Ammonite

Year of Release:  2020

Director:  Francis Lee

Screenplay:  Francis Lee

Starring:  Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Jones, James McArdle, Alec Secăreanu, Fiona Shaw

Running Time:  118 minutes

Genre:  Romance

In the 1840s, fossil collector and palaeontologist Mary Anning (Winslet) lives in Lyme Regis with her sick, elderly mother Molly (Jones).  To make ends meet, Mary runs a small shop which sells fossils to tourists.  One day, geologist Roderick Murchison (McArdle) visits the shop with his melancholy young wife Charlotte (Ronan).  Murchison hires Mary to teach him about fossil collecting.  Murchison heads abroad for a six week expedition, paying a reluctant Mary to look after Charlotte.  During a morning fossil hunting expedition, Charlotte goes bathing the sea and becomes seriously ill.  The local doctor (Secăreanu) persuades Mary to nurse Charlotte.  Under Mary's care, Charlotte soon recovers, and the two develop a genuine, if tentative friendship, which grows into a passionate romance.

This powerful romantic drama, based on a true story, is one of the best new films that I have come across in a long time.  It's far away from the traditional "chocolate box" period drama.  There is a beauty here but it's of the most savage kind, most of the film is set on the Dorset coast, a cold, windswept place, pounded with rain.  As the grim, weatherbeaten Mary Anning, Kate Winslet has never been better, moving around the coast in the wind and rain, carefully selecting promising rocks, shells and fossils, and wrestling with mud and clay to excavate bones.  She is someone who doesn't say very much, and doesn't let her feelings show, preferring to let her feelings out in the journal she usually has with her, but manages to say a lot with just a glance.  Saoirse Ronan also gives a powerful performance as Charlotte Murchison.  Charlotte is a wealthy, but deeply unhappy woman, convalescing from something that is never quite revealed, with a husband who doesn't really seem to be that bothered with her.  Certainly not bothered enough not to go gallivanting across Europe for six weeks, leaving his ill wife alone with a complete stranger.  Saoirse Ronan's porcelain, fragile beauty works in counterpoint to the cold, rough beauty around her, and the very earthy Mary Anning.  As she grows more accustomed to her environment, Charlotte seems to begin to fit in more.  Mary is uncomfortable in the more genteel society that Charlotte is accustomed to being part of.  They attend a musical evening at the home of the doctor, and Charlotte fits right in with the ladies, while Mary is left alone, at the back, and she leaves early to walk home in the rain.  The romance between the two evolves gradually and convincingly.  As good as the other actors in the film are, especially Gemma Jones as Mary's ailing mother, it is almost a two hander, dominated entirely by the two central performances.  The film does have something to say about the position of women at the time.  It opens in the British Museum where a cleaning woman is scrubbing the floor, when she is rudely told to move out of the way, and a bunch of men put an ichthyosaur fossil that Mary had found on a table, and erase Mary's name off the accompanying card for the display and replace it with a man's name, and when Mary visits the British Museum she walks through a portrait gallery full entirely of portraits of white men in wigs.  Without wishing to give the ending away, I will say I was left wanting more.  It's rare to want a film to be longer than it is, in fact most of the time it's quite the opposite, but here I was left wanting to know more about these women and what becomes of them.  The tone moves between cold, bleak life, and the glow of friendship. love and the heat of passion, light and dark together.  

Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan in Ammonite
            

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Year of Release:  1978

Director:  Philip Kaufman

Screenplay:  W. D. Richter, based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney

Starring:  Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy

Running Time:  115 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, horror

Elizabeth Driscoll (Adams) is a laboratory scientist for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, with an interest in botany.  She becomes aware of unusual pink flowers growing out of small pods.  Shortly afterwards she notices that her boyfriend (Art Hindle) is acting strangely, and she becomes convinced that somehow he has become someone she doesn't know.  She approaches her friend and fellow employee at the Department of Health, Matthew Bennell (Sutherland).  At first Matthew doesn't believe her, but when he notices increasingly strange things happening, he realises that what has happened to Elizabeth's boyfriend is just the beginning.  Alien seed pods have landed on Earth and are somehow replacing people while they sleep: replacements that are physically identical to the original, and have the same memories and personalities, but lack emotion or basic humanity.  Matthew and Elizabeth have to save themselves and stop the invasion, but it may already be too late.

Jack Finney's 1953 science-fiction novel The Body Snatchers had previously been adapted in 1956 as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, directed by Don Siegel, one of the classics of science-fiction cinema.  It was later adapted in 1993 as Body Snatchers, directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Gabrielle Anwar, and most recently as The Invasion (2007), starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.  Of course, it's a very risky proposition to remake a classic.  This film updates the setting from 1950s small town California, to 1970s San Francisco.  While Jack Finney denied that the novel was intended to be anything other than an exciting adventure story, the 1956 film is usually seen as a parable about the Communist scare of the 1950s, either a warning that there is a "Red under every bed" or a warning about the McCarthyite witch hunts of the time.  This film could be seen as a film about urban alienation and paranoia.  The mobile camera frequently following the actors like a surveillance camera.  The fact is that this has a very scary premise, your loved ones becoming someone that you don't recognise; the idea of losing your own humanity, and worse yet, they get you while you sleep, while you are at your most defenceless.  Also there is the general uneasiness of city life, living cheek by jowl with countless strangers, some of whom may not have your best interests at heart.  Seen in 2021, the film has the added resonance of the age of social distancing, with the fear of catching a fatal disease just from being around people.  The film has an interesting cast, with Donald Sutherland handling the heroics; Brooke Adams affecting as the first person to become suspicious; an early role for a nervously funny Jeff Goldblum as a struggling poet; Veronica Cartwright, who would later have to deal with even more unpleasant pods in Alien (1979), as Goldblum's frantic wife; and Leonard Nimoy as a pop-psychiatrist (this was the '70s, remember).  Nimoy's casting is interesting, as his best known role was half-alien half-human Spock in Star Trek (1966-1969) who was constantly trying to suppress his human emotions, and almost marks him as an emotionless "pod-person" right from the start, and he gives an effective and quite sinister performance.  Kevin McCarthy, who starred in the 1956 film, cameos as a man yelling warnings at passing cars, as in the previous film's famous ending.  The film is stylishly directed, opening with strangely poetic images of the gossamer pods drifting through space, and the film is shot with the afore-mentioned roving camera, and odd camera angles, right from the start everyone appears suspicious and strange, including Robert Duvall appearing in an uncredited cameo as a priest on a park swing set, gazing at the camera.  It sets itself up slowly, and has some genuinely nightmarish imagery.  The film is very much a 1970s movie, but it has aged very well, the tone is very bleak and there is a real sense of inescapable doom throughout (which makes it feel very current).  It all ends with one of the most famous screams in science-fiction history.

