Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[Precious Doll]

Repeat viewings

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger 9/10
The Outsiders (1983) Francis Ford Coppola 6/10
The Lost Boys (1987) Joel Schumacher 6/10
Angel Heart (1987) Alan Parker 7/10
Carrie (1976) Brian De Palma 10/10
The Children's Hour (1961) William Wyler 10/10
The China Syndrome (1979) James Bridges 8/10
The Strange One (1957) Jack Garfein 8/10
Body Heat (1981) Lawrence Kasdan 8/10
A Kind of Loving (1962) John Schlesinger 7/10
Eternity (2016) Anh Hung Tran 7/10

[Reza]

The FBI Story (Mervyn LeRoy, 1959) 3/10

Hollywood's long rambling pat on the back to the FBI is an episodic story backed by J. Edgar Hoover himself (LeRoy and the infamous director of the FBI were pals). Based on the book by journalist Don Whitehead the film depicts various highs in the FBI's investigation using a fictitious agent (James Stewart) as the person who narrates and is involved in all the events. The ultra-conservative patriotism is a time capsule from the Eisenhower era with apple-pie views of the homefront - Vera Miles plays the thankless role of the agent's devoted wife producing babies like clockwork as her brave husband battles various forces down through history. The screenplay takes on various crimes the FBI fought and "solved" - the Ku Klux Klan, the Osage Indian Murders (which is Martin Scorsese's upcoming movie project), battling gangsters (Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Dillinger), detailing the Kansas City Massacre, the Japanese internment during WWII, chasing Nazis, secret missions in South America and an espionage case in New York involving a half-dollar with microfilm inside. Stewart is fun to watch but it's all pretty dreary and clean cut (Hoover was one of the film's producers so every frame of the film had to be approved by him) shot in a semi-documentary style and photographed in colour by Joseph Biroc and scored by the great Max Steiner. Informative but dull.

Rough Night in Jericho (Arnold Laven, 1967) 4/10

The Western genre took on a certain artificiality during the 1960s. There was something not quite right about most of these films compared to the ones from the 1950s. The stories were more or less the same, most had huge stars, some new to the genre but many veterans who continued in the genre, but none of the films quite matched the A or B listers from a decade before. A lawman turned outlaw (Dean Martin) holds sway over a town imparting swift justice to folks who move against him. His former lover (Jean Simmons) and her partners in a stagecoach line - an old lawman (John McIntire) and his former deputy turned gambler (George Peppard) stand up to the tyrant. Martin is a lifeless villain and doesn't even bother mustering up the required menace while beating up feisty Simmons - one keeps expecting him to break out in song while slapping her. Peppard is good as the silent hero who takes more beatings than he deserves. The predictable plot has a lot of scenes involving posses giving chase with a final confrontation that is staged in a lackluster manner. Best to stick to the great B films from the past.

Day of the Badman (Harry Keller, 1958) 4/10

An upright judge (Fred MacMurray) who has sentenced a murderer to hang is confronted by his vicious relatives. The entire town, the sheriff (John Ericson) and the woman he loves (Joan Weldon) are held hostage by fear. B-film goes through its predictable tropes with the young woman caught between trying to inform the judge that she is now in love with the young sheriff. Marie Windsor is the town floozie having it off with the condemned prisoner while carrying a torch for the judge. Strictly a programmer.

Chocolat (Lasse Hallström, 2000) 4/10

The only moment that rings absolutely true in this manipulative and treacly film is the rich curmudgeon (Alfred Molina) wallowing in chocolate. He rules the roost in a small provincial French village into which blows in a fair maiden (Juliette Binoche) and her daughter like "a sly wind". She sets up shop and sells different kinds of chocolates which have a strange healing power which the eccentric villagers - the battered wife (Lena Olin), the old landlady (Judi Dench), her bitter daughter (Carrie Ann Moss), a gypsy (Johnny Depp), an old man (John Wood) and his object of desire (Leslie Caron) - all imbibe and which magically changes their lives. Whimsical nonsense was inexplicably nominated for five Oscars - Best Film, Binoche, Dench, screenplay and score.

L'amore / Love (Roberto Rossellini, 1948) 10/10

Two part anthology film is Rossellini's ode to the acting talent of his lover at the time - the great Anna Magnani. The first part, La voce umana (The Human Voice), is a monologue based on "La Voix humaine" by Jean Cocteau and features an unnamed woman (Anna Magnani) begging and pleading with her lover on the phone as she desperately tries to save her relationship with him. The second episode - Il miracolo (The Miracle), story by Federico Fellini, involves a deeply religious woman (Anna Magnani) who tends goats on a hillside high above the Amalfi coast. Coming across a stranger (Federico Fellini) she assumes he is Saint Joseph and excitedly asks him to sit with her as she babbles on while he quietly keeps giving her wine to drink until she passes out. Nine months on she is pregnant, and while the villagers ridicule and pelt her, she thinks she is carrying a miracle child. In heavy labour and about to give birth she drags herself up the hill to an isolated church where she delivers the baby. The last shot of the film has her feeding her baby with milk from her breast. This episode was condemned in New York for being "anti-Catholic" and "sacrilegious" leading to a lawsuit in 1952 when it was ruled that the film was a form of artistic expression protected by the freedom of speech guarantee in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Despite the controversy the film and especially Magnani's raw and highly emotional performance in both episodes was highly praised. A must-see. Ingrid Bergman, Rossellini's lover and wife, also appeared in a tv adaptation of Cocteau's "The Human Voice" in 1966 to great acclaim.

Bad Company (Damian Harris, 1995) 9/10

It is a crime that Hollywood never properly utilized the talents of Ellen "I don't wanna fish. I wanna fuck" Barkin. This elegant and laid back neo-noir is a welcome addition to her two most memorable lead performances in "The Big Easy" and "Sea of Love". This entire film drips elegance. From the carefully stylized performances to the dialogue, the costumes and the eclectic architecture - Fishburne's apartment with its crimson and blue interior and wide open spaces is especially memorable. Even the sex scenes are shot with elegance - fully clothed but with an erotic urgency which the leads wholeheartedly get into. Barkin's stiletto clad feet and sinewy legs wrapped around Fishburne have a scorching effect. A former CIA operative (Frank Langella), running an independent organization involved with blackmail and corporate espionage, gets his hot assistant (Ellen Barkin) to hire another ex-agent (Laurence Fishburne). When the two become lovers she gets him to kill their boss so she can take over the company. Things don't quite work out as planned as the sly screenplay brings on one twist after another. Barkin sizzles as the femme fatale who is not above shedding tears and mourning the dead just minutes after fornicating with wild abandon knowing very well the fate of her sex partner. Fishburne is a cool but cynical foil who doesn't quite know what he has gotten into but manages to hold his own as the twists come flying at him. Underrated film needs a re-evaluation.

Lydia (Julien Duvivier, 1941) 3/10

Duvivier, on one of his numerous sojourns in Hollywood, remade his 1937 french classic "Un carnet de bal" which was produced by Alexander Korda for his wife Merle Oberon. She plays Lydia, a wealthy unmarried woman, who recalls her youth as a silly immature and flirtatious girl who rejected three young men - her butler's physician son (Joseph Cotten), a football player and drunk (George Reeves) and a sea captain (Alan Marshall) - for a fourth man (Hans Yaray) who is blind. She finds him living in squalor as a child who grows up to become a musician who does not love her so she decides she wants to avoid marriage and help blind children instead. Sentimental claptrap has one of Oberon's typical cloying and artificially overwrought performances. Her leading men all get to dance with her - the waltz being a major set-piece from Duvivier's original classic. Tiresome film has flashes of humour courtesy of the great Edna May Oliver, in her last film appearance, as Lydia's haughty grandmother. Horrendous old-age makeup is also very off-putting. Bland remake that should never have been made.

Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me (Chiemi Karasawa, 2013) 8/10

Nobody was more delightfully irascible and witty or had bigger balls than Elaine Stritch. This documentary has the camera following her at age 88 and we see her in rehearsal for a one-woman stage act of Sondheim songs (flubbing lyrics but with panache). She reminisces about her past Broadway shows and celebrity friends, meets up with surviving family members, visits her doctor, takes in hospital stints and talks about ageing, diabetes and alcoholism, which she conquered, but has now returned to by allowing herself one drink per day of Bombay Sapphire. Poignant film has humourous and loving comments by present-day colleagues and staff. She truly was a legend. Stritch passed away a few months after this film came out.

