Manhattan Murder Mystery

 Year of Release:  1993

Director:  Woody Allen

Screenplay:  Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman

Starring:  Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston, Jerry Adler

Running Time:  107 minutes

Genre:  Comedy, crime

Married couple Larry (Allen) and Carole (Keaton) befriend their elderly neighbours Paul (Adler) and Lillian (Lynn Cohen).  They are shocked when they learn that the seemingly perfectly healthy Lillian has suddenly died of an apparent attack, and are further disturbed by Paul's cheerful demeanour immediately afterwards.  Carole becomes convinced that Paul murdered Lillian, and begins to investigate with the help of her friend, playwright Ted (Alda).  Larry however is convinced that there is no mystery to solve, until it turns out that Lillian might not be dead after all.

This darkly comic mystery film was made at a very difficult time in Woody Allen's personal life as his relationship with Mia Farrow was collapsing among allegations which continue to dog Allen's reputation to this day.  This was an intentionally light, playful film which Allen made to take his mind off things, and reunites him with close friend and regular co-star Diane Keaton, and other Allen regulars Alan Alda and Anjelica Huston.  The film was originally conceived as a subplot in Annie Hall (1977), but was excised from the final script.  The film really hearkens back to Allen's "early funny ones", lacking the introspection and philosophical themes which dominated Allen's films throughout the 1980s and early 90s.  The film is overly long, and the murder plot is very convoluted, but it is funny and the chemistry between Allen and Keaton really sparkles.  The mystery plot is a welcome addition to the typical wisecracks and one-liners, and the climax is really quite exciting.  Alan Alda and Anjelica Huston provide reliable support.  The film also marks the screen debut of Zach Braff.  This is one of Allen's most purely enjoyable films, but there is an emotional core about Larry and Carole's marital difficulties.  Woody Allen fans will  certainly enjoy it, and it should appeal to newcomers as well.

Woody Allen and Diane Keaton are embroiled in a Manhattan Murder Mystery

You Only Live Once

Year of Release:  1937

Director:  Fritz Lang

Screenplay:  Gene Towne and Charles Graham Baker

Starring:  Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Barton MacLane

Running Time:  86 minutes

Genre:  Crime, drama, romance

Eddie Taylor (Fonda) is a convicted bank robber who is released from prison and tries to go straight with his new wife, Joan (Sidney), secretary to the Public Defender who represented Eddie at his trial.  However hard he tries, Eddie comes to feel that he can't catch a break, and finds himself drawn back to his old life with violent and tragic consequences.

Director Fritz Lang had made his reputation in Germany with such classics as Metropolis (1926) and M (1931) before emigrating after the Nazis came to power and eventually ended up in America.  His first American film, Fury (1936), attracted praise from critics but was severely tampered with by the studio.  This film, loosely based on the exploits of legendary outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, is an early example of what would become known as "film noir", a bleak crime drama, with a doom-laden atmosphere, and desperate characters who, despite their best efforts, are destined for nothing but a bad end.   The film also has a still pertinent message about the difficulties of ex-prisoners to find a place in society even after serving their sentence.  The film features a powerful, haunted performance from Henry Fonda and a great performance from Sylvia Sidney as the one person who stands by Eddie, even after her world starts to crash down around her.  Lang was a consummate visual stylist who honed his craft during the German Expressionist movement, and the film features some startling images, notably a jailbreak sequence, shot with thick rolling smoke and stark, bright shafts of light, with minimal sets.  Despite concessions to the censors of the time (Lang was forced to cut fifteen minutes from the film before it could be released) this is still a shocking and troubling film.

Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda are on the run in You Only Live Once

The Death of Stalin

 Year of Release:  2017

Director:  Armando Iannucci

Screenplay:  Armando Iannucci, David Schneider and Ian Martin, from a screenplay by Fabian Nury and based on the graphic novel La Mort de Staline by Fabian Nury and Thierry Roin

Starring:  Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Paul Whitehouse

Running Time;  105 minutes

Genre:  Satire, comedy

The Soviet Union, 1953:  The country is in the grip of Premier Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) and his Central Committee, who themselves constantly live in fear of getting on the wrong side of Stalin.  When Staline suffers a cerebral haemorrhage and dies, the Central Committee is thrown into turmoil, as each member plots, schemes and manipulates their way to the centre of power.

Scottish writer, director and satirist Armando Iannucci has made a name for himself poking fun at the dark absurdities of British and American politics with his TV shows such as The Day Today (1994), The Saturday Night Armistice (1995-1999), The Thick of It (2005-2012) and Veep (2012-2019).  Here he turns his satirical gaze on the much darker historical absurdity of the Stalinist-era Soviet Union.  It depicts a world of absurd paranoia.  The film opens with Stalin ordering a recording of a concert, which hadn't been recorded, and so the orchestra and audience have to be hurriedly pulled back and the whole thing remounted.  Every evening Vyacheslav Molotov (played by ex-Monty Python member Michael Palin) gets his wife to list down everything he has said in Stalin's presence and note down which got good reactions and which didn't.  Following Stalin's death, there's a vying for power, while his funeral is prepared.  The comedy comes from the resulting backbiting, alliances and treachery, as well as the fact that whenever there is a big event to be organised, whatever can go wrong will go wrong.  There is also the fact that these characters are constantly in danger for their lives, the wrong word could get you name on a list which would mean death.  The threat of prison, torture and execution is constant throughout the film, but it doesn't really go to much into the atrocities of the Stalin regime.  It's. clever film, which is consistently amusing, although more witty than laugh out loud funny, and often the darkness drowns out the humour.  It also features a great cast of familiar comedy faces at the top of their game, each one of which has their chance to shine,         

The Death of Stalin

Far from the Madding Crowd

 Year of Release:  2015

Director:  Thomas Vinterberg

Screenplay:  David Nicholls, based on the novel Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Starring:  Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge, Juno Temple

Running Time:  118 minutes

Genre:  Period drama, romance

Set in the 1870s in rural England, the film tells the story of headstrong Bathsheba Everdene (Mulligan) who inherits her uncle's large farm, despite having no knowledge of farming.  As she works hard to make a success of her new life she attracts the attentions of three men:  Gabriel Oak (Schoenaerts) a shepherd who has fallen on hard times, wealthy landowner William Boldwood (Sheen), and dashing soldier Frank Troy (Sturridge).

I have never read the classic 1874 novel by Thomas Hardy, nor have I seen the 1967 adaptation starring Julie Christie and Terence Stamp, so I can't speak to how faithful or not this adaptation, scripted by novelist David Nicholls, is to it's source.  I am not normally a fan of period dramas, and I tuned into this one without holding out much hope for it, however in the end I really enjoyed it.  Director Thomas Vinterberg is possibly best known for his stripped-down, shot-on-video family drama Festen (1998) but here he embraces the period epic.  The rolling hillsides of the English countryside are beautifully shot.  The passage of time is marked by images of nature to mark each season.  At times the plot feels rushed, even with a two hour running time, and there are a few confusing plot holes, and there are very few surprises (it's pretty clear early on who Bathsheba is going to end up with), and the film is maybe too glossy (Carey Mulligan can come in from a day of working hard in the fields completely immaculate aside from a fetching smudge on the cheek).  However the performances are great.  Tom Sturridge in particular manages to make an otherwise pretty unlikeable character more than a one dimensional cad, and Michael Sheen brings real weight to his performance as the wealthy but lonely landowner, and Matthias Schoenaerts also manages to bring some depth to what could be quite a bland part.  However the film belongs to Carey Mulligan who gives a spirited performance in the lead.  She has a real captivating presence.