Broke Adams and Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

        

In the Earth

Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Ben Wheatley

Screenplay:  Ben Wheatley

Starring:  Joel Fry, Ellora Torchia, Reece Shearsmith, Hayley Squires

Running Time:  107 minutes

Genre:  Horror

The world is devastated by a pandemic.  In a large forest in England, scientist Martin Lowery (Fry) arrives at a research station, where he is due to investigate crop growth under respected scientist Olivia Wendle (Squires).  However, the only way to reach Mandell's camp is an arduous two day trek on foot through the forest.  With forest ranger Alma (Torchia) as guide, Martin sets off.  Before long it becomes apparent that there is something strange in the forest.  Despite it being out of bounds to civilians, they discover the remnants of a family's camp, but the family themselves have vanished.  At night, Martin and Alma are attacked by an unseen force that destroys their equipment, and steals their shoes, forcing them to continue barefoot.   Martin badly injures his foot, but they are rescued by Zach (Shearsmith), a seemingly friendly man living off the grid in the forest.  However Zach has his own reasons for helping them, and they learn that the dark folklore surrounding the forest may be more than just local fairytales, as ancient superstition and modern science collide.

Prolific British filmmaker Ben Wheatley has made a name for himself as one of the most interesting directors working in modern horror.  His films remind me a little of the old rhyme about the little girl with the little curl right in the middle of her forehead:  when they are good they are very, very good, but when they are bad, they are horrid.  Although in Wheatley's case, less horrid and more indulgent and baffling.  In the Earth mixes the best and the worst of Wheatley's work.  As with several of his films (such as Kill List (2011), Sightseers (2012) and A Field in England (2013)) this could be described as "folk horror", a subgenre of horror films set in rural locations and often dealing with themes such as tradition, religion, isolation and nature, although Wheatley has stated that he dislikes the term.  The film is visually spectacular, with beautiful, poetic imagery, and moments of real, genuinely scary, horror, it also is overlong and falls apart into  bizarre psychedelic nonsense.  Towards the end it becomes completely baffling.  Wheatley claims that the film was written and shot within fifteen days during August 2020, in between lockdowns, and it may be one of the first, but it certainly won't be the last, films to deal with COVID-19, although COVID is never actually mentioned in the film, the facemasks, constant handwashing, hand sanitisers and references to "a third wave" and "lockdown" feels all too depressingly familiar in this year of 2021, and will probably make it feel a little dated in a year or two.  Joel Fry and Ellora Torchia make engaging, sympathetic leads, although Wheatley never seems particularly interested in his characters, something which I have noticed in several of his films.  There is a kind of dark cynicism in Wheatley's work, a sense of humanity being just patsies in a giant, cruel cosmic joke, which may very well be the case, but it makes for a rather miserable experience.  It says a lot for Joel Fry and Ellora Torchia that they make their characters as likeable as they are.  Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen (1999-2002), Psychoville (2009-2011) and Inside No. 9 (2014-present)) is perfectly cast and has some fantastic dark comic-horror moments.  When Martin and Alma are in his power, and he is chasing after them with a hatchet, those scenes are really scary.  The film slows down when Olivia Wendle appears, although Hayley Squires does well with a pretty underwritten part.  Both Zach and Olivia are trying to invoke a primal nature spirit, lurking within the forest, Zach by ritual and sacrificial magic, and Olivia with science.  The film has it's points to make about science versus magic, and how the divide between the two may not be as definitive as you may think; and the revenge of nature.    The nature of what is in the woods is never revealed, and it all ends in a frustratingly obscure fashion.  There is a difference between the tantalisingly ambiguous and annoyingly incomprehensible.  Frustrating, confusing, slow at times and badly paced, the film has enough frightening and intriguing moments to make it worth watching, and it has some beautiful images and a complex, innovative sound design, which does benefit a lot from being seen on the big screen.  There is a vein of dark humour running throughout which is often very funny.  It's not full of gore, but there are scenes which even I, a hardened horror film viewer, winced at.  A word of warning, if you are at all squeamish about feet, and nasty things happening to said feet, then you will want to proceed with caution.  Another note of caution, is that the film features a lot of strobing effects, which may cause problems for some viewers.    Ben Wheatley is a very talented filmmaker, and he has a great film in him, but this is not it.

Ellora Torchia and Joel Fry in In the Earth
   

Dolores Claiborne

Year of Release:  1995

Director:  Taylor Hackford

Screenplay:  Tony Gilroy, based on the novel Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

Starring:  Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judy Parfitt, Christopher Plummer, David Strathairn, Eric Bogosian, John C. Reilly, Ellen Muth

Running Time:  131 minutes

Genre:  Thriller

New York journalist Selena St. George (Leigh) returns to her home town on Little Tall Island, Maine, when her estranged mother, Dolores Claiborne (Bates), is accused of the murder of her elderly employer (Parfitt).  This is not the first time that Dolores has been in trouble, since 18 years earlier she was accused of murdering her abusive husband (Strathairn).  Obsessive police detective Mackey (Plummer) who investigated the earlier murder is determined to see Dolores behind bars whatever it takes.  As Selena looks into the case, she finds herself forced to return to a past which she has spent her life trying to bury.

