Little Women

Year of Release:  2019
Director:  Greta Gerwig
Screenplay:  Greta Gerwig, based on the novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Starring:  Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet
Running Time:  135 minutes
Genre:  Period drama

Set in the 1860s the film follows the four March sisters:  Responsible Meg (Watson) the oldest of the four; stubborn and fiery Jo (Ronan), an aspiring writer; kind, shy and musical Beth (Scanlen) and the youngest of the four, Amy (Pugh), an aspiring painter. 

This is one of several adaptations of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel, which I have never read, and I have never seen any of the other adaptations of it, and so I cannot say how faithful or not this film is to it's source.  The film introduces us to the March sisters as adults, and moves back and forth between their childhood and their adult lives.  The film is beautifully made with some ravishing images, and impeccably played by a very strong cast.  After having made a splash with her directorial debut Lady Bird, this marks Greta Gerwig as one of the most promising new directors working today.  The film has a large cast of characters and moves between a number of different storylines and time frames, with nary a misstep.  It also successfully balances period detail with a contemporary relevance.

Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan and Eliza Scanlen in Little Women

The Ipcress File

Year of Release:  1965
Director:  Sidney J. Furie
Screenplay:  Bill Canaway and James Doran, based on the novel The IPCRESS File by Len Deighton
Starring:  Michael Caine, Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd
Running Time:  109 minutes
Genre:  Thriller

London, 1965:  Secret agent Harry Palmer (Caine) is assigned to a section investigating a rash of bizarre resignations and disappearances of top scientists.  He soon finds himself embroiled in a murky world of espionage, betrayal and a sinister brainwashing plot.

The Ipcress File was intended to be a more downbeat and realistic alternative to the James Bind franchise and uses several crew members from the Bond films, including producer Harry Saltzman, composer John Barry and production designer Ken Adam.  While James Bond was a suave, sophisticated, public school educated, playboy, Harry Palmer is a cynical, bespectacled, working class Londoner, who lives in a bedsit, enjoys cooking and classical music and has a criminal background.  The film eschews the glamorous locations for deliberately drab London locations, and lacks the gadgets, set pieces and sex appeal, although Palmer does have a romance with fellow spy Jean Courtney (Lloyd).  It depicts the world of spying as basically mired in bureaucracy, with endless red tape, inter-departmental squabbling and office politics, which Bond would never put up with.  It is still an entertaining movie, stylishly directed by Furie, who makes good use of unconventional framing and tilted camera angles, invoking a disorientating, skewed world.  While Palmer is a more vulnerable lead then Bond, he is still handy with his fists and a gun.  Michael Caine became something of a sixties icon with this, his first lead role.  In Len Deighton's 1962 source novel, and it's sequels, the lead character (Harry Palmer in the film) is never given a name.  Like Harry Palmer in the film, Deighton was an accomplished cook and clippings of cookery articles written by him decorate Palmer's apartment, and in a scene where Palmer prepares a meal, the hands seen in close-up are actually Deighton's.     

Michael Caine is Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File

24 Hour Party People

Year of Release:  2002
Director:  Michael Winterbottom
Screenplay:  Frank Cottrell Boyce
Starring:  Steve Coogan, Paddy Considine, Danny Cunningham, Shirley Henderson, Lennie James, Sean Harris, Andy Serkis, John Simm 
Running Time:  117 minutes
Genre:  Comedy, drama, music

Manchester, England, 1976:  Tony Wilson (Coogan), reporter for local news show Granada Reports and music show So It Goes, is inspired, after seeing a Sex Pistols gig, to open a showcase for local, unsigned bands.  Wilson's "Factory Nights" are a huge success, and he subsequently starts his own label, Factory Records.  Despite making a huge splash with the legendary group Joy Division and, later, the brilliant, but mercurial, Happy Mondays, as well as their own nightclub, The Hacienda, Wilson and his friends soon realise that the wild nights can produce some devastating morning afters.

This is the cinematic equivalent of a great night out:  Funny, wild, scrappy, sometimes weird, sometimes emotional, and leaving you blinking at the cold grey light of dawn.  I was kind of too young for the whole "Madchester" of the late '80s and early '90s but I do remember it being a thing, and I knew people who were really into it, also my Dad is from Manchester, so I enjoyed the film's celebration of the city.  The film is a heady mix of drama, documentary, comedy, music video and surrealism which doesn't as much break the fourth wall as throw a sledgehammer at it.  In one scene one of the real people depicted in the film cameos to dispute the film's version of events.  The film even breaks it's story to list some of the people who cameo in the film, including one whose scene was cut but, as the narration states, "I'm sure it'll be on the DVD" (I've seen the DVD and it is).  The film is certainly messy (the tragic real life suicide of Ian Curtis, although played respectfully in the film, feels at odds with the goofy comedy surrounding it).  Steve Coogan channels more than a little of his Alan Partridge character as Tony Wilson, a talented man who is so unapologetically and full-bloodedly a complete arse, that he becomes almost kind of heroic in a weird way.  Otherwise, the film is full of famous, or soon to be famous British stars, including Andy Serkis and Simon Pegg. I love music, but I'm not really a big music person and don't know a lot about it, however I loved this film.  It makes me feel a little nostalgic for the wild nights out and dazy, hazy mornings.   

Lennie James, Shirley Henderson and Steve Coogan are 24 Hour Party People   

Scream

Year of Release:  1996
Director:  Wes Craven
Screenplay:  Kevin Williamson
Starring:  Neve Campbell, Drew Barrymore, Courteney Cox, Rose McGowan, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy
Running Time:  111 minutes
Genre:  Horror, thriller, comedy

In the small American town of Woodsboro, teenager Casey Becker (Barrymore) is tormented by taunting phone calls from a mysterious masked killer, who brutally murders her when she fails his twisted movie trivia game.  As Woodsboro becomes a media circus, it becomes apparent that the killer is particularly focussing on Sidney Prescott (Campbell), whose mother was killed almost exactly a year before.

Some films seem to perfectly capture a particular time period, and Scream, to me, is one of the definitive films of the late 1990s.  The look, style and music really capture that period.  Horror was pretty much in the doldrums at the time, and slasher films in particular were as dead as if the genre had gone out at night to investigate a strange noise, until Scream brought it back.  The film's great idea is that, unlike most of the slashers that had gone before, the characters here are aware of slasher films, and are fully aware of the conventions of the genre.  Audiences sometimes watch horror films and scream in laughter at the stupidity of the characters, this film second guesses that audience by having the characters on screen do it for them (literally in one scene where a character is watching Halloween (1978) oblivious to the killer looming up behind him, and equally unaware that he is being recorded and watched in a TV news van, where the people watching are shouting the same things that he is saying to Jamie Lee Curtis).  The characters are frequently discussing horror films and enumerate in detail the rules of a slasher film.  However Scream is not just a spoof of horror, it works as a slasher film in it's own right, screenwriter Kevin Williamson  obviously loves and knows horror, and director Wes Craven was one of the great horror directors, cutting his teeth on the controversial The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977) before unleashing Freddy Krueger onto the world in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).  In fact Craven had explored similar post-modern territory before with Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), which I still think is the best of the Elm Street series.
The film's most recognisable star, Drew Barrymore, is killed within the first quarter of an hour, in a scene that quickly became iconic.  Star Neve Campbell was known for the TV show Party of Five (1994-2000) and Courteney Cox, who starred as tabloid TV news journalist Gale Weathers, made her name in the hugely popular Friends (1994-2004).  The characters are well-drawn and, crucially, Williamson and Craven seem to genuinely like them, so it is affecting when they are in danger, they are not just there to be sliced 'n' diced.  The fact that the film is not just a gory slasher, but it has humour, teen drama and mystery, meant that it's appeal moved beyond the horror fans.
To date, the film has spawned three sequels, and a TV series.    

