Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Badhaai Do (Harshavardhan Kulkarni, 2022) 5/10

A cop (Rajkumar Rao), who is a closet homosexual, and a physical education teacher (Bhumi Pednekar), who is a closet lesbian, decide to get married to shut up their families who nag them persistently to marry the conventional way. They find it a perfect situation where each can live their life according to their preference. The film passionately advocates for inclusivity and acceptance but unfortunately does not know where to go once the premise is set. Corny jokes, lovers that cause problems, family pressure to produce a child, patriarchy rearing its ugly head and adoption as an answer to their problem are some of the plot points churned out by the screenplay. Interspersed are unnecessary song and dance sequences which take the film to an inordinate length. The two stars are good as always but they don't have good material to play with and the film just drones on and on.

Vacation From Marriage / Perfect Strangers (Alexander Korda, 1945) 7/10

A dull marriage gets a kick of adrenalin after a couple part for three years when war breaks out. A mousy accountant (Robert Donat), married to a sickly, timid young woman (Deborah Kerr), go through the motions of marriage while living in their drab London apartment. When war breaks out he joins the Royal Navy and she joins the Wrens. For three years they are apart as their holidays never coincide. While away from each other both experience great change. He is heroic, gets wounded and finds a bit of platonic romance with a nurse (Ann Todd) while she gains confidence in her job and at the urging of her friend (Glynis Johns) forms a sort of platonic attraction to an officer (Roland Culver) who is in love with her. Their gradual transformation into completely changed individuals results in both not wanting to go back to their previous lives and decide that divorce is the best option. When they finally meet face to face both confront their feelings and much to their surprise discover the drastic change in each other. Clemence Dane won the Oscar for Best Original Story which is an interesting time capsule vividly capturing London during the Blitz with blackouts and showing the bravery and comraderie of the British people during an intense period in their lives with bombed out London a metaphor for the couple's marriage. Both Donat and Kerr are sublime. He was at the end of his tenure at MGM while this was the start of her stardom and eventual life in Hollywood.

Patriot Games (Phillip Noyce, 1992) 7/10

The one where rogue IRA members come after Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) after he "interrupts" a terrorist attack on a member of the Royal family (James Fox) in London. He kills a young terrorist and has the boy's brother (Sean Bean) captured. When he escapes prison with the help of the rebel head (Patrick Bergin) of an IRA splinter group it is only a matter of time before they retaliate which they do by attacking Ryan's wife (Anne Archer) and daughter (Thora Birch). Clancy disowned the film, fans complained it was different to the book, yet the film was a boxoffice success. This is by no means a premium Ford actioner although he plays cat-and-mouse with the trio of Bean, Bergin and Polly Walker as they lay siege to his home which later segues into a boat chase to the death during a storm at sea where he displays the best of Indy Jones. Many familiar faces - Samuel L. Jackson, James Earl Jones, Richard Harris - appear in brief roles. Alec Baldwin, who had created the part of Jack Ryan in a previous Clancy adaptation, chose instead to play Stanley Kowalski on Broadway and so Ford got the part.

Clear and Present Danger (Phillip Noyce, 1994) 6/10

The one where Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) takes on the President of the United States and a Colombian drug lord. With help from a rogue CIA agent (Willem Dafoe) and their dying mentor (James Earl Jones) they both not only rescue trapped soldiers but Jack brings down the National Security Advisor (Harris Yulin) who under instructions of the President initiates illegal covert operations in Colombia to destroy the cartel. Ford, in his second outing at Ryan, is stiffly stoic while Anne Archer is wasted in a nothing role as his devoted wife. Lots of loud jungle action with bombs going off brought the film two Oscar nominations in the sound department.

Call Me Madam (1953) - 8/10 - Ethel Merman is a socialite who is appointed as ambassador to Lichtenburg, a small European duchy. I saw the stage musical many years ago and this was a lot of fun. My favorite scene is the one with Donald O'Connor and the balloons.

Qivitoq (1956) - 8/10 - A teacher travels from Denmark to surprise her fiance, a doctor, in Greenland only to find that he is now in a relationship with his nurse. She is embarrassed and wants to get home as quickly as possible, but the next ship is at least a week or more away. She ends up spending her time in a small fishing village and gets to know the manager of the trading post there. There is a lot of great scenery, including glaciers and icebergs, and it is a decent story as well.

