Dead Ringers

Year of Release:  1988

Director:  David Cronenberg

Screenplay:  David Cronenberg and Norman Snider, based on the book Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland

Starring:  Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold

Running Time:  115 minutes

Genre:  Drama, thriller, horror

Identical twins Beverly and Elliot Mantle (Irons in a dual role) are both gynaecologists and run a clinic in Toronto.  The Mantles live together and frequently pose as each other.  The more ruthless and callous of the two, Elliot, often seduces his patients and, when he grows bored, allows the more gentle and passive Beverly to adopt his identity to sleep with the women, without them having any knowledge of the exchange.  This works for them until Beverly falls in love with glamorous actress Claire Niveau (Bujold). The relationship begins to drive a wedge between the bothers who soon learn that "separation can be a terrifying experience."

This film marked a change in the career of Canadian director David Cronenberg who made his name with such gruesome fare as Shivers (1975), Rabid (1977), The Brood (1979), Scanners (1981) and Videodrome (1983), before moving to more mainstream work such as the Stephen King adaptation The Dead Zone (1983) and the remake of The Fly (1986).  With Dead Ringers Cronenberg moved into more complex, psychological material, which didn't necessarily fit into any particular genre.  The most traditionally "Cronenbergian" sequence in the film is a very brief scene in which Beverly has a nightmare of himself and Elliot being attached to each other by a thick, fleshy cord, which Claire proceeds to bite in order to separate them.  While this lacks the trademark blood and guts that Cronenberg was known for, it is possibly his most disturbing work.  Jeremy Irons delivers a career best performance with his dual turn as the twin brothers, delineating the subtle differences in their personalities, making each distinct while showing that they are two separate halves of one whole.  The impressive special effects makes the scenes of the two twins together look seamless.  Geneviève Bujold is a little underused, particularly in the film's second half, but she is good as the woman that comes between the twins.  The film takes place mostly indoors, in the spotlessly clean environment of the Mantle's clinic and apartment, which seem almost one and the same, all gleaming metal and soft lighting, and the opulent hotel rooms and expensive restaurants that Claire inhabits.  As the Mantle's mental condition deteriorates, so too does their  living space, buried under increasing amounts of trash and debris.  The film was adapted from a book called Twins by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland  which was inspired by a true story in which identical twin gynaecologists, Stewart and Cyril Marcus, were found dead together in their New York apartment in 1975.  I can't say anything about the book as I've never read it, but the working title for the film was Twins, after the book, but it was changed to avoid confusion with the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito comedy which came out around the same time.  This is a film which won't be to everyone's tastes, it's slow, and has a strangely alienating quality to it.  Even in the emotional scenes, the way the shots are framed and the scenes performed seem designed to push the audience away rather than draw us in, the sombre classical score by Howard Shore reinforces that feeling.  The film however has a distinctive and impressive chilly atmosphere and will linger in the mind for a very long time after it is over.     

Double trouble:  Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold and Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers

The French Dispatch

Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Wes Anderson

Screenplay:  Wes Anderson, from a story by Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness and Jason Schwartzman

Starring:  Bill Murray, Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Owen Wilson

Running Time:  103 minutes

Genre:  Drama, comedy

The French Dispatch, the foreign bureau of a Kansas newspaper, is based in the quirky city of Ennui-sur-Blasé, and presided over by formidable editor Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Murray).  When Arthur dies suddenly of a heart attack, the staff of the magazine prepare one final issue, which will serve as a memorial to Arthur and a farewell to the magazine.  It consists of an obituary, a travelogue feature, and three stories:  A murderer (del Toro) serving a life sentence for double murder proves to be a talented artist, with the help of a prison guard (Seydoux), and attracts the attention of a sleazy art dealer (Brody).  In the second story, an American writer (McDormand) becomes involved in a protest movement lead by a chess-playing revolutionary (Chalamet).  In the third story, a food writer (Wright) becomes involved in a kidnapping scheme while trying to write an article about legendary police chef (Park).