It is also surprisingly dark in places, and packs some real emotional heft.  

Matthias Schoenaerts and Carey Mulligan are Far from the Madding Crowd

  

Crash

Year of Release:  1996

Director:  David Cronenberg

Screenplay:  David Cronenberg, based on the novel Crash by J. G. Ballard

Starring:  James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara Unger, Rosanna Arquette

Running Time:  100 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Film producer James G. Ballard (Spader) and his wife Catherine (Unger) lead very active but dull sex lives where they each indulge in numerous casual affairs which they recoup in detail to each other.  On his way back from the studio, James is involved in a violent car crash, in which the driver of the other car is killed.  The dead man's wife, Dr. Helen Remington (Hunter), was in the passenger seat and is badly hurt.  In the hospital, James encounters Helen and they begin an affair.  They encounter a strange man named Vaughn (Koteas) who leads them into a strange subculture of people who are sexually aroused by car crashes, and recreate famous crashes.

This is an adaptation of British author J. G. Ballard's cult 1973 novel Crash, and like. a lot of Cronenberg films deals with the complex relationship between humanity and technology.  The topic here is broken machinery and broken bodies and the connection between the two.  In an early scene we see Ballard in hospital, with his leg in a complex surgical splint, and we see a close up of his badly bruised, broken leg penetrated by the metal of the apparatus.  Rosanna Arquette plays a character who wears metal braces, designed almost like fetish wear.  Despite the frequent sex scenes it's a surprisingly dispassionate films, almost clinical, it often feels like a kind of strange scientific documentary, the characters are never judged but the film merely observed.  There is little to no chemistry between the actors, which is intentional.  They are all isolated, lonely people trying to find some kind of connection.  The imagery is cool, set largely around wintery Toronto motorways and anonymous high rise buildings, garages and parking lots.  Even the colours seem washed out, with greys, and pale blues predominating.  The film was hugely controversial even though, despite it's explicit content, it is in no way pornographic, more chilling than arousing.  The film won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for "Originality, Daring and Audacity".  In 1996 the notorious British tabloid press whipped itself up into a vehement campaign to get the film banned, although it was released uncut in the UK in June 1997.  In the USA the film was released in both an uncut NC-17 version and an R-rated version with ten minutes cut.

Needless to say, this won't be to everyone's taste, but if you're in the mood for something challenging and provocative, this is well worth a test drive. 

James Spader in Crash

   

Festen

Year of Release:  1998

Director:  Thomas Vinterberg

Screenplay:  Thomas Vinterberg and Mogens Rukov

Starring:  Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Paprika Steen, Birthe Neumann, Trine Dyrholm

Running Time:  105 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Wealthy patriarch Helge (Moritzen) celebrates his sixtieth birthday with a large gathering of family and friends at an isolated palatial hotel.  During Helge's birthday dinner, his eldest son Christian (Thomsen) makes a speech during which he reveals horrific family secrets.

This film is notable as being the first film made under the auspices of the "Dogme 95" movement which was started in 1995 by Thomas Vinterberg and fellow Danish director Lars von Trier.  Dogme 95 was intended to create films in a stripped down back to basics way abandoning special effects and technical gimmicks, in an attempt to concentrate on the story and the performances.  Festen (which translates to The Celebration) was shot on location with a handheld digital video camera which today makes it look like a found-footage film.  The film mixes tragedy and dark comedy in a way that becomes almost surreal, as the guests are trapped in the hotel when the staff steal their car keys, so they don't miss any of Christian's accusations, and during the long night they get progressively drunker, and laugh and dance between bouts of devastating emotional confrontations.  While the film does drag occasionally, and the style is sometimes distracting, it is a gripping and powerful film, with some great performances.  However I would say that it comes with a big trigger warning.

     Henning Moritzen in Festen

The Touch

Year of Release:  1971

Director:  Ingmar Bergman

Screenplay:  Ingmar Bergman

Starring:  Elliot Gould, Bibi Andersson, Max von Sydow, Sheila Reid

Running Time:  112 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Karin Vergerus (Andersson) lives in a small coastal town in Sweden with her surgeon husband Andreas (Sydow) and two children.  Karin's pleasant, ordered life is turned upside down when she starts an affair with visiting American archeologist David (Gould).

This marks two first for prolific Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.  It was the first film he made for an American studio with an established Hollywood star, and his first film with English dialogue.  Bergman's preferred version of the film has Swedish and English dialogue, but the American studio insisted that he prepare a version entirely in English.  The films tends to be dismissed and overlooked.  Bergman himself regarded it as a "failure".  However I found it a powerful and beautiful film.  The story is told entirely from Karin's perspective, and there are several mysteries which are never explained.  Karin's life with Andreas is solid and nice.  Andreas is a nice, steady, polite, gentle, dependable, handsome man, and they live in a. large, airy, bright house with a lot of sunlight and Karin goes through her steady daily routine with mechanical aplomb, in some playful, early scenes we see her go about her day accompanied by bland, repetitive, irritating pop music.  David is a glamorous foreigner, promising passion and excitement.  He is however volatile, childish, sullen, angry, selfish and sometimes violent.  His large apartment is dark and bare, with a constant noise of construction outside the window.  Karin is trapped between two worlds, unwilling to commit to either.  At one point she mentions fantasising about a world in which she can move seamlessly between her two lives without hurting anyone.  Her turning point comes when she is forced to make a decision one way or another.  Karin and Andreas seem to believe in keeping up appearances and letting sleeping dogs lie.  They are essentially passive.  David however believes in living for the moment, and to hell with the consequences.  He believes in freedom, however the freedom can be a double edged sword.  throughout the film he is renovating. medieval church and excavates a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, which has been immaculately preserved, however when David  uncovers it and puts it on display insects that were hibernating within the statue are revived and start eating it from the inside out.  Another interesting point with David that is only apparent in the bilingual version of the film is that although he has spent six months a year for two years living in Sweden, he never speaks any Swedish only English, and Karin and Andreas only talk to him in English.  It's never discussed whether he knows any Swedish or not.   Max von Sydow gives a typically dignified, restrained performance, conveying a lot while showing very little, Elliot Gould is effective as David although he seems a little uncomfortable with his visit to Bergmanland, but the film belongs to Bibi Andersson who is in almost every scene in the film, and she gives a powerful performance.  The film, which takes place in bleak autumn and winter, is beautifully shot by regular Bergman Cinematographer Sven Nykvist.

This may not be pone of Bergman's best outings, but it is powerful and deserves to be better known.    

Elliot Gould and Bibi Andersson in The Touch
         

Clash of the Titans

Year of Release:  1981

Director: Desmond Davis

Screenplay:  Beverley Cross

Starring:  Harry Hamlin, Laurence Olivier, Judi Bowker, Maggie Smith, Burgess Meredith, Ursula Andress

Running Time:  118 minutes

Genre:  Fantasy

In Ancient Greece, Perseus (Hamlin), son of Zeus (Olivier), King of the Gods, must battle against. multitude of mythological monsters in his quest to rescue the Princess Andromeda (Bowker) from the dreaded Kraken.

