Monday 31 December 2018
What We Did On Our Holiday (2014 Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin & scr)
"If we leave him, he'll be eaten by badgers and penguins and coffins."
The Happy Prince (2018 Rupert Everett & scr)
Clearly a very personal project, well worth telling, about the fate and latter days of Oscar Wilde, well-constructed. When they are chased by the young men with sticks I was thinking A Clockwork Orange (must be the hats).
Everett is great in the title role. With Emily Watson, Colin Firth, Colin Morgan (as Bosie, which made us laugh a lot), Edwin Thomas, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Chancellor. Julian Wadham, Béatrice Dalle (café manager). Wilde's pseudonym Sebastian Melmoth also amused us
Beautifully shot by John Conroy (also Yardie, much TV). Production design Brian Morris, great costumes and make up. Tchaikovsky's 6th used effectively.
The most moving moment is when the tough street kid breaks down.
What became of Oscar's kids? Their mother renamed them Holland. Cyril was killed by a sniper in WW1 and Vyvyan was a writer and translator and wrote 'Son of Oscar Wilde', still in print.
Everett is great in the title role. With Emily Watson, Colin Firth, Colin Morgan (as Bosie, which made us laugh a lot), Edwin Thomas, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Chancellor. Julian Wadham, Béatrice Dalle (café manager). Wilde's pseudonym Sebastian Melmoth also amused us
Beautifully shot by John Conroy (also Yardie, much TV). Production design Brian Morris, great costumes and make up. Tchaikovsky's 6th used effectively.
The most moving moment is when the tough street kid breaks down.
What became of Oscar's kids? Their mother renamed them Holland. Cyril was killed by a sniper in WW1 and Vyvyan was a writer and translator and wrote 'Son of Oscar Wilde', still in print.
Films of the year 2018
Sunday 30 December 2018
You Were Never Really Here (2017 Lynne Ramsay & scr)
It's been a while. She was set to direct Brian Duffield's script Jane Got a Gun but failed to turn up on day one of filming - she had realised the producers wanted a different film to her's. There were legals, her marriage broke up and she went to live in Santorini - met a chef there from Belarus ('over a roll up') and had a daughter.. and wrote this. (Thanks Miranda Sawyer, published by The Guardian.)
You have to pay attention to the beginning of Lynne's films - you are presented with beautiful, elusive images and sounds which are in fact tiny pieces of a jigsaw puzzle - We Need To Talk About Kevin went the same way. Both were based on novels, this one Jonathan Ames (who also created the HBO series Bored to Death), Kevin by Lionel Shriver.
Joaquin Phoenix is the vet (I know - the third one in two days; it's like buses) who bashes paedos - the scene shot by surveillance cameras is funny. He rescues Ekaterina Samsonov who is then kidnapped again in weird circumstances. Judith Anna Roberts is his mother.
Full of unforgettable images and moments and accompanied by an incredibly weird score (we seem to be getting a few of these at the moment) by Jonny Greenwood. Thomas Townend shot it, Joe Bini (Kevin, American Honey) edited and Paul Davies again was responsible for the sound design.
At 1.25, it's also nice and short.
You have to pay attention to the beginning of Lynne's films - you are presented with beautiful, elusive images and sounds which are in fact tiny pieces of a jigsaw puzzle - We Need To Talk About Kevin went the same way. Both were based on novels, this one Jonathan Ames (who also created the HBO series Bored to Death), Kevin by Lionel Shriver.
Joaquin Phoenix is the vet (I know - the third one in two days; it's like buses) who bashes paedos - the scene shot by surveillance cameras is funny. He rescues Ekaterina Samsonov who is then kidnapped again in weird circumstances. Judith Anna Roberts is his mother.
Full of unforgettable images and moments and accompanied by an incredibly weird score (we seem to be getting a few of these at the moment) by Jonny Greenwood. Thomas Townend shot it, Joe Bini (Kevin, American Honey) edited and Paul Davies again was responsible for the sound design.
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| Definitely was getting notes of Taxi Driver |
At 1.25, it's also nice and short.
Edie (2017 Simon Hunter)
Written by Elizabeth O'Halloran. And Simon Hunter (idea), Edward Lynden-Bell (story).
Good going, Sheila Hancock. Kevin Guthrie, Paul Brannigan. Also with Amy Manson and Wendy Morgan (daughter).
Pretty good, only the music and I were not on good terms - a shame as there was rather a lot of it (Debbie Wiseman). Also August Jacobsson's photography was rather snowy.
Good going, Sheila Hancock. Kevin Guthrie, Paul Brannigan. Also with Amy Manson and Wendy Morgan (daughter).