The film is an anthology and what we see is the final issue of The French Dispatch, which is clever and, to my knowledge, unique way of presenting a film.  It has a huge ensemble cast, which also includes Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, Christoph Waltz and Anjelica Huston in small roles.  Set in a fictional city, in an undefined mid 20th Century setting, this is a delightful film, everything is intricately designed, and every frame is carefully composed.  The film moves from colour to black and white, there are spilt screen images, quirky captions,  and even a couple of animated sequences.  It feels like a delicately constructed piece of elaborate machinery, where any flaw in the thing and the whole would collapse.  Often when comedy is too carefully constructed and designed, it can work against the humour and feel airless, however this is a very funny film, although, as with most Anderson films, it is more whimsical and witty than hysterical.  The music by Alexandre Desplat helps invoke the Sixties French glamour, and the soundtrack features Charles Aznavour, Ennio Morricone, Grace Jones, Chantal Goya and Jarvis Cocker.  This is very much a Wes Anderson film and if you don't like his work, then this will likely not win you over, I do like his work and I enjoyed this film a lot. The cast is all good, and there is so much charm in this film that it is almost impossible not to be won over.  It's a love letter to journalism, sixties France and French cinema, and I was left wishing that The French Dispatch might put out some more issues.

The staff of The French Dispatch

Halloween Kills

 Year of Release:  2021

Director:  David Gordon Green

Screenplay:  Scott Teems, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill

Starring:  Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Anthony Michael Hall, Kyle Richards

Running Time:  105 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Immediately following the events of Halloween (2018), Laurie Strode (Curtis), her daughter Karen (Greer), and Karen's daughter Allyson (Matichak) are taken to hospital to recuperate.  However, murderous Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle) emerges from the inferno of the Strode compound and proceeds to cut a bloody swathe through the good people of Haddonfield, Illinois.  The townspeople desire to band together to stop Myers once and for all.

The original Halloween (1978) worked because it emphasised suspense and tension over blood and guts, the 2018 Halloween which is a sequel to the 1978 film but ignores all of the previous umpteen sequels, remakes and reboots, wasn't great but it was an enjoyable enough rejuvenation of the hoary old franchise.  Halloween Kills, however, is pretty much a bloodbath.  The film tries to make a comment about mob mentality and vigilante justice, but it feels pretty half hearted, swallowing the greens of social commentary to linger over the pudding of gruesome murders.  The violence is surprisingly brutal, even by the standards of the Halloween franchise.  Jamie Lee Curtis is underused as Laurie Strode, who is in hospital throughout most of the film.  Judy Greer is the highlight of the film, providing some much needed heart as Karen, and Andi Matichak as Allyson does as well as anyone could do with a pretty underwritten part.  Some of the kills are imaginative, and a hospital riot is a highlight.  The thing is that the film is so over the top in terms of gore and violence it just becomes funny.  People were laughing at the screening I attended, and you could have some fun with it if you were watching it at the right time with the right audience.  It needs to be watched late at night, after a few beers, with some likeminded friends, for some silly, campy fun.  It's not scary and really not much of a movie.  There isn't really any conclusion,  it forms the centrepiece of a trilogy, with Halloween Ends due out in 2022, and so instead of a satisfying ending, it's like the film just stops.  

   Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney / Nick Castle) in Halloween Kills

Dune

 Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Denis Villeneuve

Screenplay:  Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth, based on the novel Dune by Frank Herbert

Starring:  Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem

Running Time:  156 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction

In the far future, the most valuable substance in the universe is the "Spice" which makes interstellar travel possible.  The only place where Spice can be found is on the desert planet Arrakis (nicknamed "Dune").  for the past 80 years, the brutal House Harkonnen have held the monopoly on Spice mining on Arrakis.  The Emperor Shaddam IV transfers the rights to Arrakis to the Harkonnen's arch-rivals, the noble House Atreides.  Despite his suspicions, Duke Leto Atreides (Isaac) accepts the assignment.  Meanwhile, his son Paul (Chalamet) has been having strange, mystical dreams of Arrakis, and is on his way to his own destiny.