This film is loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus, and showcases special effects maestro Ray Harryhausen's stop motion creatures, which include, among others,  a two headed hellhound, the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa, giant scorpions, cursed monster Calibos, winged horse Pegasus, the giant sea-monster known as the Kraken (borrowed from Norse mythology) and a friendly mechanical owl called Bubo.  This is a hugely enjoyable fantasy adventure, which is thoroughly old-fashioned.  Pouty Jim Morrison look-alike Harry Hamlin is kind of bland but effective enough in the lead, while Judi Bowker isn't really given much to do as Andromeda.  As often happens with fantasy films, a supporting cast of acclaimed heavyweight actors gives the procedures some gravitas.  The story moves along at a good pace and is packed with incident, meaning it never gets dull.  Some modern viewers may roll their eyes at how dated the film looks now, particularly the special effects, which in all honesty were seen as dated when the film was released, but there is an innocent, naive charm to the whole thing.  The creature effects are still striking, and each creature is distinctive and has something like a personality.  The film has an appeal that the charmless 2010 remake lacks entirely.  This is fully escapist entertainment.

Release the Kraken:  Clash of the Titans
  

 

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

 Year of Release: 1953

Director:  Eugène Lourié

Screenplay:  Fred Freiberger, Eugène Lourié, Louis Morheim and Robert Smith, based on the short story "The Fog Horn" by Ray Bradbury

Starring:  Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, Kenneth Tobey

Running Time:  80 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction

A nuclear bomb test in the Arctic awakens a prehistoric monster called a Rhedosaur which begins making it's way down the coast of North America.  Professor Thomas Nesbitt (Christian) who witnesses the creature desperately tries to convince a sceptical world of the danger, before the creature can destroy New York City.

When the film was in pre-production, special effects maestro Ray Harryhausen brought the producer's attention to Ray Bradbury's short story "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" (now more commonly published as "The Fog Horn") in an issue of The Saturday Evening Post, particularly an illustration of the creature attacking a lighthouse.  The finished film bears very little resemblance to Bradbury's story though.  The film has aged badly, filled with hoary old cliches, flat direction and some questionable performances, but it has a lot of retro charm, and was a smash hit in it's day.  The movie was the first of the "Giant Monster Created by Radiation" movies that were churned out in the fifties, most notably Godzilla (1954) which was strongly influenced by this film, and most of the cliches really started with this one.  The Beast of the title is a fictional dinosaur called a Rhedosaur and is brought to stop-motion life by Ray Harryhausen. While the special effects may not have aged well, but they have a strange life to them, and the film has some impressive images and scenes, such as the creature attacking the lighthouse silhouetted against the evening sky, the creatures rampage through New York (during which it gobbles up a cop), and the climax at the roller coaster is exciting.  The first hour or so of the film, which basically has the scientist trying to convince everyone that the monster is real is quite sedate, and then the pace picks up in the last twenty minutes, building to a very abrupt conclusion.  It's certainly worth watching, even if it's not a great film, it is a good one, and it does have a lot of innocent charm.

The Rhedosaur in New York, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

  

Urban Legend

 Year of Release:  1998

Director:  Jamie Blanks

Screenplay:  Silvio Horta

Starring:  Alicia Witt, Jared Leto, Rebecca Gayheart, Joshua Jackson, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Loretta Devine, Tara Reid, Michael Rosenbaum, Robert Englund, John Neville,

Running Time:  100 minutes

Genre:  Horror, slasher

The students at the prestigious Pendleton University in New Hampshire are targeted by a parka-wearing serial killer who murders people in ways based on famous urban legends.  The victims seem to be connected by one student in particular, Natalie (Witt) who teams up with journalism student Paul (Leto) to put an end to the bloodshed.

This is one of a glut of similar slasher films that were released in the late 1990s following the success of Scream (1996).  It has an engaging cast including up and coming young stars, TV stars and older cult movie actors such as Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street films, a soundtrack full of Goth and nu-metal music, elaborate and grisly murders, a convoluted plots and some comedy, with a number of in-jokes (in one scene Joshua Jackson starts his car and the theme from Dawson's Creek (1998-2003), the show he starred in, starts playing and he hurriedly switches it off).  One of the film's problems is that the only likeable characters are Alicia Witt's Natalie and Loretta Devine as campus police officer Reese.  The other characters are so unpleasant it's really hard to care what happens to them.  The film is pretty ridiculous, full of implausible coincidences and red herrings, the ending is particularly ludicrous.  Having said that it is enjoyable enough.  It has a few good thrills and scares, and if you are in the right frame of mind for it, you can have some fun with it.  It was followed by two sequels, and a remake is being planned, for some reason.

A killer on the prowl in Urban Legend  

 

"The Member of the Wedding" by Carson McCullers

 Year of Publication:  1946

Length:  179 pages

Genre:  Coming-of-age

The novel takes place over a few days in August in a small town in the Southern United States during World War Two.  Twelve year old Frances Jasmine "Frankie" Addams is a lonely, bored, but highly imaginative girl.  Her closest companions are the family's African American maid, Berenice, and Frankie's six year old cousin, John Henry.  She becomes fascinated with her brother's upcoming wedding and determines to involve herself in the wedding, and run off with the happy couple on their honeymoon.

This is an economical, beautifully written tale about growing up.  While written in the third person the narrative never leaves Frankie's perception of the world around her, a world that is seemingly safe but full of darkness and sharp edges. Frankie is imaginative and very intelligent, but very impulsive and foolhardy.  Her cousin, John Henry, she regards as a nuisance and also a companion.  Her mother is dead, and her father lives in the house, but is a largely absent figure, who seems to have little to no understanding of Frankie and her needs.  Her main caregiver and probably closest friend is Berenice, who is the only one who seems to really understand Frankie, and certainly the only one who really seems to make an effort to understand her, she also presents a different and more complex world to Frankie and the reader.  Berenice is a cleverly and sensitively drawn character.  While race is not a key theme in the novel, it is definitely present.  One of the most disturbing elements in the book is Frankie's meeting with an unnamed soldier, and there is darkness throughout the book.  It has elements of gentle nostalgia, but there is cruelty at it's core.  It takes place during the Second World War, which is discussed throughout, contrasting the small seemingly unchanging town, with the chaos and tumult going on in the world outside.  The book's key incident, the wedding itself, barely features, brushed over in a few paragraphs, it exists in the world of hope and memory.  

Color Out of Space

 Year of Release:  2019

Director:  Richard Stanley

Screenplay:  Richard Stanley and Scarlett Amaris, based on the short story "The Colour Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft

Starring:  Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Elliot Knight, Madeleine Arthur, Q'orianka Kilcher, Tommy Chong

Running Time:  111 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, horror

Nathan Gardner (Cage) and Theresa Gardner (Richardson) move with their three children:  Teenagers Lavinia (Arthur) and Benny (Brendan Meyer) and youngest son Jack (Julian Hilliard) to a remote farm in the middle of the New England woods.  One night a meteor crashes down near their home, releasing bizarre coloured lights and seeming to have a strange effect on anyone who comes near it.  Shortly afterwards the meteor seems to vanish.  Hydrologist Ward Phillips (Knight), who is surveying the area for a dam development discovers that something strange seems to have contaminated the water.  As strange events happen around the Gardner family, local animals and people begin to undergo nightmarish transformations.

