Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016 David Yates)

JK wrote her own screenplay too this time. Her messages are ecological, also I think there's a child abuse / anger theme. (Steve Kloves is a producer.) Grindelwald - there's a name redolent of Grimms.

Eddie Redmayne as infectiously pleasing as usual; rest of casting choices unusual for such a big budget (no doubt the first in a planned series): Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice), Dan Fogler and Alison Sudol, with Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo, Ron Perlman, Johnny Depp and (fleetingly) Gemma Chan.

From the Potter series - Yates' regular editor Mark Day, Stuart Craig production design. Philippe Rousselot on camera, James Newton Howard's music not up to scratch. And where to start with the creation of the Fantastic Beasts themselves (great sound design too - particularly liked the deep bass of the big rhino-type thing).

.

The Squid and the Whale (2005 Noah Baumbach & scr)

It's no wonder that kids Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline are having a hard time as their parents Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney are somewhat dysfunctional (father especially), peppered with little surprises (he wants to share custody as it's cheaper than paying child support). This is a subtle, pretty funny and well observed tale of what it's like to be a young man, mirroring parents' behaviour (especially funny in Kline's tennis and table tennis scenes) well acted by all. Jesse in particular has strong views on books he hasn't read; when student Anna Paquin moves in and admires Mother and the Whore poster it's clear he hasn't seen it, only had the poster in his room. He slavishly follows his Dad's views until a revealing session with a psychiatrist. William Baldwin is the tennis coach.

Has a most interesting list of 'Thanks to' including Kevin Kline & Phoebe Cates (parents of Owen), Sofia Coppola and Peter Bogdanovich. Robert Yeoman shot it.

Cookie's Fortune (1999 Robert Altman)

I love the way that Anne Rapp (normally a script editor, but also wrote Dr T and the Women) doesn't tell you a thing about any characters but rather lets you find out by observing and by event. In the midst of this, Patricia Neal and Charles Dutton give wonderful performances. But everyone else is good too (though perhaps Chris O'Donnell overplays as the over-eager cop) - Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler (Bebe Buell's daughter!), Ned Beatty, Courtney Vance, Donald Moffat, Lyle Lovett (clearly an Altman favourite), Niecy Nash, Ruby Wilson (singer), Rufus Thomas (bar owner).

Loads to love, all casually observed with that slow Altman zoom (photographed by Toyomichi Kurita) and often very funny (e.g. cop who won't stop talking about fishing, Willis's 'incarceration').

Penny Gold (1973 Jack Cardiff)

Jack doesn't mention it in his book, but I think he was running out of steam in the latter pages. 'Conversations with Jack Cardiff' (Justin Bower) tells us that it was filmed in four weeks for £98,000 from a story written by his friend in Switzerland David Osborn (with Liz Charles-Williams).

Apart from everything seeming very brown (if there had been any food it would have been brown food) the cheapness makes it feel like an extended episode of a TV series, with its overuse of zoom and cheesy 'here's an ad break' music. But twist involving identical twins (Francesca Annis) and priceless stamp is fun.

James Booth is almost a Morse prototype (serious, polite, likes classical music and seems to know a lot about stamps), Nicky Henson his assistant. Joss Ackland is their superior, Joseph O'Conor the girls' father, Sue Lloyd a model and George Murcell an amusingly grumpy doctor.

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942 Roy William Neill)

Source is 'The Dancing Men' updated to incorporate Swiss (?) bomb expert professor at centre of story. He's played by William Post Jr as 'to get a foreign accent, just speak really deliberately'. His wife is Kaaren Verne (from King's Row) who gets to say about three lines. Rathbone and Bruce are pitched against Lionel Atwill's Moriarty.

Love the design of the 'clue' itself

Holmes recovers from having five pints of blood drained in about five seconds, Watson falls asleep on the job. Holmes' disguises include a Swiss professor and a tough mariner of indeterminate origin.

The final plea to 'Buy War Bonds' should have been amended - 'Or we'll make more films like this one'.