Franks Herbert's classic 1965 science-fiction novel Dune has baffled and stymied many a filmmaker to the extent that it has been considered "unfilmable".  Cult Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky planned an adaptation starring Salvador Dalí, Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson and Mick Jagger, with production design by H. R. Giger and comics artist Jean Girard (Moebius), and music by Pink Floyd, was aborted due to the planned 14 hour running time and rapidly ballooning budget.  Ridley Scott planned an adaptation, but abandoned it in favour of Blade Runner (1982).  David Lynch finally brought the novel to the screen with Dune (1984), which has had what politely could be termed a mixed reception from critics and fans, although personally I enjoyed it.  The Sci-Fi channel made a three part miniseries based on the book in 2000.    The problem for filmmakers for the book is that it is long, complex and sprawling with a complicated backstory, that is portrayed in the book through footnotes and appendices, but is difficult to portray on screen.  The first thing to be aware of with Denis Villeneuve's film is that it is properly titled Dune: Part One, and it only adapts the first half of the novel, which means that it just stops with no conclusion,  whether or not we get a Part Two depends (at the time of this writing) as to how well this does commercially. This is really a kind of mainstream art film.  It looks beautiful, with Arrakis ranging from bleached vistas, to red-gold deserts, riddled with deadly sandworms, mouths bristling with delicate, filament-like teeth; the chilly grey, Northern landscapes of the Atreides' homeward of Caladan, and the shadowy world of Geidi Prime, home of the Harkonnens, lit boy shafts of light slicing through the gloom.  Denis Villeneuve is a master of beautiful science-fiction, sometimes focussing on visual splendour at the expense of character.  The film creates this richly detailed imaginative universe, with some spectacular action scenes.  This also has some great performances, with Timothée Chalamet in particular impressive as Paul moving from sulky teen to courageous warrior, and Rebecca Ferguson as Paul's mother, Lady Jessica, a member of the mystical Bene Gesserit order, who breaks the most sacred rules of her order for love.  As it stands, this is probably the best possible adaptation of Herbert's prose in to film, if the second part gets made, it could be one of the highpoint of science-fiction in cinema.   

Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Javier Bardem and Timothée Chalamet in Dune

The Last Duel

Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Ridley Scott

Screenplay:  Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener, based on the book The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager

Starring:  Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Harriet Walter, Ben Affleck

Running Time:  153 minutes

Genre:  Historical drama

France, the late 1300s:  Lady Marguerite de Carrouges (Comer) accuses her husband's former best friend Jacques Le Gris (Driver) of raping her.  Her husband, Sir Jean de Carrouges (Damon), challenges le Gris to trial by combat, the last legally sanctioned duel in French history.  However, if Sir Jean loses the duel, not only will he be killed in combat, but Lady Marguerite will also be burned to death.  The film details the events leading up to the duel from the perspectives of Sir Jean, Jacques le Gris and Lady Marguerite.

This is a frustrating film because at it's best it is very good, but it has it's moments of extreme silliness.  The main problem is several of the roles are miscast:  Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Ben Affleck are all good actors but they are just not convincing as medieval French knights.  Affleck, as Count Pierre, Le Gris' patron and friend, in particular plays it like he's in an episode of Blackadder at times.  Jodie Comer however is fantastic as Lady Marguerite, the only character in the film who is in any way sympathetic, and Harriet Walter is good as Sir Jean's mother who hates her daughter in law.  The film looks spectacular, Ridley Scott shows his skill at handling historical epics, and the brutal action scenes are filmed with real dynamism.  The duel itself is savagely intense, and graphically violent.  The film utilises a structure where we are given three different perspectives on the events, and the film does point out who is telling the truth.  We see the friendship of Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris and it's subsequent disintegration, and the troubled relationship between Jean de Carrouges and Lady Marguerite.  The film shows the same events played out in different ways from different perspectives.  Sir Jean sees himself as a brave and noble knight, fighting for what is rightfully his, however others see him as a cruel, brutal bully and a fool.  Jacque Le Gris sees himself as an intelligent, romantic hero, however others see him as an opportunistic sycophant.  Lady Marguerite is caught in the middle, seen as little more than property.  When she tells her husband about the rape, he sees it as an insult to him, and Lady Marguerite's feelings don't really seem to come into it.  When Jacques le Gris goes to the church to defend himself against the charge, he is told that rape is seen as a crime of property, against the woman's husband or father. The rape sequence is brutal, and it is shown twice, from Le Gris and Marguerite's points of view.  The actual events are the same, even in Le Gris' version it is still an obvious rape, but he believes that she loves him really, so what he did was justified, while for Marguerite it is a brutal violation.  The film does discuss the ghastly treatment of women at the time, but not as much as it might have done.  It was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who won an Academy Award for their previous screenplay Good Will Hunting (1997), with acclaimed writer/director Nicole Holofcener who wrote the scenes for Lady Marguerite, and based on a 2004 book by Eric Jager.  While the film has problems with an inconsistent tone, moving between macho, blood and thunder epic, medieval court politics and dark feminist drama, and there are issues with the casting, it is still worth seeing.  The three part structure works well and the film is never less than interesting.