American writer Howard Philips Lovecraft is one of the most influential and problematic horror and science-fiction authors of all time.  His work is challenging for filmmakers is difficult not only for the horrific racism, sexism and anti-semitism that blights his life and writing, but also Lovecraft's writings tended to be about dimensions and creatures so terrible that the very sight of them would drive a human insane, which is very difficult to realise on screen.  Lovecraft has been adapted to the screen before, perhaps most notably in Re-Animator (1985) and From Beyond (1986), but this is one of the best depictions of Lovecraftian horror that I have seen.  Cult film director Richard Stanley and co-writer Scarlett Amaris update the film enough to be acceptable to modern audiences, while still keeping the cosmic horror feel of the story.  Stanley creates beautifully artistic images, with special effects which range from the subtle to the completely psychedelic, alongside gruesome 1980s style pulp horror.  In the lead role Nicolas Cage goes from quiet and subdued, to his trademark full-on manic frenzy.  The film is overly long and it takes a while to get going, also Cage's over the top performance in the final third of the film becomes almost funny.  It is a good film, not without it's flaws, but is one of the most successful H.P. Lovecraft adaptations, and is full of striking, memorable imagery.

Nicolas Cage sees the Color Out of Space

Jojo Rabbit

Year of Release:  2019

Director:  Taika Waititi

Screenplay:  Taika Waititi, based on the novel Caging Skies by Christine Leunens

Starring:  Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Taika Waititi, Scarlett Johansson, Rebel Wilson, Sam Rockwell, Alfie Allen, Stephen Merchant

Running Time:  108 minutes

Genre:  Comedy-drama, war

Nazi Germany:  Johannes "Jojo" Betzler (Davis) is an innocent ten year old boy who is nevertheless heavily indoctrinated with Nazi ideology, and is an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth.  His best friend is an imaginary Adolf Hitler (Waititi).  Jojo discovers that his mother, Rosie (Johansson), is hiding a young Jewish girl, Elsa (McKenzie).  Jojo is scared to turn her in, and he and Elsa begin a tentative friendship.  

In the wrong hands this film could be in hugely bad taste, however it is by turns hilariously funny and absolutely heartbreaking.  The film is anchored by young actors Roman Griffin Davis and Thomasin McKenzie  who move from mutual fear and loathing to a kind of genuine friendship.  To Jojo, fascism is basically adventure, friendship and acceptance.  He has swallowed the lies hook, line and sinker, but he remains at his core, an essentially good hearted little boy, who just believes what he's been told.  When he meets Elsa he begins to slowly realise that Jewish people are not the demonic, supernatural monsters that he has been told they are.  Thomasin McKenzie is intensely moving as Elsa, whose safety depends on trusting people who she has every reason  not to.  She is a survivor, in constant danger, but she is also a normal teenage girl.  The familiar faces in supporting roles are all very good, with writer-director Taika Waititi as an idiotic imaginary Hitler, who moves from childlike best friend, to an increasingly threatening presence, as Jojo becomes increasingly disillusioned with Nazism.  Scarlett Johansson is hugely impressive as Rosie, Jojo's mother, torn between her duty to fight the evil that she sees around her, and her duty to care for her child.  The film has a child's eye view of it's events, moving from childlike adventure and flights of imagination to fear and danger.  The use of German versions of anachronistic songs by The Beatles and David Bowie adds an additional fantasy element.  The subject matter of the film places it in very difficult territory, but it navigates it with barely a misstep.  It is among the best and most moving films of the past few years.

Taika Waititi and Roman Griffin Davis in Jojo Rabbit
 

    

Pasolini

 Year of Release: 2014

Director:  Abel Ferrara

Screenplay:  Maurizio Braucci

Starring:  Willem Dafoe, Ninetto Davoli, Riccardo Scamarcio, Valerio Mastandrea, Adriana Asti, Giada Colagrande, Maria de Medeiros

Running Time:  84 minutes

Genre:  Drama, biography, 

Rome, 1975:  Internationally acclaimed film director, poet, screenwriter, author, essayist, critic, commentator and intellectual Pier Paolo Pasolini (Dafoe) his just completed his notorious film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom and has returned home to start work on two new projects: a novel, and another film.  However neither of the projects are completed, as Pasolini is brutally murdered.

The film moves between the events of Pasolini's final few hours and recreations of scenes from his planned film and unwritten novel.  It's less of a biography of Pier Paolo Pasolini, and more of a tribute to him.  The film assumes that it's audience are already familiar with Pasolini, and at least the basic facts of his life and work.  If you are not familiar with him, then you won't learn anything about the man or why he was so important.  Prolific director Abel Ferrara began his career with the notorious The Driller Killer (1979) before moving on to disturbing cult films such as Ms. 45 (1981), King of New York (1990), Bad Lieutenant (1992), The Addiction (1995) and The Funeral (1996).  This is more of a European art film but, while it lacks much of Ferrara's earlier carnage, this still has some explicit sex and the climatic murder is deeply disturbing.  Moving between fact and fantasy it's sometimes unclear as to what is actually happening, but Ferrara conjures some startling images.  Clad in black leather jacket, with dyed black hair and eyes permanently hidden behind dark glasses Willem Dafoe bears a remarkable physical resemblance to Pasolini, given to making gravely pronouncements in restaurants and during interviews, Pasolini remains a cipher, but in the scenes with his friends and families, Dafoe imbues him with genuine warmth.  the film also costars Pasolini regular Ninetto Davoli.  While this would be inaccessible for newcomers, Pasolini fans should enjoy it.

  Willem Dafoe as Pasolini

Creepshow 2

 Year of Release:  1987

Director:  Michael Gornick

Screenplay:  George A. Romero, based on stories by Stephen King

Starring:  Lois Chiles, George Kennedy, Dorothy Lamour, Tom Savini

Running Time:  92 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Young Billy (Domenick John) cannot wait to get his hands on the latest issue of his favourite comic book Creepshow.  The comic's mysterious host, The Creep (Savini, voiced by Joe Silver), introduces three stories:  The murderers of two beloved elderly people are pursued by a vengeful "cigar store Indian" statue; Four pot-smoking, partying teens swim out to a raft in the middle of a large lake for some fun but find themselves preyed upon by a carnivorous oil slick; A hit and run driver (Chiles) is pursued by the vengeful spirit of the hitchhiker she killed.

The original Creepshow (1982) was written by Stephen King and directed by George A. Romero.  Here Romero takes on scripting duties, with King providing the source material.  One of the stories, "The Raft", had previously been published, and can be found in King's 1985 Skeleton Crew collection, the other were original to the film.  As with the previous film this serves as a tribute to the EC horror comics of the 1950s such as Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror.  However this lacks the style of the first film.  The whole thing looks very low-budget and ropey, despite some good make up effects in the first segment.  The man-eating oil slick in the second segment basically looks like a plastic sheet with some gunk on top of it.  The best of the bunch is the third story, mainly thanks to a very strong performance from Lois Chiles.  The three tales are linked by an animated framing story, that really looks like a very cheap children's cartoon.  The film's director, Michael Gornick, worked as Director of Photography on the first film and gets some interesting visuals.  There are some problematic elements with it's depiction of native Americans.  In keeping with it's inspiration,  the film has a strongly old-fashioned morality, where if you don't follow the rules exactly very bad things will happen to you.  This is not as good as the original film, but it's brainless old-fashioned nonsense and is fun if your in the right mood for it.  Stephen King appears in a cameo as a truck driver.