The Vampire Bat (Frank R. Strayer, 1933) 8/10

Atmospheric horror film, shot at poverty row studio Majestic Pictures Inc., using leftover sets from Frankenstein (1931) and The Old Dark House (1932). Villagers are convinced that the mysterious deaths occuring are due to vampires. Bodies are discovered with puncture marks on the neck and their blood drained. Trying to solve the mystery are a doctor (Lionel Atwill), his assisstant (Fay Wray) and her lover (Melvyn Douglas), a cop who refuses to believe that vampires are the cause. Terrific low budget film is superbly staged with a great cast with Dwight Frye a standout as the feeble minded bat lover who falls under suspicion of being a vampire. Fascinating colour sequences add to the dread.

Riding Shotgun (Andre De Toth, 1954) 4/10

Low-key Western has an unusual format in that the lead character narrates his inner thoughts at key moments of the plot. A stagecoach guard (Randolph Scott) is suspected of being involved in a stagecoach attack and part of a gang of murderers and bank robbers. Holed up in a saloon he warns the townfolk that the gang will be attacking the town soon but nobody believes him except his sweetheart (Joan Weldon). The plot seems to be inspired by "High Noon" but the slow pacing and several plot holes make it a bit of a slog to sit through. Charles Bronson, in one of his early film appearances, plays one of the gang members.

Saddle Tramp (Hugo Fregonese, 1950) 7/10

A wandering cowboy (Joel McCrea) suddenly finds himself looking after four little boys when their father suddenly dies. Adding to the menagerie is a girl (Wanda Hendrix) who has run away from her incestuous uncle (Ed Begley). Charming little film finds the cowboy working for a couple (John McIntire & Jeannette Nolan), fighting cattle thieves, involved in a feud with a neighboring rancher (Antonio Moreno) and falling in love. McCrea, as the laid back cowpoke, is delightfully understated in this family western.

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (Matt Tyrnauer, 2017) 6/10

Scotty Bowers, a returning marine from the Pacific during WWII, set up business in Hollywood running a gas station. The business was a front and in fact he provided sexual services to famous Hollywood stars both male and female. He hired good looking men to service stars looking for action in bed. Bowers went by the unofficial title of "pimp to the stars" and this documentary reveals details about many famous names - Walter Pidgeon, Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, Charles Laughton, Cole Porter and even the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. During trysts the Duchess guided the Duke on what to do in bed - he liked watching couples in bed and would then join them. Bowers would separately provide women for the Duchess to frolic with. Rock Hudson started off as a trick at the gas station and became a close friend to Bowers who himself was a victim of child abuse which he claims was not true. In fact he himself started turning tricks with older men at the age of 11. He also claims that he bedded both Lana Turner and Ava Gardner in a ménage à trois. Another revelation is that the famous Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn affair was perpetuated by Hepburn to cover up the fact that they were both gay and Bowers, over a period of many years, "introduced" Hepburn to 150 women while he himself had a sexual relationship going with Tracy. He was also a regular supplier of men to gay director George Cukor for his notorious Sunday lunch parties around his pool. He provided men for Laurence Olivier and for his then wife Vivien Leigh, both of whom chose these partners at Cukor's parties. These seemingly far fetched revelations do have some element of truth as many stories about these stars have been widely reported by others as well. The documentary is a fascinating look at the underbelly of Hollywood during a time when studios kept a tight grip on creating an image of their stars to suit Mid-West America.

Stranger on Horseback (Jacques Tourneur, 1955) 5/10

A judge (Joel McCrea) faces the wrath of a rich cattle baron (John McIntire) when he tries to bring his son (Kevin McCarthy) to trial for murder. Based on a story by Louis L'Amour the plot goes through familiar tropes of the genre held together by McCrea who is memorable even if the film is rather mediocre.

[Precious Doll]

The Half of It (2020) Alice Wu 5/10
Flowers of Shanghai (1998) Hsiao-Hsien Hou 7/10
Time to Hunt (2020) Sung-hyun Yoon 1/0

Repeat viewings

Reds (1981) Warren Beatty 8/10
A Good Marriage (1981) Eric Rohmer 9/10
Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) Michael Apted 10/10
Shadowlands (1993) Richard Attenborough 9/10
City Girl (1930) F.W. Murnau 10/10
Nights of Cabiria (1957) Federico Fellini 9/10
Romeo is Bleeding (1993) Peter Medak 7/10
The Comfort of Strangers (1990) Paul Schrader 7/10

[Reza]

I was planning to see Feud on HBO but when I realized it’s from the same team behind this I will probably skip it.

Feud is more campy. Something "Hollywood" sadly lacks. The former should be seen if one is interested in watching two great stars (Sarandon & Lange) hamming it up playing two greater stars (Davis & Crawford). Although truth be told both series get tiresome very quickly.

[HarryGoldfarb]

Hollywood is going to have a second season, but like the same team's American Horror Story, it is expected to cast the same actors as different characters in an unrelated story but no one seems to know for sure what they're going to do.

I watched the first episode, but I have no intention of continuing to watch the rest of the series. It is a pity that the story is so little engaging because the technical aspects are first rate. It is unfortunate that those sets and costumes and camera work that looks impeccable has been used for such a messy script. By the time the first episode was over, I was very little interested in the fate of any of the characters introduced and that cannot be a good sign. Maybe the series improves in the following chapters, but from what I read here, I doubt it. Ryan Murphy has become the prototype of the hit & miss director / producer, but he has worked with so many people already in his prolific career that many people definitely love him and he is respected to the point of having a license to do whatever he wants without no one warning him that something may not be the best idea or way to go. Such a wasted opportunity to portrait the real period.

Hopefully, the'll find a better script to work with for next season.

[Big Magilla]

Hollywood is going to have a second season, but like the same team's American Horror Story, it is expected to cast the same actors as different characters in an unrelated story but no one seems to know for sure what they're going to do.

[mlrg]

I thought Hollywood was a complete train wreck of a show. Everything is just so bad is absolutely embarrassing. One of the worst things I have ever seen.

I was planning to see Feud on HBO but when I realized it’s from the same team behind this I will probably skip it.

[Big Magilla]

Hollywood

What They Got Right:

The prostitution ring run out of a gas station on Santa Monica Blvd.

George Cukor's parties

Henry Willson's shenanigans

What They Got Wrong:

Rock Hudson - he was never that naïve. The character more closely resembles Tab Hunter, but he was only 16 in 1947 and didn't hit Hollywood until 1950 so they couldn't make it about him.

Anna May Wong - she was a legendary star in silent films and early talkies. Had they given Oscars for supporting performances prior to 1936, she would almost certainly have won for playing the murdered topless dancer in Piccadilly (1929) and been nominated for Shanghai Express (1932) which she all but stole from Marlene Dietrich. She did not audition for The Good Earth. She had made it clear from 1931 on that she wanted the role, but MGM had already passed on her for the lead in The Son-Daughter in 1932, giving the role to Helen Hayes because in the words of Louis B. Mayer "she was too Chinese to play Chinese." If MGM had considered her for The Good Earth in 1937, which they did not, she would not have needed a screen test. They damn well knew who she was and what she could do. Although she did not make any movies between 1942 and 1949, she had a major comeback in guest appearances on TV in the 1950s.

Hattie McDaniel - her alleged relationship with Tallulah Bankhead has been long disputed, and if it happened at all, it would have long been before 1947, possibly between her second and third of four marriages (her second husband was murdered in 1922, and she did not marry again until 1941). She never whined about having to play maids even after she won an Oscar. Although she was often criticized by others for playing domestics, she always laughed it off, saying she would rather get $700 a week for playing one than $7 a week for being one.

The movie within a movie thing - inter-racial romance would not have been allowed by the Production Code in 1947. Cheapening Pat Entwistle's tragic story by changing her character's name to Meg and having her not jump to her death from the Hollywood sign would not have been anyone's idea of an Oscar caliber film, then or now. The film that actually won the Oscar for 1947 was a genuine game-changer, Gentleman's Agreement, the best-seller about anti-Semitism that none of Hollywood's Jewish producers would touch. It was made by the only non-Jewish studio head in Hollywood, 20th Century-Fox's Daryl F. Zanuck.