   Adam Driver and Matt Damon in The Last Duel

Letter from an Unknown Woman

Year of Release:  1948

Director:  Max Ophuls

Screenplay:  Howard Koch, based on the novella Letter from an Unknown Woman by Stefan Zweig

Starring:  Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan

Running Time:  86 minutes

Genre:  Romance, drama 

Vienna at the turn of the 20th century:  Teenage Lisa (Fontaine) becomes smitten by her new neighbour, charismatic musician Stefan Brandt (Jourdan).  When her mother remarries, Lisa is forced to leave Vienna, but, still madly in love with Stefan, she returns some years later to find him.  Stefan is now a celebrated concert pianist. They finally meet and spend one romantic evening together, which proves to have devastating consequences.

This is one of those films where it seems like you could take any given frame, blow it up, and have something impressive to hang on the wall.  Shot in shimmering monochrome, it is incredibly beautiful, the period detail of Vienna is sumptuous, and every frame is carefully composed.  The acting is impressive, particularly from Joan Fontaine as the heartbreaking Lisa, from the wide-eyed lovestruck teenager to the devastated woman who sees her world crumble around her.  Louis Jourdan is charming and dashing as the roguish pianist, and it's easy to see her attraction to him.  Jourdan is slightly affectless in the role, but then Stefan is something of a hollow man.  The film is constructed in flashback, opening with Stefan planning to run away from a duel he is due to fight, declaring "honour is a luxury only gentlemen can afford", but is interrupted by his mute butler bringing him a letter from Lisa, which narrates the events of the film.  Everything in the film is shown from her perspective, aside from the sequences which bookend the flashback, so Stefan is seen only from her point of view, we never find out what he does when he disappears from the tale for long periods of time, although it's fair to say we can make an educated guess.  The centrepiece of the film is the long evening they spend together which must rank as one of the most dizzyingly romantic passages in all of cinema.  Despite a brief running time, however, and the story taking place over a long period of time in which a lot a happens to the characters, it's paced very sedately and the pacing feels slightly off at times.  That being said it is a powerful and tragic film, in which the intricate, polished surface, hides ultimately tragic passions.

Louis Jourdan and Joan Fontaine in Letter from an Unknown Woman

The Awakening

Year of Release:  2011

Director:  Nick Murphy

Screenplay:  Stephen Volk and Nick Murphy

Starring:  Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton, Isaac Hempstead-Wright

Running Time:  107 minutes

Genre:  Horror

The year is 1921 and Britain is reeling in the aftermath of the First World War and the Spanish Flu pandemic.  Interest in spiritualism is high as grieving people search for any shred of hope.  Florence Cathcart (Hall) is a controversial author who specialises in debunking alleged hauntings and exposing fraudulent mediums.  She is contacted by Robert Mallory (West), a teacher at a boy's boarding school, who wants her to investigate sightings of the alleged ghost of a boy, which might be connected to a recent death at the school.  Reluctantly Florence agrees.  However, as her investigation proceeds she soon comes to believe that the ghost may be more real than she thought, and more dangerous.

This film is essentially an old fashioned ghost story with an additional mystery element.  It's a mostly slow, sedate film that relies more on atmosphere than gory thrills, and it does have a real doom-laden feel to it.  It's set in the years following the First World War and Spanish Flu outbreak, where people are searching for something to hold on to and there was an increase in belief in the supernatural and spiritualism was at it's height, as grieving people were desperate to contact the people they had lost.  Robert Mallory was in the war and experiences survivor's guilt, whereas the school's groundskeeper, Judd (Joseph Mawle) didn't fight in the war and feels guilty and resentful towards Mallory for being seen as a war hero.    The film opens with Florence exposing an elaborate fake seance and, as the fraudulent mediums are lead away by the police, she is slapped in the face by the grieving mother who had paid for the seance, and has had her last hope ripped from her.  She receives angry letters from people enraged by her book which debunks the supernatural and any idea of an afterlife.  However Florence herself has a deep need to believe, and she investigates mediums an hauntings desperately hoping to find one that is genuine.  The film uses a washed out colour palette, and everything looks gloomy, grey and cold, and almost everyone in the (all white) cast looks practically translucent.  The film was directed by Nick Murphy, whose background is largely in television, and indeed it does often look and feel like classy TV movie although it did have a theatrical release.  The script was written by Murphy and horror veteran Stephen Volk, who is most famous for writing the controversial BBC drama Ghostwatch (1992), and it is reminiscent of the works of  M. R. James, Ramsey Campbell, Shirley Jackson and Henry James.  The film falls apart somewhat towards the end where there are several twists that defy credibility, and feel like they belong in a different film, and there is also a disturbing and intense scene where Florence is attacked.  The ghost boy, with his distorted face, is only glimpsed briefly and at first it's startling but let down by unimpressive special effects.  Rebecca Hall is very good as Florence, and the film is worth seeing for her performance alone.  Dominic West is good in his typically gruff, period drama role as the teacher, turned paranormal investigator, even if he would rather be investigating Florence.  Imelda Staunton is as impressive as ever in the supporting role of housekeeper Maud, who is a fan of Florence's work.  Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who is probably most famous as Bran Stark in Game of Thrones (2010-2019), plays a   lonely pupil who forms a bond with Florence.  This is a far from perfect film, but then it is by no means bad either.  It has some great performances, particularly Rebecca Hall's.  It's certainly worth watching if you're a fan of elegant ghost stories.

