Tucker: The Man and His Dream

 Year:  1988

Director:  Francis Ford Coppola

Screenplay:  Arnold Schulman and David Seidler

Starring:  Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Martin Landau, Frederic Forrest, Mako, Elias Koteas, Christian Slater, Dean Stockwell

Running Time:  110 minutes

Genre:  Comedy, drama, biography

The Man:  Preston Tucker (Bridges), ambitious engineer who made his fortune designing and building gun turrets for aircraft during World War II.

His Dream:  To manufacture the 'car of the future'.  His "Tucker Torpedo" features an engine mounted in the rear of the car, and revolutionary safety features, such as seatbelts.  

However, the manufacture of the car is plagued with issues, and as enthusiasm for the car mounts, Tucker runs afoul of the "Big Three" car manufacturers (Ford, General Motors and Chrysler) as well as accusations of fraud from the U. S Securities and Exchange Commission.

You might not think of Francis Ford Coppola, director of such films as The Godfather (1973) and Apocalypse Now (1979), as the person to direct a gentle, charming comedy-drama based on real-life failed automobile entrepreneur Preston Tucker.  Coppola had first conceived of the project in the 1970s, and originally envisioned Marlon Brando or Jack Nicholson in the title role, and later planned to make the film as a musical, although the plan collapsed.  With Coppola's friend, George Lucas, serving as executive producer the project eventually came to fruition in 1988, to good reviews but poor box office receipts.  Jeff Bridges brings all of his considerable charisma to bear as the charming, confident Preston Tucker, and Joan Allen is very good, in the slightly underwritten role as Tucker's loyal wife Joan, although she has a great scene where she confronts a boardroom full of patronising men.  Martin Landau was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as financier Abe Karatz, who helps Tucker raise funds for his dream, and Christian Slater has a small role as Tucker's teenage son.  Dean Stockwell has a memorable cameo as a creepy Howard Hughes.  The film looks great with a real feel for the 1940s style, and the action is punctuated by amusing 1940s style adverts for Tucker's car.  While this is not a great film by any means, and far from Coppola's best, it actually deserves to be a lot better remembered than it is, because it is a good film.  In the end, Tucker made 51 of his Tucker Torpedoes.  Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas each own two.

Jeff Bridges in Tucker: The Man and His Dream

Big Eyes

Year:  2014

Director:  Tim Burton

Screenplay:  Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski

Starring:  Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Jon Polito, Krysten Ritter, Jason Schwartzman, Terence Stamp

Running Time:  106 minutes

Genre:  Drama, comedy, biography

In 1958 aspiring artist Margaret Ulrich (Adams) leaves her husband and travels with her young daughter to San Francisco, where she meets unsuccessful but charismatic painter Walter Keane (Waltz), and they soon get married.  While Walter paints nondescript landscapes, Margaret specialises in pictures of waif-like children with oversized eyes.  As Walter continues to have no success with his own works, he begins to pass off Margaret's work as his own (she signs her paintings simply as "Keane").  The paintings become extremely successful, and Walter becomes something of a celebrity, but Margaret is increasingly dissatisfied at doing all of the work and getting none of the credit.

You may not be familiar with Margaret and Walter Keane and the slightly creepy paintings of sad children with huge eyes (which look now for all the world like the sinister Black Eyed Kids of modern urban legend).  However in the 1960s Walter Keane was a big celebrity, and the paintings were hugely popular.  It turned out of course that the paintings were all the work of his wife, Margaret.  It's a strange and interesting story, and this is an interesting film.  Director Tim Burton and screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski had previously explored the odd fringes of popular culture with Ed Wood (1994), and while this shares the often humorous take and appreciation of kitsch, Big Eyes is not as distinctive or impressive.  In fact it is a surprisingly conventional film from Tim Burton who made his name with bizarre, grotesque and slightly surreal films, the main stylistic element here is that everything seems overly bright and colourful.  Amy Adams gives a muted, nuanced performance as Margaret Keane, but Christoph Waltz goes completely over the top as the charismatic conman Walter Keane, who comes across as something between a gameshow host and a sleazy used car salesman, he constantly talks about his travels throughout France, and it turns out that he spent all of a week there, and when it come to art he has far more confidence than talent.   Together Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz seem to be making two completely different films.  Amy Adams, a drama about a woman trying to find her voice, and Christoph Waltz, a broad comedy about a lovable rogue.  The film is interesting and always entertaining, but it is quite conventional.  It's certainly worth your time, but probably won't linger very long after the end credits have rolled.  