And, of course, no one at the 1947 Oscars said "and the Oscar goes to...", something they didn't come up with until the 1987 Oscars, forty years later.

That said, it will probably get a slew of Emmy nominations - Dylan McDermott being the most likely among the actors, but Holland Taylor and Joe Mantello are also strong possibilities. Jim Parsons and Queen Latifah are long shots. Patti LuPone and the largely unknown young leads are less likely. The actresses playing Vivien Leigh and Tallulah Bankhead, on the other hand, should be up for Razzies or whatever the TV equivalent of Movie Worsts is called.

[Reza]

Hollywood (Janet Mock, Michael Uppendahl, Daniel Minahan, Ryan Murphy & Jessica Yu, 2020) 6/10

Ryan Murphy's revisionist look at post-war Hollywood calls out the inherent racism and hypocricy in the industry and country and says a big f**k you to it. The plot weaves the story of a bunch of young men and women eager to make their mark in the movies and intertwines them with actual movie personalities. The men get their start courtesy of a pimp (Dylan McDermott) - based on Scotty Bowers - who ran a gas station which was a place where famous men and women could pick up hustlers for a night of sex. The screenplay, a mix of fan magazine sensibility of the 1940s and sexually graphic innuendos found in star biographies of today, is absolutely trashy and often completely over-the-top. The in-your-face sexual moments seem forced with many coming off as pure camp - the studio head's wife (Patti LuPone) having doggy-style sex on her GWTW-style staircase as the camera captures this cringy moment peeking between two Oscars. The dialogue is often risible with famous quotes being mouthed by the actual stars - Tallulah Bankhead gets to mouth two or three of those bon mots while ensconsed in an affair with Hattie McDaniel (Queen Latifah). Everyone gets a trashy look-in from Vivien Leigh to Anna May Wong to director George Cukor and his notorious gay pool parties. A hick (and very dumb) Rock Hudson is seen getting his early start in Hollywood courtesy of his agent, the notorious Henry Willson, who collected beefcake, gave them blowjobs and groomed them into becoming stars. Like Tarantino's recent revisionist twist to the Manson murders the screenplay here takes on plot points that Murphy wishes could (and should) have happened - a black actress playing the lead role in a mainstream Hollywood film written by a black writer (sexually involved with an out-of-the-closet Rock Hudson), directed by a Filipino-American which wins her an Oscar in the lead category. Unfair biases across gender, race and sexuality, which still remain a problem for many across the world, is examined here under the assumption of lifted barriers.

The Stranger Wore a Gun (André de Toth, 1953) 3/10

Randolph Scott starts off as a villain - a spy for Quantrill's raiders killing innocent people - and changes his tune after seeing one too many murders. He takes on his former ally (George Macready) and his two henchmen (Lee Marvin & Ernest Borgnine) as the plot devolves into assorted shootouts. Claire Trevor is the saloon floozie who loves him. Boring film meanders along. Filmed in lovely colour and 3-D.

Serpent of the Nile (William Castle, 1953) 2/10

Low budget shenanigans between Cleopatra (Rhonda Fleming), Mark Antony (Raymond Burr) and his aide, the two-faced Lucilius (William Lundigan), who also makes a play for the Egyptian queen. Fake sets and painted backdrops make this version of the saga painful to sit through. Fleming, decked out in alluring Jean Louis costumes and jewels, makes a valiant try at being seductive but her two leading men are such limp drips that its all a very one-sided affair. Julie Newmarr, painted from head to foot in gold, appears as a maiden offered as a gift to Antony who ignores her and makes a beeline instead for the gold coins she is standing on. Sadly the film also lacks camp and the lousy screenplay doesn't do justice to two of history's most charismatic characters. The film's saving grace is the lovely technicolor cinematography.

Night Passage (James Neilson, 1957) 5/10

Stewart's gritty, tough performance here is in keeping with the series of westerns he made for director Anthony Mann during the 1950s. The director and star parted ways on this project as Mann did not like the script. A disgraced railroad man (James Stewart) is re-hired to incognito carry a payroll on a train. When the train is attacked by outlaws, headed by his younger brother (Audie Murphy), the money is slipped into a box being carried by a kid (Brandon De Wilde). After a skirmish and a chase the brothers face off against each other and another outlaw (Dan Duryea in fine form). Filmed on spectacular Colorado locations with wonderful shots on a moving train - the great William Daniels is on camera - this rather routine film chugs along in predictable fashion.

Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind (Laurent Bouzereau, 2020) 7/10

Nothing new really but the documentary purpots to put to rest all the hysterical accounts about Natalie's death by drowning. A loving tribute to her mother by Natasha Gregson Wagner as she chats with close colleagues and friends of the star (Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Richard Benjamin). She also "talks" to Robert Wagner, Wood's husband, who was on the boat with her that fateful night and he discusses the night of the tragedy. The film covers her life as an icon and star of many memorable movies as well as her life as a daughter and mother. If there is a slight tinge of trying to shut up all the conspiracy theorists out there one can't blame the family who never got any closure as the case kept getting flogged over and over by the media. As a tribute to a great star the film shines bright. Better to leave all the negativity behind if that's what the imnediate family want and enjoy what the star left behind. Her movies which are her legacy.

December Flower (Stephen Frears, 1984) 8/10

A recently widowed woman (Jean Simmons) visits her ailing aunt (Mona Washbourne) and is horrified to find her living in squalor cared for by a careless housekeeper (Pat Heywood) and visited once a week by her indifferent son (Bryan Forbes) and his hostile wife (June Ritchie). The two ladies bond and while discussinv old family feuds the feisty old woman comes out of her listless state. Funny heartwarming film about abuse of the elderly which ends on a triumphant note. Superbly acted (Washbourne is a delight as the wily and humorous old lady), directed and scripted.

A Bullet is Waiting (John Farrow, 1954) 6/10

A sheriff (Stephen McNally) and his prisoner (Rory Calhoun) survive a plane crash and end up at an isolated sheep farm in the wilderness owned by an old professor (Brian Aherne) and his tomboy daughter (Jean Simmons). Predictable drama is basically a talkfest as the two men bicker, the girl almost gets raped and then falls in love with her attacker, the scowling prisoner, and the old man pontificates about life and philosophy. Rarely seen Simmons vehicle is strictly B material but she gives a feisty performance full of wounded vulnerability. Colour cinematography by Franz Planer and the score by Dimitri Tiomkin.

[HarryGoldfarb]

Molly's Game (Aaron Sorkin, 2017), 9/10

I can not understand how Jessica Chastain was not nominated for Best Actress at the Oscar. Best Picture, film editing and even Supporting Actor (Idris Elba) would have been deserved nominations as well. A very very pleasant surprise out of what I've seen lately. I know that year Supporting Actor was an impossible category, a year in which five slots are very few. The weak entry out of the actual nominees for me is still Richard Jenkins, but even removing him I would have included Armie Hammer. What I mean is that, even if it was almost impossible for Elba to nominate, I find it strange that he wasn't even in the conversation that year, specially considering his unexpected snub a couple of years earlier.

Yesterday (Darrell Roodt, 2014), 8/10

A powerful movie, with superb performances and a script that I think should be shown in drama classes. Its Oscar nomination for Foreign Film is very deserved and had I been a voter, even considering how much I liked The Sea Inside, I think I would have voted for this movie.

Your Son (Miguel Ángel Vivas, 2018), 5/10

After his son is badly beaten by a group of strangers, a surgeon begins a search that leads him to find the culprits, in a downward spiral that ends up with some unexpected revelations. The film is anchored by the performance of the Spanish actor José Coronado, who received a Goya nomination for Best Actor. But the film becomes sordidly heavy and goes into gimmicky terrain that does little good to the human story that it was supposed to be. The final twist, interesting, poignant and even surprising, puts the viewer in a somehow uncomfortable situation, but it is not enough to compensate for the heavy burden the film imposes on viewers. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood.

