Your Sister's Sister (2011 Lynn Shelton & scr)

Low budget indie, largely improvised with (I would guess) two camera filming concurrently.

After death of brother, his friend (and girlfriend of former brother) sends him to rehabilitate in house on island off Seattle, unaware that her step-sister is also staying there - merry complications ensue.

Mark Duplass, Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt.

Shelton also made Sword of Trust. I'm not really a fan of improvised stuff - I'd rather watch a Woody Allen that sounds improvised but is scripted. She also directed scripted things like Little Fires episodes. 

But it remains quite watchable.

Task (2025 Creator Brad Ingleby)

We start by cross-cutting two storylines. Two chaps (Tom Pelphrey and Raul Castillo) discuss dating and getting away from it all, but we know they're up to no good. Mark Ruffalo is a priest turned FBI agent. Turns out the fellows are robbing drugs houses and Ruffalo is instructed to gather a Task (Force) to bust them. They are: Thuso Mbedu (a stand-out as the abused sharp-shooter), Fabien Frankel and Alison Oliver. And us and them getting to know each other is another good part of the mix, especially when it's suggested that one of them might be a leak.

But things aren't right in either the household of Ruffalo (a drunk, whose wife is dead, his daughter and he barely communicating, some family tragedy in the background) and Pelphrey (his bother is dead, he's in conflict with his niece Emilia Jones - you know, from Coda and What We Did on our Holiday -  who's another stand-out).

So lots in the pot - oh yes, I didn't even get into a kidnapped boy - who Pelphrey is good with - until he loses it with a well-wisher and goes way over the top, reminding us at this point he's not as nice as he might be - and a gang of nasty Hell's Angels, the 'Dark Hearts', and their involvement.

With Martha Plimpton, Silvia Dionicio, the overly glowering Jamie McShane, Sam Keeley, Owen Teague, and that was Isaac de Bankolé as the priest!

I find the title annoying, even though I do realise it's what internally they call it. But it's a very exciting and well written show, well acted.

7 x 1 hour for HBO.

A Walk in the Woods (2015 Ken Kwapis)

Adapted from Bill Bryson novel ("I'm not writing a book") by Little Miss Sunshine's Michael Arndt (under the pseudonym of Rick Kerb which he mainly uses for rewrites), and Bill Holderman. It was originally optioned in 1998 as another Newman-Redford collaboration.

One particularly sticky moment might have finished them off for good, but luckily two helpful young chaps turn up.

Photographed by John Bailey and edited by Carol Littleton.

Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir (2011 Laurent Bousereau)

Polanski interviewed by his old friend and producer Andrew Braunsberg about his whole life and the highs and lows, one of which was his mother being killed in Auschwitz.

Having as a boy (he was unluckily born in 1933) been separated from his father, who was taken to a concentration camp but miraculously survived - he often had this image that some presence in the distance would be him - and it even pops up in his first short film, Mammals. Also recounted how after the Krakow ghetto when living in the Polish countryside (weirdly near Auschwitz), he was randomly shot at by a soldier when blackberry picking and ran like hell for his life into the woods. Also in Krakow he'd seen a middle aged woman in a line of prisoners stumble to the ground and shot in the back by a Nazi.

He didn't look back too kindly on Repulsion but thought Cul-de-Sac much more like it.

A useful corrective on his legal problems. He had in fact served 42 days in prison undergoing a psychiatric report, and the prison discharged him as a free man. But the Judge then decided to change his mind and said Polanski would go back to prison until he decided, which is of course illegal. So Polanski fled. He did not 'skip bail' because at that point he was a free man.

He was then also held under house arrest in Switzerland for nine months pending a US extradition request. 

Photographed in Gstaad by Pawel Edelman, music by Alexandre Desplat.

He said the one film he'd most want to be remembered for was The Pianist.