The Creep (Tom Savini) makes a delivery in Creepshow 2

     

Time Bandits

 Year of Release:  1981

Director:  Terry Gilliam

Screenplay:  Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin

Starring:  John Cleese, Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Michael Palin, Ralph Richardson, Peter Vaughan, David Warner, Craig Warnock, David Rappaport, Kenny Baker, Jack Purvis, Mike Edmonds, Tiny Ross 

Running Time:  113 minutes

Genre:  Fantasy, comedy

Young Kevin (Warnock) lives in an average house in middle-class suburban England, with his normal parents.  One night Kevin is woken up by a knight in full armour on horseback bursting out of his wardrobe and running through his bedroom wall.  This heralds the start of a bizarre adventure when he encounters a gang of quarrelling dwarves who have stolen a map revealing the locations of holes in space and time, which they plan to use to commit a series of robberies throughout history.  They encounter Napoleon (Holm) who is obsessed with his own height, a frightfully posh Robin Hood (Cleese), the Ancient Greek warrior Agamemnon (Connery), take a trip aboard the RMS Titanic, and become unwittingly embroiled in the age-old battle between Good (Richardson) and Evil (Warner).

This is a delightfully dark comic fantasy which shows director Terry Gilliam at his very best.  Co-written with fellow Monty Python alumni Michael Palin, who also appears along with fellow Python John Cleese, this has a real Pythonesque feel to it, and feels like a low-budget British take on the American blockbuster.  There is a distinctly British feel to the film, despite Terry Gilliam being American, with the minutiae of everyday mundanity existing cheek-by-jowl with fantastic wonders, and characters being adrift in a chaotic and hostile universe.  Working on a limited budget the filmmakers work wonders with some impressive special effects and memorable images (for example a large old sailing ship turns out to be a giant's hat).  Almost every frame is packed with detail, and there is a real chaotic feel to the film and you do feel like anything could happen.  As Kevin, the film's anchor role, young Craig Warnock doesn't really have much to do except look wide-eyed, but the dwarves have well-defined personalities and their constant bickering with each other is very funny ("I can't stand people who are right!"  "That must be how you get on with yourself so well").  Otherwise you have famous faces appearing in small funny roles, with the late, great Sean Connery giving real gravitas to the part of Agamemnon, even if his Scottish accent doesn't sound quite right for an Ancient Greek hero, and Ian Holm as the mercurial Napoleon, give to drunken rants about the heights of famous historical people.  David Warner relishing every second as Evil, and Ralph Richardson as a querulous Supreme Being ("Dead, eh?  That's no excuse for slacking off work").  There is also a very early appearance by Jim Broadbent as a game show host.  The film has some still quite pointed satire, and a surprisingly bleak conclusion.  It was co-produced by former Beatle George Harrison who provides the closing theme song "Dream Away", some of the lyrics of which were apparently inspired by his notes to Gilliam during the film's production.  

David Rappaport, Kenny Baker, Malcolm Dixon, Jack Purvis, Mike Edmonds and Tiny Ross are Time Bandits 

The Fall of the House of Usher

 Year of Release:  1960

Director:  Roger Corman

Screenplay:  Richard Matheson, based on the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe

Starring:  Vincent Price, Mark Damon, Myrna Fahey, Harry Ellerbe

Running Time:  79 minutes

Genre:  Horror

19th Century America:  Philip Winthrop (Damon) travels to the lonely decaying House of Usher, to visit his fiancée Madeline Usher (Fahey) who lives alone in the mansion with her brother Roderick (Price) and their servant Bristol (Ellerbe).  Madeline and particularly Roderick both suffer from hypersensitivity.  Roderick strongly disapproves of his sister's engagement, because he believes that the Usher bloodline is cursed, and is determined that the family end with him and his sister.

Director Roger Corman and distributor American-International Pictures were known at the time for churning out super low-budget, black-and-white "B" movies, for drive-ins, and grindhouse cinemas, as well as filling out the bottom half of double-bills and kid's matinees.  However the feeling was that the market for those movies was starting to decline, and Corman convinced AIP to put a bit more money behind this film and make it in colour, with some attempt at decent production values, and based on a respected literary source.  Acclaimed horror writer Richard Matheson (author of I Am Legend (1954), The Shrinking Man (1956) and numerous episodes of The Twilight Zone) adapted Edgar Allan Poe's short story into a literate and intelligent script.  Although it was expensive by Roger Corman and AIP standards, this was still a low-budget film, and takes place entirely within the confines of the mansion with only four speaking roles, and the meat of the drama is the struggle between Roderick and Philip for Madeline, whether she likes it or not.  Vincent Price is the standout, turning in a sensitive, quiet performance as the tormented Roderick, making what could be a straightforward villain, pitiable and sympathetic.  Also, he believes that he is doing the right thing, no matter how unpleasant it may be.  Myrna Fahey is effective as the unhappy Madeline.  However, Mark Damon is never really more than the typical square-jawed hero.  The film is directed with style, and Corman manages to get every bit of melodrama from the story.  The house itself becomes a character in the story, with it's constant creaking and crumbling, as it moves toward it's final dissolution.  It really needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible in high definition, to get all the impact from the beautifully designed sets, and such, vibrant colour photography.

Also released simply as House of Usher, it was quite a big hit in it's day, and became the first of eight movie based on Edgar Allan Poe stories that Roger Corman made with Vincent Price.

Mark Damon and Vincent Price in The Fall of the House of Usher

      

Full Moon in Paris

 Year of Release:  1984

Director:  Éric Rohmer

Screenplay:  Éric Rohmer

Starring:  Pascale Ogier, Tchéky Karyo, Fabrice Luchini

Running Time:  102 minutes

Genre:  Drama, comedy

Young interior designer Louise (Ogier) lives with her fiancé Rémi (Karyo) in the suburbs of Paris.  Feeling left out from the nightlife of the city centre and missing the freedom of her single life, Louise decides to buy a pied-à-terre as a second home.

This is the fourth of writer-director Éric Rohmer's "Comedies and Proverbs" cycle.  It's a well made film, with each shot elegantly composed and staged.  It consists of long conversations about the nature of love and freedom.  Louise and Rémi love each other, but they are very different.  Louise wants to enjoy her life and freedom but Rémi wants to stay home, and resents her from going out without him, although Louise also enjoys hanging out in her new apartment working and reading and relaxing on her own.  However, it soon turns out that freedom can have drastic consequences.  It's a slow-moving film, and the deliberate pace may alienate some viewers, however, for the patient viewer, it does have it's rewards.   The performances are appealing, particularly Pascale Ogier, who is fantastic in the lead role.

Fabrice Luchini and Pascale Ogier in Full Moon in Paris

   

The Lighthouse

Year of Release:  2019

Director:  Robert Eggers

Screenplay:  Robert Eggers and Max Eggers

Starring:  Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe

Running Time:  109 minutes

Genre:  Period drama, horror

In the late 19th century, two lighthouse keepers (or "wickies") head out to tend to a remote lighthouse off the coast of New England.  When they are stranded at the lighthouse during a terrible storm, their sanity begins to unravel due to the stress, the lack of supplies, the harsh conditions on the island, their isolation and their heavy drinking.

Director and co-writer Robert Eggers first came to prominence in 2016 with his feature debut The Witch, and has come out with one of the strangest films in recent years.  Filmed in crisp black-and-white, with dialogue influenced by the journals of lighthouse keepers of the period and the works of 19th Century American writer Sarah Orne Jewett, with elements from Herman Melville, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Allan Poe, the film mixes bleak realism, surreal fantasy and elements of lowbrow comedy (there are a surprising amount of fart jokes).  The film is almost entirely a two hander between Robert Pattinson as the neurotic newcomer and Willem Dafoe, as the irritable, superstitious veteran, both turning in fantastic performances, alternating between tentative friendliness, almost homoerotic intimacy, odd-couple comedy and real menace and threat as the balance of powers shifts in some unexpected ways.  The film almost feels like a queasy nightmare, and a relic from a previous age.  It's full of references to art, literature and mythology, and cinematically feels like a folk horror film from Ingmar Bergman or Carl Theodor Dreyer, although it properly belongs to a world far older than cinema.  This is a film that may not exactly be enjoyable in a conventional sense, but people will be looking at it and analysing it for years to come.

 Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson in The Lighthouse

Host

Year of Release:  2020

Director:  Rob Savage

Screenplay:  Gemma Hurley, Rob Savage,  Jed Shepherd

Starring:  Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova, Caroline Ward, Teddy Lind, Seylan Baxter

Running Time:  57 minutes

Genre:  Horror

While in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, six bored friends decide to take part in an online seance over Zoom.  It all appears to be a fun distraction from being stuck in their own homes, until it becomes apparent that a supernatural entity has been summoned.

This found-footage British horror film takes place entirely over a Zoom call.  It was filmed under the quarantine restrictions for the COVID-19 pandemic, Savage directed remotely, with each of the  actors handling their own lighting, camera, stunts and practical effects.  This is a film very much of it's time, and could be the first film of the COVID era.  However, in many ways this is quite a traditional found-footage film, with many of the scare tactics being familiar from films such as Paranormal Activity (2007), and Unfriended (2014), which also takes place over a group video chat.  The backdrop of the lockdown is effective for a horror film, since we can all relate to it, the claustrophobia, and boredom, and also, for some people, being stuck with someone who we may not want to be with.  This is one of the better found footage films, and certainly worth watching for horror fans.

Haley Bishop, Caroline Ward, Emma Louise Webb, Jemma Moore and Radina Drandova in Host

The Silence of the Lambs

Year of Release: 1991

Director:  Jonathan Demme

Screenplay:  Ted Tally, based on the novel The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

Starring:  Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine

Running Time:  118 minutes

Genre:  Crime, horror, psychological thriller

FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Foster) is investigated a brutal serial killer known as "Buffalo Bill", and finds unexpected advice from notorious incarcerated serial killer Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter (Hopkins). 

Based on the 1989 novel by Thomas Harris, this film became an unexpected box office smash and swept the Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.  To this day it remains hugely influential and has become a pop culture touchstone.  It is a perfectly constructed thriller.  there is the race against time to stop Buffalo Bill before he kills his latest victim, and the psychological gamesplaying and weird kind of romance between Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling.  Jodie Foster is perfect as the rookie FBI agent, coming across as a mix of toughness and vulnerability, which is a woman in a very male-dominated world.  Frequently she is seen surrounded by men towering over her.  Anthony Hopkins creates one of the great movie monsters as the reptilian, laser-eyed Lecter, leering at us from the screen, seldom blinking.  The Silence of the Lambs was the second novel to feature, Lecter.  The first, Red Dragon, was filmed as Manhunter (1986) with Brian Cox as Lecter (or "Lecktor" as he is called in that).  While Manhunter is a great film, and well worth checking out if you haven't already, Hopkins remains definitive.  The film has come in for criticism in recent years due to it's depiction of trans issues.  Be that as it may, this is one of the greatest thrillers ever made.

Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs

Meek's Cutoff

Year of Release: 2010

Director:  Kelly Reichardt

Screenplay:  Jonathan Raymond

Starring:  Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson

Running Time:  104 minutes

Genre:    Western, drama

This film is set in 1845 during the Oregon Trail, a small group of settlers throw in with disreputable guide Stephen Meek (Greenwood), who claims that he knows a short cut through the Oregon High Desert.  As a journey of two weeks becomes five, tensions among the group increase, as food, water and other supplies start to run low.  Things come to a head when the group kidnap a lone Native American (Rod Rondeaux), and try to force him to show them where they can find water.

This meditative, slow burning Western may not be to everyone's tastes, but if you stick with it, it casts a surprising spell.  The film is beautifully photographed, with long still shots, often depicting the characters in the middle distance, dwarfing them among the grandeur of the landscape.  The cast is note perfect, and it rings the changes with the traditional Western by staying mainly with the women, left out of the main decisions and debates which are held at a remove with the sound muted.  Very little really happens in the film, with it being mostly characters trudging through a beautiful but bleak landscape with occasional muttered discussing and arguments.  It tried my patience at first, but after I had got used to the film's rhythms and pace I really got into it, and, if you go along with it, it is really absorbing.  

  

Michelle Williams in Meek's Cutoff 

Matinee

Year of Release:  1993
Director:  Joe Dante
Screenplay:  Charles S. Haas, from a story by Charles S. Haas and Jericho Stone 
Starring:  John Goodman, Cathy Moriarty, Simon Fenton. Omri Katz, Kellie Martin, Lisa Jakub
Running Time:  99 minutes
Genre:  Comedy

Key West, Florida, October 1962:  Flamboyant B-movie producer Lawrence Woolsey (Goodman) comes to town to preview his latest epic, a science-fiction/horror film called Mant!.  However the Cuban Missile Crisis has started and the town is in a state of red alert.  Young horror fan, Gene Loomis (Fenton) is one of the Naval kids whose father is on a blockade ship around Cuba.  On Saturday night at the movies, teenage romance, on-screen horror, and real-life fear collide.

This is a fun period comedy film.  It works as a celebration of cinema itself and horror in particular, the film-within-the-film, Mant!, is a very funny recreation of those terrible atomic age B-movies from the 1950s and '60s.  John Goodman is pitch perfect as the twinkly, enthusiastic Lawrence Woolsey who, with his gimmick-laden shows, seems to be based on real-life producer/director William Castle.  The film also features Cathy Moriarty, as Woolsey's long-suffering wife and lead actress.  The main focus of the film are the kids, Gene (Simon Fenton), his little brother (Jesse Lee), his best friend Stan (Omri Katz), rebellious Sandra (Lisa Jakub) and Stan's love interest Sherry (Kellie Martin), whose ex-boyfriend is a violent thug and aspiring poet.  The usual teen movie hijinks are present here, but it's all set against the backdrop of this looming threat of imminent nuclear annihilation, which during the Cuban Missile Crisis was seen as not so much if as when.  The appeal of horror films is partly because the onscreen horrors can act as a release and a respite from the real horrors of life, which can seem lessened, and this film deals with that.  The film has  a great soundtrack of period songs, and also pokes fun at various other aspects of 1962 such as beatniks, and weird fantasy family films with another film-within-a-film, The Shook-Up Shopping Cart, which features an early appearance form Naomi Watts.  There are also appearances form B-movie stalwart and Dante regular Dick Miller and actor/writer and director John Sayles.
This is a hugely enjoyable film, which manages to balance laughs, nostalgia, and drama.

it's showtime in Matinee       

"Agent Running in the Field" by John le Carre

Year of Publication:  2019
Length:  366 pages
Genre:  Spy, thriller

This is the 26th book by British author John le Carré and he still has his finger on the political pulse of our troubled times.  The story revolves around Nat, a 47 year old veteran of the British Secret Service, who forms a friendship with a young man named Ed with whom he plays badminton once a week.  At first these games offer a respite from Nat's professional problems, as he is put in charge of an all but washed-up subsection of the Service, with a motley collection of spies.  However soon his personal and professional lives collide and Nat finds himself in an even murkier world of betrayal and intrigue.