Daddy's Home 2 (Sean Anders, 2017), 4,5/10

Perfectly capable sequel, now with Wahlberg and Farrell accompanied by Mel Gibson and John Lithgow as their respective parents. A very all over the place script that demonstrates the poor work of its authors, but I had not seen a comedy for a while that actually made me laugh a few times. Jokes don't always work, and it's unfortunate to see Lithgow, whose comedic timing strikes me as great, lost and underused in this underdevolped and absurd story. If the movie left me something, it was the desire to see more Lithgow doing comedy and to see Third Rock from the Sun again.

Journey to the Center of the Earth (Henry Levin, 1959), 7,5/10

My current demands are limited to how much I enjoy a movie, and boy, I really enjoyed this one! The cast (especially Mason who commands each scene with a weird seriousness as if it were a Shakespeare work), the rhythm, the naive humor that did not always work, the production design, the songs that do not fit the film (I understand that they were a Pat Boone's demand), and the visual effects, made the film run smoothly for me. Something that really caught my attention was the excessive amount of sexual hints and innuendos throughout the film up to the final scene, not to mention that I felt that much of the film was an excuse to show the bodies of Boone and Peter Ronson. The songs are not particularly bad. Were they successful? Could any of those songs have been nominated for an Oscar? With the film managing to get three nominations, it was obviously seen and admired.

Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005), 9/10

I had not seen this movie again since its year of release, and did not recall how atmospheric and hypnotic the first act of this movie is. Ang Lee's delicate directing work deserved and deserves that Oscar he won only for those first 20 or 25 minutes of film. Great performances, the film holds up very well 15 years after its premiere. Seeing it again, I confirm that in addition to the three Academy Awards the film received, it should also have won Best Film and even Cinematography. Rodrigo Prieto's work is wonderful. Checking some facts about the film on internet I have learned that most of the sheep are digital, product of the work of the visual effects artists. Impressive...

War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg, 2005), 6/10

Rewatch. Once again, a great first act, but in this case, the movie strays too far heading to the end. After the eldest son separated from the group (what an insufferable character, btw), and especially with that endless scene with Tim Robbins, I no longer wanted to continue watching the movie. Good to great effects, it could have been a worthy winner for visual effects (especially considering the King Kong dinosaurs). Strange that it could not even win sound editing.

Extraction (Sam Hargrave, 2020), 5/10

A Russo Brothers production: a mercenary accepts a mission to rescue the son of an Indian drug lord kidnapped in Bangladesh. Action and more action sequences that reminds more of a video game than a movie. I think that is its charm. Lots of violence, formulaic arches for the characters and a great technical display. By the way, is this eligible for Oscars? I ask because of the technical categories, in which this could have some chance, especially if the year ends up being as poor as it looks. The Russo Brothers produce.

The Lady in the Van (Nicholas Hytner, 2015), 7,5/10

A lovely movie, with a wonderful performance by Maggie Smith. After the Golden Globe and Bafta nominations, I would have loved to see Smith getting an Oscar nomination because she simply deserved it, especially when the final lineup included the likes of Jennifer Lawrence for Joy. It
is also a pity that George Fenton's score was overlooked, although I think maybe it was because it is somehow diluted among the classic compositions, but all in all It is a beautiful score. I highly recommend this one.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Nick Park & Steve Box, 2005), 8/10

I loved this movie. It took me way too long to finally see it. Incredible humor, one of the best I've seen in animated movies.

[Reza]

Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, 1985) 5/10

Exquistely crafted film is not really very good. Long rambling memory piece about Danish writer Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), her marriage of convenience to her lover's brother Baron Bror Blixen (Klaus Maria Brandauer), their move to Kenya as owners of a coffee plantation and her passionate affair with the great white hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford). Pollack films, what is basically an intimate story about three people, as an epic on the lines of David Lean with the movie as large scale as the continent it is set on. David Watkin's spectacular cinematography captures the vast beautiful landscape, the flaura and fauna, accompanied by John Barry's swooningly romantic score to which Redford makes love to Streep - the scene with both airborne in a plane is especially memorable. Their incredible screen chemistry makes their scenes together stand out and very special which unfortunately are few and far between. Most of the film is a travelogue which the camera deliriously captures but is quite a slog to sit through. The film, Pollack, the screenplay, sound design, cinematography, score and production design all won Oscars while Streep, Brandauer, the editing and the costume design were nominated. A film to be seen about a time, place and colonial lifestyle in history that no longer exists and one to be seen on the biggest screen possible to truly appreciate Pollack's vision and the film's misplaced grandiose sensibilty.

Station West (Sidney Lanfield, 1948) 5/10

The studios were not very imaginative with their stories taking actors famous in film noir and putting them into a noir-like plot set in the Western genre. A private investigator (Dick Powell) rides incognito into town to investigate two murders. The town, rife with free-wheeling crime, is run by a femme fatale (Jane Greer). Boring story at least has interesting characters all of whom are cynical and sadistic but the relentlessly talky script makes it such a slow slog to sit through. Great supporting cast - Agnes Moorehead, Raymond Burr, Regis Toomey and an unbilled Burl Ives (he was blacklisted over that "Red" nonsense) who sings three songs.

The Burglar (Paul Wendkos, 1957) 7/10

Nifty little B-noir has shifty Dan Duryea getting partner Jayne Mansfield to stake a fake spiritualist followed by robbing her safe with his gang. A cop on their trail proves to be even more crooked when he seduces the girl in order to get the stolen jewels. Snappy direction, a great score, artsy camerawork and the sexy Mansfield all add up to create a perfect little gem in the noir genre. Remade twice - Truffaut's "Tirez sur le pianiste" (1960) and Henri Verneuil's "The Burglars" (1971).

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Vincente Minnelli, 1962) 8/10

Minnelli's aesthetic sense of style is evident all over this film and is in keeping with the kind of projects, dipped in melodrama, that became his forté after the frothy and light musicals at MGM during the 1940s for which he had received his initial acclaim. Loosely based on the novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez it first came to the screen as a silent film in 1921 which made Rudolph Valentino into a huge star. This opulent, star laden and bloated remake at MGM was a resounding flop but there is a lot that actually holds up pretty well. The story was updated from WWI to WWII. This is old fashioned cinema filmed on a grand scale and the likes of which we shall never see again. An Argentine patriarch (Lee J. Cobb, hamming it up as usual) holds sway over his large family on a cattle ranch. One daughter is married to a Frenchman (Charles Boyer) and the other to a German (Paul Lukas). When his German grandson (Karl Boehm) announces he has joined the Nazi party the old man has a coronary and drops dead. The story shifts to Paris in 1938 with both families having moved there and the plot involves the lives of the grandchildren as the Nazis come to power and occupy Paris after WWII breaks out. The French grandson (Glenn Ford) is a playboy involved in a passionate affair with the young wife (Ingrid Thulin, dubbed by Angela Lansbury) of his father's close journalist friend (Paul Henreid) while his sister (Yvette Mimieux) joins the resistance and becomes a martyr to their cause when she is caught, tortured and killed by the Nazis. The dramatic story moves from elegant homes and restaurants - Minnelli uses the dominating color red in the production design - to the battlefield where the French and German cousins eventually arrive at opposite spectrums of the war and bitterly and tragically clash. Notwithstanding the film's disastrous reception it greatly influenced the look of Visconti's "The Damned" (1969),
Bertolucci's "The Conformist" and De Sica's
"The Garden of the Finzi-Continis" (1970). Ford is totally miscast (he was thrust onto Minnelli by MGM who wanted Alain Delon in the part) but he manages to use his charm to get by - both he and Ingrid Thulin were also too old for their parts. Thankfully the electrifying tango that Valentino danced in the silent version was not replicated here. That famous moment alone should be an incentive for all movie lovers to watch that version too as not only is that scene one of the many highlights of the silent film but it is also a better adaptation of the story in which the four titular men of the apocalypse represent Conquest, War, Pestilence, and Death.