The 1992 novel Dolores Claiborne is an unusual one for Stephen King with an absence of his usual supernatural elements and also being written as a single long monologue in the voice of Dolores.  This is one of the unjustly forgotten Stephen King adaptations, an intelligent and dark psychological thriller, moving between the past and present.  While the past is photographed in luscious vivid colour, the colour in the present scenes is washed out, tinged with blues and greys.  This story focuses almost entirely on the female characters.  The key relationship is between the estranged mother and daughter.  Dolores has been alone pretty much for eighteen years, living outside of town, her only "friend" if you want to call her that, is her demanding, caustic employer, Vera Donovan (played by Judy Parfitt), who at the time of her death is very sick, unable to move about, and her and Dolores have a complex love-hate relationship built on mutual need.  Selena is a successful journalist but a depressed alcoholic, who medicates with numerous pills, she works for a manipulative editor (played by Eric Bogosian) who has been having an affair with her, and it is suggested that he assigns stories based on who he happens to be sleeping with.  Kathy Bates is possibly best known for starring in a previous Stephen King adaptation, Misery (1990), and she does make use of her persona from that film here.  Because we are familiar with her as the unbalanced Annie Wilkes from Misery we, like Selena and Mackey, are almost primed from the start to believe Dolores is guilty, and the film plays on our expectations and assumptions as it goes along.  Jennifer Jason Leigh is fantastic as the brittle, damaged Selena, her pale face almost translucent framed by her black hair and all black clothing, like a marble statue, strong but on the verge of shattering.  English actress Judy Parfitt plays the ruthless and very rich Vera Donovan, whose relationship with Dolores is more complex than it first appears.  Christopher Plummer is as good as ever as the oily police detective, who will do anything to convict Dolores because he views his failure to convict her 18 years ago as the "one that got away".  David Strathairn is sleazy and sweaty as Dolores' monstrous abusive husband, but he is also not without. degree of charisma.  Ellen Muth, making her screen debut, does very well as the 13 year old Selena.  The film is cleverly written, with an intelligent and witty script.  Set in Maine, as most Stephen King stories are, but filmed in Nova Scotia, the story takes place in a broken, desolate little town, bleak and wintery in the present scenes, and ripe, but poisonous in the memories of a remembered summer.  the film does occasionally suffer from some very mid-90s technical effects, but these are kept to a minimum.

Written and directed by men, based on a book by a male author, this is a film about women, there are really no sympathetic male characters, with the possible exception of John C. Reilly as the gentle town cop, a film about the relationship between mothers and daughters, between the past and present, and it's about women trying to find their own place in the world and freedom in their own ways, from men, from their past, and from their personal demons.  It's a troubling and powerful film, that deserves to be better known.          

Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh in Dolores Claiborne

Aliens

Year of Release:  1986

Director:  James Cameron

Screenplay:  James Cameron, from a story by James Cameron, David Giler and Walter Hill

Starring:  Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein

Running Time:  137 minutes (theatrical cut); 157 minutes (director's cut)

Genre:  Science-fiction, action, horror

Following the events of Alien (1979), Ripley (Weaver) is found in suspended animation in an escape pod.  Recuperating on a space station orbiting Earth, she learns that she has been drifting through space in stasis for 57 years.   Traumatised by her experiences, her situation is only made worse by the fact that no-one believes her story.  It turns out that the planet where the Alien was found, Planet LV-426, has been home to a human colony for the past twenty years.  That is until Earth loses contact with the LV-426 colony, and Ripley is persuaded to join a platoon of Colonial Marines on a mission to investigate.  

Aliens is one of the great sequels in film history.  While Alien is a horror film in space, Aliens takes a completely different approach and is a war film in space, in fact writer/director James Cameron described it as being a Vietnam film in space, with it's depiction of a technologically superior invading force being repelled by an enemy which they have completely underestimated.  The film takes it's time building up the characters and suspense, but when the Aliens do appear in all their slimy, toothy, insectoid glory the film immediately kicks into high gear and doesn't let up until the end credits roll.  The Aliens are a largely unseen enemy, usually attacking en masse or hidden in shadow, or moving so fast that you can barely get a good look at them, this was partly practical because the production couldn't get many Alien costumes.  The action scenes are well staged and exciting, and the special effects still hold up today, with the Alien Nest, where their luckless victims are gruesomely cocooned to be impregnated by the facehuggers, memorable and disturbing.  The lengthy set up means that we get to spend time with the characters, they are not just there to be eaten by the monsters.  There is a theme of motherhood in the movie, Ripley is a mother, and there is a scene which is in the extended director's cut, but not in the theatrical cut,  where she is informed that he daughter had died during her absence.  The sole survivor of the colony is a young girl called Newt (played by Carrie Henn) and she becomes a surrogate daughter to Ripley.  In the film's climax however, Ripley has to battle the vast Alien Queen, which lays the Alien eggs.  It's the battle between two mothers: one seeking to protect her daughter, the other seeking vengeance for her slaughtered children.  The heart of the film really belongs to Newt and Ripley, the scenes between them have real emotional heft, and the male characters with a couple of notable exceptions, by and large take a back seat.  Sigourney Weaver gives one of her best performances as Ripley, who is one of the great characters in action movies, tough, compassionate and ruthlessly practical where necessary

The film continues and expands the anti-corporate theme of the original, with the treacherous weasel Carter Burke (played by Paul Reiser), an oily space yuppie and Eighties Guy par excellance who unfortunately feels all too contemporary, whose actions lead Ripley to contemplate whether the humans are any better than the Aliens.  Also in the supporting cast is Michael Biehn as likeable Marine Hicks, and provides the closest thing that the film has to a love interest for Ripley; Lance Henriksen as the soft spoken but slightly sinister android (although "artificial person" is the preferred term) Bishop; and Bill Paxton as Hudson, the most arrogant of the Marines, but the one who quickly falls apart.  

The 1980s were the era of flamboyant, excessive action spectacles, where living action figures routinely blasted enough firepower to wipe out a small country, as well as throwing up endless sequels to anything even slightly popular (which, to be fair, is something that for better or worse shows no sign of ever going away).  Aliens is a high point, expanding and developing the story of it's predecessor, as well as taking it in a completely new direction, igniting the screen with spectacular carnage, and nightmarish visions, but with added intelligence and heart, putting it ahead of it's contemporaries.  The best of the Alien franchise, and one of the highpoint of action cinema.

Sigourney Weaver hunts Aliens

      

"We Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Shirley Jackson

 Year of Publication:  1962

Length:  158 pages

Genre:  Mystery, thriller

Mary Katherine Blackwood (or "Merricat" as her sister calls her) is 18 years old and lives with her 28 year old sister Constance, and elderly, wheelchair-bound Uncle Julian in the large Blackwood family mansion.  Constance was accused of poisoning the rest of the family six years previously, but was acquitted due to lack of evidence.  The residents of the nearby village either hate the Blackwoods or regard them as objects of morbid curiosity.  One day, the sister's Cousin Charles arrives and invites himself to stay.  Constance appears to be taken in by his charm, but Merricat mistrusts and hates him.  Charles himself appears to be most interested in the contents of their father's safe.  Merricat however is determined to go to any lengths necessary to protect her family.