Courntey Cox, Jamie Kennedy and Neve Campbell in Scream

The Sweet Hereafter

Year of Release:  1997
Director:  Atom Egoyan
Screenplay:  Atom Egoyan, based on the novel The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks
Starring:  Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Bruce Greenwood, Maury Chaykin, Tom McCamus, Gabrielle Rose, Alberta Watson, Caerthan Banks, Arsinee Khanjian
 Running Time:  112 minutes
Genre:  Drama

In the small rural town of Sam Dent, British Columbia, a school bus crash kills fourteen children.  Lawyer Mitchell Stevens (Holm) arrives in town to persuade the grieving townspeople to hire him to represent them in a class action lawsuit against the town and the bus company.  While some people accept his offer, others are more reluctant and some overtly hostile, as the town's various dark secrets come to the surface.  Meanwhile Stevens is haunted by his troubled relationship with his estranged drug-addict daughter, Zoe (Banks).

This is a deeply powerful and genuinely moving film.  As with many Egoyan films, it uses an unconventional structure, moving back and forth in time, with crucial events and information revealed out of sequence.  Ian Holm gives a devastating performance as the lawyer, who is revealed to be much more than just a sleazy ambulance-chaser.  The heartbreaking scene where he tells a story from his daughter's childhood is possibly the best moment in Holm's distinguished career.  The film has a large ensemble cast all do well, particularly Sarah Polley as troubled fifteen year old Nicole, who survives the crash but is left disabled.  The tone of the film, despite it's subject matter, is more like a dark fairy tale than gritty realism, with repeated references to Robert Browning's retelling of The Pied Piper of Hamlin, and a haunting, medieval-influenced score by Mychael Danna.

      Sarah Polley and Ian Holm face up to The Sweet Hereafter

Ghostbusters

Year of Release:  1984
Director:  Ivan Reitman
Screenplay:  Harold Ramis and Dan Ackroyd
Starring:  Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, Harold Ramis, Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson, William Atherton
Running Time:  107 minutes   
Genre:  Comedy, fantasy, horror

Scientists Peter Venkman (Murray), Ray Stantz (Ackroyd) and Egon Spengler (Ramis) are fired from their position at Columbia University, due to their dubious research and conclusions.  The trio decide to go into business for themselves as professional ghost-catchers.  Initially dismissed largely as a joke, the Ghostbusters soon find themselves fighting to save the world.

This hugely successful blend of comedy, fantasy and supernatural horror is one of the most beloved film of the 1980s.  It's funny throughout, with some still enjoyable, albeit dated, special effects.  It's also just scary enough to avoid upsetting children.  Much of the humour depends on the juxtaposing the cynical, workaday realities of 1980s New York, with the supernatural.  Bill Murray dominates the film with his delightfully deadpan performance as the slightly disreputable, cynical, wisecracking Venkman, although he gets sterling support from the rest of the cast, particularly William Atherton as the film's main human antagonist, an oily EPA representative.  The film was followed by a sequel in 1989, several animated TV series (most notably The Real Ghostbusters (1986-1991)), and a remake in 2016.   

Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis in Ghostbusters.

"Growing Things and Other Stories" by Paul Tremblay

Year of Publication:  2019
Number of Pages:  476
Genre:  Horror, short stories

This is a collection of nineteen short horror stories: Two sisters struggle to survive in a world choked by lethal ever-growing plants; a school class have their lives ruined by a shocking video; a meth addict kidnaps her child while her town is seemingly destroyed by a giant monster; an aspiring journalist gets more than he bargains for when he interviews a cult author; a woman is haunted by her childhood ghosts in a Choose Your Own Adventure story; a horror writer soon regrets hiring a dog walking service and more.

As with all anthologies it's a mixed bag, although when it works it is genuinely creepy and unsettling. I have never read anything by Tremblay before, and I do think that I missed out on elements in some stores that tie in to his previous books, although I still enjoyed them.  If you like stories that answer all the questions and tie up all the loose ends, then this book probably isn't for you. Much of the horror is kept very ambiguous, with the more conventional "horror" elements happening in the background or just hinted at.  It is certainly recommended for anyone who wants a good scare.

"The Institute" by Stephen King

Year of Publication:  2019
Number of Pages:  485
Genre:  Science-fiction, thriller, horror

Deep in the Maine woods is a top-secret Government facility known by staff and inmates alike merely as "The Institute".  Children are abducted from all over the Unites States and imprisoned in The Institute where they are subjected to a battery of brutal medical tests, designed to increase and harness their latent powers of telekinesis and telepathy.  After weeks of tests, the children are brought to the sinister "Back Half" of The Institute, and are never seen again.  Twelve year old Luke Ellis is The Institute's latest inmate.  Luke is not just smart, he is an actual genius, but his intelligence is not what The Institute is interested in. 

This is less a horror novel and more of a science-fiction/thriller, with the monsters being all too human, and disturbingly convinced that what they are doing is right.  While it is not one of Stephen King's best, it is still an exciting, page-turning thriller.  The story covers a lot of ground, and has a lot of characters, particularly towards the end when there are about three different plotlines running concurrently, but he manages to balance them them like a maestro.  The book doesn't exactly break new ground, psychic children in particular being a recurrent theme in King, and some of the smaller characters feel a bit interchangeable.  That being said, though, King fans are bound to lap this up, and it should also please anyone looking for an exciting thriller.

 
 

Prince of Darkness

Year of Release:  1987
Director:  John Carpenter
Screenplay:  John Carpenter (as Martin Quatermass)
Starring:  Donald Pleasence, Lisa Blount, Victor Wong, Dirk Blocker, Jameson Parker, Susan Blanchard
Running Time:  100 minutes
Genre:  Horror

A priest (Pleasence) invites quantum physicist Professor Howard Birack (Wong) and his students to investigate a derelict Los Angeles church, which is the centre of bizarre occurrences.  As the investigation takes increasingly disturbing turns, it becomes apparent that in the basement of the church is a vat of glowing green liquid which is nothing less than the Devil itself.

This film forms the centerpiece of Carpenter's so-called "Apocalypse Trilogy" which began with The Thing (1982) and ended with In the Mouth of Madness (1995).  While this is far from Carpenter's best it has plenty of effective moments.  It's a slow burner, and takes a long time to really kick into gear, and there is a lot of metaphysical exposition to wade through.  However there are some good action scenes, imaginative camera angles, and plenty of intentional humour.  The film is strongly influenced by the work of British writer Nigel Kneale , best known for his groundbreaking Quatermass TV series, to the extent that Carpenter wrote the script under the pseudonym Martin Quatermass, and there is a reference to "Kneale University".  Kneale specialized in stories that blended the supernatural with science-fiction, and he wrote a TV movie called The Stone Tape (1977) about a scientific investigation into an allegedly haunted house, which seems to have strongly influenced Prince of Darkness.  Rock singer Alice Cooper appears as the homicidal leader of a group of demonically possessed homeless people.  This is a film that may not necessarily be good, but it has some striking moments and a ridiculous but fascinating premise.