The Tall Target (Anthony Mann, 1951) 7/10

Fairly engrossing thriller set on a moving train about the alleged Baltimore Plot. In early 1861 there was a conspiracy to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln enroute to his inauguration. A police sergeant (Dick Powell) overhears a plot but his superiors disregard his claims about an assassination attempt. He boards a train in New York heading to Baltimore where the killer is supposed to strike when the train stops at the station there before going on to Washington D.C. The train passengers are an assortment of suspects and the cop finds himself continuously thwarted as he is shoved off the train only to get back on. Mann tautly directs this tension packed film with a number of familiar faces among the supporting cast - Adolph Menjou as a jovial but scheming Army Colonel, Ruby Dee as a slave and Florence Bates in another one of her indelible cameos as an outspoken abolitionist. The scenes set on the various train stations along the way are superbly shot in shadows and the action scenes involving a fight to the death and of a man getting thrown off the train are harrowingly intense. The small running time keeps things moving at break-neck pace to its suspensful and surprising conclusion.

North West Frontier (J. Lee Thompson, 1959) 7/10

Old fashioned adventure film, adapted from an original story by Patrick Ford (director John Ford's son), so the plot, although set in India, runs just like Ford's 1939 classic Western "Stagecoach". Instead of Indians chasing a stagecoach carrying a group of disparate individuals we have here a group on a train being chased by a different breed of Indians - Pathans of the North West Frontier (now in Pakistan) being the marauding "savages". When Muslim rebels hope to kill a 6-year old Hindu prince to end his family line a British captain (Kenneth More) escapes with the child on a train. Also accompanying them are the child's feisty American governess (Lauren Bacall), an arms merchant (Eugene Deckers), a cynical reporter (Herbert Lom), two upper class Britons (Wilfred Hyde-White & Ursula Jeans) and the train's talkative engineer (I. S. Johar). The journey is fraught with danger as they come across destroyed trains with massacred passengers and tribesmen attacking their moving train. All the train sequences were shot in Spain along with a few scenes shot in Jaipur at Amber Fort. Slick fast-moving film adds realism by actually shooting on a moving train with no fake backdrops. Geoffrey Unsworth's spectacular cinemascope cinematography captures the wide open spaces through which the train moves. Thompson's exemplary direction of this very underrated action film was rewarded by producer Carl Foreman who allowed him to helm "The Guns of Navarone" to great acclaim and boxoffice success.

[Precious Doll]

A Secret Love (2020) Chris Bolan 7/10
Hoa-Binh (1970) Raoul Coutarcy 6/10
Like a Boss (2020) Miguel Arteta 2/10

Repeat viewings

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick 10/10
Atlantic City (1980) Louis Malle 10/10
American Gigolo (1980) Paul Schrader 8/10
The Accidental Tourist (1988) Lawrence Kasdan 8/10
Thelma and Louise (1991) Ridley Scott 8/10
Sunday Blood Sunday (1971) John Schlesinger 10/10
Courted (2015) Christian Vincent 8/10
Plenty (1985) Fred Schepisi 9/10
Heaven Can Wait (1943) Ernst Lubitsch 7/10
Quiz Show (1994) Robert Redford 9/10

[Reza]

Lucky Star (Frank Borzage, 1929) 8/10

Third silent film featuring the popular star team of Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor. The first two, 7th Heaven (1927) and Street Angel (1928), were also directed by Frank Borzage both of which won Gaynor an Oscar at the first ceremony. In between those two films Borzage directed The River (1928), also with Farrell, in which the star appeared nude - the first time a major star appeared in the buff on screen. This gentle little fable is set in an expressionist setting - the country side looks highly theatrical with weird angled architecture giving it a strong european flavour although it is supposed to be somewhere in the United States. A wild young urchin (Janet Gaynor) - she is unkempt, lies and steals - lives on a farm with her mother and befriends two men both of whom go off to Europe when war is declared. When they return the farm boy (Charles Farrell) has lost both his legs and is in a wheelchair while his smooth talking sergeant (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) makes moves on her but has no plans to marry her. Her mother pushes her towards him thinking marriage will change her fortunes. However, she has eyes only for the paraplegic. Simple story has many sweet moments between the two as they court each other - he washes her hair, gets her to wear clean clothes and she sparkles with all the attention she has never received at home. The fairy tale ending is completely in keeping with the tone of the film. Both Farrell and Gaynor are luminous throughout and would end up making a dozen films together. This film was believed lost until a print was discovered in Netherlands in the vaults of a film museum where it was restored. Originally it had some scenes filmed with sound but this version remains lost with only the silent one surviving.

City Girl (F.W. Marnau, 1930) 10/10

Lyrical silent film is one of only four Hollywood films made by the German expressionist master F. W. Marnau of which one is now lost. This ranks right up there with his other masterpiece "Sunrise" and was the inspiration for Terence Malick's "Days of Heaven". The story shares many themes with "Sunrise" in that it is about love and the struggle between city and rural life. A naive wheat farmer's son (Charles Farrell) from the Mid-West is sent by his tyrannical father (David Torrence) to Chicago to sell their crop for which he gets a lower price than what his father anticipated. He meets and falls in love with a struggling but feisty young waitress (Mary Duncan) in a diner and marries her. Their joyful return is welcomed by his loving mother and kid sister but his father, angry at the low price received for his crop, blames the girl and outright tells her she is not welcome. During an angry skirmish the old man strikes her when she stands up to his bullying and her husband cannot bring himself to stand upto his father. The following day a group of rowdy and leering harvesters arrive and make a play for the girl. One man, sensing the tension in the house, tries to seduce her into running off with him which is witnessed by the old man who tells his son. Heartbroken that her husband does not believe her she leaves a note behind that she loved only him and disappears in the night. Like all silent films the actors work at fever pitch during the emotional moments with Torrence's stern father coming off glaringly as a caricature. Marnau brings his signature look to the film through dramatic lighting shot by Ernest Palmer. The scenes in the city are sharply lit while the interior and night time moments at the farm are bathed in dramatic shadows which emphasise the young woman's sorrow and feeling of entrapment. Like "Sunrise" this too has stunning imagery throughout. Both Farrell and Duncan are superb and one of the most memorable scenes in the film is of the two arriving at the farm and deliriously running through the wheat fields with the camera following them and capturing their joy and love. The overwrought plot may seem rather excessive but it still manages to be extremely moving in a dream-like way. A must-see.

Le soldatesse / The Camp Followers (Valerio Zurlini, 1965) 8/10

Harrowing WWII film set in Axis occupied Greece which depicts the genocide wreaked on the local citizens by the Facists and the Nazis. A disillusioned Italian soldier (Tomas Milian) is ordered to take a truckload of starving greek prostitutes from Athens to Albania to be delivered for entertainment to the troops fighting the partisans. He is joined by a boorish truck driver (Mario Adorf) and an unpleasant senior officer (Aleksander Gavric) along with 12 prostitutes. The journey is fraught with danger as they pass through burning villages littered with dead bodies. Along the way the men bond with the girls - the driver finds comfort with an older pragmatic prostitute (Valeria Moriconi) and the soldier falls for the most forthright woman (Marie Laforêt) who holds strong views and rebuffs him. More forthcoming towards him is the gentle and jovial one (Anna Karina). With great difficulty the survivors manage to trek to safety after partisans attack and destroy their truck. The film ends with the soldier more disillusioned with the death and destruction he has witnessed while the prostitute he loves decides she cannot allow her people to be treated like animals and walks off into the mountains to join the partisans. Zurlini takes on a neo-realist documentary-like approach to the story emphasising the absurdity of transporting prostitutes to brothels against the greater absurdity of the horror surrounding them under Mussolini-era fascism. The wonderful cast (Anna Karina was the big star) all work movingly together as an ensemble.

Shadow Conspiracy (George P. Cosmatos, 1997) 6/10

This film barely got a release and went straight to video getting panned by critics. It's not bad at all as such films go and I have seen far worse. It's on the same lines as Sydney Pollack's classic paranoid thriller "Three Days of the Condor". Take that film's conspiracy theory scenario, remove Redford and Dunaway and add lots and lots of pot holes in the plot along with a similar protagonist who goes on the run. The Special aide (Charlie Sheen) to the President (Sam Waterston) discovers a plot conceived by higher ups in the White House who plan to kill the Chief, take over and form a shadow government. On the run and with a deadly assassin (Stephen Lang) on his ass he gets chased through a river, down a waterfall, through the streets of the capitol and the corridors of the White House. It's all so prepostrous and deliciously silly but manages to create suspense as he gets help from the White House Chief of Staff (Donald Sutherland) and a journalist and former lover (Linda Hamilton). The ending is a doozy and takes the cake for most absurd moment in the film. What actually comes through in this film is that one needn't fear nuclear annihilation or deadly coups. One needs to instead be aware of the surveillance menace which the government has implemented to a scary degree. Big Brother is watching. The excellent cast goes through the motions with Stephen Lang the only standout as the vicious robot-like killer. Ben Gazzara has a thankless few scenes in the background as the Vice President.