Mr. Wonderful (1993 Anthony Minghella)

Written by Amy Schor Ferris and Vicki Polon, acted by Matt Dillon, Annabella Sciorra, Mary-Louise Parker and William Hurt, with Dan Hedaya and James Gandolfini.

Q was rather taken with Dillon's Corvette:

Shot by Geoffrey Simpson. An involving little film with a good heart.

The English Patient (1996 Anthony Minghella & scr)

A circular telling of Michael Ondaatje's novel (it ends just before the beginning) - a sincere, intelligent, artistic film.

Juliette Binoche is wonderful as always, Ralph Fiennes good in glowering mode when not in make-up, Kristen Scott Thomas. With Colin Firth, Willem Defoe, Naveen Andrews (then in drink and drugs phase - not that you'd know), Julian Wadham, Kevin Whatley.

Quite rightly won BAFTA and Oscar

I loved Walter Murch's edit of Kristen Scott Thomas's fingers on the jeep window dissolving into Ralph Fiennes' scarred face.

And of course John Seale's exquisite photography (he also operated).

Gabriel Yared wrote good music, production design by Stuart Craig, Remi Adefarasin heads second unit camerawork. It was showered with awards.

Whatever Works (2009 Woody Allen & scr)

"Now this is the kind of man you should be married to." Evan Rachel Wood and Patricia Clarkson

Love Harris Savides' lighting of this scene

I love the way his stories turn from one thing into another. My wife's always had a habit of doing that, but then she's another great storyteller.

The Sure Thing (1985 Rob Reiner)

John Cusack pretending to be crazy to protect Daphne Zuniga from lecherous driver is a highlight. The 'sure thing' wears an annoying bikini.

It's an early Robert Elswit.

Viveca Lindfors steals the film as a life-affirming English tutor.

It's a bit of a variation on It Happened One Night really. Fun. Cusack always worth watching.

While We're Young (2014 Noah Baumbach & scr)

Funnily enough I had only just clicked that Jesse Eisenberg was in The Squid and the Whale - and that we didn't have a copy - and that was by Baumbach too. We really enjoyed this, very Woody Allenish really, about a couple who are seduced by younger couple's creativity.  A man has spent 10 years making a documentary, c'mon...

Has much to say about technology e.g. this exchange:
"Why is it that when one person takes out their phone, everyone else does."
"I know, it's so rude."
"It used to be rude. It isn't any more."
And the toddler on his phone at the end is priceless.

But - Yes vinyl is cool, but VHS? Lots of other good stuff about new parents etc.

Also v interesting about documentary - had me thinking about Ralph Rosenblum's episode with Flaherty (told in 'When the Shooting Stops'). Interesting, eclectic soundtrack, too.

Adam Sandler, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, Amanda Egg, Charles Grodin.

Ah... Wes Anderson - Noah co-wrote Fantastic Mr Fox and The Life Aquatic, wrote and directed Margot at the Wedding.

Love Soup 2 (2008 Christine Gernon & Sandy Johnson)

I wonder why Renwick then decided to go for half hour episodes (12 of them)? Maybe because of this - and also as it now lacks the contrast between the two different characters' stories (Alice and Gil) - it doesn't seem to work quite as well, though there are still many, many examples of misdirection and comedy highlights including Sheridan Smith helping to put a plastic wrapper on a carpet, a dinner party where Alice thinks her blind date is the husband, a friend who is going out with two men who all know and approve, a scene where we think Alice and her flatmate Amelia Curtis are having an argument (in fact just rehearsing script lines). Certain adult / dark tones too - study on pornographic films, man who is selling gallows, woman who falls to her death at Alice's feet.

Has a nice line in guest stars, particularly Mark Heap, though also Ronnie Corbett (sending himself up marvellously), Lucy Speed, Rebecca Front, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Olivia Colman, Joanna Page, Abigail Thaw, Helen Lederer, Bill Bailey (man who gets comedian to write dinner party quips), Mackenzie Crook (a crazy actor), Lynda Bellingham, Charlie Brooks and Kevin Bishop (an intelligent car thief).

