Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

King Richard (2021) - 8/10 - This is a pretty solid film about Richard Williams and the early tennis years of Venus and Serena Williams. Will Smith is very good in the title role, but Aunjanue Ellis is just as solid as Oracene Williams. Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton are also good as Venus and Serena with Sidney having a larger role as the older of the two sisters. In many ways it's a fairly standard sports biopic, but it manages to be pretty entertaining as well.

The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) - 7/10 - A retired legal counselor decides to try and write a book based on a rape/murder case from 25 years earlier. He meets up with his former boss, a woman that he was in love with, but was unable to act on his feelings. The film flashes back to the case for much of the film. I thought it was good, but not great.

O Quatrilho (1995) - 6/10 - Two newly married couples decide to pool their resources and purchase a farm in Brazil early in the 20th Century. They live in the same large house and build a mill. Angelo is practical and married to Teresa, who wants romance. Massimo seems cultured, but has a wandering eye and is married to Pierina who is practical. Their lives get upended when Teresa and Massimo fall for each other. It was a decent film, though perhaps a bit too plain and straightforward, sort of like Angelo and Pierina.

King Richard (Reinaldo Marcus Green, 2021) 6/10

Sports film, true story, African-American biography which falls in the "against all odds" genre of stories. Richard Williams (Will Smith), a tennis enthusiast with a brood of daughters, vows to make his daughters Venus and Serena into tennis champions. And he does. Using an assortment of unconventional methods he succeeds in creating two huge stars in the world of tennis. The film, of course, is really about Will Smith and how the star - who received $40 million for the film - is being prepped to win his first Oscar after years of being a very successful movie star. The difference between Smith and Tom Cruise is that the latter is stuck in an action groove while the former alternates his crash-bang films with smaller films all about the heart. So we get to see Smith win his Oscar come spring while Cruise and his smirk will need to learn the tricks of the Oscar trade in order to win one for himself. Also shining as Smith's wife and the girls' equally tough mother is Aunjanue Ellis. Heartwarming inspirational but unnecessarily overlong tennis tale is not really my cup of tea but I'm perfectly fine with the idea of the uber-cool Smith as an Oscar winner.

Stand By For Action (Robert Z. Leonard, 1942) 4/10

The first naval war film made by MGM during WWII. The story is set in the Pacific on a beat-up old ship lying derelict since the last War which is put into order after Pearl Harbor is bombed and sent out to protect convoys of allied ships from Japanese attacks. The ship is run by an up-from-the-ranks Commander (Brian Donlevy) who clashes with his well-connected Harvard educated Masterman (Robert Taylor). The Admiral (Charles Laughton) who puts together these two in charge of the old vessel is a combination of a strict blowsy martinet and a fussy maiden aunt. Laughton certainly rises to the challenge giving an amusing performance. Walter Brennan is the old crew member from the ship's previous tenure who wants to enlist in this war as well. Lots of action, back projection and special effects which were nominated for an Academy Award. Slow dull film.

White Feather (Robert D. Webb, 1955) 5/10

Handsome production in Cinemascope and in stunning color unfortunately has a bland script although mostly based on historical fact. The United States government and the Cheyenne sign a peace treaty whereby the Indians agree to move from their hunting grounds so the white settlers can move in and prospect for gold. An Army Colonel (John Lund) and a land surveyor (Robert Watch) are in charge of ensuring a peaceful settlement. When the daughter (Debra Paget) of the Indian Chief (Eduard Franz) decides to dump her fiancé (Hugh O'Brien) and move in with the white surveyor she is ostracised by her father and her tribe. Her former fiancé and brother (Jeffrey Hunter) threaten the peace process when they challenge the army and refuse to leave their land. Good cast is wasted in slow film.

Son of the Bride (2001) - 8.5/10 - Rafael spends a lot of his time running the restaurant he took over from his parents. This leads him to neglect a number of his family relationships at times. He has a company interested in purchasing the restaurant, but is hesitant to sell. Life events lead to him reconsidering his priorities. I enjoyed this one a lot.

Wild Tales (2014) - 8/10 - Six stories are told here that generally center on revenge in this Argentinian black humor film. I liked most of the stories, though I don't think the one with the hit and run quite fit with the rest and I didn't really buy the ending of the tow truck story. Still, it is an entertaining film and moves at a pretty good pace.