Shotgun (Lesley Salander, 1955) 4/10

A deputy sheriff (Sterling Hayden) chases after the gunslinger who kills his mentor and boss. Along the way he meets up with two other crooked souls - a sexy half breed (Yvonne De Carlo) whom he rescues from Indians and a bounty hunter (Zachary Scott). The Apaches do what they always did back then and the plot meanders along flogging the usual tropes of the genre.

Colt. 45 (Edwin L. Marin, 1950) 3/10

Slow dull Western with Randolph Scott getting robbed of his two Colt pistols and the chase to get them back from the crooked coward (Zachary Scott). Ruth Roman plays the feisty wife of Lloyd Bridges but switches her allegience at the end.

5 Steps to Danger (Henry Kesler, 1956) 6/10

After his car breaks down a Man (Sterling Hayden) gets a ride to Mexico from a lady (Ruth Roman) on the higway. Soon he is up to his neck in trouble as she is chased by cops, the CIA, the FBI and assorted other nefarious characters. The Red Scare gets a look-in with the plot getting more and more weird involving secret scientific formulas and the rocket program along with a cloak and dagger flashback to Berlin. Fast paced film holds interest as the two leads banter with and without handcuffs.

Bad Boys For Life (Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah, 2020) 7/10

The boys - Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) - are back for the third time minus Michael Bay but with the usual kick-ass action and wisecracks in tow. They team up with an elite force of kids to battle with a mother-son drug lord duo who are wreaking havoc in Miami and trying to kill Mike. Who is the killer on wheels hell bent on pumping bullets into Mike? It turns into an intimate family affair with car chases galore, explosions going off, choppers rising and crashing and a mean-ass bitch known as the witch on their case. Mindless fun time at the movies. And it's also very funny. Waiting for the boys to return now.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (Kirk Jones, 2016) 6/10

The entire family returns with some actors looking more pickled than others. Cute, fuzzy, corny movie is more of the same with another big fat Greek wedding in the offing. And clingy Toula (Nia Vardalos) and Ian (John Corbett) are on tenterhooks about their daughter's choice of college - will she stay in Chicago or choose far off New York? The delightful supporting cast - Michael Constantine, Lainie Kazan, Andrea Martin - playing the oddball kooky relatives make this sequel a fun watch.

Thappad (Anubhav Sinha, 2020) 9/10

There is life before. And then there is life after.....a SLAP. Anubhav Sinha's shattering screenplay addresses domestic violence with gut-wrenching force and explores how women are socialized into accepting it under patriarchy's thumb. Deep-seated social conditioning results in women often ignoring occasional indiscretions by men just to keep peace in the house. Men, meanwhile, will just be men. Amrita (Taapsee Pannu) is a homemaker and happily married to an ambitious corporate executive (Pavail Gulati). She lovingly looks after his ailing mother (Tanvi Azmi) who lives with them. Life for her is a happy routine of daily housework, interaction with in-laws, her own parents (Kumud Mishra & Ratna Pathak Shah) and the widow (Dia Mirza) next door to whose daughter she provides dance lessons. When her husband gets a promotion and a posting to London the couple celebrate by inviting family and friends to a party at their home. During the party her husband, disturbed by a phone call from the office, gets into a row with his boss. Amrita tries to separate them when he suddenly swings around and slaps her face. She is stunned and humiliated. As the days go by everyone tells her to move on while her husband feebily blames his misplaced temper and carries on oblivious to his wife's feelings. Nobody around them berates the husband. She decides to take a firm stand and although not financially independent moves in with her own parents which pushes the matter and eventually reaches the divorce court when lawyers get involved. Her firm stand brings about a dramatic change in all the people surrounding her as it forces them to view their own lives. Her own mother gave up her ambitions as a singer, the maid who faces and accepts domestic violence on a daily basis begins to question it and the lawyer who tolerates her own husband's snide remarks and a sex life that hints at marital rape all decide to take steps towards a positive outcome. Superbly acted film is held together by the magnificent central performance by Taapsee Pannu. Her understated demeanor and sad eyes speak volumes about the humiliation she feels and quietly and assuredly she resolves to bring dignity to her life. The perceptive screenplay forces the audience to look within themselves and explore their own relationships with spouses, siblings, parents and close friends. This film is a must-see.

The English Patient (Anthony Minghella, 1996) 10/10

Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize winning novel is delicately brought to the screen with Minghella's screenplay carefully retaining the story's bit-by-bit revelation, via flashbacks, about a mysterious dying patient. The story follows four dissimilar people brought together at an Italian villa during the waning days of the Italian Campaign of
World War II. A troubled nurse (Juliette Binoche) cares for a dying unrecognizable burnt patient who cannot recall his name. She also meets a Sikh British Army sapper (Naveen Andrews), with whom she has an affair, and a bitter Canadian Intelligence officer (Willem Dafoe) who is looking for revenge against a person who betrayed him to the Germans who tortured and cut off his thumbs. The film maintains a dream-like quality as the patient, who speaks with an English accent, gradually relates his story. He is a Hungarian Count (Ralph Fiennes) and a cartographer who during the late 1930s was part of a Sahara desert exploration party near the Egyptian-Libyan border. The expedition is joined by an Englishwoman (Kristin Scott Thomas) and her husband (Colin Firth) and soon he is involved in an intense affair with her which eventually has devastating repercussions for both. The film takes on an epic structure like the cinema of David Lean with scenes depicting the psychological effects of war on all the characters as they try to hold on to their sanity. There are swooningly romantic moments glimpsed throughout - the playful frolics between the nurse and the sapper and the intensely sexual attraction between the Count and the Englishwoman. Superbly produced film won 9 Oscars - for Best Picture, Juliette Binoche in the supporting category, Mighella's direction, John Seale's dazzling cinematography, Gabriel Yared's romantic score, editing, sound, production design and for the costumes. Both Fiennes and Scott Thomas received nominations for their lead performances as did Minghella's exquisitely crafted screenplay which perfectly captured the complex structure of the novel.

The Sting (George Roy Hill, 1973) 9/10

Hill's charming film about street grifters takes on the tone of a playful homage to old Hollywood gangster films of the 1930s. Set in Chicago the film is shot mostly on sets on the backlot at Universal studios and uses a number of stylistic touches to evoke the cinema of the past - the use of inter-titles, editing wipes and the use of iris shots. Cinematographer Robert Surtees' muted colour scheme and 1930s style lighting along with Edith Head's costumes and the Scott Joplin score all help to create a bygone era. The film's casting coup was the re-teaming on screen of Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Newman took on the challenge of playing comedy after being constantly ridiculed for past attempts on screen. For Redford the year was momentous. He was already a star but after this film and the year's big romantic blockbuster, "The Way We Were" opposite Barbra Streisand, he took on the persona of a major heart throb and superstar. A small-time street grifter (Robert Redford) has to make a run for it after a hit goes wrong and his mentor is killed in retaliation at the orders of a vicious crime boss (Robert Shaw). He makes contact with another grifter (Paul Newman) who teaches him "the big con" which is planned on the crime boss as revenge. The convoluted plot ending with "the sting" moves delightfully at a fast pace with both stars having a ball with their parts. This stylish film was not only a boxoffice smash but won big at the Oscars defeating the horror hit ("The Exorcist") and the critical darling (Ingmar Bergman's "Cries and Whispers"). It won Best Pucture along with awards for Hill, the screenplay, editing, production design, costume design (Edith Head's eighth) and score. Redford was nominated (the only one he received for his acting to date) as was the cinematography and sound design. Old fashioned film is an entertainer with great heart.