Author Shirley Jackson is possible best known for her novel The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and her short story "The Lottery" (1948).  As with much of Jackson's work, this deals with the cruelty of seemingly "nice" American small towns, and with outsiders finding a place for themselves, even if it is outside of life itself.  The story is told through the disarming eyes of Merricat, who despite introducing herself as being 18 years old, sounds as if she is much younger.  She is a mix of innocent but streetwise, naive but intuitive, gentle and fiercely loyal to those she loves, but also completely psychotic.  Constance never leaves the Blackwood estate, but Merricat makes trips to the village when necessary to pick up groceries and run messages.  Frequently insulted and mocked by the villagers, Merricat indulges in alarmingly vivid revenge fantasies.  She also indulges in more innocent fantasies of winged horses, and a life far away on the Moon.  A strong believer in witchcraft and magic, Merricat sets up charms, and buries special objects in order to set up protective spells around their home.  Despite taking on the mother role, Constance appears frightened of Merricat.  She seems to have an urge and possibility of emerging into the outside world, but is held back by Merricat who hates and fears any type of change.   Charles may be a thief and a monster, but it appears that he may be good for Constance, allowing her to enter the world again, and the conflict between him and Merricat is really a tug of war for the soul of Constance, less of an angel and demon, but two demons, which I suppose is as much as one may expect these days.  This isn't really a mystery, although it is kind of set up as one.  You'll probably figure out who killed the Blackwoods very early on, but it doesn't really spoil the book.  Despite her implicit monstrousness, Merricat is a likeable character, and it is a great pleasure to spend time with her and Constance in the pages of the book.  Eventually they become fairytale characters in their own castle, a happy ending for Merricat, but perhaps less so for Constance, and we leave them as we do the residents of Hill House, to walk alone.  

   

Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard

 Year of Release: 2021

Director:  Patrick Hughes

Screenplay:  Tom O'Connor, Brandon Murphy, Philip Murphy

Starring:  Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek, Antonio Banderas, Frank Grillo, Morgan Freeman, Richard E. Grant

Running Time:  100 minutes

Genre:  Action, comedy

Former bodyguard Michael Bryce (Reynolds), whose license has been suspended, takes a sabbatical on advice of his therapist.  However, his rest is soon ruined when he is contacted by Sonia Kincaid (Hayek), the wife of hitman Darius Kincaid (Jackson).  The three soon find themselves caught up in a plot to destroy the power grid and infrastructure of the whole of Europe.

I have not seen The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017), so I can't say how good a sequel this is.  It is basically a blend of James Bond-style spy thriller, action and comedy and it really doesn't always hold together.  It's often funny, and the three leads have real chemistry together, and are all talented comedy performers, but there really is nothing novel or original here.  Despite not being a long film, it still feels stretched, jokes are repeated, and the frequent action setpieces, while well-staged, were old hat back in the 1980s.  There is also a problem with tone, where it does touch on the sanctions imposed by the European Union against Greece, and the very real problems going on there, but it doesn't fit with the goofy tone of the rest of there film.  Also the frequent violence is surprisingly sadistic.  Given the comedic nature of the film it is really quite graphic.  Antonio Banderas has some good moments as the villain of the piece, despite a ridiculous hairpiece, Frank Grillo plays an obnoxious American Interpol agent who really doesn't do much except yell at people and insult his Scottish translator (Alice McMillan), but Morgan Freeman is very funny, and there are appearances from British TV comedy star Rebecca Front as Bryce's therapist, and Richard E. Grant and Gary Oldman appear in small roles.  If you are a fan, or really seen any of this type of film, then you will have seen this all before, but is is enjoyable enough, and there are some laughs to be had.  It will find it's rightful place in a few months time on late night TV.

Ryan Reynolds, Salma Hayek and Samuel L. Jackson in Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

 Year of Release: 2016

Director:  Taika Waititi

Screenplay:  Taika Waititi, based on the novel Wild Pork and Watercress by Barry Crump

Starring:  Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rhys Darby, Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House

Running Time:  101 minutes

Genre:  Adventure, comedy, drama

Troubled teenager Ricky Baker (Dennison) is constantly in and out of foster homes.  As a last ditch attempt, child services assign him to a couple who own a remote farm.  After a difficult start, Ricky eventually bonds with his new foster mother Bella (Wiata) but not so much with her cantankerous frontiersman husband Hec (Neill).  When Bella drops dead of natural causes, a grieving Ricky plunges into the bush to avoid being taken by child services.  Hec follows him, and the two embark on a life in the wilderness, as the target of a nationwide manhunt.    

As with the best of writer-director Taika Waititi's work this blends darkness and tragedy with warmth, hope and compassion along with laugh out loud comedy.  This film has added wilderness adventure.  It does take it's time to get going, but the constant quirky comedy of Waititi's world means that it never gets dull.  Julian Dennison is great as the streetwise but naive teen at the heart of the film, and there is real chemistry between him and Sam Neill's grizzled outdoorsman, who hides real heart and compassion deep down beneath a prickly, abrasive exterior.  Rachel House is hilarious as the child welfare officer who obsessively pursues Ricky, and compares herself to The Terminator.  Taika Waititi has a small role as the minister who conducts Bella's funeral service.  By turns funny, exciting and heartbreaking this film also has a point about those who don't fit into the world.  Ricky and Hec don't really have a place in the modern world, they just want to live on their own terms, but while Ricky can find a place for himself, it is harder for Hec, given his age and circumstances.  The two save each other in their own ways.  

  Julian Dennison and Sam Neill in Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Badlands

Year of Release:  1973

Director:  Terrence Malick

Screenplay:  Terrence Malick

Starring:  Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri

Running Time:  93 minutes

Genre:  Crime, drama

In the small town of Fort Dupree, South Dakota, in 1959, 15 year old Holly (Spacek) meets 25 year old Kit (Sheen), and falls for him despite the objections of her father (Oates).  When she tries to run away with Kit, her father confronts them, and Kit shoots him dead.  They start a strange, violent life on the run, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake, as they try to keep ahead of the authorities.