Amy Adams in Big Eyes
   

Loving Vincent

Year of Release:  2017

Director:  Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman

Screenplay:  Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman and Jacek Dehnel

Starring:  Douglas Booth, Robert Gulaczyk, Jerome Flynn, Saoirse Ronan, Helen McCrory, Chris O'Dowd, John Sessions, Eleanor Tomlinson, Aidan Turner

Running Time:  95 minutes

Genre:  Animated, biography

In 1891, one year after the death of artist Vincent van Gogh, postman Joseph Roulin (O'Dowd) asks his son, Armand (Booth), to deliver a letter Vincent had written to his brother, Theo. Armand, who disliked Vincent, reluctantly agrees.  Discovering that Theo himself died  six months after Vincent, Armand continues to the town where Vincent spent his last days, in the hope of finding someone who may be able to send the letter to the van Gogh family.  However, as he learns more about Vincent's troubled life and tragic death, Armand's perspective on him begins to change.

While not achieving much success in his short life, Vincent van Gogh is now recognised as one of the greatest artists of all time.  In this film, the main character Armand is trying to find someone to deliver a letter to,  In doing so he meets a number of Van Gogh's acquaintances, friends and enemies who tell him about the great man's life and personality, and episodes from Vincent's life are depicted in flashback.  The film itself was in production for six years, and employed a team of 125 artists to render each one of it's 65,000 frames as an oil painting on canvas using the same techniques that Van Gogh himself used, and using Van Gogh's paintings as models for each scene and character.  The result is an astonishing achievement, making Van Gogh's art live and breathe.  The film employed a technique called "rotoscoping" in which rather than just supplying the voices for the characters, the actors performed their scenes as if it was live action, and then the artists painted over each frame.  It makes for a striking and slightly disorientating fusion of animation and live action.  At times the film seems unsure as to whether the main focus is Armand's quest or Van Gogh's life, as it begins to become almost a mystery story in it's second half, as Armand becomes convinced that there is more to Van Gogh's death than meets the eye, which threatens to make the film less interesting, as Vincent's friend, Marguerite (played by Saoirse Ronan) says in the film: "You want to know so. much about his death, but what do you know of his life?"  And of course life must always be far more interesting than death.  However, the film dies ultimately manage to pull back from this, and it is a powerful and beautiful experience.

Douglas Booth in Loving Vincent
  

To Walk Invisible

 Year of Release:  2016

Director:  Sally Wainwright

Screenplay:  Sally Wainwright

Starring:  Finn Atkins, Chloe Pirrie, Charlie Murphy, Adam Nagaitis, Jonathan Pryce

Running Time:  120 minutes

Genre:  Biography, drama

1845:  In the small village of Haworth, West Yorkshire, the three Brontë sisters:  ambitious Charlotte (Atkins), quiet Anne (Murphy) and tough Emily (Pirrie) have delighted in writing poems and stories their whole lives.  However, after their brother Branwell (Nagaitis) is fired from his job as a tutor for having an affair with his employer's wife, he sinks deeper into alcoholism and drug addiction; to make matters worse their elderly father Patrick (Pryce) suffers from increasingly failing health. After she discovers Emily's poetry, Charlotte proposes that the sisters concentrate on their writing, which result in some of the greatest works in English literature.

This British made-for-TV film concentrates on the years 1845 to 1848, focussing on the decline of Branwell and the sister's working to establish themselves as authors.  This is a decent introduction to the lives of the Brontë sisters, and if you have read their work and are interested in knowing something about them, then this is a good place to start.  However, if you are already familiar with their lives than this won't really tell you anything knew.  The cast are impressive, with Finn Atkins, Chloe Pirrie and Charlie Murphy affecting as the sisters, and Adam Nagaitis makes the infuriating, selfish Branwell genuinely sympathetic.  The film uses occasional flashes of fantasy to portray the sisters inner lives, and readings from Charlotte's letters serve as narration.  There are moments when the film's low budget are obvious, and there are several intriguing hints to aspects of the sister's lives which are never really dealt with, particularly Charlotte and Emily's time in Belgium.  I am a fan of the Brontës and, although the film is far from perfect, it is impressive and genuinely moving.  A brief coda showing the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth as it is today I found quite powerful.