King Rat (1965 Bryan Forbes & scr)

Well, I thought this was fabulous, an adaptation of one of James Clavell's 'Japanese' novels (actually set in Malaysia). (And actually filmed in California.)

George Segal plays the laid back 'King', who can get anything, make any kind of deal - a similar idea to that in Stalug 17. Clavell's first novel was written in 1962 and based on his own experiences in Changi Prison. He'd started as a screenwriter (writing The Fly amongst other things!) and a writer''s strike made him pick up a novelists's pen (it's a heavier, more substantial one) instead. He wrote The Great Escape and others before returning to novels, with Tai Pan and then Shogun, which then was a huge TV success.

Anyhow. A young James Fox comes into his orbit and their friendship is the key to the story, especially as Fox is useful translating Malaysian for the deal maker. Then he becomes really seriously ill. Fox is brilliant - brilliant, I say.

The antagonist is another great performance - from Tom Courtney - as the weasley (what?? OK it's weaselly) and vindictive camp Provost Marshal - head of military police in the camp. And some outrageous things happen with the stealing of food, which is the worst crime imaginable; ultimately involving senior officer John Mills, lending his usual gravitas to proceedings. Has a particularly stingy ending. (It stings.)

The other standout performance is James Donald as the phlegmatic doctor. Though everyone else is great too: Patrick O'Neal. Denholm Elliott, Leonard Rossiter, Geoffrey Bayldon, Reg Lye (the Australian), Michael Lees (other doctor), too many to mention.

Walter Thompson's editing is noticeable and notable - such as those freeze frames, and the very opening. (Fat City, The Nun's Story, Jane Eyre). Burnett Guffey photographed it. John Barry provides a suitably melancholic score. Art / set Robert Smith, Frank Tuttle.

Elizabethtown (2005 Cameron Crowe & scr)

"As someone once said, there's a difference between a failure and a fiasco."

From The Uncool:

Crowe says that one of his goals with “Elizabethtown” was to make the type of film his father liked best: one that could achieve genuine emotion but always with humor close at hand. “A movie that could blend tears and laughter… that was his favorite combo,” says Crowe. “He and my mom actually had a name for that very special mix, they called it ‘Bread and Chocolate,’ after a foreign film they’d fallen in love with. Later, as a director, it became one of my favorite mixes too – a movie that introduced you to characters who felt real, who took you into their lives and when that movie was over… you missed those people you’d met two hours earlier.”

So. Let's actually identify these songs we keep talking about. 

Elton John, 'My Father's Gun'. Because of Cameron I keep hearing Elton John songs I didn't know and love. Over this scene:

Hair as tears?

But, if you look at the track listing - no Neil Young!

Don't I Hold You - Wheat.

Sugar Blue - Jeff Finlin.

Come Pick Me Up - Ryan Adams.

It'll All Work Out - Tom Petty.

Let It All Hang Out - The Hombres.

Hard Times - Eastmountainsouth.

Same in Any Language - I Nine.

Square One - Tom Petty.

Jesus Was a Crossmaker - The Hollies.

Pinback - Loro.

Funky Nassau - Beginning of the End.

River Road - Nancy Wilson.

Passing By - Ulrich Schnauss

Summerlong - Kathleen Edwards

You start listening to these and you not only float off into the film but you also realise what an incredible job has gone into the soundtrack.

what-song.com lists a couple not on the Uncool's 'official' list:

Fleetwood Mac - Big Love

Promised You a Miracle - Simple Minds

That's Life James Brown

Pride - In the name of Love - U2

... but definitely no Neil Young! So I don't know. So I found the moment and Shazamed it and lo and behold, it's not Neil Young. It's about the only fucking trach I didn't look up, which is:

Where to Begin - My Morning Jacket. Around 2 minutes in Jim James' vocal sounds Youngish. That whole process has only taken about an hour and a half.

And still with sound of a more traditional design, when Drew gets to Elizabethtown and opens the car door - listen to that swell of Southern mosquito insect mix! Note name of Skip Livesay in supervising sound department. There's another good example later, but I can't remember it now! 