         
Susan Blanchard and Ann Yen in Prince of Darkness

"The Beautiful and Damned" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Year of Publication:  1922
Length:  364 pages
Genre:  Fiction

In 1910s New York, socialite Anthony Patch, grandson of a multimillionaire tycoon, meets and becomes instantly infatuated by the beautiful Gloria Gilbert.  The two marry and are soon the toast of Jazz Age New York, spending their lives in a whirlwind of alcohol fueled wild parties and lavish spending.  However, they are living well beyond their means, on the increasingly doubtful promise of a large inheritance from Anthony's grandfather and, coupled with their increasing alcoholism, the couple plummet towards self-destruction.

This was F. Scott Fitzgerald's second novel, following This Side of Paradise (1920) which is namechecked in the book, and is seen as being based on Fitzgerald's own relationship with his wife Zelda.  It's beautifully written with beautiful, poetic turns of phrase and is often strangely funny.  It's also still strangely relevant, even though the book was written nearly a hundred years ago, there are plenty of Anthony and Glorias about today.  I could imagine them today being social media "influencers".  Anthony and Gloria are not a particularly likeable pair.  They are both monumentally selfish.  They are also seemingly incapable of looking to the future:  Anthony is convinced of a multimillion dollar inheritance, which ends up being tied up in the courts in a case which becomes a major subplot in the later section of the book; while Gloria wants to enjoy her youth and beauty to the fullest, even though she knows it will fade someday, it is still a bitter pill when that day arrives.  Throughout the book the characters try various careers without success, while their friends move on to success and come to view them with contempt.    This is a great book, and very readable.  It's main problem is the very end, which feels rushed and unrealistic, and kind of undeserved.

 

Children of the Corn

Year of Release:  1984
Director:  Fritz Kiersch
Screenplay:  George Goldsmith, based on the short story Children of the Corn by Stephen King
Starring:  Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, R. G. Armstrong, John Franklin, Courtney Gains, Robby Kiger, Anne Marie McEvoy
Running Time:  92 minutes
Genre:  Horror

Young married couple Vicky (Hamilton) and Burt (Horton) travel through rural Nebraska on their way to Seattle.  On the road they run over a young boy, but Burt discovers that he was already dead, having had his throat cut.  Searching for help, they wind up in the small town of Gatlin.  Gatlin appears strangely deserted, but they soon discover that it is not so deserted.  The town is inhabited entirely by children, who are members of a bloodthirsty cult headed by child preacher Isaac (Franklin) and his vicious enforcer Malachi (Gains).  Three years previously, Isaac and Malachi lead the children of the town in the ritual murder of everyone in town over the age of 19.  The cult worships a demonic entity known as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows", who lives in the vast cornfields, and periodically demands human sacrifice.

Based on a 1977 short story by Stephen King, the film has an arresting premise, but ends up as a slightly frustrating mix of very good and very bad.  On the good side, the film starts off very strongly, with an effective opening as the children slaughter their parents and other adults, and some genuinely atmospheric passages early on, depicting the derelict, deserted town, and a sequence where Burt and Vicky try to head to a neighbouring town, but seem to be caught in a kind of loop, unable to escape Gatlin.  A major point in the film's favour is Linda Hamilton who really shines despite not being given nearly enough to do, and R. G. Armstrong is pretty fun as the creepy old mechanic.  On the bad side some of the performances are pretty bad and suffers the film from the limitations of an obviously tiny budget.  The climax is also pretty ludicrous.  While it may not be a "good" movie in the technical sense, it is a lot of fun, and packs in enough gore and creepy moments to appeal to horror fans.  The main problem is that while the film is enjoyable, it's really frustrating that it isn't better than it is, and it feels like a missed opportunity.  It has become something of a cult movie, spawning numerous sequels and a made for TV remake.     

  

Courtney Gains in Children of the Corn

The Truman Show

Year of Release:  1998
Director:  Peter Weir
Screenplay:  Andrew Niccol
Starring:  Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor, Ed Harris
Running Time:  103 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction, comedy, drama

Truman Burbank (Carrey) lives a contended life with his wife Meryl (Linney), in a seemingly idyllic coastal town of Seahaven Island.  However Truman begins to suspect that something is very strange.  A spotlight falls from the sky, almost hitting him.  A homeless man bears a striking resemblance to his father who died 22 years earlier, and is quickly hustled away by seemingly random passers-by.  His car radio picks up a strange transmission that seems to describe his exact movements, and rain falls only on him.  Added to that the odd behaviour of his family, friends and neighbours.  In reality, Truman Burbank is the unwitting star of the world's top-rated television show.  Since birth he has lived his life in a vast set, and everyone he encounters is an actor playing a role.  Every minute of Truman's life is orchestrated by the show's creator and executive producer Christof (Harris) and broadcast live around the world twenty-four hours a day.

This is an enjoyable and intriguing film, which is surprisingly prophetic, foreseeing the explosion in so-called "reality" television.  While the film isn't very funny, it is enjoyable and very clever, managing to marry entertainment and big ideas.  The film is very stylish, imagining the look of Truman's world as a bright, all-American "white picket fence" small town, with Christof's control room hidden in the Moon.  Jim Carrey gives a charismatic performance in what was really his first major dramatic role, Laura Linney plays the actor playing the part of Meryl, hiding her true feelings behind a huge fake smile, and cheery demeanor which occasionally slips, also of note is Ed Harris who seems to be channeling Steve Jobs as the sinister Christof.  While the story mostly takes place in Truman's world, as he slowly begins to understand the nature of his reality, it is interspersed with sequences in the show's control room, and the reactions of the viewing public.  The film tackles some big themes such as the nature of reality, identity and media manipulation.

Jim Carrey in The Truman Show 
 

It Chapter Two

Year of Release:  2019
Director:  Andy Muschietti
Screenplay:  Gary Dauberman, based on the novel It by Stephen King
Starring:  Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, Bill Skarsgard
Running Time:  169 minutes
Genre:  Horror

Twenty seven years after the Loser's Club confronted the evil shapeshifting "It", the killings and disappearances start again in the small town of Derry, Maine.  The town's librarian, Mike Hanlon (Mustafa), believes that It has once again resurfaced, and contacts the rest of the Loser's Club: Horror writer Bill Denbrough (McAvoy), fashion designer Beverley Marsh (Chastain), architect Ben Hanscom (Ryan), stand-up comedian Richie Tozier (Hader), businessman Stanley Uris (Bean) and risk assessor Eddie Kaspbrack (Ransone).  All of them vowed to return if It appeared again, but now they have forgotten that long-ago summer, and as adults may not be able to recapture the power that kept them alive as children.