Nine Lives (1957) - 8/10 - Jan Baalsrud was a Norwegian commando who was trained in England and was part of a commando team into Norway in 1943 on a mission that went wrong. He was the only one to escape the Germans and survived with the aid of Norwegian patriots while also battling against snow, ice, frostbite, gangrene, and having to cross mountains and water to get to safety in Sweden. The movie does a good job depicting his ordeal.

Belfast (2021) - 9/10 - Kenneth Branagh wrote this based on his memories growing up in Belfast in 1969/1970. The Troubles are in full swing and start to affect the street where Buddy, our protagonist, lives. It's a mixed neighborhood of Protestants and Catholics and they seem to get along fairly well until agitators show up with their ultimatums. I thought it was a very nice film with solid performances all around, especially Caitriona Balfe as Buddy's mother. Jude Hill, Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, and Ciaran Hinds were all really good as well. There was actually a pretty good crowd in the theater for a Monday afternoon showing of a movie that has been out for three months.

It Should Happen to You (1954) - 8/10 - Judy Holliday stars as Gladys Glover, a model who recently lost her job. She meets Pete (Jack Lemmon), a documentary filmmaker and strikes up a friendship while walking in Central Park. Soon after, she gets the idea to rent a billboard and put her name on it, thus setting off a series of events that get her pretty well known in the city. I thought Holliday and Lemmon did a very nice job and this is a pretty entertaining film.

Death on the Nile (Kenneth Branagh, 2022) 6/10

Walking out of the movie my 85-year old dad said, "they've certainly jazzed up this film version". Indeed they have.......starting, or rather ending with Poirot in love with a *gasp* black blues singer. That's not all. The screenplay fiddles around with a number of characters, adding new ones - a sapphic couple, a renowned painter (Annette Bening) and her son (Tom Bateman). The character of romance novelist Salome Otterbourne and her daughter (played in the previous film version by Angela Lansbury and Olivia Hussey) here become a black blues singer (Sophie Okonedo) and her niece/manager (Letitia Wright) who are invited aboard the Nile steamer "Karnak" as part of the wedding party of a rich heiress (Gal Gadot) who has stolen the boyfriend (Armie Hammer) of her best friend (Emma Mackey). Also on board are the bride's maid (Rose Leslie), her former fiancé (Russell Brand), her cousin/lawyer (Indian actor Ali Fazal), her communist godmother (Jennifer Saunders) and her maid/traveling companion (Dawn French). When the bride is found dead of a gunshot wound to the head every passenger becomes a suspect. But never fear because Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) and his little grey cells are also on board to solve the mystery. Shot in Morocco all the Egyptian historical sites, including the three pyramids, the sphinx and Abu Simbel are courtesy of CGI which gives the film a terribly fake feel throughout - even the flaura and fauna (a snapping crocodile) alongside the Nile are CGI. Luckily the old steamer is authentic and a marvel of production design allowing the cast members to flit about the endless state rooms and corridors either murdering each other or trying to avoid being killed. Compared to the gorgeous 1978 version, with its magnificent cast, none of the actors here stand out. Agatha Christie's story remains fool proof so its worth sitting through although its all too ridiculous of Branagh to add all the changes - its so obvious that he ticked off assorted boxes in his head and added them all into the plot to appease today's woke audience - a white man in love with a black girl, a gay couple and two black ladies traveling on a first class steamer down the Nile in 1937. Pleasing to one's sensibility, wishful thinking but hardly authentic.

Dil Bechara (Mukesh Chhabra, 2021) 4/10

Maudlin, relentlessly downbeat film, based on the novel " The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green about terminal cancer patients. Girl (Sanjana Sanghi), fighting thyroid cancer, meets boy (Sushant Singh Rajput) who is in remission from Osteosarcoma. He wants her to co-star with him in a film being directed by his buddy (Sahil Vaid) who is suffering from glaucoma and already blind in one eye. I think that's enough said about the plot as no amount of lightness these three characters try to conjure up via jokes and crazy antics is actually enough to put the audience into a receptive mood. Saif Ali Khan cameos as a reclusive lyricist living in Paris - allowing the two leads to traipse all over the city of lights and in particular up the Eiffel Tower - who turns out to be a wacky asshole. This was Rajput's last film released many months after his tragic suicide. The film received Filmfare nominations for Rajput, A.R. Rehman's music and for Farah Khan's choreography of the title tune where Rajput dances solo with Michael Jackson-like movements. Skip this one.