   Chloe Pirrie, Charlie Murphy and Fin. Atkins in To Walk Invisible

Hilary and Jackie

 Year of Release:  1998

Director:  Anand Tucker

Screenplay:  Frank Cottrell Boyce, based on the book A Genius in the Family by Hilary du Pré and Piers du Pré

Starring:  Emily Watson, Rachel Griffiths, James Frain, David Morrissey, Charles Dance, Celia Imrie

Running Time:  121 minutes

Genre:  Drama, biography

Jacqueline du Pré (Watson) achieves worldwide fame as a cellist, coming to be regarded as one of the greatest of all time.  However, her success comes at the cost of her mental and physical health, and threatens the close bond which she has with her sister, Hilary (Griffiths).

This film was released to great acclaim, and both Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths were nominated for Academy Awards, however it was also hugely controversial, with many people who knew Jacqueline du Pré publicly criticising the film for misrepresenting her.  I do not know anything about Jacqueline du Pré so I can't speak about the controversy.  The films most notorious scene is one where Jacqueline sleeps with Hilary's husband (David Morrissey) after seeking her consent.  The tale of the tragic artist is one that is as old as the hills, and looks set to be with us until the end of time.  The key element here is the relationship between two sisters.  As a child, Hilary's talent with the flute far outshines Jackie's on the cello, but Jackie very soon overtakes her, although, apparently, she takes up the cello so that she can be with Hilary.  Lacking Jackie's transcendent talent, Hilary opts for a quiet family life in the country.   Jackie's life is ruled by the cello, despite all the success, wealth and fame, she comes to strongly resent it, hallucinating the instrument's strings fraying and breaking.  Gifted a very valuable cello by her teacher she begins to abuse the instrument, kicking it, leaving it out in the snow and deliberately abandoning it in a taxi.  Her love-hate relationship with the cello is interesting, her musical talent gives her everything, including her conductor husband (James Frain), but it also seems to take everything.  The film depicts certain key events from both Hilary and Jackie's points of view, however it means that Hilary is sidelined throughout most of the second half of the film, and I was left curious to see more about how the events affected her and her family.  Emily Watson is incredible as the charismatic, vulnerable, yet tortured Jackie, giving her a radiance that helps to show how people were drawn to her.  Rachel Griffiths is very good in the quieter role of Hilary, managing to convey a lot very subtly.  Also in the cast are British film stalwarts Celia Imrie and Charles Dance as Hilary and Jackie's parents, and Bill Paterson as Jackie's cello teacher.  David Morrissey and James Frain do well with what they are given as the leading male characters, although they are effectively sidelined by Watson and Griffiths.  The script is well written by Frank Cottrell Boyce although, as you would expect considering it is based on Hilary's book, while the film is sympathetic towards Jackie, it is certainly on the side of Hilary.  Director Anand Tucker directs with a little too much style and visual tricks  for the material, and the film's style does date it as being a product of the late 1990s.  It is a powerful film though, and worth watching even if you are not a classical music fan.  

Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths in Hilary and Jackie

Wittgenstein

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

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

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

Karl Johnson in Wittgenstein 

Man on the Moon

Year of Release:  1999
Director:  Milos Forman
Screenplay:  Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
Starring:  Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Courtney Love, Paul Giamatti
Running Time:  119 minutes
Genre:  Biography, comedy, drama

This film tells the story of American entertainer Andy Kaufman (Carrey).  His bizarre performances fail at nightclubs, where the audiences want traditional comedy, but intrigue Hollywood agent George Shapiro (DeVito).  Despite his disdain for sitcoms, Kaufman rises to fame as Latka in the popular comedy show Taxi (1978-1983), which leads to appearances on Saturday Night Live, Late Night with David Letterman and others.  However Kaufman's live set, which is more performance art than comedy, as well as his taste for bizarre elaborate practical jokes and pranks, including appearances as his alter ego, the obnoxiously rude and untalented lounge singer Tony Clifton, and wrestling women in the guise of a professional wrestling villain, offend and alienate his audience and co-workers.