The 2017 film It went on to become the highest grossing horror film of all time, and so a sequel was inevitable, although this isn't really a sequel, because the first film only adapted the first part of Stephen King's mammoth bestseller, and this film adapts the conclusion.  This is long, unwieldy and has some great moments but, when it's bad, it is really really bad.  One of the main problems is that it is never particularly scary.  Bill Skarsgard does well for the most part as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (It's favourite form) and his scene with a girl at a baseball field is genuinely chilling, but he sometimes verges on just being goofy.  It has numerous opportunities to kill the Loser's Club which It doesn't take.  Also it is full of surprisingly bad CGI, which looks more like something from a video game.  Also it is full of misplaced, clunky humour, which evaporates any tension or suspense.  There is a running joke throughout the film where Bill's novels are criticised for their weak endings, another gag involves a reference to The Thing (1982).  The cast are mostly okay, with Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy being the standouts, although Bill Hader has some powerful moments.  The thing is that the characters are affecting as children in the first film, but are much less so here where they are adults in their forties.  Also they come across as pretty obnoxious at times.  The child actors from the first film (Chosen Jacobs as Mike, Jaeden Lieberher as Bill, Sophia Lillis as Beverley, Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben, Finn Wolfhard as  Richie, Wyatt Olef as Stan and Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie) reprise their roles in the many flashback scenes.  Stephen King has a small role as the proprietor of a secondhand shop and acclaimed director Peter Bogdanovich has a cameo as a director, working on an adaptation of one of Bill's books.
The film opens very strongly and the ending has real emotional weight, and there are some good moments sprinkled throughout.  Mostly however it is pretty disappointing.

Bill Skarsgard in It Chapter Two

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Year of Release:  1975
Directors:  Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones
Screenplay:  Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
Starring:  Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
Running Time:  92 minutes
Genre:  Comedy

England, 963 AD:  King Arthur (Chapman) searches for the bravest and most noble knights to join him at his court at Camelot.  After eventually deciding not to go to Camelot after all because "it is a silly place", Arthur and his knights are visited by God who gives them the quest to find the Holy Grail.  On their way they will face rude French soldiers, the Knights who say "Ni", the almost certain temptations of Castle Anthrax and the world's most lethal fluffy bunny rabbit, to say nothing of the deadly Beast of Aaaargh!

This was the second film from British comedy troupe Monty Python, who rose to fame with the television series Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1974).  Their first film, And Now for Something Completely Different (1971), was really a compendium of sketches from the TV series that were reshot on a slightly higher budget.  Holy Grail departs form the sketch format of the TV series by having an actual plot, albeit a very loose one.  The episodic nature of a quest narrative makes it perfect for a string of loosely connected sketches, it gives the Python team an opportunity to riff on and play around with anything they like as long as it is vaguely connected to the Middle-Ages.  This is a film where the gags start right at the opening credits, and keep coming thick and fast throughout.  Full of endlessly quotable lines that have kept schoolkids and office bores going for over forty years, this is one of the best comedies ever made.  It does have slow patches, and some jokes work better than others, but mostly it's an absolute treat.  The film is also visually strong, despite a minuscule budget, with an appropriately filthy Medieval look, and some impressive fight scenes, as well as terry Gilliam's distinctive surreal animations.

Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, John Cleese and Michael Palin in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Year of Release:  1962
Director:  John Ford
Screenplay:  James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck, from a short story by Dorothy M. Johnson
Starring:  James Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmond O'Brien
Running Time:  123 minutes
Genre:  Western

In the Old West, idealistic lawyer Ransom Stoddart (Stewart) arrives in the remote frontier town of Shinbone.  On the way his stagecoach is held up and Stoddart is brutally beaten by vicious local bandit Liberty Valance (Marvin).  Ransom is determined to bring Valance to justice.  However, the local marshal (Andy Devine) lacks the courage and the skill to tackle Valance and his gang.  The only one willing to stand up to the bandit is tough local cowboy Tom Doniphon (Wayne).  In Doniphon's view, the only way to stop Valance is with a bullet, but Stoddart, who doesn't even carry a gun, is determined to bring Valance in alive and by the book. 

Filmed in crisp black-and-white, this late John Ford directed Western is one of his best, and a classic of the genre.  James Stewart is in good form as the idealistic lawyer who tries to civilise the tough frontier town by opening a school, and trying to teach the townspeople about politics and Government.  John Wayne is well used as the gruff cowboy.  Wayne was not a particularly good actor, but he had a lot of presence, and Ford always managed to get the best out of him.  Vera Miles is very good as Hallie, the cook and waitress who attracts the attention of both Stoddart and Donophin.  She gives the role some real depth and emotion.  Also worthy of note is Lee Marvin as the snarling, savage Liberty Valance.  The film is bookended by sequences set twenty five years later which are effective but unnecessary.  This is a surprisingly dark film, and quite ambiguous towards the end.  It does have slow patches, but it has some real tension, and a lot of humour.  Considering it is a John Wayne Western it is surprisingly progressive, and has a real elegiac feel about the beginning of the end of an era and the beginnings of the modern United States.

Lee Marvin, James Stewart and John Wayne in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance     

The Haunted Palace

Year of Release:  1963
Director:  Roger Corman
Screenplay:  Charles Beaumont, based on the story The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft
Starring:  Vincent Price, Debra Paget, Lon Chaney Jr.
Running Time:  87 minutes
Genre:  Horror

In the 1700s, the small town of Arkham is in the grip of fear due to the evil warlock  Joseph Curwen (Price) who lives in a large palace overlooking the town.  The townspeople eventually grab Curwen and burn him to death, but not before he places a curse on the town.  110 years later Curwen's great-great-grandson Charles Dexter Ward (Price again) and his wife Anne (Paget) arrive in Arkham to move in to the palace which has passed down to him.  However the Wards are disturbed by the hostile reception they receive from the townspeople, and by the horrific deformities that seem to afflict many of Arkham's inhabitants.  Nevertheless, they move into the palace, but almost immediately Ward starts to display many strange personality changes, and Anne comes to realise that he is being slowly possessed by Curwen's evil spirit which still haunts the palace.

Despite the film being sold as based on Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Haunted Palace", it is really an adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and really has no connection with Poe at all, aside from a couple of brief extracts, one of which is narrated by Price as the scene changes from the 18th to the 19th Century, and the other appears as text as the film ends.  There are a lot of Lovecraft elements in the film:  It's set in Lovecraft's fictional town of Arkham, the evil book Necronomicon appears, and Lovecraft's recurring dimension-spanning monsters Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth are namechecked.  Other than that it is a fun slice of old-school gothic with mist-shrouded graveyards, angry villager wielding burning torches, secret passages and very nasty things locked in attics and dungeons.  Vincent Price hams it up for all he's worth in the dual role, and seems to be having enormous fun throughout.  Debra Paget is affecting as Anne Ward, and the rest of the supporting cast are all solid.  However the film is slow by modern standards, and it is quite creaky in places.  It's not a perfect film but it is a good film, and if you're looking for a good old-fashioned spooky story then you can do a lot worse.

Cathie Merchant, Darlene Lucht and Vincent Price in The Haunted Palace 

"Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

Year of Publication:  1961
Length:  519 pages
Genre:  Satire, war, dark comedy

The novel is mostly set on a US Air Force base on the Mediterranean island of Pianosa during the Second World War.  Bomber pilot Yossarian and his comrades try to survive the horrors of war, not just from the enemy, but from the bizarre, contradictory, cruel and arbitrary military bureaucracy that controls their lives, and the inescapable, universal law of "Catch-22".