In the end the original story comes back into play through Gil's agent Owen Brenman and leads to the the ultimately rather sad and lonely finale - here I would have liked to have at least heard one of the conversations between Gil and Alice because in series one they never meet.

Still wonderfully offbeat and quirky. "It's not rocket salad."

Room at the Top (1958 Jack Clayton)

Well, if I were Simone Signoret I wouldn't have gone back anywhere near Laurence Harvey's vileness, and Heather Sears is rather forgiving of his affair too. Donald Wolfit is the powerful industrialist, Donald Houston Harvey's decent friend, Hermione Baddeley harbours the adulterers, Allan Cuthbertson (familiar from Performance) is Signoret's bastard husband and John Westbrook an obnoxious love rival.

OK he does have an inch of compassion but so what? Film plays rather badly now, with fake northern accents at every turn.

Freddie Francis keeps it dark; Mario Nascimbene's music soulful; Ralph Kemplen - noted for his work on dialogue scenes, most evident here in pivotal confrontation between Harvey and Wolfit - edited.

I am not Simone Signoret.

The Vicious Circle (1957 Gerald Thomas)

John Mills (never seen him give a bad performance - well not since the very early days anyway) becomes embroiled in murder plot - nice detective Roland Culver believes him. Francis Durbridge wrote it (it's kinda easy to guess and somewhat unbelievable) - a keen crime novelist and playwright who created Paul Temple. With Derek Farr, Noelle Middleton, Wilfred Hyde White, Mervyn Johns, René Ray, Lionel Jeffries.

Otto Heller shoots good stuff on London locations. Thomas - never the most creative director - presents a terribly staged fight scene.

Love Soup (2005 Christine Gernon)

Superb six x 1 hour comedy of a quality you rarely find these days. David Renwick is so good at leading the audience up the wrong path and presenting truly bizarre events and situations. There's also a strong Woody Allen feel to this, not just in the thirties soundtrack but specific nods, like a skeleton (Manhattan) and characters in a novel who 'break free' (Purple Rose of Cairo) - the ending is strongly reminiscent of The Crowd. Just some truly wonderful and absurd things, like the video embedded into a gravestone. And interesting serious themes going on - existence, identity, modern culture.

Tamsin Greig is wonderfully subtle, Michael Landes a model of passive puzzlement. With Sheridan Smith, Montserrat Lombard, Trudie Styler.

Loved the handling of story between Landes and his older neighbour - and the acting - will they or won't they?

Couldn't believe use of Vertigo soundtrack in final episode - must have cost a fortune.

Great to see Renwick himself (and colleague Andrew Marshall) acting as scriptwriters.

The Guinea Pig (1948 John Boulting)

Dickie Attenborough was twenty-five - he'd been Pinky in Brighton Rock the previous year - odd casting for a school boy. Story has a grim familiarity to it.

Bernard Miles, who also co-wrote, is Dickie's dad, Joan Hickson mum. Robert Flemyng is the forward-thinking teacher, Cecil Trouncer the old guard, Sheila Sim the daughter (A Canterbury Tale was her debut - she had married Dickie in 1945!)

Gilbert Taylor shot it.

Enigma (2001 Michael Apted)

By complete coincidence, Tom Stoppard and Tom Hollander again both reappear in thriller with political / espionage setting, based on Richard Harris novel. Dougray Scott (not sure about him, really) is the chief decipherer aided by Kate Winslet as they attempt to find out what happened to Saffron Burrows. Jeremy Northam is perhaps a touch too supercilious. With Matthew Macfadyen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Robert Pugh. Benefits from old-style John Barry score and Seamus McGarvey on camera.

Mick Jagger - of all people - was one of the producers.