Outside of the sitcom Taxi Andy Kaufman never achieved mainstream acceptance, but he became kind of a cult figure, inspiring the REM song from which this film takes it's title.  He is portrayed here as a talented, if unconventional performer, who there was never really a niche for, and probably still isn't.  Carrey turns in a superb performance as Kaufman, and has great support form Danny DeVito as his loyal but frustrated manager (DeVito starred alongside the real Kaufman in Taxi), ass well as Courtney Love who is underused as Kaufman's long-suffering partner Lynne Margulies, and Paul Giamatti plays Kaufman's sidekick Bob Zmuda.  The cast from Taxi also make cameo appearances as themselves.  The film is stylishly made, starting with Carrey as Kaufman interrupting the film's opening credits to tell the audience the film is already over and they should go home.  It never really gets under the skin of Kaufman and, if you want to find out what made the man tick you won't learn it here.  In fact after the film, it's unclear how much of Kaufman was real and how much was just an elaborate put on.  Which probably would have pleased him no end.
A documentary about the film's deeply strange production was released on Netflix in 2017 called Jim & Andy:  The Great Beyond.        

Jim Carrey in Man on the Moon

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

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

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

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

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



     

"Patient X" by David Peace

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

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

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

All Is True

Year of Release:  2018

Director:  Kenneth Branagh

Screenplay:  Ben Elton

Starring:  Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Kathryn Wilder, Lydia Wilson, Ian McKellan

Running Time: 101 minutes  

Genre:  Biography, drama

In 1613, the Globe Theatre burns down due to an accident during a performance of William Shakespeare's play Henry VIII (also known as All Is True).  Retiring from writing, Shakespeare returns home to Stratford-upon-Avon, and his wife Anne (Dench) and daughters Susanna (Wilson) and Judith (Wilder), as well as the memory of his deceased son, Hamnet.

This low-key, melancholy film takes place over the last three years of Shakespeare's life.  It's written by Ben Elton, who is best known for comedy such as the Blackadder series (1986-1989) and Upstart Crow (2016-current), which is also about Shakespeare and covers some of the same territory as All Is True.  However this is completely different in tone, and is definitely not a comedy.  The film deals with the difficulty of being close to a genius, it seems to be that Shakespeare is so used to putting words in characters mouths, he can't really deal with real people who don't always do what he would like them to do.  The acting is great, particularly from Branagh, and there is a short but memorable appearance by Ian McKellan as Henry Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, to whom Shakespeare dedicated several sonnets and other poems.  Powerful, and at times deeply moving, this is certainly worth more attention that it has received.

Judi Dench, Kenneth Branagh, Lydia Wilson and Kathryn Wilder in All Is True

         

Stan & Ollie

Year of Release:  2018
Director:  Jon S. Baird
Screenplay:  Jeff Pope
Starring:  Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Danny Huston, Nina Arianda, Rufus Jones
Running Time:  97 minutes
Genre:  Comedy, drama, biography

It's 1953, sixteen years after legendary comedy double act Stan Laurel (Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (Reilly) were at the height of their fame.  In the hopes of raising backing for a comeback film that Laurel is writing, based around Robin Hood, the estranged duo reunite for a grueling tour of Britain.  However, the pressures of the tour soon start to put strain on Laurel and Hardy's relationship and Hardy's increasingly fragile health.

This is a touching, gentle film that pays an affectionate tribute to the genius of Laurel and Hardy.  It is also very funny.  Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly (acting under heavy make-up) are pitch perfect as Laurel and Hardy, nailing their physical comedy style, as well as their appearance and mannerisms.  Shirley Henderson is good as Hardy's wife, Lucille, and Nina Arianda is hilarious as Laurel's blunt but loving wife Ida.  It's a film about friendship, comedy and the value of art.  It's great not only for fans of Laurel and Hardy, but  also anyone interested in the world of show business.  A refreshingly sincere and affectionate film, this is a bittersweet tribute to a bygone era. 

Stan Laurel (Steve Coogan) and Oliver Hardy (John C. Reilly) are Stan & Ollie

Nowhere Boy

Year of Release:  2009
Director:  Sam Taylor-Wood
Screenplay:  Matt Greenhalgh, based on the book Imagine This:  Growing Up with My Brother John Lennon by Julia Baird
Starring:  Aaron Johnson, Anne-Marie Duff, Kristen Scott Thomas, David Threlfall, Thomas Sangster, David Morrissey
Running Time:  97 minutes
Genre:  Biography, drama 

Liverpool, the late 1950s:  Rebellious, charismatic teenager John Lennon (Johnson) lives with his strict aunt Mimi (Thomas), who has raised him since the age of five.  At the funeral of his beloved Uncle George (Threlfall), John gets back in contact with his mother, Julia (Duff).  Around the same time, John becomes obsessed with rock 'n' roll music, and decides to start a band with some of his friends from school, including Paul McCartney (Sangster) and George Harrison (Sam Bell).  As John becomes increasingly preoccupied with music, his behaviour worsens and a bitter conflict brews between himself, Julia and Mimi.