Pretty good, only the music and I were not on good terms - a shame as there was rather a lot of it (Debbie Wiseman). Also August Jacobsson's photography was rather snowy.
Saturday 29 December 2018
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942 William Keighley)
Faithful adaptation of brilliant and hilarious Kaufman / Hart play (by the Epsteins), wonderfully acted by everyone and cunningly lit by Tony Gaudio.
"She had on one of those cellophane bathing suits and you could practically see the waves breaking."
It was our first Fiver in AGES!
"She had on one of those cellophane bathing suits and you could practically see the waves breaking."
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| Christmas is officially over |
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| You'd have to be good to get this one |
Thoroughbreds (2017 Cory Finley & scr)
Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy are rather good as murderous couple; I didn't recognise Anton Yelchin again - the film is dedicated to him.
Film distinguished by being shown in 'Chapters' and featuring a highly eccentric score by Erik Friedlander. Good black comedy begins to resemble The Shining as it goes on, has a nice twist.
Film distinguished by being shown in 'Chapters' and featuring a highly eccentric score by Erik Friedlander. Good black comedy begins to resemble The Shining as it goes on, has a nice twist.
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| It's your average night in for teens these days |
Leave No Trace (2018 Debra Granik & co-scr)
She also made Winter's Bone, which shares a vision of the underbelly of America. Neglected Vietnam vet Ben Foster is living in the wild with his daughter Thomasin McKenzie; he can't settle down but she feels the tugs of normality. The ending is heart-breaking when you consider the inter-dependency of the couple; as Foster fades into the forest you also get a big feeling this ex-servicemen hasn't been looked after (what's the enigmatic newspaper headline, something like 'Suicide Follows Army Batallion'?) Funnily enough, El Camino Christmas also had a Vietnam sub-plot.
Thomasin is really great. Co-written by Anne Rosellini from the novel 'My Abandonment' by Peter Rock, written from the point of view of the girl and with a quite different storyline I think.
Thomasin is really great. Co-written by Anne Rosellini from the novel 'My Abandonment' by Peter Rock, written from the point of view of the girl and with a quite different storyline I think.
El Camino Christmas (2017 David E Talbert)
Clever writing by Christopher Wehner and Theodore Melfi has innocent Luke Grimes holed up in a convenience store with corrupt cop Vincent D'Onofrio, Michelle Mylet and her mute son, a drunk - Tim Allen - and the store owner Emilio Rivera. Outside, cops Dax Shepard and Kurtwood Smith and journalists Jessica Alba and Jimmy O. Yang.
You kinda know some of the things that are going to happen but not the main plot twist.
You kinda know some of the things that are going to happen but not the main plot twist.
The Clouded Yellow (1951 Ralph Thomas)
An original screenplay by Janet Green. We don't think Jean Simmons is nuts; nor does Trevor Howard. Before long they're on the run from the police and the secret service (in the shape of nice Kenneth More) to Newcastle, the Lake District and Liverpool. Good on location stuff shot by Geoffrey Unsworth (operated by Ernest Steward). Good music too by Benjamin Frankel (including the piano pieces). Nightmarish ending.
Sonia Dresdel, Barry Jones, Geoffrey Keen, André Morell, Maxwell Reed, Richard Wattis.
It seems Eureka have improved their last release, which had bits of scenes missing.. but the quality of the new one isn't great either.
Sonia Dresdel, Barry Jones, Geoffrey Keen, André Morell, Maxwell Reed, Richard Wattis.
It seems Eureka have improved their last release, which had bits of scenes missing.. but the quality of the new one isn't great either.
Rear Window (1954 Alfred Hitchcock)
Why is Rear Window so good - the best AH?
It's perhaps his most ambitious film, choosing not just to film entirely in one location (and 98% shot from the viewpoint of the protagonist) but also to eschew a musical score - though in fact there's tons of naturally occurring music throughout.
It's so layered - the story is really much more about the relationship between Stewart and Kelly and between other people that it actually is more important than the thriller aspect - and as I've said before, it's one of Hitch's least gruesome films - we don't even see the murder.
This screen shot shows how skilfully the stories are interwoven - we are following Miss Loneyhearts' rendezvous (in background) as Thorwald walks back into the plot:
The sound design is wonderfully clever.
Have been trying to find out what the art is in Stewart's flat - thinking maybe one of the Master's. Couldn't.
It's perhaps his most ambitious film, choosing not just to film entirely in one location (and 98% shot from the viewpoint of the protagonist) but also to eschew a musical score - though in fact there's tons of naturally occurring music throughout.