A Very British Scandal (Anne Sewitsky, 2021) 7/10

Scandal amongst the high society crowd as a couple go hammer and tongs at each other in a highly public divorce that was then the longest, nastiest and most prurient divorce case in British history. Ian Campbell, the Duke of Argyll (Paul Bettany), an alcoholic, emotionally cruel, pill popping layabout with violent tendencies, divorces his third wife Margaret, the Duchess of Argyll (Claire Foy) when she finally refuses to give him more money - she has already spent a fortune renovating his family estate up in Scotland. So he accuses her of salacious behavior with 88 men - she does like to have sex and is very good at it - and hits the roof when he discovers some polaroid pictures of his wife, dressed only in her signature pearls, fellating a naked man who's face cannot be seen. The photos were presented in court during the trial and there was much speculation in London of the 1960s as to the identity of the mysterious man - rumors were rife that it was either a famous actor, a politician or even someone from the Royal family. Foy superbly goes through the story dressed to her teeth and a string of pearls around her neck as the presiding judge passes judgement on her saying she "was a completely promiscuous woman whose sexual appetite could only be satisfied with a number of men". The Duchess got her divorce but never revealed the name of her lover which to this day has caused constant speculation amongst an assortment of suspects.

Bachelor Mother (1939) - 8/10 - Polly Parrish (Ginger Rogers) is a department store clerk who is mistaken for the mother of a baby left at a foundling center. The center enlists the son of the department store owner (David Niven) to try and convince her to keep 'her' baby rather than giving it up. This was a fun romantic comedy.

Timbuktu (2014) - 8/10 - The story takes place during the time that Islamist militants had taken control of Timbuktu and were enforcing their own religious views on the people there, including banning music and football plus requiring women to wear socks and gloves. One of the main characters is a cattle farmer who lives with his wife and daughter in the dunes outside the city. He gets into an altercation with a fisherman. The film has kind of a laid back style while still dealing with serious matters. I think it is a very good film.

Shershaah (Vishnuvardhan, 2021) 7/10

War stories reeking of patriotism is a genre that unfortunately comes with a double-edged sword as it also flames hatred towards the "enemy". Bollywood, under PM Modi's rule, has gone into overdrive producing patriotic films with subjects set in the distant and not too distant past. Unfortunately since the easy villain to point fingers at is the neighbour we get to feel the full brunt of every such screenplay's wrath. Karan Johar's Dharma productions, which usually only preaches about love and family, has also now gotten in on the patriotic act - "Big Brother" aka Modi is indeed watching him closely. A screen biography of a military hero - Captain Vikram Batra (Siddharth Malhotra) of the Indian Army who was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra, the highest military decoration of the Republic of India, for his actions during the 1999 Kargil War, where he led one of the most difficult mountain warfare operations in Indian military history; Batra was killed in action by Pakistani troops during the two-month-long conflict. The screenplay depicts Vikram's obsession with joining the army, romance with a Sikh classmate (Kiara Advani), skirmishes with Kashmiri militants - one encounter involving hand-to-hand combat is straight out of a Bond movie. There are amusing bits showing the Pakistani President (Pervez Musharaf) talking about breaking the Simla Accord and the Geneva Convention by sneaking an attack onto Kargil, an ice-bound area in the Himalayan Range of mountains. The final death defying attack is to recapture a mountain top from the Pakistani Army during nightime. Boyishly handsome Malhotra makes an appealing lead while the heroics are handled with aplomb. Very amusing bits full of profanity as soldiers from both sides abuse each other over the wireless. At the end one wonders if one is a traitor for rooting for the enemy but here tears turn to guffaws seeing the hero dying in such an over-the-top melodramatic way although the funeral scene is very moving with the camera capturing Advani's anguish.