This book deals with some of the most pressing political issues of our time and John le Carré is scathing against Brexit, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Boris Johnson.  However, this is not a political tract.  It mixes important messages with an exciting thriller plot full of interesting and engaging characters, and the story moves forward at a fast pace.  Despite being almost 80, le Carré has lost none of his ability to tell a story or remain engaged in the times that he is living in.  If you have never read le Carré before, this is a very good place to start.

 

Wittgenstein

Year of Release:  1993
Director:  Derek Jarman
Screenplay:  Terry Eagleton, Ken Butler, Derek Jarman
Starring:  Clancy Chassay, Karl Johnson, Nabil Shaban, Michael Gough, Tilda Swinton
Running Time:  75 minutes
Genre:  Drama, biography

This film is based on the life and work of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (played as a child by Clancy Chassay, and as an adult by Karl Johnson).  It plays out as a series of surreal sketches, against a black backdrop with only the actors and key props. Wittgenstein narrates the story of his own life, frequently breaking the fourth wall to address the viewer directly.  The film tires to get not the head of the philosopher and show his ideas and inner world, some of it is genuine fantasy, such as the frequent appearance of Nabil Shaban (probably best known for his occasional appearances on Doctor Who (1963-1989, 2005- )) as a furry green alien who turns up to chat with the young Wittgenstein.  Jarman regulars Michael Gough and Tilda Swinton appear as Wittgenstein's mentor Bertrand Russell and Lady Ottoline Morrell.  Clancy Chassay is good as the young Wittgenstein, and Karl Johnson gives a very strong performance as the tormented adult philosopher.  While it does at times feel like an offbeat fringe theatre production, the brightly coloured, exaggerated props and costumes make an effective contrast with the darkness that surrounds the action.  This was Derek Jarman's last but one film, and was made while he was dying of an AIDS-related illness, however this is one of his most playful and humorous films.

"If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done."
- Ludwig Wittgenstein (Clancy Chassay) in Wittgenstein

Karl Johnson in Wittgenstein 

Tenet

Year of Release:  2020
Director:  Christopher Nolan
Screenplay:  Christopher Nolan
Starring:  John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh
Running Time:  150 minutes
Genre:  Thriller, science-fiction, spy

The Protagonist (Washington) is a secret agent who finds himself embroiled in a bizarre adventure involving weapons that are "chronologically inverted" meaning that they move backwards in time, and the effect comes before the cause.  These weapons have the potential to destroy the world due to entropy.

This film has had a difficult road to the screen, despite being one of 2020's most anticipated films, having been delayed three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Is it worth the wait?  Yes and no.  Tenet is almost textbook Nolan, for better and worse.  It features some incredible action set pieces, and much of it is really exciting, it also has some great performances, with John David Washington, in particular, impressive as the suave super-spy.  However the plot is extremely confusing and it is often hard to follow.  You really need to keep your wits about you the entire time, there is not much humour, and the dialogue is full of complex exposition.  It also has an air of coldness and detachment about the whole thing, which makes it hard to engage with the characters.  It is still worth seeing, though,  because when it is good, it is very very good, and there are times when it is an extremely exciting, complex thriller.

Robert Pattinson and John David Washington in Tenet 

"Exhalation" by Ted Chiang

Year of Publication:  2019
Length:  350 pages
Genre:  Science-fiction, short stories

In this collection of nine short stories by author Ted Chiang, a merchant in ancient Baghdad uses a time portal to try to fix past mistakes; an investigation into a seemingly small oddity causes an alien doctor to stumble upon a secret which could threaten the entire universe; a novelty device puts the entire question of free will into question; a new type of virtual pet develops intelligence and self-awareness; a Victorian robot nanny produces unexpected and disturbing side effects; a company develops software that could give an individual perfect recall of any event in their lives; the first contact with a non-human intelligence could come from much closer to home than anyone could guess; a scientist on a highly religious alternate Earth makes a discovery that could put all their beliefs into question; and a device that allows people to see into the lives of their counterpart in parallel universes leads to positive and negative outcomes.

This is the second volume of short stories by American author Ted Chiang, who is probably best known for his story "Story of Your Life", which was adapted as the film Arrival (2016).  The stories in this volume deal with some well-known science-fiction concepts, but they are dealt with in a refreshingly unique way.  The fantastical elements are well-rendered and intelligently realised, and the stories are more concerned with their impact on  human nature.  Chiang is a very good writer, who doesn't just craft intriguing and intelligent stories, but also deeply moving ones as well.  There is a real humanity and compassion here.  This is well recommended for anyone looking for great science-fiction, and also great contemporary fiction in general.

Sexy Beast

Year of Release:  2000
Director:  Jonathan Glazer
Screenplay:  Louis Mellis and David Scinto
Starring:  Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, Cavan Kendall, Julianne White,  Álvaro Monje, James Fox
Running Time:  88 minutes
Genre:  Crime

Gal Dove (Winstone) is a retired British criminal who is now living happily in Spain with his wife DeeDee (Redman).  Gal and DeeDee's peaceful life is interrupted by the arrival of brutal gangster Don Logan (Kingsley) who wants Gal to take part in a bank robbery in London.  Gal wants no part in it, but Logan refuses to take no for an answer.

This film, which marks the feature debut from director Jonathan Glazer, has a fairly straightforward plot, but is elevated by a razor sharp and witty script with great performances, particularly from Ben Kingsley who is terrifying as the unpredictable sociopath Don Logan.  Ray Winstone provides the film's dramatic heft as the ex-crook who just wants to be left in peace, and Ian McShane is striking as the urbane, dead-eyed crime boss who is arranging the heist.  No one else in the film really gets much room to make an impression.  These three guys get the lion's share of the screen time and dialogue.  Contrasting the gorgeous, sun-drenched Spanish landscapes with the grey, dull, urbanity of London, the film is visually impressive, although the occasional surreal fantasy sequences are distracting and out of place.  Much of the tension in the film is from the verbal sparring between Logan and Gal, the threat of violence rather than the actual act, although the film does culminate in some shocking violence.
While this may not be the best British gangster film ever made, it is certainly above average.

Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast       

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

 Year of Release:  2018

Director:  Terry Gilliam

Screenplay:  Terry Gilliam and Tony Girsoni, based on the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Starring:  Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce, Stellan Skarsgård, Olga Kurylenko

Running Time:  132 minutes

Genre:  Action-adventure, comedy

Toby (Driver) is a disillusioned director who is in Spain shooting a commercial based on the story of Don Quixote, he also happens to be near the location of his student film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which he made with non-professional actors ten years previously.  Toby runs into his star, a cobbler, Javier (Pryce), who now believes that he really is Don Quixote, and that Toby is his loyal squire, Sancho Panza.  Javier drags Toby off in search of adventure.