Rebecca Hall in The Awakening
 

Pale Rider

Year of Release:  1985

Director:  Clint Eastwood

Screenplay:  Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack

Starring:  Clint Eastwood, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Chris Penn, Richard Dysart, Sydney Penny

Running Time:  116 minutes

Genre:  Western

19th century, California: A group of independent prospectors, panning for gold, are regularly harassed by a gang of thugs in the pay of wealthy mining baron Coy LaHood (Dysart), who is determined to drive off the prospectors so he can seize their land.  Following a raid in which her pet dog is shot dead, 14 year old Megan Wheeler (Penny) prays for a miracle to save them.  Shortly afterwards a mysterious Preacher (Eastwood) arrives to help the prospectors.

Plot wise, this is similar to endless Westerns in which a lone hero arrives to defend the good and the helpless against brutal villains.  This film however has a strange supernatural angle to it, similar to Eastwood's directorial debut High Plains Drifter (1973).  It is very strongly hinted that the unnamed Preacher is a ghost, although it is left ambiguous.  The Preacher's backstory is hinted at, but never really revealed.  It's even hinted that the Preacher is Death himself.  He seems to appear in answer to Megan's prayer, riding in accompanied by thunder, lighting and howling winds, and he enters the prospector's camp accompanied by a reading if the Biblical verse from which the film takes it's title: "And lo, I beheld a pale horse, with a pale rider on it, and the name of the rider was Death.  And Hell followed him."  As an actor, Eastwood does what he does best, with his squinting glares, and snarling drawl, as a director, Eastwood handles the material with style, often using interesting framing and camera angles, that take advantage of every part of the screen, and the wintery landscapes are beautiful.  The influence of Sergio Leone, who directed the Dollars trilogy that made Eastwood a movie star, is very strong here.  There is also a slight environmental element to the film with LaHood's controversial hydraulic mining technique destroying the landscape, as opposed to the prospectors peacefully panning for gold in the river.  Michael Moriarty plays Hull Barret, the put upon but determined leader of the prospectors, Carrie Snodgress plays Sarah Wheeler, Megan's mother who has become increasingly cynical after she was abandoned by Megan's father, but with whom Barret is in love, and Chris Penn plays LaHood's son and head of the thugs.  Richard Kiel (best known as the metal-toothed Jaws in the James Bond movies The Spy who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979)) has a small role as one of LaHood's heavies.  The performances are all fine, if unmemorable,  they do what they need to do.  Snodgress probably gives the best performance, and the film does build up a fairly complex relationship between Sarah and Barret.  There is a brief but very unpleasant scene of an attempted sexual assault on the 14 year old Megan, although is is stopped and she is rescued by the Preacher.  It sours an otherwise innocuous film, and really serves little purpose.  Despite being an action film, this is mostly quite a slow film, and all wrapped up in a fairly neat, if disappointing climax.  This is not an essential film but, if you like Westerns, you may enjoy it, but if you're not a fan of the genre this will not convert you.     