Anina (2013) - 7.5/10 - A young girl isn't sure whether she likes her name because she gets teased about it at school. All three of her names are palindromes. She gets into a bit of a fight with another girl on the playground and the girls are given a sealed envelope to hold on to for a week before learning their punishment. The animation takes a bit of getting used to, but I thought it was a very nice movie and I enjoyed it more as it went along.

Landfill Harmonic (2015) - 7.5/10 - A music director decides to offer free music lessons to children of families who live near a giant landfill in Paraguay. This leads to one of the parents helping build violins and other instruments out of materials found in the landfill and the formation of a small orchestra. Eventually, the orchestra gets invited to play in various places around the world, but a number of things still make life difficult back home. This is a pretty nice documentary.

La Antena (2007) - 7.5/10 - The people of a city have had their voices taken away from them by Mr. TV, except for one woman known as The Voice (and her son, but they are keeping it secret). Now Mr. TV is plotting to take their words as well. This is an odd film with a sort of retro futuristic style, but I enjoyed it.

Punch the Clock (2016) - 7/10 - The patent office in Brazil is filled with extremely lazy workers who rarely get any work done. When the office becomes the subject of ridicule in a magazine article, the boss decides to do something about it. In a case of fortuitous timing, he becomes aware of a working time machine prototype that was just filed with the bureau and hatches a plan to use it to force his employees to catch up on the backlog. It's not a great movie, but it was fun.

Tango (1998) - 7/10 - A director is recovering from a broken leg and from his wife leaving him while also trying to put together a film featuring tango music and dance. He also has to put up with requests from the investors in his film. Quite a bit of the film features the rehearsals and planning of the film with a somewhat thin story of a romance with a young dancer. There is plenty of good music and dance and I enjoyed the film, certainly a lot more than Blood Wedding and more than Carmen as well. Those films were also directed by Carlos Saura and have similarities to Tango in terms of structure. This film is much more polished than those two films, though.

La tregua (1974) - 7/10 - The film starts on Martin's 49th birthday. He's been a widower for 20 years and lives with his three grown children. He works in an office, but has a pretty dull life overall. Things perk up for him when he starts dating a woman half his age. I was somewhat bored through the first part of the film, but it picked up after he started dating the young woman and it became more interesting after that.

Rocky Mountain (William Keighley, 1950) 8/10

The downbeat tone of Flynn's last Western is probably why he decided to take on the role - he was never fond of all the action oriented roles he had played in this genre. The theme of the film also fits in with the mood prevailing back then when heroes were less than perfect and endings weren’t always happy. During the dying days of the Civil War a weary captain (Errol Flynn) in the Confederate Army is sent west to California to raise a rebel army in order to create enough heat to deflect from their forces back east. The small group finds themselves stranded on a mountain top waiting for a bandit warlord to provide an army. Their gallant rescue of a stagecoach from Indians backfires as the sole survivor (Patrice Wymore) turns out to be the fiancé of a Union officer stationed nearby who also turns up with his men and taken prisoner on the mount. It becomes a tense waiting game as Indians around them go on the warpath leading to the film's very realistic finalé. Despite Wymore's presence there is not even a hint of romance with Flynn - although offscreen she became his third and last wife. Despite Slim Picken's screen debut there is no corny comic track in the film (unlike boistrous comic scenes in previous Flynn Westerns) keeping up with the bleak storyline. Keighley shoots with great precision - both the action scenes as well as the talky scenes on the mount using the outdoor location to great effect.

Royal Wedding (Stanley Donen, 1951) 8/10

This is the one where Astaire dances with a coat rack and later on the walls and ceiling of a room which decades later Lionel Richie re-created in the hit video of his song "Dancing on the Ceiling". A brother (Fred Astaire) and sister (Jane Powell) dance act (mirroring Astaire's own former act with his sister Adele) opens in London on the eve of the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. The partners also find romance along the way - he with a chorus girl (Sarah Churchill - Winston's actress daughter) and she with an impoverished Lord (Peter Lawford). Keenan Wynn tries to arrange two marriages while the royal one is on. The ballad "Too Late Now", sung by Powell to Lawford, was nominated for an Oscar, Alan Jay Lerner wrote all the lyrics, first choice Judy Garland was fired by MGM (she apparentley tried to slash her throat in response), second choice June Allyson dropped out due to pregnancy so Powell got the role playing sister to Astaire who was 30-years older. Memorable film, a sort of filler, before Astaire's masterpiece "The Band Wagon" which was just around the corner. Nobody could really equal the color and A-list pizzazz of musicals like MGM. This may have been minor compared to many other musicals yet still manages to maintain a classic status with some of Astaire's best hoofing.