Little Miss Sunshine (2006 Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris)

Written by Michael Arndt (also A Walk in the Woods). He and Alan Arkin won Oscars and BAFTAs. Arkin's great but so is whole cast: Toni Collette, Steve Carrell, Abigail Breslin, Paul Dano, Greg Kinnear.

A fabulous film.

The Banker (2020 George Nolfi)

Anthony Mackie is a property wizard who in the 1950s comes up with the brilliant plan to buy the building that houses several LA banks' head offices. In conjunction with Samuel L Jackson he does so, then makes the mistake of buying a bank in Texas, using Nicholas Hoult as a front, and making loans to black people. And from there things go steadily downhill and end up in jail. And it's all Nicholas Hoult's fault.

And all these things are mad, of course, and the laws did change.

And it's a true story, written by Niceole Levy & George Nolfi and David Lewis Smith & Stan Younger.

You want Nolfi to be a black director, really, don't you? He isn't, unfortunately. But the film is pretty successful and enjoyable. Made for Apple.

I got onto it because it's another film photographed but the steadily good Charlotte Bruus Christensen, still one of the few female feature film cinematographers.

The music comes dangerously close to Tom Newman at one point.

Cape Fear (1962 J Lee Thompson)

We thought really the only thing Peck could have done was get Mitchum rubbed out. Lori Martin was 14/15 at the time. According to IMDB, Lee had wanted Hayley Mills as the girl (who he had directed in her debut Tiger Bay) but she was under contract to Disney and wouldn't be released.

Molly's Game (2017 Aaron Sorkin & scr)

True story of Molly Bloom ("I always assumed you were Irish"), who's something of a smart woman. Features two really despicable characters, played well by Jeremy Strong and Michael Cera. Latter's involvement in demise of gambler Bill Camp is one of the dramatic highlights, as is reconciliation with hard father Kevin Costner, and nasty assault by mafia.

With Idris Elba, J.C. MacKenzie, Brian D'Arcy James, Chris O'Dowd, Justin Kirk, Angela Gots.

Snappily edited by Alan Baumgarten, Elliot Graham and Josh Schaeffer. Photographed by Charlotte Bruus Christensen (The Girl on the Train, A Quiet Place, The Banker, and the new Claire Foy picture H Is For Hawk.)

You Were Never Really Here (2017 Lynne Ramsay & scr)

A somewhat trippy film which paints dark pictures in jagged little bursts. The sound design is fantastic and Jonny Greenwood's score is rather aggressive. It's nice and short but not an easy watch, and ultimately leads nowhere. It's based on Jonathan Ames' similarly concise novel.

Photographed by Tom Townend, editor Joe Bini, who also edited and co-wrote a film about Polanski's farcical 'trial' Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired in 2008.

John Carpenter Double Bill: Halloween (1978) / The Fog (1980)

Despite having seen Halloween seventy-seven times, Q is still full of amusing questions like 'How come he knows how to drive?' 'Why'd he kill his sister?' 'How come he's so strong?' 'Why don't they see they're being followed?' and other enquiries that miss the point - horror films are usually a load of old bollocks. (Which puts stuff like Repulsion on an exalted level.)

I wonder how long it took to film? Twenty days.

I love the fact that the music is played by a human being (Carpenter) and isn't perfect. 

I don't think I've ever mentioned the editors - Charles Bornstein and Tommy Lee Wallace, who was also the production designer and became a director himself, e.g.of Halloween III and the TV version of It in 1990.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two screen shots I was going to take I already had.

I first watched it on 2 January 1981, I guess at the cinema. I can't remember. I'm sure I saw The Fog at the cinema too but strangely I don't have one of my old filing cards on it. It's pretty wacky. It's essentially the same creative team as behind Halloween - Hill, Cundey, Wallace etc etc. Even some of cast. And Jamie Lee and Janet together. (Cueing thought - will Janet get bumped off again?)