Death on the Nile (1978 John Guillermin)

Written by Anthony Shaffer, handsomely shot by Jack Cardiff, using the zoom lens with restraint, Ustinov is Poirot, Niven his mate. Mia Farrow is suitably disturbed as she torments Simon MacCorkindale and Lois Chiles. Others propped up around this situation are Bette Davis, Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury, Olivia Hussey, Jane Birkin, Jon Finch, George Kennedy and Jack Warden. Nino Rota wrote the music,

Guillermin manages to do nothing particularly interesting with plot, cast or situation. Jack's son John Cardiff is second unit photographer.

Elizabethtown (2005 Cameron Crowe & scr)

We needed solid fried gold after High-Rise and this is brilliantly written (naturally it was ignored by all the awards and critics).

I agree with Q that it's Kirsten Dunst's most likeable performance - she's sort of in the Audrey Hepburn vein (and in fact Roman Holiday is referenced).

Great soundtrack as usual contains two Elton John songs and one from Neil Young even Q didn't know.

"I never met a Mitch I didn't like."

High-Rise (2015 Ben Wheatley)

Opens with awful aftermath of some horror and Tom Hiddlestone eating a dog. No doubt what transpired to lead us to that merry point was grisly black humour involving inhabitants of awful tower block where all life is encompassed - at any rate we presume that is the point of Amy Jump's adaptation of J.G. Ballard's 1975 novel. (Jump also worked on Kill List and A Foreign Field.) Jeremy Thomas had long wanted to make it and Nic Roeg and Paul Mayerserg were on their way with it in the 70s.

I'm sorry to say that we just couldn't get into it and quit after thirty minutes. Though Luke Evans promising as violent bully.

Problems are (1) no characters you like (2) dystopia.

Shakespeare in Love (1998 John Madden)

Tom Stoppard's brilliantly imaginative, clever and funny story of how Romeo and Juliet came to light and how Queen Elizabeth saved his bacon. Geoffrey Rush keeps narrowly avoiding buckets of piss; Tom Wilkinson becomes not a moneylender but a theatre aficionado; Ben Affleck is one of many to give Will ideas (another is Rupert Everett); Jim Carter is a theatrical nurse; Judi Dench a scene stealing queen; Gwyneth Apple a cute heroine. Joseph Fiennes is fine as the bard.

Won seven Oscars including best screenplay, by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman* (who wrote the initial idea and was one of the producers - previous credits include Cutthroat Island and The Killer Elite). Here's Norman in interview for the 'LA Times':

"Elizabethan drama reminds me of the early days of movies, a bunch of guys holding this tiger by the tail, the tiger of popular entertainment. The idea of theaters, a place where people would actually pay for a ticket as opposed to throwing money in a basket for street buskers, was a radical and revolutionary idea. I did a lot of research and I came across a lawsuit, in 1610, in which an English company sued a writer for not writing the three plays he was contracted to write. His excuse was the plague, and the company argued back, "That's no excuse.'

Attached to the lawsuit was a copy of his contract: He had to turn in three plays, he had to be available for rewrites on other plays, he had to be available to write insert jokes, songs, prologues and epilogues, etc. I told my wife, "Hell, I signed this contract last year with Disney!"

Q: So if Shakespeare were alive today, he'd be a screenwriter?

Norman: That's how this idea started, Shakespeare as a screenwriter. I made an appointment with Stephen Greenblatt at Berkeley, who's one of the foremost Shakespearean scholars in the country, and told him what I was doing and he was very gracious. He thought it was a totally legitimate and accurate way of looking at him."

Art direction, costumes and music won Oscars, as did Paltrow. Richard Greatrex and David Gamble were nominated for camerawork and editing, as were Madden and Rush. BAFTA gave it for film, Dench and editing but best actress was Kate Blanchett in Elizabeth, best screenplay The Truman Show; and Rush won for Elizabeth also. Note special thanks to Mick Audsley, who we deduce must have helped with the editing. (Postscript 30/9/21. Mick told us today that the editor David Gamble suffered an aneurism so Mick was brought in. The film had been mucked about with, but David's original edit had been fine, so he went back to that. Then identified the ending didn't work (she originally wakes up on a beach and there's modern Manhattan visible behind her - WTF??). Stoppard wrote a new ending which was filmed and Mick cut that - the last ten minutes. But he felt as David had done the bulk of the work and was ill that he didn't want to take any of the credit.)