Red Notice (Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2021) 4/10

Utterly predictable heist yarn that tries to revive memories of "Charade", "Gambit", "How to Steal a Million" and many others before it. They forgot that the charm of Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Michael Caine, Shirley MacLaine and Peter O'Toole is missing from this rather tired recipe. An FBI agent (Dwayne Johnson) is forced to partner with a famous art thief (Ryan Reynolds) to take on an up-and-coming criminal (Gal Gadot) in their quest to retrieve three ancient Egyptian fabergé-like gold eggs which were a wedding gift from Marc Antony to his wife Cleopatra. The chase is on with the three double crossing each other from one end of the world to another as they go from Rome to Bali to a Russian prison to the jungles of Argentina where a Nazi bunker houses the missing third egg. Blatant rip-off moments from Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" - at one stage Reynolds cheekily whistles John Williams' "Raiders March" tune as he sets foot in an underground cavern full of stolen Nazi treasures. The three stars seem to be having a ball passing quips as they torture each other in their quest for one-upmanship. However, it comes off terribly forced and since none of the characters show any redeemable qualities one doesn't care either way for them. Looks like there will be a sequel as the set up is in place at the end.

Rogue's March (Allan Davis, 1953) 3/10

British soldiers with veddy stiff upper lips. One (Peter Lawford), a promising young soldier just betrothed to an officer's daughter (Janice Rule) and on the verge of sailing to India, gets framed as a traitor and is court-martialed. Enlisting again on the sly he turns up in the North Western Frontier under the command of his own dad (Leo G. Carroll), goes on the lam on the Khyber Pass after the Russians (villains de jour) with his fiancé's current boyfriend (Richard Greene). Rousing action against the pathans who shout out a lot of their speeches in pushto. And a rare glimpse of the Khyber Pass, circa 1953, passing off as early century. It's mixed in with footage shot in Southern California and on the studio lot. Interesting to see the Ruskies as the bad guys even back then as they "interfered" with the politics of Afghanistan against the Brits. A poor man's "Four Feathers" with heavy doses of the Dreyfuss Affair. A rather weak affair overall.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2021) 6/10

Don't get me wrong - I absolutely loved this idea of a Chinese Marvel comic book superhero (notice I'm not calling him a Chinese-American superhero) - but how the heck did THIS come about? Was it something on the lines of #OscarsSoWhite where African-Americans went up in arms boo-hooing that the Academy pussyfooted only with white actors? Similarly did Asians (of the Far East variety - not brown Asians like some of us located not that far East) want equal time in the comic boom universe because they were fed up seeing only white and black superheroes? Shaun or Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), trained as a child to be an assassin by his dad (Tony Leung) - leader of the clandestine criminal organization called Ten Rings - leaves home, settles incognito as a hotel valet in San Francisco and befriends kooky Katy (Awkwafina). When his dad unleashes a gang of thugs on him taking a green pendant given by his late mother, he makes a beeline for Macau to warn his sister that the gang could be after her pendant too. Dad, vicious as ever, turns up with a far-fetched story saying Mom is alive and being held prisoner by her kin in her native village. The way to the village is like a maze with a door that opens up only once a year. No matter how ridiculous the plot one sort of weaves oneself into all the inanities and go with the characters on their journey which like most such films is clearly influenced in some way or the other by Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park (minus the dinosaurs but with other exotica) and Game of Thrones. Since its all Asian it takes on the feel of a Hong Kong action thriller with Michelle Yeoh in residence as the kick-ass maiden aunt to the two kids. And Ben Kingsley weirdly wanders in as an actor-jester who leads them to the hidden village. Lots of noisy balletic fights, visual effects galore and lots and lots of sage advice which is the ultimate cliché from the Eastbound world. Not too painful to sit through but its all very deja vu and rather a waste of the large Asian cast. Still they managed to get into the comic book universe which brings me to maybe protest that its high time that a Pakistani gets into the superhero groove.