Quite enjoyable nonsense. With Adrienne Barbeau (then Mrs. Carpenter), John Houseman, Tom Atkins, James Canning, Charles Cyphers (amusingly playing 'Dan O'Bannon'), Nancy Kyes, Hal Holbrook.

I have no idea what the 'blake effects' credited to Dean Cundey are, and neither does Google.

There are a couple of places where Leigh looks like she's been fogged over but apparently it's an unintentional camera fogging error.

Well, that's another Halloween.

Jekyll & Hyde (1990 David Wickes & scr)

There's a scene in the opening moments of a crazy man running through Victorian London, pushing past a young girl - quick cut to 'falling' girl, looks really fake, with her arms stretched over her head. Made me laugh out loud. And there you have it - you know something is going to be rubbish just like that. Why then watch any more? Well for one thing, it's enjoyably bad. And for another, Michael Caine plays the titular hero / antihero and as usual he is able to transcend any material he's given... Just about.

It is badly directed and written and therefore all the other performances seem crap. Which are given by Charley's Angel Cheryl Ladd, Ronald Pickup, Joss Ackland, Diane Keen, Kim Thomson, Kevin McNally, David Schofield, Lionel Jeffries and (fleetingly) Lance Percival.

"Do you think we'll find him?"
"This is Scotland Yard. We'd find him at the North Pole."

"Only God can help you now."
"Then why doesn't he??"

"Evil is not a scientific word. Perhaps that's why he fears you."

Also, it may have been that the bustle on Ladd's dress or whatever it's called - that thing that pokes out of her bum - it may be historically accurate but it looks ridiculous and therefore is distracting.

An ITV production.

Remind me not to watch the other Wickes-Caine collaboration Jack the Ripper.

Riot Women (2025 Sally Wainwright)

Sally's new 6 parter for the BBC features:

Joanna Scanlan, Amelia Bullmore, Tamsin Grieg, Lorraine Ashbourne, Taj Atwal (Line of Duty, Trying), and Chandeep Uppal and leading them on vocals the striking strength of Rosaline Craig (The Queen's Gambit, Moonflower Murders). (I missed her slashed mouth when it had healed up.)

With Jonny Green (the adopted son), Ellise Chappell (his wife), Macy Seelochan, Anne Reid, Ben Batt, Tony Hurst, Sue Johnstone, Peter Davidson, Kevin Doyle, Claire Skinner, Natalia Tena etc. It's a big cast.

Has I think the most upsetting scene I've seen this year.

Not what I was expecting. Powerful, and good. The key confrontation between mother and son has some really powerful big close ups and a beautiful sound design - just (well, not just - who knows how many layers of sound are in this quiet confrontation) but all I noticed was a distant and faint owl.

Quite neatly resolved (though we never did get to the bottom - excuse the pun - of why the producer thought Tamsin would want to rim him - some predictive text mistake, I was thinking) though with gangster Jonathan Pryce popping up at the end with the identities of Kitty's abusers definitely points to a second season.

Rubbish of the Year

Too Much. Lena Dunham thing. Did at least finish it.

Etoile. Amy Sherman-Palladino thing about ballet. No! Couldn't get past first episode! Didn't even finish the first episode!

Insomnia. Very daft Vicky Mclure thing.

Cold Water and The Guest. Both linked by Eve Myles, who should know better. Both unbelievable rubbish.

Dope Girls. Just couldn't get into it.

Girl Friend. More unbelievable rubbish... but I think audiences realise it is. Certainly the ones on Gogglebox seem to.

Zero Day. Robert de Niro President thing. Just never went further than episode 1.

The Iris Affair. Giant super-computer thing? Who commissions this stuff?

Paradise. Dan Fogelman's gone mad. Or it's just not our thing.

Hostage. Farcical Suranne Jones thing.