* An industry insider later told us that Stoppard had completely re-written the screenplay.

P.S. And, having subsequently spoken to Madden, we know he also works extensively on scripts, though never - well, rarely - takes a credit.

The Boat That Rocked (2009 Richard Curtis & scr)

Absolutely hit it last time - it's way too cut, we deduce it's nerves on the part of the director (his second after Love Actually). You begin to yearn for a shot that lasts longer than one second (helpfully it does settle down a bit). Also suffers from slightly OTT tricksy split screen bits.

"I have been thinking about the fact that in the movie Philip Seymour Hoffman talks about these being the best days of our lives and I think that in some ways the film is about a time a lot of people have between 20 and 26. I think a lot of people when they leave home, move into a horrible flat with six people – they hate two of them, like two of them, one of them never washes, one of them always has sex with everyone, one has never had sex with anyone and you listen to a lot of the music of your period. I lived in that sort of house and we listened to Madness, The Specials and The Police and stuff like that. I think in a way the film is almost autobiographical more about that sense of what it’s like hanging out with your friends and playing and listening to music than it is about my youth where I was the little boy who listened to music under my pillow."

(Indie London interview)

The music, the times, the scenes at home, clearly fit into his time frame (born 1956) - odd then that the collection of album covers at the end are all from a later period - and I notice an absence of David Bowie:

It's a great soundtrack. And likeable performances. But somehow doesn't quite hit the same note as his more successful comedies perhaps because the focus of the story is on the pirate radio station more than the characters.

Parade's End (2012 Susannah White)

Tom Stoppard ambitiously adapted (some of) four novels (written 1924-1928) of Ford Madox Ford to create this splendid five-parter, featuring two towering performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall. White made many of the Bleak House series, and makes a motif out of reflections in this. Striking scenes, and a particularly distinctive view of WW1 as a mixture of requisition foul-ups, orders cancelled, petty rivalries and insane behaviour in the trenches.

Adelaide Clemens is our spirited Women's Libber. With Roger Allum (funny when shouty), Rupert Everett (good), Miranda Richardson, Stephen Graham ambitiously cast as the Scottish friend, Janet McTeer, Anne-Marie Duff, Rufus Sewell, Freddie Fox.

Tietjens is a great name.

Photographed by Mike Eley (The Selfish Giant) and edited by Jason Krasucki, Kristina Heatherington and Tim Murrell (Any Human Heart).

A New Leaf (1970 Elaine May & scr)

And she makes a terrific job of playing the central character - it's just a shame the studio fucked about with her film as described here. Especially as film has a lot of style to it (loved the birds that accompany certain passages ironically).

Matthau great as always, James Coco funny as 'uncle' but clearly younger than Matthau, English George Rose funny as butler.

The Knowledge (1979 Bob Brooks)

Most entertaining tale, written by Jack Rosenthal from Brooks' idea. Nigel Hawthorne is terrific as the 'vampire' trainer, students of the Knowledge are Mick Ford (GF Kim Taylforth), Michael Elphick (wife Maureen Lipman), Jonathan Lynn (Lesley Joseph) and David Ryall.

Produced by Christopher Neame for Euston Films.

Endeavour (2011, released 2012 Colm McCarthy)

Written - as they all were - by Russell Lewis with Morse creator Colin Dexter's approval. Shaun Evans is perfect as the slightly puzzled and rumpled cerebral detective who - on the point of resigning - finds his mentor DI Thursday, also perfectly played by Roger Allam.

It's one of the best things on television, and the very next day I found myself sitting outside an Oxfordshire pub drinking a pint of bitter.

Introducing only a couple of series regulars (Thursday's family as yet unseen) James Bradshaw as the pathologist and Abigail Thaw as a journalist.

