coppola, into whose own mob fables this segues seamlessly. The ordinariness of the psychopathy and casualness of the violence.
The Wife (2017)
Portrait of a strong woman
Seems that the world of writing is emerging slowly from a long period of being a make preserve, like music, and painting.
We see the shift in this short drama, as an emerging female author makes an informal pact with her partner, to enable her to get published. Unlike Colette, who wrestled back ownership of her material and IP, Joan never does that.
40 years on, that pact unravels with remarkable rapidity, and could have become deeply messy, but for one turn of fortune.
There were questions for me about what happened after the conclusion of the drama, but maybe there is enough of a clue in Joan's last lines to guess at that.
I enjoyed this enormously, Pryce and Close are very very good together, in the gloriously ambiguous space that they have carved out for themselves in their flawed and yet mutually gratifying relationship.
Hatsukoi (2019)
Yakuza Mayhem
This is a moody dusk til dawn revenge / honour gangster shoot em up.
Loved the winner takes all showdown, down to the last man standing. With violence that clearly leans into the animé cartoon world.
Spencer (2021)
The Sloane Ranger rides again
Impeccably capturing the soulful eyes and yah accent that we remember of the Princess of Wales.
Behind the eyes we see the personal hell that Diana occupied, and the complete lack of compassion from the family and institution that she married into.
I suspect many marriages hit the buffers during the Christmas holiday, this one plays out with a compelling sense of history, alluding to a previously tragic royal wedding.
Stewart's performance kept me watching what is an essentially static situation, with the past and the present constantly colliding and eliminating the possibility of a positive future.
Spall and Hawkins give impeccable supporting performances.
V for Vendetta (2005)
The mask hides the truth
March 1982, I bought that first edition of 'The Warrior' from a local shop in south London.
This was the first time that I encountered the genius that is Alan Moore.
Enraged by Thatcher's destruction of the status quo, and high handed approach, he wrote V. The grainy black and white strip belied the complexity of the wordsmithery. There is pure venom in the script.
I kind of wish that this movie was in grainy black and white, so that I could once more experience the explosive effect that comic had on me.
Moore went on to write wonderful strips, like Watchmen and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen that played with and remade the format for a grown up late century audience.
But V is where it all starts.
No Time to Die (2021)
Time - du temps perdu
Shakespeare is famous for the singular pursuit on a theme; matter, death, betrayal.
The scriptwriters (including the enfant terrible, WallerBridge) fix on time, love and death. From the opening double prequels which cast us back in time, to twenty and five years prior to main action, through to final M's eulogy (quoting Jack London';
"The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."
We are reminded that memory, love, the end of love, death - these cut through everything.
If we are in any doubt that all is subverted by the ghosts of things past, the heroine of the piece is name straight from Proust, Madeleine Swan. She is the catalyst, the link to the past, the passion that informs the present.
Military Wives (2019)
Strong Female Cast
Reminding us that we can all sing in harmony, it just takes the nerve to walk through the door, open your mouth and join in.
Dark Waters (2019)
Corporate manslaughter at the movies
You can't pin murder one on them, so compo is the next best, and only thing available.
Gloomy, draining, messy, and horrible - that's DuPont
Greed (2019)
That Sustainability Movie
That needed to be made, with the clothing industry having become the second largest polluter and a source of misery and poverty to many.
The focus is mostly away from the sharp end of the business, concentrating instead on the obscenity of extreme wealth in an excruciating comedy of ghastliness.
I liked it a lot.
Emma. (2020)
Jane Austen is one of the great comic writers
And this movie adaptation captures the exquisite irony and humour of the novel. It's light, fluffy, and deadly serious.
Gisaengchung (2019)
A Grifter Great
When you write a review this late into a movie's life, post-genre busting Oscar, nobody will read this stuff, so here goes nothing.
I've always liked the con men / grifter genre because it's all about the glorious world of deceit, where nothing is as it seems. Typically the drama comes when the best laid plan falls apart, which it does so gloriously and tragically here.
I'm looking forward to the black and white version, as there's a glorious luminosity to that format, and this picture really doesn't require color.
Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)
Roller Skating
Was my favourite bit.
Much prefer Robbie's whoops tra la attitude to insanity over Phoenix's rather laboured version
The Lighthouse (2019)
Through the Square Window
Last time that I saw a square format, audio immersive film was 'Son of Saul'.
This is also excruciating but for all the wrong reasons.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
Tom Hanks is the new
James Stewart. Truly an every man that we can all empathise and identify with.
The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)
Color blind Copperfield
A very jolly meta romp, with all manner of fourth wall breaking, wordplay and silliness - which hides the brutality and hardship of much that flies by.
Bad Boys for Life (2020)
Gun heavy bromance
Depending on your status, bullets either kill you immediately or are minor impediments to beating criminals.