This is a long, rambling, episodic novel, shifting points of view between a large number of characters and jumping back and forth in time.  The novel deals with the absurdity and horror of war and of military life, but expands that to include modern life in general.  It's a deeply rich book that requires a lot of attention from the reader.  There are lots of seemingly throw away jokes and references earlier in the novel that turn out to be important later on.  A lot of it is extremely funny, but much of the comedy is humour of the darkest kind.  It's tragic, comical, cynical, satirical and endlessly inventive.  The book doesn't really have a strong plot, being more an account of various episodes in the lives of the characters. Heller revels in jokes, wordplay and paradoxes, which can make the book an overwhelming experience.  When the book takes a shockingly darker turn towards the end it hits the reader like a bucket of ice water.
It's widely acclaimed as one of the greatest novels of the 20th Century and, while it may not be that, it is still a great book.

   

All the President's Men

Year of Release:  1976
Director:  Alan J. Pakula
Screenplay:  William Goldman, based on the book All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
Starring:  Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook, Jason Robards
Running Time:  138 minutes
Genre:  Political thriller, drama

This film tells the story of the investigation into the infamous Watergate scandal, in which five men burgled the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate complex in Washington DC, and the subsequent cover-up by then President Richard Nixon.  The film focuses on the investigation into the scandal by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Hoffman), and is based on the non-fiction book they subsequently wrote.

The film is one of the classic films about journalism.  The film contrasts the brightly lit, open plan offices of the Washington Post where characters are constantly in motion, followed by a constantly roving camera, with shadowy with shadowy, dimly lit homes, offices, and the underground garages where Woodward meets his mysterious informant (Holbrook).  This is about the day to day business of journalism, days spent on the phone and knocking on doors, desperately searching for anyone who will talk to them, pouring over reams of documents for scraps of information or verification.  This all could seem quite dry, and confusing, but as scripted by William Goldman, and directed by Alan Pakula, who made several political thrillers during the 1970s, it is quite gripping and fairly easy to follow, even if you are not particularly familiar with the case.  The story keeps moving along, with committed performances from the cast and a wealth of background detail.  In the scenes in the Post offices, both the foreground and the background are kept in focus. 
The film was released just a couple of years after the Watergate scandal concluded and so most of the original audience would probably have been aware of the case, but now it is kind of a historical case, even though it was one of the major American political scandals and one of the key events of the 1970s, although by today's standards it all seems rather quaint.

Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford in All the President's Men

Get Shorty

Year of Release:  1995
Director:  Barry Sonnenfeld
Screenplay:  Scott Frank, based on the novel Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard
Starring:  John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Danny DeVito,
Running Time:  105 minutes
Genre:  Comedy, thriller

Chili Palmer (Travolta), a Miami loan shark, heads to Los Angeles to collect a debt for the Mob.  Stopping off in Las Vegas, Chili picks up a second job to collect a gambling debt from B-movie producer Harry Zimm (Hackman), and meets cynical "scream queen" actress Karen Flores (Russo).  A rabid movie fan, Chili decides to try his hand at film production.  However, the Miami Mob want the money that Chili was sent to collect, and a gang of ruthless drug dealers are after a large amount of money that Zimm owes them.

This light comedy-thriller was the first film that John Travolta made after he made his Hollywood comeback with Pulp Fiction (1994), and Quentin Tarantino's influence is all over this film with the stylish, cool (if at best morally ambiguous) characters, and profane, fast-talking dialogue, laden with movie references, and occasional flashes of violence.  In fact Tarantino would make his own Elmore Leonard adaptation with Jackie Brown (1998).  This is one of those movies were everyone involved seems to be having a great time, and Travolta coasts along with effortless charisma, and he is supported by a great cast, which also includes Danny DeVito as a major Hollywood star (the "Shorty" of the title), who Palmer and Zimm want for the movie they are putting together.
This is a hugely enjoyable film with a satisfying plot and clever, funny script which manages to poke fun at and celebrate Hollywood gangster movies,
A sequel, Be Cool, was released in 2005 and the original novel was adapted as a TV series.

John Travolta and Rene Russo in Get Shorty

   

Play Misty for Me

Year of Release:  1971
Director:  Clint Eastwood
Screenplay:  Jo Heims and Dean Riesner, from a story by Jo Heims
Starring:  Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills, John Larch
Running Time:  102 minutes
Genre:  Thriller

In the picturesque Californian city of Carmel-by-the-Sea, Dave Garver (Eastwood) is a late night radio DJ .  One night in a bar, Dave meets Evelyn Draper (Walter), a fan of his radio show, who calls up every night requesting the jazz standard "Misty".  Dave and Evelyn have a one night stand, but Evelyn soon reveals herself to be an obsessive stalker.  Dave, who is in the process of reuniting with his ex-girlfriend, Tobie (Mills), repeatedly rejects Evelyn, who becomes increasingly violent and dangerous.

This chilling psychological thriller marked Clint Eastwood's debut as a director.  Looked at today, the film has dated, but by and large it holds up.  Although largely written as a deranged obsessive, Jessica Walter gives her portrayal of Evelyn some real depth, playing her as a confused, vulnerable and hurt woman, crucially she is always a sympathetic, if terrifying, character, and there is real chemistry in her scenes with Eastwood.  There is an interesting dynamic in that, while we never really fear for Garver, as he visibly struggles to contain his temper, we worry what he may do to Evelyn.  Throughout much of the film Garver doesn't really take Evelyn all that seriously or seem particularly concerned about the real threat she represents to him.  Mostly he treats her as a nuisance.  Directed largely in a straightforward, unflashy style, the film allows the tension to build up effectively, and at times it looks like a quasi-documentary, particularly the scene at the Monterey Jazz Festival.  One sequence which really feels out of place though, is the love scene between Garver and Tobie, where lyrical shots of nature and this beautiful verdant forest culminates in the two of them having sex in a isolated natural pool, all to the strains of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack, and ends up looking a bit like the cover of a paperback romance novel. 
Veteran director Don Siegel, who made several films with Eastwood and was one of the biggest influences on his filmmaking style, has a small role as a bartender.

Jessica Walter and Clint Eastwood in Play Misty for Me   

Midsommar

Year of Release:  2019
Director:  Ari Aster
Screenplay:  Ari Aster
Starring:  Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, Will Poulter
Running Time:  147 minutes
Genre:  Folk horror

New York City:  Student Dani Arbor (Pugh) is deeply traumatised after her sister kills herself and their parents.  Her trauma puts a further strain on her already collapsing relationship with boyfriend Christian (Reynor).  Christian and his friends, Mark (Poulter) and Josh (Harper), are planning a month long trip to Sweden with their Swedish friend Pelle (Blomgren) during which they plan attend a nine-day midsummer festival that is only held every ninety years at Pelle's ancestral commune.  When Dani learns about the trip, Christian awkwardly invites her along.  When they arrive, the locals seem welcoming and friendly, but as the festivities progress, the rituals and ceremonies become increasingly bizarre and disturbing, and the tourists soon discover the commune's terrifying dark side.

Writer and director Ari Aster made a splash in 2018 with his debut film Hereditary.  This is a different style of film.  It belongs to a sub-genre of horror known as folk horror, which is mostly set in isolated rural locations and based around folk traditions and beliefs.  Here is horror set entirely in beautiful sunlit locations and, unusually for a horror film,  it almost all takes place in broad daylight.  The story unfolds at a languid pace, but has an ever present disturbing atmosphere that increases as it goes on.  It uses a lot of subtle tricks with sound and visuals making it a hallucinatory and often nightmarish experience.  Florence Pugh is wonderful in the lead, the other characters don't really have much to do except react to what happens to them, but there are some well-drawn tensions between the others in the group (Mark is extremely gauche and insensitive, Josh believes that Christian wants to copy his thesis and Pelle is in love with Dani).  There is also a surprising amount of humour, it is a very funny film.  Watching it, I felt constantly off balance and disoriented as it moves from domestic drama to poetic beauty, to crude humour, to disturbing surrealism to flashes of quite shocking gore.  I thought this film was really something special. 