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005 Albert Brooks & scr)

OK it's part of the joke that the 'comedy' routine Brooks runs in front of the Indians isn't funny (at all) but this does then leave an unfunny patch in the film, which generally is funny (e.g. his associate who keeps answering the phone without warning, the adjacent call centre which routes calls through to The White House, William Morris Agency etc.)

Sheetal Sheth and Albert Brooks

Pride and Prejudice (2005 Joe Wright)

Yes, the dancing scene between Knightley and Macfadyen is incredibly rhythmic - until they just stop in the middle (then everyone else disappears). Wonderfully well directed.

Who is Roman Osin? His camerawork is splendid, particularly in the long and complicated tracking shots. He's German and not really known for anything else.

It's an all round fabulous cast, but maybe Donald Sutherland just steals it.

Who's Deborah Maggach? She wrote Goggle Eyes. Enjoyed it more this time than any other.

Magic in the Moonlight (2014 Woody Allen & scr)

Not top drawer Woody - had the feeling some of it, like underpowered 20s dance sequence, sunrise that looks like a sunset, was a bit lazy - but most enjoyable, with great performances from Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Eileen Atkins and Simon McBurney.

Sumptuous drenched photography by Darius Khondji.

Emma Stone charming in succession of cute hats

Mother (1996 Albert Brooks & scr)

The film of the day, Brooks attempting to break though tricky relationship with mother Debbie Reynolds (who's great) by moving back home - turns out brother is needy, neurotic mess.

Brooks knows when to use a close up.

Written by Brooks and Monica Johnson, including a wonderful re-working of 'Mrs Robinson' (sung by soundalikes).

Pan (2015 Joe Wright)

He's taken after his idol, David Lean - not in a good way. Film is very big but lacks heart. CGI isn't even that good. Plenty to be proud about but -

Hugh Jackman good as baddie, Garrett Hedlund is a sort of Indiana Jones Hook.

In The Loop (2009 Armando Ianucci)

Written by Jesse Armstrong (Fresh Meat) & Sam Blackwell (both also Four Lions, Peep Show), Armando Ianucci and Tony Roche (all wrote The Thick Of It). Ripe, juicy dialogue and insults - laugh too much and you'll miss the next joke.

Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, Gina McKee, Chris Addison, Mimi Kennedy, Anna Chlumsky, James Gandolfini (loved him using kids' calculator to work out troop availability), Joanna Scanlan. Steve Coogan.

You have to see it to experience how funny Tom Hollander is emerging from his office

The ending is a bit flat.

Racing with the Moon (1984 Richard Benjamin)

In Steve Kloves' original screenplay (his debut), set in California 1942, gauche Sean Penn falls for 'Gatsby Girl' Elizabeth McGovern; friend Nicolas Cage gets his girl into trouble. Both are about to join up. Good performances in unsentimental tale, not predictable, with one or two sweet moments. Characters behave frequently stupidly - i.e. believably.

You feel for characters, in pool and abortion scenes, bowling alley and library, and in attempted necklace theft. Only the title is weak.

Shot by the redoubtable John Bailey.

Benjamin allowed Kloves time with the actors during filming which helped when he came to direct Baker Boys. His was a Last Picture Show / Five Easy Pieces type background.

The Third Man (1949 Carol Reed)

An unusual film - did Wajda see it before Kanal? Written by Graham Greene, a fabulous account of what it is to be a stranger abroad in a hostile land. Mournful and melancholy with serious sting in its plot, and a beautifully downbeat ending where Alida Valli simply walks past Joseph Cotten and away. Great acting all round.

Reed though is not Hitchcock and maybe the camera tilts are finally just too much. Robert Krasker's fine camerawork best witnessed in sewer scenes, edited by Reed (uncredited) and Oswald Hafenrichter.

Marley and Me (2008 David Frankel)

Written by Scott Frank (Out of Sight, Get Shorty) and Don Roos (Single White Female) from journalist John Grogan's autobiographical book (one of his Labradors is one of the Marleys).