It's so layered - the story is really much more about the relationship between Stewart and Kelly and between other people that it actually is more important than the thriller aspect - and as I've said before, it's one of Hitch's least gruesome films - we don't even see the murder.
This screen shot shows how skilfully the stories are interwoven - we are following Miss Loneyhearts' rendezvous (in background) as Thorwald walks back into the plot:
The sound design is wonderfully clever.
Have been trying to find out what the art is in Stewart's flat - thinking maybe one of the Master's. Couldn't.
Friday 28 December 2018
Hidden Figures (2016 Theodore Melfi & co-scr)
This came out before Going In Style - tut tut to us.
I am very pleased that Taraji Henson finally had a good, leading role after years in support and on TV (notably Person of Interest). I've always thought she was good and here she is.
Octavia Spencer needs no introduction, but singer Janelle Monáe was new to us, having appeared in only a few features (Moonlight). These three are great as is the script by Melfi and Allison Schroeder, adapted from a very laudable non-fiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly, which she sold whilst still writing. Loved the way the proposal scene is handled, and the John Glenn sub-plot which is so important. (He also has the best line - "That's one helluva speeding ticket.")
Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Mahershala Ali, Glen Powell (John Glenn), Aldis Hodge. Fittingly, shot by a woman, Mandy Walker (Tracks, Australia) in Panavision. Thought the music was Thomas Newman but it wasn't - need to give up that game. Hans Zimmer, Pharell (contributing I thought unsuitable new music) Williams.
Segregation stuff is absolutely insane.
I am very pleased that Taraji Henson finally had a good, leading role after years in support and on TV (notably Person of Interest). I've always thought she was good and here she is.
Octavia Spencer needs no introduction, but singer Janelle Monáe was new to us, having appeared in only a few features (Moonlight). These three are great as is the script by Melfi and Allison Schroeder, adapted from a very laudable non-fiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly, which she sold whilst still writing. Loved the way the proposal scene is handled, and the John Glenn sub-plot which is so important. (He also has the best line - "That's one helluva speeding ticket.")
Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Mahershala Ali, Glen Powell (John Glenn), Aldis Hodge. Fittingly, shot by a woman, Mandy Walker (Tracks, Australia) in Panavision. Thought the music was Thomas Newman but it wasn't - need to give up that game. Hans Zimmer, Pharell (contributing I thought unsuitable new music) Williams.
Segregation stuff is absolutely insane.
Thursday 27 December 2018
For Richer, For Poorer / Father, Son and Mistress (1992 Jay Sandrich)
Weirdly difficult to acquire TV movie which we saw on a DVD from the Czech Republic under the alternative title - a shame, as the film is terrific and very funny, worthy of a much wider audience. (Actually it was called Otec, syn a milenka, to be strictly accurate.)
Writer Stan Daniels has a long career writing and developing TV shows from 1959 on (Taxi, for example).
Jack Lemmon (67 playing 59) despairs at his son Jonathan Silverman's lack of work ethic so junks his multi-million dollar business to force him to find a job - it doesn't turn out so well. Talia Shire is his wife and Joanna Gleason the mistress. All cast good, including Madeline Kahn as a drifter. Silverman familiar to us from Brighton Beach Memoirs, 12:01.
Lemmon kept reminding us of different people like Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad, Paul Whitehouse and even at one point (in disguise) Walter Matthau.
Writer Stan Daniels has a long career writing and developing TV shows from 1959 on (Taxi, for example).
Jack Lemmon (67 playing 59) despairs at his son Jonathan Silverman's lack of work ethic so junks his multi-million dollar business to force him to find a job - it doesn't turn out so well. Talia Shire is his wife and Joanna Gleason the mistress. All cast good, including Madeline Kahn as a drifter. Silverman familiar to us from Brighton Beach Memoirs, 12:01.
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| Pop gives them the bad news |
Phantom Thread (2017 Paul Thomas Anderson & scr)
Well, I thoroughly enjoyed this rather bizarre take on male-female relationships, in which Vicky Krieps eventually becomes dominant over cold, exacting dress designer Daniel Day-Lewis (in supposedly his last performance); Lesley Manville isn't taking any prisoners either. Like Magnolia it has a terrific momentum supported by Jonny Greenwood's great score which makes it hard to stop watching even for a moment. I think my only observation would be Anderson has taken over camera duties too (though there's no DoP credit - he claims the gaffer, grip and operator were all as responsible as he) and the result is a little diffused and not entirely as pin sharp as you'd get from Elswit (who was busy) or other collaborators. (It is shot on celluloid still.)