Florence Pugh in Midsommar     

Annabelle Comes Home

Year of Release:  2019
Director:  Gary Dauberman
Screenplay:  Gary Dauberman, from a story by James Wan and Gary Dauberman
Starring:  Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman, Katie Sarife, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson
Running Time:  106 minutes
Genre:  Horror

The cursed doll, Annabelle, introduced in The Conjuring (2013), has already featured in Annabelle (2014) and Annabelle: Creation (2017).  In 1968, occultists and demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren (Wilson and Farmiga) seal the evil doll in a cabinet made of sacred glass, where her evil is contained.  Four years later, the Warrens leave on an overnight case, leaving their young daughter Judy (Grace) in the care of babysitter Mary Ellen (Iseman).  Itrigued by the stories surrounding the Warrens, Mary Ellen's best friend, Daniela (Sarife), invites herself over and sneaks into the locked room which houses the Warren's collection of haunted and cursed artifacts.  Despite warnings not to touch anything, Daniela handles just about everything in the room and, worse of all, opens Annabelle's cabinet, allowing her to escape.  Soon Daniela, Judy and Mary Ellen are subjected to attacks from Annabelle, and the other evil forces that Daniela has accidentally released.

This is like a rollercoaster ride.  It runs along it's fairly predictable tracks, there are plenty of jump scares and a few shocks, but it never gets too disturbing.  There is almost a feeling of "My First Horror Film" about it, because it's not really scary, and it is fairly predictable for anyone even a little familiar with horror movies.   The cast are engaging and likable.  The most familiar faces in the cast are Patrick Wilson and Vera Famiga reprising their roles as controversial real-life occultists Ed and Lorraine Warren from The Conjuring films, and once again the Warrens are depicted as the most wonderful people on Earth, which is extremely debatable.  It's in no way essential, even for fans of the series, but for a Saturday night spook show it's fun.

Daniela (Katie Sarife) comes face to face with demon doll Annabelle in Annabelle Comes Home         

The Player

Year of Release:  1992
Director:  Robert Altman
Screenplay:  Michael Tolkin, based on the novel The Player by Michael Tolkin
Starring:  Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Brion James, Cynthia Stevenson
Running Time: 124 minutes
Genre:  Black comedy, satire, thriller

Griffin Mill (Robbins) is an executive at a Hollywood studio.  His job is to listen to submissions from writers and decide whether or not they would make good films.  By his own estimation he says "yes" to 12 out of 50,000 submissions a year.  As you might expect, he has more than a few enemies among screenwriters.  Mill starts to receive threatening postcards from a writer whose pitch he rejected.  To make matters worse, his job is threatened by an ambitious new executive at the studio.

The Player marked something of a comeback for maverick Hollywood director Robert Altman who became known in the 1970s for such iconic films as MASH (1970), McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) and Nashville (1975).  The Player features several Altman trademarks, most notably the large cast, complex, overlapping dialogue, and mobile camera work, particularly in the film's famous opening scene: a seven and a half minute unbroken shot roving through a studio lot, eavesdropping on pitches and conversations.
The movie manages to be both affectionate and acidic towards Hollywood. Some of the satire is quite scathing, but there is a real love for movies that shines through.  There are numerous references to other films, with the camera frequently lingering on movie posters or photos of stars and directors that somehow comment on the events in the story.  It also has numerous celebrity cameos (including Bruce Willis, Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston, Jack Lemmon, Julia Roberts, Harry Belafonte and John Cusack).
The film flows along with it's main plot being subsumed among various digressions, twists and subplots.  The jokes are genuinely funny, for the most plot, and the thriller element is quite intriguing.  At the end the film subverts the traditional "Hollywood ending" managing to be both happy and surprisingly bleak.
Tim Robbins is good in the lead managing to be both charismatic and suave as well as shockingly cruel and ruthless without ever being entirely unsympathetic.  Whoopi Goldberg stands out as a tenacious detective, as does country singer Lyle Lovett as a creepy cop.  Richard E. Grant also makes the most of a small role as a flamboyant, pretentious director.

Tim Robbins is The Player       

City of the Living Dead

Year of Release:  1980
Director:  Lucio Fulci
Screenplay:  Lucio Fulci and Dardano Sacchetti
Starring:  Christopher George, Catriona MacColl, Carlo De Mejo, Antonella Interlenghi, Giovanni Lombardo, Radice, Daniela Doria, Fabrizio Jovine, Janet Algren
Running Time:  93 minutes
Genre:  Horror

New York City:  A young medium, Mary Woodhouse (MacColl), goes into a catatonic sate when she experiences a traumatic vision of a priest (Jovine) hanging himself in the town of Dunwich.  When she has recovered, she explains to journalist Peter Bell (George)  that the hanging of the priest has opened the gate to Hell and that, unless it is closed, in a few days time the living dead will overwhelm and consume the living.  Meanwhile in Dunwich the population find themselves subjected to a series of horrific events, as they come under attack from flesh-eating zombies.

Prolific Italian director Lucio Fulci worked in comedy, adventure, science-fiction, erotica and spaghetti Westerns, but is most well known for his horror films, which were notorious for their high level of gore, which earned him the nickname "The Godfather of Gore".  This is the first of Fulci's "Gates of Hell" trilogy, the others being:  The Beyond (1981) and The House by the Cemetery (1981), both of which also starred English actress Catriona MacColl (billed here as "Katherine MacColl"), although in different roles in each film.  At times this feels like what you might get if a twelve year old were to come up with a horror film, because the plot (such as it is) feels like an excuse to string together the most gruesome things Fulci can think of:  people bleed out of their eyes, zombies chow down messily on slippery flesh, heads are drilled, other unfortunates are covered with rats and flesh-eating maggots and, in the film's most notorious sequence, a woman vomits up her own intestines.  Even for hardened horror fans it's pretty nauseating.  Although it's so over the top it becomes quite funny.  The acting is at best serviceable, which may be partly due to the fact that, as was standard with Italian films, the dialogue was dubbed in in post-production.  The bizarre and sudden ending was necessitated because, while they were editing the film, someone spilled coffee on the original ending print, forcing Fulci to cobble something together with whatever he had available.

Daniela Doria in City of the Living Dead


          

Videodrome

Year of Release:  1983
Director:  David Cronenberg
Screenplay:  David Cronenberg
Starring:  James Woods, Sonja Smits, Deborah Harry, Peter Dvorsky, Les Carlson, Jack Creley, Lynne Gorman
Running Time:  89 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction, horror   

Max Renn (Woods) is the president of a small cable TV network in Toronto which specialises in soft-core porn and gratuitous violence.  Unhappy with the current line-up, Renn is looking for something that will "break through".  He thinks that he has found it when he stumbles upon a broadcast called Videodrome, which depicts relentless torture and murder.  Renn becomes increasingly obsessed with Videodrome, and finds himself undergoing bizarre physical changes.