Suspicion. Oh yeah - that one. More fucking rubbish.

The Assassin. The Williams Brothers. One episode enough.

Des (2020 Luke Neal, Lewis Arnold)

In 1983, Dennis Nilsen, magnetically performed by David Tennant, admits rather casually to the murders of fifteen young men. Danny Mays (in a dogged and weary way) leads the team that tries to identify the victims. Then Nilsen's position changes, partly in reaction to biographer Jason Watkins, and he pleads not guilty to the charges.

Watkins plays (also rather well) the writer whose book formed the basis for the screenplay.

A sombre treatment by ITV in 3 x 45m. There sure was a lot of smoking going on in 1983.

Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue (2025 Anthony Horowitz)

Horowitz has authored a 6 x 45m show for BBC, a somewhat unsubtle repurposing of And Then There Were None. It's extremely far-fetched and the Mexican jungle set makes if seem quaintly old-fashioned. I wonder if this was all intentional. I loved Foyle's War but think his more recent stuff has been more childish and playful. I mean, he gives a knowing wink at David Ajala being shot twice, then falling off a mountain, and surviving, but it doesn't stop it being the most far-fetched thing ever. Some flashes of nasty violence tip it away from harmless pastiche.

So I'm not sure, but it was engrossing while it was on. The participants: Eric McCormack, Lydia Wilson (from About Time and a small role in Any Human Heart), Jan Le, Siobhan McSweeney, Olafur Darri Olafsson, Peter Gadiot, Adam Long, Carolina Guerra.

Also, never mind all the other incongruities - like what sort of torturing doctor is Eric McCormack?? - can someone tell me where that hooded cape came from? Was it in the hold, left over from a Scream convention? (Was it, in fact, a Scream reference?)

"Am I really in this show?"

Oh, I see - it's a parody of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!

The Morning Show: Season 4 (2025 Creator Jay Carson)

Er... what now. Deep fakery. Paris Olympics. A mysterious chemical leak cover-up.

Jen's done something weird to her lips - not recently - this isn't News - but she shouldn't have done.

Brings Reece back in from the cold. Finds story of the environmental cover-up. Turns out annoying Chief Exec Marion Cotillard was responsible. How can Billy Crudup turn this to his advantage? Is series three leftover John Hamm involved?

Amusing sub-story - amidst many sub-stories.. or are they all sub-stories? Is there one overarching story?

Anyway. Greta Lee's AI version of herself blows up her career. Very good. Lee from Russian Doll, Past Lives.

State Secret (1950 Sidney Gilliatt & scr)

Takes place in a fictional European country, with its own fictional language, which is distracting, especially when people like Jack Hawkins start mouthing it.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr is a doctor who operates on a foreign dignitary - when said dictator dies, Fairbanks can't be allowed to leave and tell anybody. But he flees and takes up with feisty showgirl Glynis Johns and shady entrepreneur Herbert Lom.

Earlier Launder-Gilliat coproduction Night Train to Munich also climaxes on a cable car. Just saying. Robert Krasker shot it, Thelma Myers edited, Guy Hamilton is assistant director, Ted Scaife camera operator, Gerry Fisher assistant.

The film doesn't credit where it was shot. I thought it might have been Italy, and it was.

Fairbanks had an interesting life. Highly decorated in the war, he mainly resided in England and often entertained the Queen and Prince Phillip!

Danny Green, Anton Diffring recognisable in small roles.

Not bad. Especially liked moment where doctor demands to see the patient he's operating on, and realises it's someone else!

The Goodbye Girl (1977 Herbert Ross)

Hugely enjoyable. Gay Richard III hilarious - Paul Benedict is the theatre director.

Dreyfuss also won the Golden Globe. César didn't give awards to foreign actors.

The apartment is off Amsterdam Avenue though as that runs the entire length of Manhattan, that's not too helpful. According to this it's West 78th Street.