This film is loosely based on the life and crimes of American spree killer Charles Starkweather who, along with 14 year old Caril Anne Fugate, murdered 11 people between December 1957 and January 1958.  It also marks the debut of writer/producer/director Terrence Malick, who has made his name with long, strange, and beautiful films which straddle the boundary between the mainstream and the experimental with varying degrees of success.  This film is much more accessible than much of Malick's later work, but there are a lot of hints as to what was to come.  The film opens with bleak images of the dead-end town and Holly's strangely disengaged voice-over narration which runs throughout the film, influenced by the teen romance and movie magazines that she reads constantly.  Holly and Kit are strangely dispassionate characters.  There is no great love between them, and Holly never seems to think that they will be together forever, they really seem to just hang out together, and while they have a sexual relationship it is just briefly mentioned.  Kit approaches killing in the same way.  The killings are really murders of convenience, he doesn't seem to have a problem at all with murder, but doesn't particularly enjoy it either, it's just a quicker way of dealing with problems.  Holly never takes part in the murders, she's just there, although they don't particularly bother her either, even her own father's death she just takes in her stride.  The film is set in 1959, although it doesn't really lean into the '50s period, Malick said he wanted it to appear "like a fairytale.  Outside time."  The film does have a strangely lyrical quality.  Kit and Holly build a treehouse in which they live in an Edenic idyll.  Holly's naive narration is accompanied by the gentle strains of Glassenhauer by Carl Orff.  The two exist in their own kind of worlds built by pop culture.  Holly seems to see herself in a teen romance, and Kit, who is frequently compared to James Dean, seems to view himself as an old time cowboy.  At one point Holly speculates on the preparations the authorities are making to catch them, which is depicted like a black and white '50s movie.  Martin Sheen is perfectly cast as the charismatic, but ruthless killer, but the real breakout is Sissy Spacek, who was 22 at the time of filming, playing a 15 year old, her strangely ethereal quality really works for the role, and her flat, heavily accented delivery does cast a spell.  This movie manages to take a conventional narrative, with all the hallmarks of the "lovers on the lam" genre, and turn it into genuine poetry.  It has proven hugely influential on other films in the genre.  True Romance (1993) pays homage with Patricia Arquette's narration being very similar to Sissy Spacek's, and the use of the Glassenhauer music.  Terrence Malick has an uncredited cameo as a man who knocks at a house where Kit and Holly are hiding out.  Also Martin Sheen two sons, Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen, appear very briefly as two boys hanging outside Holly's house.

Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek enter the Badlands     

Cecil B. Demented

 Year of Release:  2000

Director:  John Waters

Screenplay:  John Waters

Starring:  Melanie Griffith, Stephen Dorff, Alicia Witt, Adrian Grenier, Larry Gilliard Jr., Mink Stole, Ricki Lake, Patricia Hearst, Maggie Gyllenhaal

Running Time:  88 minutes

Genre:  Comedy

"A"-list Hollywood actress Honey Whitlock (Griffith) is in Baltimore to attend a charity premiere of her latest film, when she is kidnapped by a gang of renegade filmmakers who call themselves "The SprocketHoles" and are lead by charismatic director Cecil B. Demented (Dorff).  The SprocketHoles force Honey to star in their underground film.  Initially reluctant, Honey finds herself increasingly drawn to the SprocketHoles violent crusade against mainstream cinema. 

Cult filmmaker John Waters made his name with deliberately tasteless and offensive underground films such as Multiple Maniacs (1970) and the notorious Pink Flamingos (1972), before moving more towards the mainstream with the likes of Polyester (1981) and Serial Mom (1994).  However, he never lost his campy inventiveness and this is still a thumb of the nose towards Hollywood film.  The target here is the all-pervasiveness of Hollywood film and his dull, predictable mainstream content squeezes out small, independent, creative filmmakers.  It's hard to argue that Waters doesn't have a point, particularly in the modern era, however it is also inevitably dated in the modern world of streaming and online content.  As with such of Waters' work this is scrappy, inventive, sometimes funny, very camp and not all of it works.  It's an enjoyable film, that is definitely aimed at the midnight movie crowd.  Film fans will have fun with the numerous references to films and filmmakers.  The name "Cecil B. Demented" is a reference to pioneering director Cecil B. DeMille, and the slogan shouting SprocketHoles each have the names of a filmmaker tattooed as a kind of badge of membership:  Otto Preminger, Andy Warhol, Herschell Gordon Lewis, William Castle, David Lynch, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Spike Lee, Pedro Almodovar, Sam Fuller and Sam Peckinpah.  The plot of the film was partially inspired by the famous kidnapping of heiress Patricia Hearst in 1974, as with many Waters films Hearst has a small role in the film.  The cast all seem to be having a whale of a time.  Melanie Griffith is very funny as the obnoxious Hollywood diva turned revolutionary, and Stephen Dorff is convincing as the charismatic, wild-eyed director-turned-guru.   The film also features future stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon in small roles.  Along with Patricia Hearst, other Waters regulars appear including Mink Stole and future chat-show host Ricki Lake.   It's an enjoyable film that mixes humour from the juvenile to the sophisticated.  John Waters hasn't made a film since A Dirty Shame in 2004, and it's a shame, it would be good to see a follow up to Cecil B. Demented with Waters taking a shot at modern mainstream film.  

Demented Forever!:  Melanie Griffith in Cecil B. Demented

 

Nobody

Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Ilya Naishuller

Screenplay:  Derek Kolstad

Starring:  Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Aleksei Serebryakov, RZA, Michael Ironside, Colin Salmon, Christopher Lloyd

Running Time:  92 minutes

Genre:  Action, thriller

Hutch Mansell (Odenkirk) is a seemingly average man living with his wife, Becca (Nielsen), and two children, and working a dull office job at his father-in-law's metal fabrication company.  One night two armed burglars break into his house, however Hutch does not intervene and allows them to leave.  This leads his family, neighbours and friends to see him as a loser.  However a late night confrontation on a bus with a gang of thugs, leads to Hutch being pitted against a powerful Russian crime syndicate, and it soon becomes apparent that Hutch is really very different from the placid, mild-mannered man that he appears.