This film has become almost notorious, due to how long it has been in the works.  Gilliam had been attempting to make a film based on Miguel de Cervantes' 17th century novel Don Quixote, since about 1990, and there have been several aborted attempts to film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, one of which has been immortalised in the 2002 documentary film Lost in La Mancha, so Gilliam deserves some credit just for getting the thing made.  Is the finished film worth waiting nearly 30 years for?  No.  Is it a good film and worth seeing?  Yes.  This features both the good and the bad of Terry Gilliam's work.  It is sprawling, overlong, uneven and indulgent.  It is also ambitious and imaginative.  When it is good, and it is good very often, then it is truly wonderful.  At it's worse, it's just a mess but, despite it's generous running time, it's never dull.  It's also surprisingly dark.  Adam Driver is good as a pretty unlikeable character, and Jonathan Pryce is great as the frail but noble Don Quixote who becomes almost admirable in his romantic delusion.  Stellan Skarsgård is good as ever as Toby's formidable Boss, and Olga Kurylenko is very good, if underused, as the Boss' seductive wife, Jacqui.  The film covers some very familiar Gilliam territory:  The individual versus society, dreams versus reality, and the nature of sanity or insanity.  The film looks fantastic throughout with some striking locations and set pieces.  When looking at Terry Gilliam's career, it is easy to see why Quixote holds such an attraction for him, and he is to be admired for succeeding in his quest to get this film made.

It is not a perfect film, and it may not be the masterpiece that Gilliam fans may have hoped for, but it is a flawed, enjoyable, eccentric work touched by moments of genius, and I will take that over the bland, committee led franchise fare that seems to make up a lot of modern movies any day of the week.  

Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce ride out in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

        

Lords of Chaos

Year:  2018
Director:  Jonas Åkerlund
Screenplay:  Jonas Åkerlund and Dennis Magnusson, based on the book Lords of Chaos by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind
Starring:  Rory Culkin, Emory Cohen, Jack Kilmer, Sky Ferreira, Valter Skarsgård
Running Time:  118 minutes
Genre:  Horror, thriller, crime, music

Norway, the late 1980s:  Teenager Øystein  Aarseth (Culkin), known as Euronymous, forms groundbreaking band Mayhem and creates a new subgenre:  True Norwegian Black Metal.  The band begin to attract a lot of attention in the Metal scene, with troubled lead singer Pelle Ohlin (Kilmer), who calls himself "Dead".  Euronymous soon finds has his own record store and record label, Deathlike Silence, and signs singer Kristian Vikernes (Cohen), who calls himself Varg.  However, it soon becomes much darker, as some begin to act on the group's evil, Satanic persona leading to suicide, a spate of high-profile arson attacks on churches and murder.

This film is based on the early years of the Norwegian Black Metal music scene from the late 1980s until 1993.  The opening title of the film states that it is "Based on Truth... And Lies... And What Actually Happened", so I don't know how accurate or not it is, and Black metal is not really my taste in music, so i really know nothing about it.  However, I did like this film.  It has a curious mix of tones though, moving from typical music biography material (the band get together, struggle, there are conflicts, the band achieve some success, there are more conflicts, break ups and make ups and so on), almost goofy Spinal Tap style humour, and some deeply disturbing scenes.  There are several long, brutally shocking scenes of violence in the film that even I, hardened horror fan as I am, found hard to watch.  Throughout the film, the characters are very dismissive of "posers", and yet they are kind of posers themselves, they adopt this Satanic, dark evil persona to shock and frighten people, and have their own little exclusive club (called the "Black Circle"), but some take it way too seriously.  The performances are good, even if some of the actors seem a little too old and clean cut for the roles that they are playing.  The film feels too long at times and the pacing feels off at times, but it is still a compelling and genuinely disturbing true-life horror film.

Rory Culkin and Jack Kilmer are lords of Chaos   

"Beautiful You" by Chuck Palahniuk

Year of Publication:  2014
Length:  222 pages
Genre:  Satire

Naive, ambitious Penny Harrigan, from Omaha, works as an assistant at a prestigious law firm in New York City where she meets Cornelius Linus Maxwell, the richest man in the world, known to the press as "Climax-well" due to his string of famous glamorous girlfriends. He sweeps Penny off her feet, and soon she finds herself living a jet-set lifestyle meeting the most powerful and beautiful people in the world, with every luxury she could possible want.  However Penny immediately realises that she is not Maxwell's girlfriend, but a guinea pig for his experiments in sex and sensuality, and he is using the results of his experiments to devise a groundbreaking range of sex toys for women, marketed as "Beautiful You".  As the women of the world become addicted to the extreme pleasures of the Beautiful You products, Maxwell's darker purpose becomes clear.

This is the fourteenth novel from cult American author Chuck Palahniuk, who is probably still best known for his debut novel Fight Club (1996).  Like most of his books, this is a contemporary satire, in which an aspect of modern life is take to apocalyptic extremes, notably sex and consumerism, and the exploitation of women's sexuality.  This is not one of Palahniuk's best works by any means, the ending in particular is disappointing, but it is well-written and raises some compelling themes, even if they could be explored further. 

       

The Dead Don't Die

Year:  2019
Director:  Jim Jarmusch
Screenplay:  Jim Jarmusch
Starring:  Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloë Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Selena Gomez, RZA, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits
Running Time:  103 minutes
Genre:  Horror, comedy

The small American town of Centerville is experiencing a series of bizarre events:  It gets dark either far too late or far too early for the time of year, animals are behaving out of character or disappearing, and electronic equipment is behaving very erratically.  Things get much worse when the dead start to come out of the grave and feast on the flesh of the living. 

This marks the second time that acclaimed indie director Jim Jarmusch has entered horror territory, following acclaimed vampire movie Only Lovers Left Alive (2013).  This did not get the same positive reception on it's release.  The humour is very deadpan, police officers Bill Murray and Adam Driver seem to sleepwalk throughout the entire film even before the zombies appear, and is full of bizarre touches, such as Tilda Swinton as an eccentric, samurai sword wielding Scottish mortician (with a frankly extraordinary accent), and Murray and Driver's characters seem to be aware that they are characters in a film, and the film's theme song becomes a recurring in-joke throughout the film.  It's also full of references to other horror films.  This isn't really scary at all, and at times it is too self-consciously cool for it's own good, and the characters are too "hip" and quirky to really feel realistic.  it also hammers home it's political message a little too bluntly at times.  Personally though, I did find it consistently funny.  The zombies themselves are effectively designed, "bleeding" clouds of black ash, and drawn to the things that they loved when they were alive.  It boasts an impressive cast, who all seem to be having fun.

Bill Murray, Chloë Sevigny and Adam Driver face off against zombies in The Dead Don't Die

"If Not Now, When?" by Primo Levi

Year of Publication:  1982
Translator:  William Weaver
Introduction:  Mark Mazower
Length:  331 pages
Genre:  War

Set during the last couple of years of the Second World War, the novel follows a band of mostly Jewish partisans and resistance fighters, from Poland and Russia, as they survive in Nazi-occupied territory.  Always on the move, struggling against harsh conditions, often lacking food and supplies, and wracked by fear, personal tensions and rivalries, they try to sabotage and hamper the Nazis as much as possible, fuelled by revenge, loyalty, patriotism, and hopes for a life after the conflict.

Primo Levi was an Italian chemist and writer who is probably best known for his autobiographical works recounting his experiences as a prisoner in Auschwitz, most notably It This Is a Man (1947), and his fiction was mostly in the form of short stories.  If Not Now, When? was his only novel, and this was based on his own experiences fighting the Nazis as a partisan and the stories he was told from partisans and resistance fighters that he met in the years immediately after the war.  This is a fantastic novel.  A gripping war story, full of action and adventure, telling an often overlooked aspect of World War II, it is also a story about ordinary human beings in the most terrible situations, told with empathy and compassion.  The characters are complex, particularly the main point of view character, Mendel, a Russian watchmaker turned reluctant soldier.  While there are moments of joy and humour, this is a dark tale, and touches on the emotional and psychological consequences of killing and surviving war.