The Gentlemen (Guy Richie, 2020) 7/10

Anti-Semitic, racist, homophobic and sexist characters abound in this often wickedly funny film. An American marijuana kingpin (Matthew McConaughey) in England plans to sell off his business to a billionaire (Jeremy Strong) but finds the underboss (Henry Goldman) to a Chinese gangster muscling in on the deal. Also making a nuisance of himself is a blackmailing reporter (Hugh Grant). Fast paced action-comedy crime film has the expected violent Richie moments, witty lines galore and a delightful cast dressed in fancy duds designed by Michael Wilkinson. Tough McConaughey is surrounded by an excellent cast - Charlie Hunnam as his trusted wily aide, Michelle Dockery as his chic cockney wife and especially Grant (speaking in a silly cockney accent - channelling Michael Caine) who is delightful as the crafty, sleazy and campy investigator making full use of his deadpan comic timing. Richie, the Brit version of Tarantino, references various past films and seems to be having a ball with this shallow but very funny film.

Match Point (Woody Allen, 2005) 9/10

Woody goes to London and, whoa, we don't get to see his nebbish persona in any of the characters in the film. However, we do get to visit Theodore Dreiser and Fyodor Dostoevsky from whom he liberally lifts elements for his plot here. Poor and struggling tennis pro (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) marries into a wealthy family, quickly rises up the corporate ladder courtesy of his wife (Emily Mortimer), her brother (Matthew Goode) and especially his business tycoon father-in-law (Brian Cox). Meyers plays a nicer version of Joe Lampton (from "Room at the Top") but gets in over his head, threatening his social position, when he falls in lust with his brother-in-law's former girlfriend, a sexy and neurotic struggling actress (Scarlett Johansson). He needs to choose between a stable steady life with perks - rich wife, good salary, opera, art, theatre, good wines - and a dead end life with a beautiful woman with hysterical tendencies. When she gets pregnant and tries to force him to leave his wife he decides on the most obvious way out - murder. A return to form for Allen after a number of misfires with the London setting forced onto him because he could not get financing for the film in New York. He weaves in themes about greed, lust, chance, fate and guilt which swirl in a heady mix all scored to the arias of different operas sung by Enrico Caruso - the tense murder sequence is scored with almost the whole of the Act II duet between Otello
and Iago from Giuseppe Verdi's "Otello" - giving the film a dream-like feeling. The entire cast is superbly put together including Penelope Wilton, funny and acidic as the mother-in-law, but acting honours easily go to Johansson who creates sexual sparks just staring at the camera. She was cast when first choice Kate Winslet dropped out of the film to spend time with her family. This is apparently Woody's favourite of all his own films and he deservedly received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay.

[Precious Doll]

Martin Eden (2019) Pietro Marcello 7/10
Onward (2020) Dan Scanlon 4/10
Dino (1957) Thomas Carr 2/10
Prometheus (1998) Tony Harrison 5/10
The Serpent's Kiss (1997) Philippe Rousselot 3/10
Homecoming (2018) Sam Esmail 5/10

Repeat viewings

Prime Cut (1972) Michael Ritchie 7/10
Primary Colours (1998) Mike Nichols 8/10
My Cousin Vinny (1992) Jonathan Lynn 7/10
All That Jazz (1979) Bob Fosse 7/10
Out of the Past (1947) Jacques Tourneur 8/10
The Tin Drum - Director's Cut (1979) Volker Schlöndorff 10/10
Against All Odds (1984) Taylor Hackford 6/10
The Heiress (1949) William Wyler 10/10

[Reza]

The Chess Players / Shatranj Ke Khiladi (Satyajit Ray, 1977) 7/10
A Gentleman (Krishna D.K. & Raj Nidimoru, 2017) 5/10

My Son John (Leo McCarey, 1952) 5/10

McCarey, a staunch anti-Communist, part of Hollywood’s right-wing faction and a devout Roman Catholic, came up with this hysterically rabid diatribe against the "Red Scare" which the United States was hilariously mired in at the time. The great Helen Hayes came out of a 17-year retirement to play the tremulous wife of a Bible-thumping war veteran (Dean Jagger) and mother to two strapping sons who both go off to Korea as the story begins. There is a third son (Robert Walker), the eldest who is unathletic and an intellectual (there are strong hints towards his homosexuality), who has a vague government related job in Washington and who retuns with a changed attitude. He scoffs at his religious and patriotic dad and endures creepy mollycoddling from his clingy mother. When the mother is questioned about her son by an FBI agent (Van Heflin) she *gasp" suspects him to have communist affiliations leading to a ridiculously melodramatic finalè. Walker died before the shoot was over so some of his scenes were hastily reconstructed. The overwrought screenplay, clearly blatant propaganda, was nominated for an Oscar. A curiosity from Hollywood's past that is interesting as a historical time capsule.

George Washington Slept Here (William Keighley, 1942) 3/10

Corny slapstick with the jokes centered around a dilapidated house (where Washington once slept) and Jack Benny's wisecracks and pratfalls none of which are funny. Lovely Ann Sheridan is his wife who buys the house after being told they can't live in their city apartment because of their dog. Percy Kilbride is the hick who helps them dig a well, Hattie McDaniel is the flustered cook and Charles Coburn the rich uncle who turns out to be not so rich. Predictable story was based on the Moss Hart-George Kauffman Broadway hit.

Love Wedding Repeat (Dean Craig, 2020) 5/10

We may as well understand one thing right at the beginning. There is only one definitive movie about weddings and that's the one with a stammering Hugh Grant not quite connecting until the end with Andie MacDowell. Well here we are back in wedding territory - in an Italian villa in the countryside - with another stammering bloke (Sam Claflin) whose sister (Eleanor Tomlinson) is the bride who shagged someone other than her hubby-to-be and that psycho fuck arrives uninvited to the wedding. Meanwhile Bro meets cute with a lovely (Olivia Munn) but can't seem to get the right words out and finds himself awkwardly seated next to his nasty ex (Freida Pinto) who is there with a new bloke who happens to be obsessed with penis girth and length. The film tries to repeat the charm of the classic but instead goes on too long. It's not bad at all, has a great mansion location but this movie just proves that old wine in new bottles can turn out to be vinegar. Not sweet but a little sour.

Party (Govind Nihalani, 1984) 8/10

Lacerating film, based on a popular play, is set during a long and eventful evening at a party held in honour of a celebrated playwright (Manohar Singh). The hostess, a society matron (Vijaya Mehta), has problems with her daughter (Deepa Sahi) who has had a child out of wedlock with a promising poet who has disappeared into the wilderness to fight oppression of tribals. The guests are a microcosm of society - journalists, intellects, politicians, actors, poets, teenagers and Marxist social workers - all of whom are wickedly exposed as pretentious middle class frauds. Nihalani takes what appears to be stagy material and makes it fluid as he takes his gliding camera and moves it from room to room capturing either snippets of conversations that reveal the political climate in the country and also focuses memorably on hysterical meltdowns by some of the main characters - the playwright's ageing actress mistress (the superb Rohini Hattangadi) craving his attention and dissolving her sorrow in alcohol as the evening wears on, the defiant daughter who accuses her mother of being a parasite and non-entity trying to show herself as an equal to the crème de la crème of society by inviting them to her soirées, the quietly introspective houseguest (Amrish Puri) who prefers to observe and avoid any confrontation, the poet's friend (Om Puri) who unexpectedly arrives to announce to the guests that the crusader has been attacked and taken into police custody for his protection and then reveals a devastating truth about him shattering everyone's false sense of reverie. The film ends with the poet, Amrit (Naseeruddin Shah), staggering wildly with blood pouring from wounds on his body straight towards the camera. He is the only character with real problems unlike all the grotesque party guests wallowing in self created misery.

Qarib Qarib Single (Tanuja Chandra, 2017) 6/10

Rather flimsy premise has a lonely middle-aged widow (Parvathy Thiruvothu) hook up with a man (Irrfan Khan) via a dating app. He suggests they take a road trip together to go meet the three women he once had affairs with. They are both poles apart in temperament - she is quietly reticent while he is scruffy, boistrous and opinionated. It's pretty obvious where the film is heading - all their misadventures on the journey bring about a drastic change in both. She opens up and stops pining for her late husband while he also puts to rest the past. The two stars have fun playing off each other with Irrfan delightfully droll throughout making this a quietly charming little rom-com.

The Locked Door (George Fitzmaurice, 1929) 4/10

Static melodrama was Barbara Stanwyck's film debut.