This is one of the definitive works of director David Cronenberg, and a classic of what has become known as  "body horror".  The film began life as a script called "Network of Blood" which Cronenberg wrote inspired by his childhood memories of watching TV late at night, when the Canadian stations went off air he would sometimes pick up faint broadcasts from the US, and the young Cronenberg worried that he might stumble across something dangerous or subversive.  The film initially begins as a conspiracy thriller before becoming a surrealistic nightmare.  James Woods turns in a powerful performance as the shifty, nervy Max Renn, and pop singer Deborah Harry is impressive as radio host Nikki Brand (who lives up to her name with her taste for burning her own breasts with cigarettes).  The film is full of memorable and disturbing images, such as the gaping mouth-like hole that opens in Renn's chest and functions as a VCR, and the handgun that fuses with Renn's hand. 
Looking at it today, while a lot of the technology seems inevitably dated, it's still remarkably prescient and ahead of it's time in it's depiction of a world where media manipulates and controls the minds and bodies of it's consumers.

James Woods and Deborah Harry take in Videodrome   

Communion

Year of Release: 1989
Director:  Philippe Mora
Screenplay:  Whitley Strieber, based on the book Communion by Whitley Strieber
Starring:  Christopher Walken, Lindsay Crouse, Frances Sternhagen, Terry Hanauer, Andreas Katsulas, Joel Carlson
Running Time:  105 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction, horror

New York City, 1985:  Whitley Strieber (Walken) is a novelist living in Manhattan with his wife Anne (Crouse) and young son, Andrew (Carlson).  During a weekend away at their cabin in the woods, Strieber and Andrew experience a bizarre visitation.  Initially dismissing it as a bad dream, Strieber begins to experience bizarre recurring nightmares and displays increasingly irrational behaviour.

The film is based on Whitley Strieber's purportedly non-fiction 1987 bestseller describing his alleged abduction by aliens.  The book is probably best known now for it's front cover which is regarded as one of the most iconic images of the popular "Grey" aliens. Whether you believe that Strieber was really abducted by aliens, or that he was hallucinating, or that he just made the whole thing up, this film will not change your mind.  The film has some striking images, even if the special effects range from the serviceable to the pretty dire.  As Strieber, Walken acts as if he's alternatively in a domestic drama and a manic comedy (apparently, the real Whitley Strieber was very unhappy with Walken's portrayal of him), when he's writing he wears a hat and films himself doing animal impressions.  Another problem with casting Walken is that he is so intense he kind of unbalances the film, and is far scarier just being normal than any aliens.  Lindsay Crouse does well at trying to keep the nonsense grounded.  It's a frustrating film that is mostly pretty bad, but has some good moments.  It plays it's hand to early by showing the aliens too early, and is too ambitious for it's own good.  There are no explanations as to what the aliens want.  It's become something of a cult movie, which must be partly due to the scene where Christopher Walken does a dance with little blue aliens.
The movie Fire in the Sky (1993) is a better film that covers similar ground, as indeed do many episodes of The X-Files (1993-2002, 2016-2018).

Christopher Walken in Communion     

Blow Out

Year of Release:  1981
Director:  Brian De Palma
Screenplay:  Brian De Palma
Starring:  John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz
Running Time:  108 minutes
Genre:  Thriller

Philadelphia sound technician Jack Terry (Travolta) is hard at work on the post production of a low-budget slasher film.  Visiting a park late at night to record sound effects, Jack witnesses, and records, a car crashing off the road and into a creek.  While he is able to save the passenger, Sally (Allen), the male driver is killed.  It turns out that the driver was a hugely popular presidential candidate.  As he analyses his recording, Jack becomes convinced that it was no accident, but murder.  When Jack tries to convince the authorities of his suspicions, he soon realises that he and Sally are now targets of a very dangerous conspiracy.

This film reunites director Brian De Palma with John Travolta and Nancy Allen who all previously worked together on Carrie (1976).  It's certainly fair to say that, along with Carrie, this is one of De Palma's finest films.  As a director Brian De Palma has a very good eye, but tends to let style get in the way of substance.  He reaches into his bag of tricks here with split-screen, long elaborate tracking shots and slow motion. The story is interesting and involving, with a strain of dark humour, and a startlingly downbeat conclusion.  It features several of De Palma's recurring themes, notably guilt, voyeurism, sexually motivated violence and film references.  However, this has a political dimension that was timely in the early 1980s and is still pertinent today.  The action scenes are skillfully choreographed and the whole thing is genuinely exciting.  John Travolta has seldom been better here, and Nancy Allen, while underused, is affecting.  John Lithgow and Dennis Franz make the most of supporting roles as sleazy creeps, with Lithgow being particularly effective and chilling.
   

John Travolta in Blow Out

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Angela Robinson
Screenplay:  Angela Robinson
Starring:  Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote, JJ Feild, Oliver Platt, Connie Britton
Running Time:  108 mintes
Genre:  Biography, drama

The film tells the story of Professor William Moulton Marston (Evans), an American psychologist, inventor and writer, who is best known for inventing an early version of the lie detector and creating the comic book character Wonder Woman.
The story begins in 1928 where Martson and his wife, Elizabeth (Hall), teach and research together at Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges.  The two fall in love with their teaching assistant, Olive Byrne (Heathcote), one of William Marston's students.  Olive reciprocates their feelings, and the three enter into a polyamorous relationship.  Their unconventional relationship leads to severe problems for their personal and professional lives.  Meanwhile William Marston continues his work on his DISC (Dominance, Inducement, Submission, Compliance) theory of human interaction and becomes increasingly interested in  fetish art and bondage, which he channels, along with his belief in the inherent superiority of women over men, into the comic book Wonder Woman.

This is a biographical drama, it's not really a film about Wonder Woman.  The main story of the film is told in flashbacks as Marston gives evidence in 1945 to a committee who are seeking to ban Wonder Woman over it's sexual, sadomasochistic and queer imagery and subtext.  It's very well made, beautifully filmed, very well cast, with an intelligent, witty script that shines a light on a fairly obscure but fascinating piece of pop-culture history.  Personally I would have liked to have seen more about the comic book industry of the time, but that is not the story that they are telling.  In fact, Wonder Woman itself is more of a subtext in the film, the framing device notwithstanding, it's not until pretty late in the film that comics come into it in a big way.  The focus is mostly on the relationship between the central trio:  Luke Evans certainly looks the part of the 1920s academic, and plays Marston as an earnest idealist; Bella Heathcote is radiant as Olive Byrne who captivates both Marstons, and she is very good, particularly in the early part of the film where she has the greatest emotional heft playing a naive young woman whose entire world is capsized as she explores her new feelings, although she has less to do later in the film, but Rebecca Hall takes the acting honours as the fierce, funny and caustic Elizabeth, the realist of the three.  She is brilliant.
It may not have enough about Wonder Woman to appeal to some of the fans, and the comic book element may put off some viewers, but it is definitely worth giving it a go.

Rebecca Hall, Luke Evans and Bella Heathcote in Professor Marston and the Wonder Women



     

Clerks

Year of Release:  1994
Director:  Kevin Smith
Screenplay:  Kevin Smith
Starring:  Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spooner, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier
Running Time:  92 minutes
Genre:  Comedy, slice-of-life

The film follows a day in the life Dante Hicks (O'Halloran), a 22 year old employee of the Quick Stop convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey, who is forced to go into work on what is supposed to be his day off.  He finds himself having to deal with his girlfriend Veronica's (Ghigliotti) sexual confessions, the fact that the love of his life is getting married, a hockey game, a funeral and an endless stream of weird, stupid and abusive customers.  Also stuck in Dante's purgatory are his best friend (and possibly worst enemy) Randall Graves (Anderson) and drug dealers Jay (Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith).