No Time to Die (Cary Joji Fukunaga, 2021) 7/10

Daniel Craig's last Bond film and he goes out not with a whimper but with a mighty big bang. It rates a very distant third amongst his five, after Skyfall (2012) and Casino Royale (2006) - we shall ignore the other crappy two and pretend they didn't happen. This one is pretty much a hit and miss as well cramming in far too much plot. I miss the simple days of the earlier Bond films when the story lines were easier to follow, the girls were prettier and totally undressed in bed, the villains had balls and Bond actually fucked in between shooting people dead. The silver Aston Martin DB5 makes a kick-ass appearance in full shooting glory and is followed later by a sleek black Aston Martin V8. The Cuba sequence made me almost nod off to sleep catching 5 winks so Ana de Armas shooting a gun while running in high heels in a black evening dress with a plunging neckline is almost a blur - obviously not fully asleep otherwise wouldn't have noticed that dress. Also started nodding off during the overlong attack on the island at the end especially during boring villain Rami Malek's ponderous monologue - and he's much too young to be the person who appears during the pre-credits flashback. Did they forget to age him during the scenes set in the present? And did they have to make his facial skin look so yucky? Léa Seydoux is back and just as bland second time round. Ditto Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) - so tiresome for still being around 50 years on. At least he was sexy bald and had a cute pussy back in the day. The rest of the gang all returns - M (Ralph Fiennes) in full-on constipated mood - the plot's main fuck-up is thanks to him - Miss Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) who gets sidelined by the introduction of a new 007 (Lashana Lynch) - a black statuesque Amazon who gets Bond's number after he has retired, Q (Ben Whishaw) who comes to the rescue as usual, Tanner (Rory Kinnear) and Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) caught in a harrowing sequence. Two boy-toy villains - Logan Ash (Billy Magnussen) and Primo the Cyclops (Dali Benssalah) - pop up during the many chase sequences with the two Aston Martins, a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado LC90, a Land Rover, a Triumph Scrambler 1200 XC and on a helicopter - and prove to be vicious adversaries for Bond. The film uses eclectic locations in Jamaica, Scotland, the Faroe Islands, Italy and the spectacular Atlantic Ocean Road in Norway. And it seems that Bollywood movies have really made strides on World Cinema because this Bond film caps it off with the daddy of all Bollywood sentimental plotlines. And last but not least the title song by Billie Eilish is utter crap. However, it was a cool touch at the end to hear Louis Armstrong sing "We Have All the Time in the World" in an ironic homage to "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".

The Return of Bulldog Drummond (Walter Summers, 1934) 6/10

Drummond (Ralph Richardson), the gentleman adventurer, comes out of retirement - he has been heading a vigilante group doffing evil foreigners - and tries to solve the mystery of various assassinations. When the slimy villain (Francis L. Sullivan) makes the mistake of kidnapping his beloved wife (Ann Todd) all hell breaks loose. Fast moving film has Richardson's droll performance at its center along with many action packed sequences.

The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992) 8/10

Old-fashioned epic, based on the classic James Fenimore Cooper novel, gets a typically pulsating and violently savage treatment by Michael Mann. It also cemented the intense romantic image of star Daniel Day-Lewis and further displayed the now slightly rugged and ravaged beauty of Madeleine Stowe as the two stars vied for the positon of the year's most romantic screen couple. Also helping this remake (the screenplay was also based on Phillip Dunne's 1936 screen version) is the authenticity of the locations in contrast to the studio-bound sets in the Randolph Scott version. The plot is about an assortment of people and two pairs of star-crossed lovers caught up in the colonial war between the British and French fighting over the new land as settlers and natives are forced to pick sides. Dante Spinotti's lush cinematography and the instantly recognizable score by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman were surprisingly not nominated for Oscars - it did win for its sound design though. The film has a huge cult following today and helped make Wes Studi, as the scary protagonist Magua, into a formidable presence on the big screen.

Music For Madame (John G. Blystone, 1937) 4/10

An attempt to make Italian Nino Martino - a leading operatic tenor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City - into a Hollywood star. Unfortunately the screenplay is trite - involving him (as what else but an aspiring opera singer) in a plot about stolen pearls for which he is accused - and surrounds him with a cast in full-on corny comic mode particularly Alan Hale as a bumbling detective. Martino does get to sing and he has a magnificent voice. Joan Fontaine, still three years away from full blown stardom, plays his love interest and Alan Mowbray spoofs famous conductor Leopold Stokowski.