There's a fantastic sequence with Owen Wilson voiceover about what day to day life was like as a journalist and owner of crazy dog, but my favourite moment is the revelation that Marley has sat with his sick son for nine hours without moving. It's creditably no-nonsense, and serious, perhaps just the end veers into sentimentality.

Great line from Ireland: "He died in this room, actually. But not to worry - it's been re-papered."

And "Sometimes life gives you a better idea."

Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Alan Arkin, Eric Dane, Kathleen Turner, Clarke Peters. Shot by Florian Ballhaus and edited by Mark Livolsi.

Frankel directed The Devil Wears Prada, Hope Springs, One Chance, Collateral Beauty (not well reviewed).

Hanna (2011 Joe Wright)

A slightly bonkers comic book idea from Seth Lochhead (original author) with later writing by David Farr (The Night Manager) as Grimms fairy tale.

Saiorse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander,  Jessica Barden, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng, Aldo Maland.

Shot by Alwin Kuchler in mainly German locations, edited by Paul Tothill and music from The Chemical Brothers. Scenes involving flashing lights (prison escape, Grimms house) are amazing; Blanchett as wicked step-mother emerging our of mouth of wolf sensational.

The Importance Of Being Earnest (2002 Oliver Parker & scr)

Ealing go highbrow, with one or two elements (some less successful than others) added to Oscar Wilde material e.g. that Lady Bracknell was a chorus girl. And some passable songs. Ol Parker has chopped up the play in an acceptable manner. Sorry, not Ol Parker - that's someone else...

Good cast of Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Reece Witherspoon, Judi Dench, Frances O'Connor, Edward Fox. Tom Wilkinson and Anna Massey.

Shot by Tony Pierce-Roberts at West Wycombe Park (location for Belle, and Labyrinth - which I am reminded I have not yet seen).

Mr. Right (2015 Paco Cabezas)

My only suggestion about Max Landis' (John's son) story is the almost superhuman powers of the assassin - it would have been cooler if instead of always out-fighting the bad guys he had also outwitted them. Anyhow, film is fun with Sam Rockwell romancing cookie Anna Kendrick (both good) in a story that's from the Wild Target stable. Particularly satisfying where she gets her own back.

With Tim Roth, James Ransone, Michael Ekland, RZA (composer of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai), Katie Nehra.

Spanglish (2004 James L Brooks & scr)

Interestingly avoids the Hollywood ending - you can in fact write your own sequel quite satisfactorily. The story concentrates on mother Paz Vega and daughter Shelbie Bruce. The scene where the latter not only translates but enacts her mother's telling off is one of the highlights.

Sarah Steele as the daughter was in The Good Wife. Cloris Leachman is the mother of one of them - not sure which. Tea Leoni unspeakable, utterly unlikeable, a neurotic mess. With Adam Sandler.

Vega was in Lucia y el sexo...

A Street Cat Named Bob (2016 Roger Spottiswoode)

Written by Jim John and Maria Nation based on James Bowen's autobiography.

Luke Treadaway (Unbroken, Attack the Block), Bob, Ruta Gedmintas, Joanne Froggatt, Anthony Head, Darren Evans (My Mad Fat Diary, Submarine), Ruth Sheen.

Thoroughly successful. Interesting cat's-eye view stuff, nimbly edited in by Paul Tothill.

Treadaway, Bob, Spottiswoode - courtesy The Big Issue

Out of Sight (1998 Steven Soderbergh)

Reviewed many times before, film is very cool. I hadn't really thought before but it's as close to the Bogie-Bacall dynamic as you're going to get.

Everything in front of and behind the camera really works. Screenplay is by Scott Frank, who also wrote an earlier Elmore Leonard adaptation Get Shorty (1995) as well as Marley and Me (2008) and Little Man Tate (1991). Writer and editor Anne Coates both Oscar nominated (she lost to Michael Kahn for Saving Private Ryan).