This isn't a film about the Beatles, although Paul McCartney and George Harrison do feature, the focus is entirely on Lennon and it ends just as the newly formed Beatles are about to set off for Hamburg.  Also, although Lennon's love of music plays a huge part in the film, it's not really about the music or about Lennon as a musician.  It's an entertaining and  intriguing 1950s family drama, anchored by some great performances from Aaron Johnson, Anne-Marie Duff and Kristen Scott Thomas.  This was the feature debut from fine art photographer Sam Taylor-Wood and she does a good job.  If you are expecting a comprehensive biopic of John Lennon or a film about the Beatles and their music, than you might be disappointed, but if you are looking for an affecting drama, then this is well worth checking out.

Aaron Johnson as John Lennon in Nowhere Boy     

The Doors

Year of Release:  1991
Director:  Oliver Stone
Screenplay:  J. Randal Johnson and Oliver Stone
Starring:  Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kevin Dillon, Kyle MacLachlan, Frank Whaley, Michael Madsen, Billy Idol, Kathleen Quinlan
Running Time:  140 minutes
Genre:  Drama, music, biography

Venice Beach, California, 1965:  Film school dropout Jim Morrison (Kilmer) is fascinated by the emerging hippie culture surrounding him and, with his friend, keyboardist Ray Manzarek (MacLachlan), forms the rock band The Doors along with drummer John Densmore (Dillon) and guitarist Robby Krieger (Whaley).  With Morrison's poetic lyrics along with his enigmatic and darkly seductive on-stage persona the band become one of the biggest in America by the end of the 60s.  As the band are riding high (in more ways than one), Morrison is involved in a tumultuous relationship with girlfriend, Pamela Courson (Ryan), while his personal demons threaten to destroy everything.

This film is almost the quintessential rock biopic:  The band are formed, become successful, and are then in danger of being destroyed from within.  To be fair, this film is mis-titled.  It's not really about the band The Doors, the focus is almost entirely on Jim Morrison and the other band members barely get a look in.  Although you don't really learn much about Morrison either, there is no context for anything that happens or explanation for his behaviour.  The movie is more interested in depicting crazy rock star excess, as Morrison loses himself in drink, drugs and sex.  According to many people who knew Morrison, the film is pretty inaccurate in it's depiction of him, and is probably at it's best in recreating the sights and sounds of the sixties, from the sunshine psychedelia of the West Coast to the strange, seductive underworld of Andy Warhol's New York parties, however accurate that may be.  The Morrison depicted in the film is such a horrible, toxic character that it is really hard to understand how anyone would want to spend more than two minutes in his company.    Meg Ryan and Kathleen Quinlan are severely underserved in a film where none of the female characters are given any real personality or agency. The film delves a lot into Morrison's fascination with shamanism and mysticism, which can be seen as either deep or deeply pretentious (the film's depiction of a mystical Native American spirit guide was parodied in the film Wayne's World 2 (1993)).  Oliver Stone opens up his box of cinematic tricks which makes the film look very slick and stylish, and means that it is certainly never dull.  Val Kilmer is good in the central role, helped by his striking physical resemblance to Morrison, and the music is, of course, fantastic.       

Kyle MacLachlan, Val Kilmer, Frank Whaley and Kevin Dillon break on through as The Doors

Legend

Year of Release:  2015
Director:  Brian Helgeland
Screenplay:  Brian Helgeland, based on the book A Profession of Violence by John Pearson
Starring:  Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, David Thewlis, Christopher Eccleston, Chazz Palminteri
Taron Egerton
Running Time:  131 minutes
Genre:  biography, drama, crime, gangster

This tells the story of the life and career of the notorious Kray twins, who ruled London organised crime in the 1960s.  Reggie Kray (Hardy) is suave, charismatic, intelligent and volatile, while Ronnie Kray (Hardy again) is a brutal psychopath.  The film mixes the story of the rise of the Krays criminal empire, with Reggie's relationship with Frances Shea (Browning), who narrates the film.

This is a fairly average gangster movie.  It's enjoyable enough, but it feels as if it's trying to pack too much into an, admittedly generous, running time.  Tom Hardy is brilliant as both Reggie and Ronnie, the scene where they have a long fight is a highlight, however there is no way to engage with either of them, and you never really find out anything more about either of them than you do in the opening scene.  Emily Browning gives a good performance, providing the emotional core of the film as the unfortunate Frances Shea, although her breathless, romantic narration seems very out of place.  I don't know enough about the Krays to comment on how accurate or not the film is, but as a gangster film it is entertaining, and never gets dull throughout it's running time, with several scenes of brutal violence punctuating the tale.