Chehre (Rumy Jafery, 2021) 6/10

An adaptation of the 1956 German novel "A Dangerous Game" (by Friedrich Dürrenmatt) that has seen various screen incarnations in different languages including a Hollywood version (with George Segal, Trevor Howard, Robert Morley). A business tycoon (Emraan Hashmi) strays down a country lane during a heavy snow storm, is rescued and brought to a huge mansion in the middle of a forest. The house belongs to a retired judge (Dhritiman Chatterjee) who along with three close retired friends - a public prosecutor (Amitabh Bachchan), a defence attorney (Annu Kapoor) and a hangman (Raghubir Yadav) - play a game of law where they put strangers on trial for murder and then condemn them to death if proved guilty. The story here is an attempt to show the state of criminal justice in India but it also allows the cast of septuagenarians to ham it up - Bachchan uses his baritone voice to good effect as this very talky film depends on the actors to use their personal acting tics to liven up the proceedings. Since its a Bollywood production a flashback involves a song sequence - between Hashmi and femme fatale Krystle D'Souza - with whom his secret affair and a murder proves his undoing at the mock trial. Preachy talkfest is also a look at how today's youth views crime. A twist ending involves the femme fatale.

Loophole (Harold B. Schuster, 1954) 7/10

Neat little B-noir - bank teller (Barry Sullivan) comes up short at his till and is accused of theft. With a rabid insurance cop (Charles McGraw) on his tail he has to find the cunning thief who stole the money. Providing solace is his wife (Dorothy Malone) while Mary Beth Hughes is the hard boiled dame using the middleaged crooked banker to do her bidding. Engrossing if old fashioned thriller with a fascinating look at Malibu when it was only a stretch of beach without the houses.

Celebrity (Woody Allen, 1998) 6/10

A series of quirky vignettes involving assorted vapid celebrities woven around two characters caught at a crossroad in their lives - a failed writer turned sleazy journalist (Kenneth Branagh) chasing celebrities for interviews who announces to his neurotic school teacher wife (Judy Davis) that he wants a divorce. Branagh channels Woody's nebbish persona while Davis has a series of truly hilarious meltdowns (not unlike the ones in "Husbands and Wives") before finding love and stability with a loving television producer (Joe Mategna). Half baked Allen still has a number of memorable moments - Leonardo DiCaprio as a coked up young actor who destroys a hotel room while beating up his girlfriend (Gretchen Mol), Melanie Griffith as a self centered film star gurading her virtue but quite upto giving a blowjob, an attempt at a fling with a waitress-turned actress (Winona Ryder), an almost fling with a long-legged model (Charlize Theton) who has a body that causes orgasms through the slightest touch and who ends up causing his prized Aston Martin to crash and Davis being taught how to fellate using a banana by a hooker (Bebe Neuwirth). Shot in "pretentious" black and white by an almost blind Sven Nykvist who had to be told by Allen what was on the set so Nykvist could shoot. Even Donald Trump makes an appearance.

Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 2021) 6/10

A refugee in Denmark relates his harrowing escape from war-torn Aghanistan. Highly acclaimed film, executive produced by Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, managed to create a record by getting nominated for an Oscar in three different categories - Animated feature, International feature and Documentary feature. Very ordinary film, although well made, which seems to have hit a positive international nerve probably because the Afghan refugee is gay, escapes persecution and ends up happy and married. The flashbacks where the man relates his childhood, escaping Afghanistan for Russia, getting separated from his mother and siblings and ending up frightened and alone as a teenager in Denmark seems too by the numbers - although the story is true and because of certain events in the refugee's life annonymity was mandatory.

Executive Decision (Stuart Baird, 1996) 7/10

Deliciously campy airplane disaster film brings back hilarious memories of "Airport 1975". For the first two-thirds of its running time this is a standard terrorists-on-a-plane wanting fellow madman leader to be released. He has been captured by the Americans so his second in command (Poirot himself, aka David Suchet) decides to bomb London and hijacks a commercial airliner loaded with a bomb, nerve gas cylinders and a group of murky Asian-Arab types - the kind Hollywood liked to believe were always in the wrong and their "cause" was just not right - who hold the passengers hostage throughout the plane. Since the Yanks are always in command of every kind of disastrous situation - at least in Hollywood films - a group of armed commandos (John Leguizamo, B.D. Wong, Joe Morton and others), a nervous engineer (Oliver Platt) and an intelligence analyst (Kurt Russell) are secretly transferred onto the 747 mid-flight (shades of Charlton Heston being lowered onto a similar plane in "Airport '75). The last third of the film is a real doozy as the commandos storm the plane picking off the terrorists while the engineer tries to disarm the bomb and the analyst tries to land the plane - both pilots are shot dead by nasty Poirot - helped by the plucky stewardess (Halle Berry) who comes up very short compared to Karen Black, the stewardess in the previous movie, who found her hysterical self in the pilot seat trying to fly the plane via verbal instructions. Russell and Berry banter delightfully as he attempts to land the plane - the crash landing is spectacularly filmed. Steven Seagal, who started off with an equal role to Russell's, suddenly gets short shrifted with his role shorn. Apparently there were altercations on the set between him and Leguizamo plus accusations of sexual harrassment and domestic violence so Russell refused to work with him. Otherwise the film is great fun!