At first this appears to be a gritty vigilante thriller in the mould of Death Wish (1974) and it's ilk, where a mild-mannered man is pushed too far by urban criminals, but it soon becomes a full on action movie.  The film is full of exciting well-staged action sequences and it does become a good, old-fashioned action film The anchor is Bob Odenkirk in the lead role who makes the switch from placid average guy to full on action hero very convincingly.  It all gets increasingly daft as it goes along, but there is some real grit in the earlier scenes, as Hutch gets punched and pummelled from all directions and the injuries look and feel real and do slow him down, of course this is soon abandoned as the film moves towards full action movie mode.  Connie Nielsen is underused as Becca, Hutch's wife, but Aleksei  Serebryakov is effective as the head villain, and Christopher Lloyd has a fun part as Hutch's elderly, but ruthlessly gun-toting father. While this does feel like a gritty urban thriller mashed up with an  action movie, this is always fun and when it kicks into gear it really doesn't let up.  It's no classic, but it will give you a good time at the movies.  

Bob Odenkirk is Nobody

Alien

Year of Release: 1979

Director:  Ridley Scott

Screenplay:  Dan O'Bannon, story by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett

Starring:  Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Yaphet Kotto, John Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm

Running Time:  117 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, horror

Sometime in the future, commercial space tug Nostromo is returning to Earth, with it's seven person crew in suspended animation.  Receiving a signal from an unexplored planet, the ship's computer revives the crew to investigate.  Reluctantly, they set down on the planet and three of the crew set out to explore, and discover a bizarre alien spaceship, where the Nostromo picks up a particularly unpleasant hitchhiker.

This classic blend of horror and science-fiction is one of the classic suspense films.  Even after all this time, the special effects and production values stand up surprisingly well, even where it looks dated, such as the computer readouts, it still feels like an authentic depiction of a tatty, ragged, old banger of a spaceship where pieces haven't been replaced for years because there wasn't the money or no-one could be bothered.  It's a future which looks authentic and lived in, a million miles from the polished spotless spacecraft and heroic crews of Star Trek (1966-1969), the Nostromo crew really couldn't care less about exploring strange new worlds or seeking out new life and new civilisations.  They don't want to boldly go anywhere, except home to get paid.  They are not conventionally glamorous and the dialogue is deliberately banal.  It makes the alien sequences stand out all the more.  The alien spacecraft, designed by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger,  is genuinely striking with it's mix of the organic and mechanical, and the Alien itself (played by dancer Bolaji Badejo) with it's biomechanical look and weirdly sexual elements manages to be both horrific and beautiful at the same time.  It's effect is heightened by the fact that the creature is kept off screen for most of the film and even when it appears, it's so shadowy that the details are barely glimpsed, making the monster almost impressionistic.  The film moves slowly and deliberately accruing the details of the world of the Nostromo, making the horror scenes such as John Hurt's notorious "chestburster" sequence all the more jolting.  Even more frightening than the Alien itself is the concept that, introduced in this film, runs through the franchise,  of the ruthless "Company" that want to keep the creature alive to use as a biological weapon, at the expense of all other considerations.   The fact is that the characters feel real, and you do sympathise with them as the film goes on.  It needs to be seen on the biggest screen and in the best quality possible, because a lot of the suspense depends on the way the image is composed, the cramped claustrophobic corridors, or the cavernous chambers where the threat could be lurking anywhere.  This is a very primal film, it's like a haunted house where you can't escape from.  I've seen this film many times, and I still find it exciting and suspenseful.  It's sequel Aliens (1986) is also a masterpiece, and Alien 3 (1992) is deeply flawed but has it's moments, Alien Resurrection (1997) isn't very good but it's quite fun.  The less said about the others the better.  Ridley Scott returned to the franchise with two sort-of prequels Prometheus (2012) and Alien Covenant (2017) which create this complex backstory which while interesting enough in it's own right, detracts from the mystery and unexplained fear of Alien.  In it's own right, this is a genuinely suspenseful science-fiction thriller which works it's dark magic time after time.

Sigourney Weaver and Alien
   

Point Blank

 Year of Release:  1967

Director:  John Boorman

Screenplay:  Alexander Jacobs, David Newhouse and Rafe Newhouse, based on the novel The Hunter by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake)

Starring:  Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn,   

Running Time:  92 minutes

Genre:  Crime, action, thriller

On Alcatraz Island, three criminals: Walker (Marvin), his best friend Mal Reese (John Vernon) and Walker's wife, Lynne (Sharon Acker) pull off a robbery.  However Walker is shot by Reese and left for dead in a cell, as Reese and Lynne make off with the stolen money.  A year later Walker is back in San Francisco and sets off on a violent quest for revenge and to collect the money that he is owed, pitting him against a powerful criminals syndicate known as "The Organisation".

 

Judged by the basic plot, this film, adapted from the pulp thriller The Hunter by Richard Stark (a pseudonym for author Donald Westlake) may appear to be little more than an average revenge thriller, of the type that we have all seen umpteen times before, but, in the hands of British director John Boorman, it's elevated to a strange type of art.  It makes use of distorted camera angles, strange ellipses and incongruities, an almost steam of consciousness editing style, and even the stripped down, bare bones plot, to make a strangely disorientating experience.  The film opens with Walker (whose first name is never revealed) being shot several time in a prison cell in Alcatraz.  The gunman, Walker's supposed friend Mal Reese runs off with Walker's wife, Lynne, and the loot.  Clues as to what brought them there are revealed in fragmentary flashbacks.  Then the scene shifts to the outside as a badly injured Walker prepares to plunge into the waters of San Francisco Bay, while a voice over (explained to be an announcer on a tourist boat) explains that escape from Alcatraz is impossible.  We next see Walker on said boat, some time later, apparently none the worse for his experience.  I have explained the opening in some detail because there is a theory about the film that Walker died in the opening scene on Alcatraz, and the rest of the film is his dying revenge fantasy.  This is a reasonable reading, as the film follows the inexorable flow of dream logic.  There are odd discrepancies and omissions, characters appear and disappear with no explanation, and the jarringly sudden changes in location, as well as the frequent sudden flashback scenes.  In one scene, Angie Dickinson who plays Chris, Walker's sister in law who helps him in his quest, says "you really did die on Alcatraz", and later she asks him "why don't you just lay down and die?" There is also the sinister Yost (Keenan Wynn) who seems to guide Walker on his quest for his own purposes.  Walker is a man out of time and place.  He doesn't understand the workings of The Organisation, which is now a seemingly respectable corporation doing unexplained criminal activities and work out of a slick, expensive office block (floor eleven for mergers and acquisitions, floor twelve for murders and executions).  The killers work out of the corner office with secretaries.  Walker comes up time and again against the corporate structure.  All he wants is the money that he was owed from the job.  The granite-faced Lee Marvin plays Walker as something like the Terminator in a suit.  Throughout he barely registers any emotion.  He's a man without a past or a future.  There is no sense of satisfaction when he exacts his revenge.  He exists for nothing more than his quest for the money.  This can be enjoyed as a simple straight forward action thriller, and it is full of great action sequences, but it is much more than that.  It's one of the best action films of the 1960s.