      
Ronnie and Reggie Kray (Tom Hardy) in Legend

The Wind Rises

Year of Release:  2013
Director:  Hayao Miyazaki
Screenplay:  Hayao Miyazaki, based on the manga Kaze Tachinu by Hayao Miyazaki
Starring:  Hideaki Anno, Miori Takimoto, Hidetoshi Nishjima, Masahiko Nishimura, Stephen Alpert, Morio Kazama
Running Time:  126 minutes
Genre:  animation, biography

This animated film from acclaimed writer/director Hayao Miyazaki, tells the story of Jiro Horikoshi (Anno), who dreams of flying, and aware that he can never become a pilot due to his poor eyesight, decides to become an aeroplane designer, under the influence of celebrated Italian aircraft designer Count Caproni (Alpert).

The film tells Horikoshi's story from childhood until the end of World War II, taking in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, and his doomed romance with the beautiful Naoko (Takimoto). This is a beautiful film, featuring some of the most stunning animation to be seen on screen. The film shows one of the main dichotomies of Miyazaki's work, an avowed pacifist, he has a fascination with the machinery of war, particularly aircraft.  The film depicts flight as a "cursed dream" evolving from pure, honorable motives, but corrupted for military purposes.

This shows the ability of animated film to depict drama in a way that live action film can't.  Moving between Horikoshi's dreams and reality, it's vibrant images make the past come alive.  It may be too slow-moving for some, and it's debatable how close it sticks to the real story (I'm no expert on the real story, but by all accounts it does take liberties with Jiro Horikoshi's real life), but it is a beautiful and powerful film, with a stunningly moving climax.  Miyazaki has said that he was inspired to make the film by a statement from Jiro Horikoshi that "All I wanted to do was create something beautiful."  By which criteria this film is a resounding success.      
  

Jiro and Naoko in The Wind Rises

Caravaggio

Year:  1986
Director:  Derek Jarman
Screenplay:  Derek Jarman and Suso Cecchi d'Amico, from a story by Nicholas Ward-Jackson
Starring:  Nigel Terry, Sean Bean, Tilda Swinton, Spencer Leigh, Michael Gough
Running Time:  93 minutes
Genre:  Biography, drama

Towards the end of his life, celebrated Seventeenth Century painter Michelangelo da Caravaggio (Terry) reflects on his eventful life, from his youth as a violent hustler and street artist to his rise to fame under the patronage of Cardinal Del Monte (Gough).  Caravaggio becomes known for his skill as an artist and notorious for his habit of using people from the street as models for his mostly religious paintings, as well as his habit of sleeping with many of his models, both men and women.  His reflections focus on his relationships with thuggish street fighter Ranuccio (Bean) and Ranuccio's girlfriend Lena (Swinton), who both become his models and his muse. 

Acclaimed British director Derek Jarman worked for seven years to make a film of the life of the legendary painter Caravaggio, and the original idea was something much closer to the conventional movie biopic to be shot on location in Italy with a fairly large budget.  However, the budget fell through at the last minute and Jarman was forced to scale back his plans quite considerably.  The film ended up being shot entirely in a studio in London.  Possibly as a result of this, the film never aims at an authentic recreation of 17th Century Italy.  Instead it kind of exists in a surreal twilight zone somewhere between the world of Caravaggio and the world of 1980s London.  There are numorous deliberate anachronisms in the film: characters wear items of modern dress, merchants do their accounts on pocket calculators, an art critic writes venomous reviews on a portable typewriter and Ranuccio works on a motorbike among others.  However the film is visually startling.  The look of the film attempts to replicate the look and feel of Caravggio's paintings with striking success.  It creates it's own world that is both dreamlike and strongly vibrant and physical.  The performances are very good, if occasionally overly theatrical.  This film marks the movie debut of Tilda Swinton, who went on to do several more films with Jarman, as did Sean Bean.  Derek Jarman was a painter himself and the film presents a striking account of the art world.  Rarely do biopics of an artist focus so strongly on the actual painting of the works themselves.  This film is probably Derak Jarman's finest film and certainly his most accessible.  It's well worth checking out.

Nigel Terry and Sean Bean fight it out in Caravaggio