Waltzing Regitze (1989) - 8/10 - Karl Aage and his wife Regitze host a garden party during the summer for their family and friends. The event is pretty lively and Regitze is the life of the party, but Karl Aage spends much of the time lost in thought, thinking back on his marriage from the time he first met Regitze during the war, living together, raising a son, and so on. It's very nicely done.

Shorts
On My Mind (2021) - 8/10
Ala Kachuu - Take and Run (2021) - 9/10
BoxBallet (2020) - 8/10

Animated
1 Robin Robin
2 Boxballet
3 Affairs of the Art
4 The Windshield Wiper
5 Bestia

Documentary
1 Audible
2 The Queen of Basketball
3 When We Were Bullies
4 Lead Me Home
5 Three Songs for Benazir

Live Action
1 Ala Kachuu - Take and Run
2 Please Hold
3 On My Mind
4 The Dress
5 The Long Goodbye

Marie Antoinette (2006) - 8/10 - I enjoyed this biopic that starts with Marie Antoinette's journey to France to marry the Dauphin at age 14 and goes through the family fleeing Paris during the Revolution. I think that the modern soundtrack works pretty well here and the costumes and scenery are all very nice. Dunst does a very good job in her lead role.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) - 8.5/10 - Three drag queens buy a bus and set out from Sydney on a road trip through the desert to a show they have booked in Alice Springs. Along the way they have a few adventures. The performances are excellent and the movie is very funny as well.

Humoresque (1946) - 7.5/10 - John Garfield plays a talented violinist named Paul Boray who comes to the attention of an older woman (Joan Crawford) who is a wealthy socialite, but tends to use men as she sees fit. She supports his career and tries to keep him at arms length so that she doesn't ruin his life. The story and acting are decent while the music is excellent, thought that is to be expected with Isaac Stern ghosting the violin parts and Oscar Levant playing the piano.

Shorts
Audible (2021) - 8/10
Lead Me Home (2021) - 6/10
Three Songs for Benazir (2021) - 6/10
When We Were Bullies (2021) - 7/10
Bestia (2021) - 6/10
Robin Robin (2021) - 8.5/10
The Windshield Wiper (2021) - 7/10
The Dress (2020) - 7/10
Please Hold (2020) - 8/10

I have three more shorts to watch from this year's nominees, but haven't come across them yet.

The Furies (1950) - 8/10 - T.C. Jeffords (Walter Huston) owns a huge, sprawling ranch in New Mexico called The Furies. He runs the place with his daughter Vance (Barbara Stanwyck). Vance becomes angry with a number of things that her father does and plots to take away the ranch from him. It's a very nice western.

My Brilliant Career (1979) - 8/10 - Sybylla is a free spirited young woman in Australia in 1897. Her parents send her to live with her grandmother in hope that she can get her expectations reined in and perhaps find a good marriage. Sybylla wants to do something with her life and be independent, whether as a writer, a pianist, or some other occupation. Judy Davis does an excellent job as Sybylla and it is a very nice film.

Matewan (1987) - 8/10 - Coal miners in the small town of Matewan, West Virginia try to organize a union in 1920 and go on strike due to the very bad working conditions which were common at the time. The company sent in scabs and then sent in private detectives to try and break the strike using force and threats. Chris Cooper plays the man brought in by the union to try and help them organize. It's not a happy story, but it is a very good movie.

Three Days of the Condor (1975) - 8/10 - Robert Redford stars as a CIA Employee whose job is to read anything and everything. His whole section is killed one day while he is out getting lunch and it leads to several days on the run as he tries to figure out why they were killed and who is after him. He enlists the help of a random woman (Faye Dunaway) at gunpoint as she is leaving a store. It's a pretty nice thriller and is entertaining throughout.