Lee Marvin fires Point Blank

Jackie Brown

Year of Release:  1997

Director:  Quentin Tarantino

Screenplay:  Quentin Tarantino, based on the novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard

Starring:  Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, Robert De Niro

Running Time:  154 minutes

Genre:  Crime drama

Flight attendant Jackie Brown (Grier) supplements her income by acting as courier for gun runner Ordell Robbie (Jackson).  Returning from one of her trips she is arrested by the police and ATF who are trying to find some evidence against Ordell.  Under pressure from the authorities, Jackie realises that not only her freedom but her life is in danger from Ordell.  However, with the aid of of world-weary bail bondsman Max Cherry (Forster), Jackie decides to play them off against each other in a very dangerous game.

A homage to the "Blaxploitation" films of the 1970s, and adapted from the 1992 novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard (to date the only Tarantino film to be adapted from another medium), this surprised many audiences and critics on it's first release.  It lacks the innovation of Pulp Fiction (1994) as well as the stylised carnage that had become the Tarantino trademark in many people's eyes.  Instead it has a level of tenderness and humanity that hadn't really appeared in Tarantino films before.  At it's core is the romance that develops between Jackie and Max, which is rare enough in Hollywood films, a romance between two older people.  While Tarantino does display his trademark stylistic flourishes in places, by and large the film takes it's time, the main pleasure here is less the complex narrative and more the characters who are allowed to develop.  Blaxploitation icon Pam Grier is perfect as the cool but vulnerable Jackie Brown and there is real chemistry between her and the rumpled Robert Forster, who gives Max real emotional weight.  Both Grier and Forster were big stars in the 1970s but hadn't headlined films in years before this revitalised their careers.  Samuel L. Jackson gives one of his best performances as the charming but terrifying gun runner.  In supporting roles are Bridget Fonda as Ordell's stoner girlfriend, Melanie; Michael Keaton as the ATF agent investigating Jackie; and Robert De Niro as Ordell's taciturn friend, all of whom are very good.  Cult actor Sid Haig, who appeared alongside Pam Grier in several Blaxploitation films, has a small role as a judge.  The script is full of Tarantino's typically profane and witty dialogue, it also proved very controversial due to the amount of racial epithets.  I can't comment on the adaptation, having not read the book, but this is definitely a Tarantino film, with many of his trademarks being present and correct, such as the cool soundtrack, references to '70s pop culture, and bare feet.  However Tarantino was frequently criticised for the level of violence, but it is quite restrained here, there are several on screen murders, but they are not particularly nor are they really dwelt upon.  It also has real heart, and is often surprisingly moving.  For a long time it seemed to be overlooked in Tarantino's oeuvre, but it has had something of a reassessment in recent years.  It may not be a perfect film, it is definitely too long, but it is very good, and worth investing the time in, even if you're not a Tarantino fan.

Pam Grier is Jackie Brown 

 

A Fish Called Wanda

Year of Release:  1988

Director:  Charles Crichton

Screenplay:  John Cleese, from a story by John Cleese and Charles Crichton

Starring:  John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Tom Georgeson, Maria Aitken

Running Time:  108 minutes

Genre:  Comedy

In London, a gang of thieves led by George (Georgeson), with his American lover Wanda (Curtis), her mercurial "brother" Otto (Kline) and stuttering animal lover Ken (Palin), successfully steal a fortune in diamonds.  However Wanda and Otto, who are actually lovers, betray George to the police, in order to take the diamonds for themselves.  However George has played his own trick and the diamonds have been hidden.  With the loyal Ken intent on assassinating the only witness who can identify George: a dotty old lady (Patricia Hayes) with three little dogs, Wanda and Otto set their sights on George's barrister: the straight laced Archie Leach (Cleese), who Wanda plans to seduce and persuade to reveal the location of the diamonds.  What follows is a hilarious string of doubles-crosses, slapstick and seduction.

Directed by Ealing Comedy veteran Charles Crichton, this is a delightful crime comedy in which the laughs come thick and fast throughout.  The script, by John Cleese from a story by him and Crichton allows Cleese plenty of scope for his manic comic energy, and he is always best at those roles in which he has to go from uptight authority figure to raving maniac.  Kevin Kline is very funny as the brutal thug who is both pretentious and pretty thick.  Cleese's fellow Monty Python alumni Michael Palin as the eccentric animal lover Ken (who owns the fish of the title) has the most Pythonesque story line as his repeated attempts to assassinate this one old woman go constantly awry (fair warning for dog lovers, her three prize pooches do come to pretty bad ends).  Jamie Lee Curtis anchors the film as the seductive femme fatale who sets the happily married Cleese's stiff upper lip quivering.  This is one of those constantly entertaining films, the convoluted plot really being an excuse to string a succession of gags and slapstick set pieces together, and for the most part it works really well.  Fans of British comedy will recognise a few familiar faces in small roles, such as Geoffrey Palmer as a judge, and Stephen Fry as an unlucky man in an airport.  The main cast reunited for a follow up film, Fierce Creatures, which was released in 1997.

Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Palin, Kevin Kline and Tom Georgeson in A Fish Called Wanda

A Quiet Place Part II

 Year of Release:  2021

Director:  John Krasinski

Screenplay:  John Krasinski, based on characters created by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck

Starring:  Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Djimon Hounsou, John Krasinski

Running Time:  97 minutes

Genre:  horror

The world has been decimated by a race of savage, predatory monsters which hunt by their acute sense of hearing.  Evelyn Abbott (Blunt), her deaf daughter Regan (Simmonds), son Marcus (Jupe) and newborn baby ferried in a soundproof cooler to muffle his cries, search for survivors and stumble upon a deserted factory, occupied by the bitter Emmett (Murphy) who doesn't trust others.  When Regan sneaks out to discover the source of a mysterious radio broadcast, Emmett reluctantly agrees to find her and bring her back, while Evelyn remains to take care of Marcus and the baby.