From Beyond

Year of Release:  1986

Director:  Stuart Gordon

Screenplay:  Dennis Paoli, story by Brian Yuzna, Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli, based on the short story "From Beyond" by H. P. Lovecraft

Starring:  Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ted Sorel, Ken Foree, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon

Running Time:  82 minutes

Genre:  Horror, science-fiction

Dr. Edward Pretorius (Sorel) and Crawford Tillinghast (Combs) create a machine called the Resonator which stimulates the pineal gland in the human brain, allowing a person to see beyond normal, perceptible reality, revealing grotesque monsters.  One of them bites off Pretorius' head, and Crawford is accused of his murder.  Intrigued by his story, ambitious psychiatrist Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Crampton) and Detective Bubba Brownlee (Foree) persuade Crawford to recreate the experiment.  They soon discover that Crawford was telling the truth, and that Pretorius has been absorbed by the creatures and returns hungry for more prey.

This film reunites many of the cast and key behind the scenes personnel behind cult hit Re-Animator (1985) for another take on the works of influential American writer H. P. Lovecraft.  This film, written by Dennis Paoli from a story by Paoli, director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna is very loosely based on a very brief minor H. P. Lovecraft story written in 1920 and published in 1934.   As with Re-Animator much of the material is played more for laughs than scares, and is full of slimy, rubbery monstrosities and gore galore.  There's a surprisingly strong sexual element here as well.  A scene where a monster attempts to assault Barbara Crampton is queasily unpleasant and strikes a sour note on what is otherwise an essentially fun, gory monster movie.  Later, in one of the film's most memorable scenes, the buttoned-up, serious Crampton appears in full leather bondage gear and also, if you are so inclined, there is the sight of Ken Foree in very small briefs.  It's one of those films where everyone seems to be having a ball.  Jeffrey Combs overacts tremendously as the twitchy, bug-eyed scientist; Barbara Crampton is good as ever as the sympathetic if slightly sinister psychiatrist and she conveys well her slow transformation under the influence of the Resonator; Ted Sorel provides a fun pantomime performance as the hissable villain under increasing layers of latex; Ken Foree, who is possibly best known for Dawn of the Dead (1978), is engaging as the likeable tough-guy detective; and Carolyn Purdy-Gordon is fun as the psychiatrist who despises Katherine and her methods.  While the special effects may look a dated today, the gruesome monsters are imaginatively designed and it's all satisfactorily gross.  At a brisk 82 minutes the whole thing keeps moving along.  It's the kind of film that is best watched late at night maybe with a few drinks and a few likeminded friends.  None of it is supposed to be taken seriously.       

Barbara Crampton and Ted Sorel in From Beyond

Enduring Love

 Year of Release:  2004

Director:  Roger Michell

Screenplay:  Joe Penhall, based on the novel Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

Starring:  Daniel Craig, Rhys Ifans, Samantha Morton, Bill Nighy, Susan Lynch

Running Time:  100 minutes

Genre:  Drama, thriller

University professor and author Joe (Craig) is having a picnic in the Oxfordshire countryside with his partner Claire (Morton) when he becomes involved with an attempt to rescue a young boy from an out of control hot air balloon, alongside several other men.  The attempt fails, and one of the men dies, although the boy ultimately lands safely.  Joe suffers a great deal of guilt over the man's death.  Later he is contacted by Jed (Ifans) one of the other would-be rescuers.  Jed has become obsessed with Joe, and is convinced that Joe is in love with him.  Initially Joe tries to gently brush Jed off, but the stalking soon  intensifies to increasingly dangerous levels.

Based on a novel by acclaimed author Ian McEwan, who is probably best known for the 2001 novel Atonement, this is really in it's basic plot a conventional psycho-thriller about stalking, but it is dressed up as an arthouse drama.  It's all very elegant and moves at a stately pace, and there are many long conversations about guilt and the nature of love (Joe lectures and writes about love and his conviction that it doesn't really exist and is just a biological impulse).  It's only really until the end that it moves fully into thriller territory.  The film doesn't really work as a thriller because there is never any feeling of threat from Jed, at least until the end.  There is never any sense that Joe is scared of Jed.  He seems to regard him at first as an irritation, and later as an annoyance.  In fact there is the sense that Joe is more likely to turn violent against his stalker than the other way around.  It's very much a respectable, serious British film, that has the lurid elements that appeal to more mainstream audiences and the somber philosophising and arthouse elements to appeal to more serious minded viewers.  The film is very well acted, with Daniel Craig in particular turning from polite, mild-mannered professor into a seething self-destructive cauldron of barely repressed rage.  Rhys Ifans makes the stalker, Jed, disturbing but also weirdly sympathetic.  Samantha Morton is good but underused as sculptor Claire, Joe's increasingly put-upon partner.  The rest of the cast is full of familiar British actors including Bill Nighy, Susan Lynch, Helen McCrory, Andrew Lincoln (from The Walking Dead (2010-2021)), Anna Maxwell Martin, Corin Redgrave, and Daniel Craig's future James Bond co-star Ben Wishaw.  Not exciting or tense enough to work as a thriller, or particularly involving as a drama, the film feels stretched even at a fairly brisk running time, but the performances are fantastic, it all looks beautiful and, despite it's flaws, it is interesting enough to see how it all turns out.