Hatari! (1963) - 8/10 - John Wayne stars as a man who works with others to capture wild animals in Africa to sell to zoos. His life gets upended somewhat when a female wildlife photographer comes to Africa and joins the group. There's a god amount of humor along with nice cinematography. The chase scene near the end was fun.

The Day of the Jackal (1973) - 7.5/10 - After Charles de Gaulle survived an assassination attempt over granting Algeria its independence, a British assassin known as The Jackal is hired to make a second attempt. This thriller follows his moves as he sets up his chance and the British authorities as they try to unmask and catch him. It's pretty good, though it took me a while to get into it.

Cyrano (Joe Wright, 2021) 8/10

Dazzling version of Edmond Rostand's classic tale is inventively staged by Wright as a musical while retaining a lot of the dialogue in verse as originally written. The screenplay, written by Erica Schmidt and based on her stage musical, adds two twists to the plot and one of them was in order to adapt the title role specifically for her husband. Cyrano de Bergerac (Peter Dinklage), in this version, no longer has a huge schnozzle but has a problem with body size. The other twist has Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) no longer a "dumb blonde" hunk but a black Sicilian hunk who is tongue tied when it comes to ladies. She is of course the lovely Roxanne (Haley Bennett), the intense love object of Cyrano, who falls madly and passionately in love from afar with the black hunk. To woo her he asks Cyrano to help write love letters which he does. This is a spectacular production with eye popping cinematography, costumes, sets and songs - sounding very pop - sung by the cast. Many memorable moments throughout of which the highlights are the romantic balcony scene, the terrific moments on the battlefield at the foot of snowy Mount Etna and the extremely moving last scene between Roxanne and her Cyrano.

tick, tick...Boom! (Lin-Manuel Miranda, 2021) 6/10

You have to be a Broadway aficionado to know just who Jonathan Larson is. Was. He was an American composer, lyricist and playwright who explored addiction, homophobia and cultural pluralism in his work. However, you don't have to be any kind of aficionado to marvel at the highly charged performance by Andrew Garfield who plays an aspiring composer (basically its Larson himself) with electric energy and Miranda's equally charged direction as he successfully attempts to open up the play. The film, an adaptation of Larson's stage musical, is an autobiographical account of a composer struggling to prepare a workshop of his musical and his intense interactions with his friends while questioning his own efforts. Garfield perfectly captures Larson's dedication towards his craft, the fustrations that came along the way (a split from his girlfriend and the threat of the HIV pandemic hanging over him and his friends) and how he eventually conquered them on his way to the bittersweet end creating songs from his everyday life experiences. The "tick, tick" that the character experiences in his head is time passing by for him and also references Larson's early death from an aortic aneurysm at the age of 35 just when his musical "Rent" was first performed. For Larson success came posthumously in the form of a Pulitzer prize and three Tony awards for "Rent". For this film success may come in the form of Oscar nominations which Garfield and the film are expected to receive. As entertainment the film is a bit of a hit and miss as you do need to know a bit about the background of Larson and his legacy. None of the songs are memorable or familiar to the common man so that automatically becomes a hard sell to a non theater buff. Other than that you can just sit back and experience how composers come up with songs and how shows are created.

Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2021) 5/10

We all carry secrets, often lie to cover up, feel guilt and sometimes confess troubling matters to friends, relatives or professionals. But rarely do we have to sit through a three hour film before characters finally open their mouths and hearts. Hamaguchi makes his audience wait a hell of a long time before catharsis takes place. A theater director, who's wife died suddenly, auditions actors and then rehearses them for a stage production of Chekov's "Uncle Vanya". In between he forms a gradual bond with the woman assigned to be his driver during the production. Both have issues in their lives which they have long suppressed and adding to his issues is his lead actor who once had an affair with his late wife, an actress-writer who liked to narrate stories while in the throes of orgasm during sex with her husband and other sexual partners. Intriguing thought - inspired by a short story by Haruki Murakami - is taken to an inordinate length by the director. Most of the film is taken up by repetitious scenes set during the play's rehearsal and the moments when the three main protagonists finally confess their thoughts and problems to each other one is totally exhausted and disappointed to learn what these issues were in the first place. The acting is of the deadpan variety while the on location filming in Hiroshima is dull and uneventful as all the scenes are staged against modern architecture with none of the "real" Japan visible. A story about how we often think we know people when in reality we know nothing of what goes on in another person's mind and heart - be it a spouse, sibling, child, parent, colleague or friend.