My Love Came Back (Curtis Bernhardt, 1940) 8/10

Charming fluff is a remake of "Episode" the classic 1935 Austrian film by Walter Reisch. This Hollywood remake is notable for its musical direction (by Heinz Roemheld) and unique swing orchestral arrangements of classical pieces by Ray Heindorf. A promising violinist (Olivia de Havilland) on scholarship at a prominent music school decides to quit as she cannot make ends meet. A wealthy patron of the arts (Charles Winninger), who develops a crush on her, decides to annonymously provide her a monetary grant through his business manager (Jeffrey Lynn). The two also start attending concerts together. Meanwhile she meets the young manager and both fall in love. The film's comic situation arises when she is suspected by the old man's children of having an affair with their father as does the young manager. The confusion gets resolved at a lavish party where she performs solo in the swing band belonging to her two chums (Eddie Albert & Jane Wyman). The entire cast is delightful - including Spring Byington as Winninger's all-knowing wife and S. Z. Sakall as a cantankerous conductor - with de Havilland just on the cusp of becoming a huge star (she had appeared in "Gone With the Wind" the previous year). The "friendship" between Winninger and de Havilland would never past muster today as it would be deemed creepy although the twinkle in the old man's eyes betray what is only an infatuation any man could develop for a pretty girl. It used to be ok to have such feelings once upon a time without the world crashing down in cross-eyed judgement.

Brainstorm (William Conrad, 1965) 6/10

Scientist (Jeffrey Hunter) rescues suicidal woman (Anne Francis) from a traintrack and discovers she is stuck in a marriage with his tryannical boss (Dana Andrews). Sympathy changes to love and he plots to kill the man to rescue her from a life of misery. He manages to carry out the deed but things don't quite go as planned which leads to an ironical conclusion typical of the neo-noir genre. Hunter is good and Andrews is outstanding as the repellent man who wants things his own way. Interesting to see Richard Kiel - who years later would go on to play "Jaws" in two Bond films - as an inmate in a psychiatric hospital.

Man-Trap (Edmond O'Brien, 1961) 7/10

Good neo-noir mixes a soap opera plot with a robbery and is based on the novel "Soft Touch" by John D. MacDonald. A Korean war veteran (Jeffrey Hunter) is stuck in a lousy marriage to his boss's alcoholic, slutty, emotionally cruel daughter (Stella Stevens) while having an affair on the side with a secretary (Elaine Devry). When his war buddy (David Janssen) arrives with a plan to rob a South American dictator of $3 million and is willing to share it with him he reluctantly goes along with the plan hoping it will allow him to leave his wife. As with all good noirs the plan does not quite go according to plan as a shootout ensues, his friend is hit and three thugs chase them for the loot. Meanwhile his wife makes a play for the friend, he decides he wants no part of the loot and kicks his friend out of his house who takes off for Mexico. Matters go from bad to worse when there is an unexpected death, the thugs walk in looking for the money and bash his skull while the friend finds himself in an equally ironical twist in Mexico. Fast moving film has a riveting performance by Stevens as the boozy, seductive, sadist wife who also gets all the best lines. Hunter is also good as a basically decent man who is not really having a very nice life. And what a fun set of party-animal friends they have - always drunk and willing to play sexual games.

Men of Two Worlds / Afrikas Son (Thorold Dickinson, 1946) 5/10

Ambitious film just goes on and on when it could have been edited down by a good thirty minutes. An African (Robert Adams) returns to his village after spending 15 years in London as a professional composer and pianist. He plans on teaching children in his village. However, an outbreak of sleeping sickness caused by the tsetse fly has reached pandemic proportions and spreading fast. It results in a battle against superstition of the villagers and the local witch doctor who manipulates the frightened villagers from not moving to a safe area. He is helped by the local District Commissioner (Eric Portman) and a doctor (Phyllis Calvert) but falls sick with guilt after his father dies and his family accuse him of killing the old man. Shot on location in Tanganyika in lovely color the screenplay (by Joyce Carey) attempts to show a balanced view of the African people. Although it condemns superstition and witchcraft it does so by closely identifying with all the dilemmas faced by the African protagonist who has to balance his modern European world view with that of the centuries old African way of life and thinking. Adams, a distinguished British Guyanese actor of stage and film, is very good in the lead role.