Rhys Ifans and Daniel Craig in Enduring Love
   

No Time to Die

 Year of Release: 2021

Director:  Cary Joji Fukunaga

Screenplay:  Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, from a story by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Cary Joji Fukunaga, based on characters created by Ian Fleming

Starring:  Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ben Wishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, Ana de Armas

Running Time:  163 minutes

Genre:  Action, espionage

James Bond (Craig) has retired from active service for MI6, but his domestic bliss with Madeleine Swann (Seydoux) is interrupted when he suspects her of selling him out to the evil SPECTRE organisation.  Five years later, Bond finds himself drawn into a race between MI6 and the CIA to rescue a kidnapped scientist from the clutches of SPECTRE, but finds himself in a battle to save the world from a deadly weapon that has fallen into the hands of ruthless terrorist Safin (Malek).

So we have been expecting you, Mr. Bond.  And indeed we have.  Work in the film began in early 2016, and it was originally due to be released at the end of 2019, but was delayed a few months to avoid competition with Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker (2019), but was delayed a couple of times more due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In fact it seems like I have seen the trailer every time I have been to the cinema in the past two years.  Was it worth the wait?  Yes, it was worth it.  The film has all the traditional elements of classic James Bond:  glamour, exotic locations, plenty of action, humour, gadgets and a megalomaniacal villain, but it updates it to appeal to a modern audience.  The female characters are no longer just "Bond girls", there to be decoration and not much more, they are more than a match for Bond, and are the most complex, ambiguous characters.  Also supporting characters such as Q (Ben Wishaw), Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and M (Ralph Fiennes) have much bigger roles than were traditional.  This is likely to be Daniel Craig's last James Bond film, and if so, this is a perfect way to end Craig's run as 007.  The action is exciting, and, despite having a running time of almost three hours, it's well paced and the narrative keeps moving along.  Rami Malek makes a satisfactorily sinister villain.  Léa Seydoux reprises her role as the tragic Madeleine Swann from the previous Bond film Spectre (2015) and provides the film with it's heart.  Lashana Lynch is good as the new "00 agent" who acts as Bond's partner / rival and possible successor.  This mayn't be the best of the James Bond films, but it is certainly one of the best ones,  the thing is that it's hard to see where the Bond films will go from here, but it will be interesting to see what the future holds.

Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas in No Time to Die
  

A Cure for Wellness

Year of Release:  2016

Director:  Gore Verbinski

Screenplay:  Justin Haythe, from a story by Gore Verbinski and Justin Haythe

Starring:  Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, Mia Goth

Running Time:  146 minutes

Genre:  Horror, drama

Lockhart (DeHaan), an ambitious young executive at a New York financial services institution, is assigned to retrieve the company's CEO from a remote "wellness centre" somewhere in the Swiss Alps.  When Lockhart arrives he soon discovers that the centre's grotesque treatments hide a disturbing secret.

Loosely inspired by the Thomas Mann novel The Magic Mountain, this is an impressively mounted, handsome film, stylishly made, with an intriguing mystery.  There are also some impressive performances such as Jason Isaacs as the sinister head of the institution and Mia Goth as the strange, otherworldly girl who lives in the institute.  However the film is overly long with a running time of almost two and half hours, and there are some gaping plot holes.  Also the lead character, as played by Dane DeHaan, is so obnoxious it's really hard to care what happens to him.  It starts out as an elegant "elevated horror" film (basically horror for people who look down on horror films), but moves into full on gothic horror by the end.  Despite the sedate pace, the film boasts some genuinely horrific moments of body horror, including a genuinely nightmarish dental scene.  There are very obvious parallels to Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010), and Phantom of the Opera and even to bizarre sixties TV series The Prisoner (1967-1968).  It won't be too everyone's tastes, but if you have the patience and stomach for it, it is intriguing and beautiful enough not to feel like a waste of time.

    Dane DeHaan in A Cure for Wellness