Dear Evan Hansen (Stephen Chbosky, 2021) 6/10

I find it weird that a hit Tony award winning Broadway musical would flop big time when it was adapted for the big screen. Not having seen the stage version this was not really all that bad. A positive music-filled shout-out to people who are lonely, different and suffering from social anxiety. Evan Hansen (Ben Platt who won a Tony for creating the part on stage) suffers from anxiety and is asked by his therapist to write a letter to himself and explain why the day will be good for him. The letter gets into the hands of a sociopathic school mate who commits suicide and the letter is taken to mean something positive by the dead kid's mother (Amy Adams). Too flustered to explain the real situation Evan goes along with the ruse of friendship to appease the distraught woman which spirals out of control. Along the way, Evan bonds with both the dead boy's sister, and the school’s resident activist. Both Adams and Julianne Moore (as Evan's mom) are around for marquee value while Platt carries the film, as he did on stage, using his powerful singing voice and vulnerable persona. Although the actor looks too old at 27 to be a convincing teenager (the camera cannot lie) he manages to nail the part despite sometimes acting a little too stiffly uptight. He comes alive during the songs which aren't that great but remain pleasing to the ear.

Encanto (Jared Bush & Byron Howard, 2021) 5/10

Now that the white man has finally decided that all things "ethnic" is super chic - at least in Hollywood movies - one is inclined to barf at this concept since its now becoming overkill. One almost longs for the racist white man to do his thing - at least in the movies. Sigh....sadly it's not to be like that in this Disney flick set in Colombia about a young girl who is the only one in her large (mostly) annoying family who does not have the magic touch. Like many stage and film musicals around this one too has songs by the newbie showbiz ethnic flavor - Lin Manuel Miranda. When the un-magical child in the family discovers (literally) cracks appearing in the family's magical powers she tries to find a solution which appears to be in a tower which leads into a cave. A huge hit at the boxoffice with its soundtrack going beserk on the Billboard charts - a common occurence once upon a time when last the Bee Gees made such a dent via a movie, but something quite unseen in decades since. I guess Miranda should be celebrated after all. And yes he's part of the fashionable ethnic lot so in vogue today. And since ethnicity is something real and distinctly apart from what was once the domain of only white folks we also get to live now with transgenerational trauma allowing many of us from that ethnic world a genuine (if very annoying) reason to attract attention towards ourselves. Loud, cloying film without an ounce of subtlety. But then that's always Disney for you.

The Tender Bar (George Clooney, 2021) 6/10

Low-key episodic coming-of-age film about a teenager (Tye Sheridan) growing up with an absent father and living with his mother (Lily Rabe), grandfather (Christopher Lloyd) and uncle (Ben Affleck) who becomes a mentor. Seeped in sentimental nostalgia the story chugs along helped by the charming cast with Sheridan and Affleck standouts. Pity the film doesn't have more of an acidic zing as during the scene Clooney stages at the dining table between Sheridan and his African-American girlfriend's sophisticated but hilariously caustic parents.

Finch (Miguel Sapochnik, 2021) 7/10

Post-apocalyptic survival story that segues into a road film with characters learning to survive as a team and learn valuable lessons along the way. Second Tom Hanks film, after "Cast Away", where he commands the screen mostly on his own. A robotics engineer (Tom Hanks), who has survived (but dying of radiation poisoning) a massive solar flare that has destroyed the ozone layer and thus most of mankind, decides to travel to San Francisco from St Louis. Accompanying him is his dog , a helper-robot and a humanoid robot (voice of Caleb Landry Jones). Along the way he teaches the latter robot lessons on how to basically survive and look after the dog after he eventually dies. Bleak, sentimental but poignant film has many moments of humour courtesy of the non-stop banter between Hanks and Landry Jones. Nothing original here but its never boring. And Hanks is always worth watching.