This super low-budget film marks the debut of writer/director/actor Kevin Smith and is the first of his connected series of "View Askewniverse" films (named after Smith's View Askew production company), which are linked by recurring characters and story elements, most notably the characters of Jay and Silent Bob who would go on to appear in many other films.
The film was shot in grainy black and white in the convenience store where Smith was working at the times, at night and on the weekends.  At the beginning of the film, Dante discovers that the metal shutters of the store are gummed shut, this was partly to hide the fact that although the film is set during the day, it was mostly shot at night.  With it's, at the time, completely unknown cast, grainy look and low-budget feel it has an element of authenticity and does at times resemble a documentary, filmed on a store security camera.  Crucially, it's also very funny.  Smith's sharp, vulgar and endlessly quotable dialogue is perceptive and hilarious, although definitely not for the easily offended.  With the directionless characters, fascinated by pop-culture, working crappy jobs, dreaming of something better but unsure of how to get it, this is one of the great films about young adulthood.

Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) in Clerks       

"Patient X" by David Peace

Year of Publication:  2018
Length:  311 pages
Genre:  Historical fiction

Ryunosuke Akutagawa was a highly acclaimed Japanese writer, known as "the Father of the Japanese short story".  He lived in the turbulent Taisho period and survived the devastating 1923 Tokyo earthquake, before taking his own life in 1927 at the age of 35. 

Patient X documents the strange, short life of Akutagawa in a kind of fictionalised biography.  David Peace is an English novelist who now lives in Tokyo.  He first came to prominence with the "Red Riding Quartet" a series of crime novels set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper case, and then GB84, a fictional account of the 1984 Miner's Strike in England, two sports novels: The Damned Utd and Red or Dead, and the "Tokyo Trilogy": Tokyo Year Zero (2007), Occupied City (2009) with the third volume set to be published in 2020.  Peace's style is to take real people and incidents and embroider a fictional narrative.  In his prose he mixes narrative voices, repeated phrases and different styles to create a surreal, hallucinatory style. 
Patient X consists of connected short stories from the life of Akutagawa adapted from Akutagawa's own essays, letters and fiction.  Ryunosuke Akutagawa is probably best known for the short stories "Rashomon" and "In the Grove", which were adapted by Akira Kurosawa for the 1950 film Rashomon.  In fact, Kurosawa himself is briefly referenced in the book.  It's not necessary to iknow about Akutagawa to appreciate the book, although it helps.  The narrative takes us inside Akutagawa's troubled mind creating a strange, nightmarish world, where the real world exists, cheek by jowl, with ghosts, monsters, angels and demons.
It's often disturbing, sometimes beautiful and often just plain weird.  The book is also a book about writing, and the healing power of art and creativity in dark times. 

The Duellists

Year of Release:  1977
Director:  Ridley Scott
Screenplay:  Gerald Vaughan-Hughes, based on the short story "The Duel" by Joseph Conrad
Starring:  Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel, Albert Finney, Edward Fox, Cristina Rains, Tom Conti
Running Time:  100 minutes
Genre:  Historical drama

Strasbourg, 1800:  French soldiers Lieutenant Gabriel Feraud (Keitel) and Lieutenant Armand d'Hubert (Carradine) become embroiled in a quarrel, when Feraud feels insulted after d'Hubert interrupts his visit to a prominent local woman (Jenny Runacre) with an unpleasant message from their superiors.  A keen duellist, Feraud challenges d'Hubert to a duel, which leads to a succession of conflicts fought over years.

This was the feature debut from director Ridley Scott, who would go on to become one of the world's foremost filmmakers.  This is a visually striking film, full of breathtaking images, with characters often posed in stately tableaux which make it look like a nineteenth century painting come to life.  It takes place over  a period of fifteen years in a number of different countries and is set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars.  The focus is always on the drama between these two men:  d'Hubert is a charming, gallant hero who just wants to settle the thing and stop Feraud haunting him all the time.  Feraud, on the other hand, is presented as a boorish, obsessive, violent pig who wants to kill d'Hubert really over nothing.  With it's elegantly composed images, the film does at times feel too stately.  The biggest problem in the movie, however, are Keith Carradine, and particularly Harvey Keitel, who just do not convince as nineteenth century French soldiers.  Carradine looks the part, but every time he and, especially, Keitel open their mouths, the carefully constructed illusion of the 1800s is shattered.  That being said, this is a good film.  The story is interesting, if never particularly affecting, it's stunning to look at and it does have a real epic sweep to it.

Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine are The Duellists

The Fury

Year of Release:  1978
Director:  Brian De Palma
Screenplay:  John Farris, based on the novel The Fury by John Farris
Starring: Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgrass, Charles Durning, Amy Irving, Andrew Stevens, Fiona Lewis
Running Time:  118 minutes
Genre:  Thriller, science-fiction, horror

In Israel, an assassination attempt against ex-US Government agent Peter Sandza (Douglas) fails, but his son Robin (Stevens) is taken.  Eleven months later, Peter resurfaces in Chicago searching for his son, who he knows has been targeted by an international conspiracy due to his powerful psychic abilities.  Meanwhile, teenager Gillian (Irving) who is struggling to come to terms with her own devastating powers, is the latest target for the conspiracy, and is also being hunted by Peter who recognizes her as his best chance for finding his son.

This mixes conspiracy action thriller with science-fiction and horror elements.  It's always enjoyable, with some very well-staged and exciting action scenes, and plenty of humour, but it changes tone in the second half, when the horror elements become more pronounced.  Brian De Palma is a brilliant stylist and this does fall victim to De Palma's habit of over indulging in tricks and style.  Kirk Douglas is charismatic and gives some vulnerability to his role, which makes up for some hammy moments.  John Cassavetes is suitably creepy as a hissable villain.  Amy Irving is affecting as the teenager trying to come to terms with her new reality.   This is not a great film, but it is enjoyable and never gets boring.

Amy Irving in The Fury

The Killing

Year of Release:  1956
Director:  Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay:  Stanley Kubrick, dialogue by Jim Thompson, based on the novel Clean Break by Lionel White
Starring:  Sterling Hayden, Colleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen, Elisha Cook Jr., Marie Windsor
Running Time:  85 minutes
Genre:  film noir, crime, thriller

Career criminal Johnny Clay (Hayden) puts together a meticulously planned robbery of a racetrack.  The plan seems to be foolproof and everything initially goes to plan, but greed, betrayal, and plain bad luck conspire to ruin everything.

This was Stanley Kubrick's third film, but his first one to make a real splash.  It is a genuinely tense, exciting noir thriller.  Like many heist films the first part of the film is devoted to putting the plan together and setting it all in motion, with the second half of the film being devoted to the robbery itself and its aftermath.  The story jumps around in time, sometimes showing the same events from different perspectives.  The film is well-performed, with some great hardboiled dialogue provided by crime novelist Jim Thompson, and has some very strong moments, such as the scene where a parking attendant (James Edwards) is subjected to racist abuse from someone who had previously been kind to him.  The look of shock, disgust and contempt on the attendant's face speaks volumes.  This is a fine example of film noir.