The Last Outpost (Lewis R. Foster, 1951) 5/10

Brothers (Ronald Reagan & Bruce Bennett) on opposite sides during the American Civil War have to join hands when there is a threat of an Indian attack. Pretty Rhonda Fleming, a recent widow and former fiancé of the younger brother, is around as the token love interest. The plot is total historical fiction - could the North & South join hands to fight as one unit against Indians? Highly improbable. Reagan's first starring Western is strictly a B-film but he manages to carry it off with his rakish charm. A couple of good action sequences helped make this low budget entry into a hit at the boxoffice.

Love Under Fire (George Marshall, 1937) 3/10

A Scotland Yard detective (Don Ameche) falls in love with an alleged jewel thief (Loretta Young) in the middle of the Spanish Civil War. Confused film cannot decide if its a sophisticated love story, a screwball comedy or a heavy drama. And they don't even bother to resolve if the pearls were stolen by her. In the midst of their dramatic escape out of the country they are joined by another woman (Frances Drake) who has stolen a set of diamonds and a group of musicians who attempt to liven things up through corny musical-comedy routines. John Carradine wanders into this mess as the obligatory villain. Skip this one.

Innocents in Paris (Gordon Parry, 1953) 5/10

Quaint but silly film about a group of Brits on a weekend trip to Paris. Strictly interesting for its cast and the shenanigans they get upto in the city of romance. A diplomat (Alastair Sim) in town for a conference clashes with his Russian counterpart over shots of vodka and ends up at a Russian nightclub where Ludmila Lopato, a Russian tzigane chanteuse, sings the original Russian version of the song that became "Those were the Days", which became a hit record for Mary Hopkin. An amateur artist (Margaret Rutherford) visits the Louvre and the Left Bank in search of artists. A naive young woman (Claire Bloom) in search of romance finds it with an older frenchman (Claude Dauphin) who takes her on a tour of the city. A Scotsman (James Copeland) who parades around the city in his kilt causing amusement. A Captain (Jimmy Edwards) looks out for an archetypal British pub in the city and spends the entire weekend drinking there. Many uncredited early appearances by actors who later became stars - Christopher Lee, Kenneth Williams, Laurence Harvey. The screenplay revels in the stereotypical views of both Brits and foreigners and is interesting to see how the city looked during the early 1950s.

The Eagle and the Hawk (Lewis R. Foster, 1950) 4/10

Painfully slow film about a Texas Ranger (John Payne) and a government agent-Union spy (Dennis O'Keefe) who join hands and get involved in Mexican politics - to sustain Juarez on the throne and ensure that Napoleon III's candidate Maximillian is deposed. A would be Pancho Villa (Thomas Gomez) is on the side of Juarez while Maximillian has a crooked agent (Fred Clark) rooting for him. The latter's lovely wife (Rhonda Fleming) provides the love interest and with this ravishing redhead in tow the color cinematography is handled superbly by James Wong Howe. Interesting plot is all talk and no action which makes it a chore to sit through.

Spencer (Pablo Larraín, 2021) 10/10

Kristen Stewart's stunning performance perfectly captures Diana Princess of Wales in all her mannered and awkward glory. It's Christmas 1991 at Sandringham and the Royal family descends for the annual get together. Diana, driving alone, gets lost enroute muttering "where the fuck am I?", and has to ask for directions at a petrol pump much to the astonishment of people at the café. She is met by her two sons, is relieved to see her lady-in-waiting (Sally Hawkins) and ushered in by Major Gregory (Timothy Spall) who asks her to hurry on into the drawing room where the Queen is waiting for sandwiches to be served. Diana takes a detour via the toilet where she promptly throws up before freshening up to make her entrance. It's the three-day weekend she spent with the family - exactly 10 years after her marriage - just as disillusionment with her life had set in after learning that there was another person sharing her marriage to Charles - he presents an exquisite pearl necklace as a Christmas gift to Diana and a duplicate one to his mistress Camilla as well. Diana appears to be stuck in a haunted horror house (the long endless corridors seem straight out of Stephen King's "The Shining") with herself as the threatening monster which the family perceives her to be. It's a weekend all about protocol and lashings of food which when coupled with her bulimia becomes a total farce. Larraín stages a remarkable tense scene in the dining room where Charles and the Queen stare down at Diana as she imagines Queen Anne Boleyn (the one who lost her head when her husband King Henry VIII found another woman) at the table - the pearl necklace around her neck brings on flashes of the beheading which she pulls and snaps the pearls into her soup which she then swallows only to later run and vomit in the toilet. An amazing moment which reflects Diana's very disturbed state of mind. She is a woman dressed in designer wear but trapped in a gilded cage - a haunting montage of Diana seen prancing about the vast corridors and rooms of the castle wearing different familiar dresses provides a glaring glimpse into the stifling demands made on famous women known for their designer wear. This theme also ran through Larraìn's "Jackie" and like that film this too has outstanding production and costume design, stunning cinematography (by Claire Mathon) and a wonderful score (by Jonny Greenwood). Very offbeat film - a work of fiction with scary moments of truth - is held together by Stewart's astute performance which will be the one to beat at the Oscars next year. And it was a happy sight to see the screenplay do justice to Diana's close and very loving relationship with her two boys.