After Love (Aleem Khan, 2021) 9/10

The film opens and closes with the camera zooming into and then away from the dramatic white cliffs of Dover. When a man unexpectedly dies in Dover his wife (Joanna Scanlan) discovers a secret life he had been leading across the Channel in Calais with another woman (Nathalie Richard) and a son. Poignant film about discovering something shocking about the person you love and then moving towards forgiveness and acceptance. The screenplay is unusual in that it depicts a Muslim convert married to a Pakistani with Scanlan throughout attired in Pakistani outfits, wearing a hijab and reciting aloud the Muslim prayer. Discovering the ID card of a woman in her late husband's wallet she goes to Calais to meet her. Mistaken for a cleaning lady she keeps visiting the house of the french woman hoping to learn more about this woman who was her husband's mistress. Heartbreaking film shows how humans often lead double lives. Here every character - the dead man, his wife, mistress and son - all lead lives that have parts hidden from each other. Scanlan completely bares her soul and body as she tries to reconcile her life which has suddenly taken a most devastating turn. In fact all three characters reel under life's twists and turns.

The Leopard (1963) - 8/10 - A Sicilian prince (Burt Lancaster) and his family have to adjust to a variety of social changes during the unification of Italy. The Prince allows his nephew to marry the beautiful daughter of a wealthy landowner. The film has beautiful cinematography, sets, and costumes and makes for a very nice historical drama.

Bagdad Cafe (1987) - 8.5/10 - Jasmin (Marianne Sagebrecht) is a German tourist who ends up at the Bagdad Cafe, a gas station/cafe/motel in the middle of the Mojave Desert with nothing around for a long ways. The place is rundown, the owner is perpetually angry (CCH Pounder), and there is very little business. Jasmin starts to make a few changes and slowly wins over the people there. This is a very nice film with a very good cast.

Canyon Passage (1946) - 8/10 - Logan Stuart (Dana Andrews) has a freight company in 1850s Oregon. He's honorable, but is attracted to two women, including the girlfriend (Susan Hayward) of his best friend George (Brian Donlevy). Throw in trouble from local Native Americans and a vicious man who has it in for Logan and we have a very nice western.

Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro, 2021) 7/10

Overlong remake of the classic 1947 Edward Dmytryk film based on William Lindsay Gresham's 1946 pulpy novel is dazzlingly brought to the screen by del Toro. The film is a marvel of production design evoking the 1940s with the story set in a seedy carnival. Tyrone Power, in the original film version, played the main protagonist - a drifter and a carny - as brash, ruthless and over confident while Bradley Cooper here plays it very understated and with an almost quiet stillness. A difter with a murky past involving a mysterious death joins a carnival, gets lessons in fake psychic readings from a husband (David Staithairn) - wife (Toni Collette) double act, falls in love with another performer (Rooney Mara) and leaves with her to headline their own act. Some years later they are a success working an act at a posh club conning rich folks. When a psychologist (Cate Blanchett) suspects him to be a fake he involves her in an affair and uses information on her wealthy patients to con them for huge amounts of money. As with all stories with a disturbing noir over tone the end is not pretty as the carny finds himself way over his head in a situation that involves violence and death. A case of much style (outstanding cinematography, production and costume design) over substance and the film is much too long and could easily have been more effective with a half hour shorn of its length. The wonderful ensemble cast work small miracles with vivid bits from Willem Dafoe as the carnival owner, Mary Steenburgen as a distraught woman, Richard Jenkins as a dubious man with a violent past. Best of all is a serpentine Blanchett who uses spider-like cunning to entrap Cooper thus paving the way for his spectacular downfall.

House of Gucci (Ridley Scott, 2021) 6/10

The overbaked Italian accents of Aldo Gucci (Al Pacino), his son Paolo (Jared Leto buried under mounds of prosthetics) and his younger brother Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons looking like a cross between Gomez Addams and a cadaver) is amusing at first but soon begins to grate. The screenplay focuses on the euphoric marriage of Rodolfo's son Maurizio (Adam Driver) to social climber Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) which soon shows cracks when she gets over ambitious wanting control of the Gucci empire. She is served divorce papers and, prompted by a high-society psychic (Salma Hayek), hires a pair of hitmen to rub out her husband. Surrounding this personal, often campy drama, is the struggle for power between the family members for the Company. Neither really succeeds as the screenplay is inconsistent throughout not providing any gravitas to either end of the stories - just a lot of style over substance. Lady Gaga stands out with a compelling performance and while she and Driver have great chemistry he merely reacts to her with a goofy expression on his face throughout. Wonderful production values are an asset. And that classic pair of shoes is a killer!! This is a rare Ridley Scott misfire.