The original A Quiet Place was a sleeper hit 2018.  Aside from a lengthy prologue depicting the start of the invasion, the film picks up straight from the end of the first one.  Once again, the film makes use of a brilliantly simple premise, a world where any noise above the faintest whisper could mean death.  It was originally intended to be released in March 2020 but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was delayed, and the film belongs in a cinema rather than on Blu-ray, DVD or a streaming service, because you get the big image and sound design.  It is full of tension and suspense.  It does deliver more of the same thrills from the first film, but it does expand the world more.  It's well paced, and writer, director, actor John Krasinski (best known as prankster Jim Halpert in the US series of The Office (2005-2013)) keeps things moving at a good place and wrings all the suspense out of each scene.  The performances are good with Millicent Simmonds and Cillian Murphy being particular standouts.  

      Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe and Emily Blunt in A Quiet Place Part II

 

Nomadland

Year of Release:  2020

Director:  Chloé Zhao

Screenplay:  Chloé Zhao, based on the book Nomadland:  Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder

Starring:  Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May, Charlene Swankie

Running Time:  107 minutes

Genre:  Drama

In 2011, recently widowed Fern (McDormand) loses her job when the US Gypsum plant she has worked for for year shuts down.  This devastates her hometown of Empire, Nevada, for which the plant was the principal employer.  Fern hits the road, living out of her van, travelling the highways and byways of the United States, taking casual work to make ends meet and becoming part of an extensive, supportive community of fellow nomads.

Written, produced, edited and directed by Chloé Zhao, and based on a non-fiction book by journalist Jessica Bruder, this is a powerful, beautiful and meditative film.  It captures the beauty, camaraderie and freedom of Fern's lifestyle while not ignoring the rootlessness, loneliness and hardship of her way of life.  Many of the cast are real nomads playing fictionalised versions of themselves.  It has a real documentary feel, even with established actors such as Frances McDormand and David Strathairn, you forget that they are actors and see them as real travellers.  It has a slow, languid place, and doesn't really have a story to speak of, it follows a year in Fern's life as she travels around and takes various jobs, such as packing boxes for Amazon, working in a fast food restaurant, and doing odd jobs at a campsite among other things.  The film is full of beautiful images and bleak images, sometimes both beautiful and bleak at the same time.  It's a vision of America that you don't really see often, particularly not in Hollywood films.  Frances McDormand has given many great performances throughout her career, but she has never been better than here.  The film could be accused of not going into some of the darker aspects of the nomad lifestyle, but this is a minor issue.  This is one of the best new films that I have seen in a long time, and it is definitely worth seeing at the cinema, if at all possible.

 Frances McDormand in Nomadland 

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Year of Release:  1994

Director:  Mike Newell

Screenplay:  Richard Curtis

Starring:  Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, Kristin Scott Thomas, Simon Callow, James Fleet, John Hannah, Charlotte Coleman, Corin Redgrave, Rowan Atkinson

Running Time:  117 minutes

Genre:  Romantic comedy

Londoner Charles (Grant) is invited to several weddings without getting married himself, until at one wedding he meets and falls for fellow guest, American Carrie (MacDowell).  Over a number of weddings and a funeral, the couple bond but constantly seem to be kept apart.

Four Weddings and a Funeral was released to comparatively little fanfare in the summer of 1994 and became a global smash hit, ending up as the most successful British film ever made up to that point. It made a star of Hugh Grant, and crowned writer Richard Curtis (at the time best known for TV comedies such as Mr. Bean (1990-1995) and Blackadder (1983-1989)) as Britain's romcom king.  The film is set almost entirely at the weddings and the funeral of the title (presented as chapters divided by title cards designed as wedding invitations).  This gives the film an episodic feel and means that we never get to know much about Charles and his friends.  Andie MacDowell as Carrie, in particular suffers from this approach.  We only ever see her through Charles' eyes, drifting in and out of the proceedings, and she doesn't really make much of an impact, and while we are constantly told that he is in love with her, it never really feels that way.  However this is a film that is full of small, incidental pleasures.  Hugh Grant gives his definitive performance as the quintessential bumbling, polite Englishman, and John Hannah gives a powerful performance, with his moving reading of W. H. Auden's "Funeral Blues" a highlight.    This is one of the classic comedies, and while it is far from perfect, it is consistently funny with moments of real emotion.  

 Andie MacDowell and Hugh Grant attend Four Weddings and a Funeral

2 Days in Paris

 Year of Release:  2007

Director:  Julie Delpy

Screenplay:  Julie Delpy

Starring:  Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg, Daniel Brühl

Running Time:  101 minutes

Genre:  Romance, comedy, drama

French photographer Marion (Delpy) and her American boyfriend Jack (Goldberg) are on a holiday in Europe.  Following a less than romantic trip to Venice, they go to Marion's native city of Paris.  Jack is immediately uncomfortable by the cultural differences between France and America and his own ignorance of French, as well as by Marion's bohemian parents (Marie Pillet and Albert Delpy) and most specifically by the fact that they keep running into Marion's ex-boyfriends, all of whom she still seems to be friends with.  

Julie Delpy is probably best known for starring in Richard Linklater's Before trilogy along side Ethan Hawke, and 2 Days in Paris is definitely from the same stable, once more about being a French woman and an American man wandering around a glamorous European city while discussing life, love, art and various things in between.  With this film Delpy not only writes, directs and stars, she composed the score and edited the film, and cast her real life parents, Marie Pillet and Albert Delpy, as her character's parents.  This has few surprises, and sometimes feels like a quirkier version of one of Woody Allen's later travelogue films but it is consistently funny, and the cast have real charm, despite the fact that their characters are intensely annoying, being judgemental, sanctimonious and often surprisingly cruel.  The film is certainly no love letter to Paris, showing the City of Lights and it's inhabitants, in a pretty unpleasant light.  Delpy directs the film with real style, although it always feels like a pretty good, but not stand-out quirky indie film, complete with voice-over and animated diagrams.  It is a good film and pretty enjoyable.  Followed by 2 Days in New York (2012).

   

Julie Delpy and Adam Goldberg spend 2 Days in Paris