Innocents in Paris (Gordon Parry, 1953) 5/10

Quaint but silly film about a group of Brits on a weekend trip to Paris. Strictly interesting for its cast and the shenanigans they get upto in the city of romance. A diplomat (Alastair Sim) in town for a conference clashes with his Russian counterpart over shots of vodka and ends up at a Russian nightclub where Ludmila Lopato, a Russian tzigane chanteuse, sings the original Russian version of the song that became "Those were the Days", which became a hit record for Mary Hopkin. An amateur artist (Margaret Rutherford) visits the Louvre and the Left Bank in search of artists. A naive young woman (Claire Bloom) in search of romance finds it with an older frenchman (Claude Dauphin) who takes her on a tour of the city. A Scotsman (James Copeland) who parades around the city in his kilt causing amusement. A Captain (Jimmy Edwards) looks out for an archetypal British pub in the city and spends the entire weekend drinking there. Many uncredited early appearances by actors who later became stars - Christopher Lee, Kenneth Williams, Laurence Harvey. The screenplay revels in the stereotypical views of both Brits and foreigners and is interesting to see how the city looked during the early 1950s.

The Eagle and the Hawk (Lewis R. Foster, 1950) 4/10

Painfully slow film about a Texas Ranger (John Payne) and a government agent-Union spy (Dennis O'Keefe) who join hands and get involved in Mexican politics - to sustain Juarez on the throne and ensure that Napoleon III's candidate Maximillian is deposed. A would be Pancho Villa (Thomas Gomez) is on the side of Juarez while Maximillian has a crooked agent (Fred Clark) rooting for him. The latter's lovely wife (Rhonda Fleming) provides the love interest and with this ravishing redhead in tow the color cinematography is handled superbly by James Wong Howe. Interesting plot is all talk and no action which makes it a chore to sit through.

Chief Crazy Horse (George Sherman, 1955) 7/10

Reverential, if slightly plodding, screen biography of the Lakota Sioux Chief Crazy Horse is highly fictionalized but shot in stunning colour by Harold Lipstein. Victor Mature, looking rather heavy-set and long in the tooth, gives a compassionate portrayal of the warrior at odds with the fork-tongued white man. Pretty Suzan Ball, in brown face, is his wife Black Shawl and there are good turns by John Lund as a sympathetic white friend to the Indians and Ray Danton as his rival (and murderer) Little Big Man. Good battle sequences including the victory at Little Big Horn where Crazy Horse and his braves defeated General Custer. One of numerous sympathetic films during the 1950s that portrayed the West from the point of view of the Indians.

Chicago Deadline (Lewis Allen, 1949) 3/10

Confusing and noir goes on and on with no stopping in sight. A journalist (Alan Ladd) swipes the diary belonging to a dead girl (Donna Reed) who is discovered in a boarding house. He begins calling each person mentioned in the diary and discovers that none of them want to be associated with the dead woman or are too scared to respond. Through a series of tedious flashbacks we get to check out the woman's life - her brother (Arthur Kennedy) provides some information and after her husband died she became friends with a prostitute (June Havoc) and the lover of a gangster (Shepherd Strudwick) who gets his face smashed in by another crook who wants her for himself. When she rejects him her fate is sealed. The film unsuccessfully tries to repeat the success of Otto Preminger's "Laura" which was also about a mysterious dead woman whose story unfolds via flashbacks.

Eternals (2021) - 7/10 - Overall, I liked the film, but it is my least favorite MCU film so far. I never got into the Eternals characters in the comics so that may have played a small role. There were good parts interspersed, especially in smaller character scenes. The battles with the deviants generally weren't all that interesting. The movie felt like it could have used more editing to tighten it up and cut the run time. 7/10 might be a bit generous, but I'll stick with that for now.