The Violent Men (Rudolph Maté, 1955) 8/10

Solid relentless tension between characters was always the sign of a good Western. This is one of many in that genre from the 1950s that were considered fairly routine at the time despite the exceptional A-list cast. It's one of the great films of that decade with one of the most underrated actors in the lead - Glenn Ford - a popular star who appeared in many classic films but never really got the acclaim he deserved. A Union soldier (Glenn Ford) decides to sell his small ranch and move East. When the rich crippled land baron (Edward G. Robinson) uses his brother (Brian Keith) to strong arm him into selling his ranch for a pittance, an all-out range war breaks out when the soldier not only refuses to sell but threatens the two petty brothers. At the center of the drama stands a conniving and vicious woman (Barbara Stanwyck), wife to the cripple and lover of his brother, who goads both men to retaliate by pulling their strings much to the disgust of her daughter (Dianne Foster) who is aware of her mother's philandering ways. The men all act in a subtle way while Stanwyck goes deliciously over-the-top as she did in most of the Westerns she memorably appeared in during the 1950s. The showdown with Ford leading the settlers against the land baron's men is vicious and brutal. Ford's initial quiet and dignified persona makes a dramatic shift as he uses tricks learned during the war to his advantage. Superbly shot in widescreen on Arizona locations this taut film takes on an operatic quality with tragic overtones. Max Steiner's score loudly rises during each violent confrontation.

The Saint in London (John Paddy Carstairs, 1939) 4/10

The first in a series of B-films with George Sanders as "The Saint". The actor makes good use of his aristocratic demeanor and charming urbane wit as Simon Templer, star sleuth from the books of Leslie Charteris, and sort of a precursor to James Bond. The convoluted and rather tiresome plot involves stolen money which Templer, with the help of a daffy society girl (Sally Gray) and his recently recruited fresh-out-of-San Quentin butler (David Burns), manages to recover and get the crooks. As with most B-film series out of Hollywood it is the star who shines bright and Sanders was always one of the absolute best.

L'eau à la bouche (Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, 1960) 6/10

Two cousins (Françoise Brion & Alexandra Stewart) and their boyfriends gather at a baroque chateau in the french countryside for the reading of a will and find themselves falling for each other's partner. The languid mood also carries over to the butler (Michel Galabru) who makes a play for the maid (Bernadette Lafont). New Wave film explores sexuality but despite the shenanigans on view its the magnificent chateau that takes center stage as the characters chase each other through the grand corridors and gardens. The film has memorable cinematography and a lovely score by Serge Gainsbourg (his first).

Windom's Way (Ronald Neame, 1957) 6/10

A British doctor (Peter Finch), working in a small village, gets caught up in the Malayan emergency. Matters come to a head when the communist rebel forces attempt to overthrow the British government by taking many of the villagers prisoners and forcing them to join the cause. In the midst of this the doctor's estranged wife (Mary Ure) arrives wanting to reconcile. Earnest low key performances by the two leads bolster this rather plodding drama. The film, Finch and the screenplay were nominated for Baftas.

Murder at the Gallop (George Pollock, 1963) 7/10

A robust Dame Margaret Rutherford made a series of B-films playing the "tittle-tattling busybody", Miss Marple, based on Agatha Christie's murder-mystery novels. This second film outing is actually an adaptation of Christie's "After the Funeral" which had Hercule Poirot as the detective but changed to incorporate Miss Marple into the plot as an amateur detective. When an old man is discovered dead from an apparent heart attack the police are all ready to close the case but Miss Marple (Margaret Rutherford) suspects murder. During the reading of the will she manages to eavesdrop and hears the dead man's sister also announce that it was murder. With the family members under suspicion the action converges at the hotel where they are all staying. The amateur sleuth not only bakes a tray full of madeleines in this installment but while snooping out the killer manages to also ride side saddle on a horse, stealthily move around the hotel eavesdropping, almost gets gassed to death in her bed and dances the twist during a party sequence. A great supporting cast play some of the suspects - Dame Flora Robson, Robert Morley - while the star's husband, Stringer Davis, gets to play her bumbling assistant. This is certainly not the Miss Marple from the books but an eccentric and delightful interpretation by Rutherford which she made quite her own until decades later Joan Hickson put her own stamp on the part playing the character just as Christie had written her.

Spitfire / The First of the Few (Leslie Howard, 1942) 6/10

R.J. Mitchell, aircraft designer and patriot, designs the Spitfire airplane after a visit to Germany during the 1930s where he senses that seeds of war are being. At the cost of his health - doctors give him only a few months to live - he completes the project and supervises the aircraft's testing. Leslie Howard stars and directs this propaganda film (backed by the RAF in order to inspire the nation) as WWII was raging across Europe. The aircraft proved successful against the German Luftwaffe. Rosamund John plays his wife and David Niven plays his close friend, a composite of various test pilots. The film and Howard's participation has a special significance as a year later Howard was killed when the Lisbon-to-London civilian airliner in which he was travelling was shot down by the Luftwaffe on June 1, 1943. The film came out in the United States a month after Howard's death.

I, Jane Doe (John H. Auer, 1948) 6/10

Melodramatic film flits from event to event - taking in WWII, the Nazis, the French Resistance, a prison in the United States for illegal immigrants and ending with a crime passionnel when a mysterious woman (Vera Ralston), dubbed Jane Doe by the media, shoots dead a man (John Carroll), refuses to speak in her defence and is sentenced to the electric chair. Since the defendent is pregnant she is given a reprieve until after the baby is born. However, the baby dies due to an epidemic and the woman finds herself being defended in court by the wife (Ruth Hussey) of the man she shot. Long flashbacks reveal the true nature of the murder. Hussey is fine in this mystery soap opera from the stable of Republic Studios with a rather lackadaisical performance by Vera Ralston who would soon end up charming the much older (by 40 years) Herbert Yates, the head of the studio, who would leave his family and marry her. One of the better B-films from this studio.

D-Day (Nikhil Advani, 2013) 6/10

Rishi Kapoor plays gangster Iqbal Seth aka Goldman - a composite of Dawood Ibrahim - founder of D-Company the criminal syndicate founded by him in Bombay. He is on India's most wanted list and a plot is hatched by RAW to capture him and brought across from Pakistan. RAW activates a sleeper agent (Irrfan Khan) in Karachi who has spent the last nine years living incognito as a barber with a wife and young son as part of his cover. After hearing that Goldman is coming out of hiding to attend his son's wedding a plan is hatched to capture the gangster. The agent is joined by an ex-Indian Army officer and mercenary (Arjun Rampal) and a RAW explosives expert (Huma Qureshi). When the plan fails the trio find themselves grappling with violence that hits home on a personal front for all - the song "Alvida" is played during the murder sequence of a Pakistani prostitute (Shruti Haasan), the mercenary's lover, and is brilliantly staged with the camera on Rampal as he imagines the attack and is shown watching his lover being savagely killed. It's a brilliantly edited sequence of a man imagining his lover's murder after it has taken place but placing the actor within the same frame while the violence is taking place and she is being beaten and cut. Like snippets from a Tarantino film the trio once again, through chance and a shoot-out, manage to take custody of the gangster and it is a tense standoff between the three whether to take the criminal across the border or hand him back to the Pakistani authorities. Action-packed spy film has the expected jingoistic tone throughout and is yet another Indian screenplay that fails to "get" the Pakistani Muslim persona right. Bollywood script writers really need to come over and stay amongst Pakistanis to get a feel on how they should be correctly portrayed - we are NOT like Muslims from Lucknow. Well acted film with some smartly shot action sequences. Ahmedabad, Gujarat substitutes for Karachi and the dramatic finale is staged in the Rann of Kutch. Filmfare awards for editing and action and nominations for the screenplay, production design, cinematography and score.

Petticoat Fever (George Fitzmaurice, 1936) 4/10

Corny screwball comedy set in icebound Labrador. A telegraph operator (Robert Montgomery) stuck alone at his post for two years suddenly finds his shack crammed with surprise guests. A crashed plane brings in a celebrated aviator (Reginald Owen) and his chic companion (Myrna Loy). She soon becomes the bone of contention between the two men. Matters come further to a head when the operator's girlfriend also arrives. Silly nonsense despite great chemistry between Loy and Montgomery.