Like all PTA's films, it's also very funny.
You'd hope the costume design would win an Oscar, and it did (Mark Bridges). Day-Lewis and Manville (and Greenwood) were all Oscar and BAFTA nominated. Dylan Tichenor edited.
Day-Lewis worked on the screenplay with Anderson and came up with the name Reynolds Woodcock, which the director found hilarious. The car is a Bristol 405. Day-Lewis kept making me think of John Le Mesurier.
The film's dedicated to Anderson's mentor Jonathan Demme, who died the day the film was completed.
Like all PTA's films, it's also very funny.
You'd hope the costume design would win an Oscar, and it did (Mark Bridges). Day-Lewis and Manville (and Greenwood) were all Oscar and BAFTA nominated. Dylan Tichenor edited.
Day-Lewis worked on the screenplay with Anderson and came up with the name Reynolds Woodcock, which the director found hilarious. The car is a Bristol 405. Day-Lewis kept making me think of John Le Mesurier.
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| Something about these driving scenes makes me think of Clockwork Orange |
The film's dedicated to Anderson's mentor Jonathan Demme, who died the day the film was completed.
Torvill & Dean (2018 Gilles MacKinnon)
A fairly straightforward biopic, written by William Ivory (Made in Dagenham), features some lovely editing in montage scenes by Anne Sopel. Poppy Lee Friar and Will Tudor play the skating couple, with Stephen Tomkinson, Jaime Winstone, Dean Andrews, Anita Dobson, Christine Bottomley. Shot by Damien Elliott.
It's surprisingly watchable.
Would like to have known how much they were earning, and what happened after they won the gold. But the decision to use the real Bolero footage was quite right.
It's surprisingly watchable.
Would like to have known how much they were earning, and what happened after they won the gold. But the decision to use the real Bolero footage was quite right.
Wednesday 26 December 2018
Book Club (2018 Bill Holderman & co-scr)
There's really only one reason for watching this: the cast. Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, Candice Bergen, Richard Dreyfuss; plus Craig T Nelson, Andy Garcia and Don Johnson.
Four ladies' romantic lives change because they read the 'Fifty Shades' books. Yeah, right.
The opening photos have been badly Photoshopped, and that's indicative of a lack of care right from the off.
Particularly annoying are Keaton's two daughters who keep making out she's going to have a stroke any minute where she seems as hale and hearty as all the others. In making out it's celebrating romance in an older age it's actually pretty ageist. And I mean wasting Dreyfuss like that...
It was shot by Andrew Dunn, if anyone's interested.
Four ladies' romantic lives change because they read the 'Fifty Shades' books. Yeah, right.
The opening photos have been badly Photoshopped, and that's indicative of a lack of care right from the off.
Particularly annoying are Keaton's two daughters who keep making out she's going to have a stroke any minute where she seems as hale and hearty as all the others. In making out it's celebrating romance in an older age it's actually pretty ageist. And I mean wasting Dreyfuss like that...
It was shot by Andrew Dunn, if anyone's interested.
Peeper (1975 Peter Hyams)
Michael Caine is an English private eye in 1947 Los Angeles, hired by Michael Constantine to find his daughter, who may be either Natalie Wood or Kitty Winn. Liam Dunn is an annoying man who keeps turning up. We enjoyed it.
W.D. Richter (Nickelodeon) adapted 'Deadfall' by Keith Laumer, giving some quick snappy dialogue in the old style. We get some nice period detail and a sort of Chinatownish score by Richard Clements, widescreen photography by Earl Rath. The MS Starward wasn't in fact built until 1968 - I thought it looked quite suitably period. Hal Needham directs some particularly scrappy looking fights.
W.D. Richter (Nickelodeon) adapted 'Deadfall' by Keith Laumer, giving some quick snappy dialogue in the old style. We get some nice period detail and a sort of Chinatownish score by Richard Clements, widescreen photography by Earl Rath. The MS Starward wasn't in fact built until 1968 - I thought it looked quite suitably period. Hal Needham directs some particularly scrappy looking fights.
Monday 24 December 2018
Dutch (1991 Peter Faiman)
It's a cross between Planes Trains and Uncle Buck, even sharing that film's climactic reunion scene.
Ed O'Neill, Ethan Embry, JoBeth Williams (The Big Chill).
Ed O'Neill, Ethan Embry, JoBeth Williams (The Big Chill).
Agatha and the Truth of Murder (2018 Terry Loane)
Original script from Tom Dalton explains what happens when the writer temporarily disappeared in 1926 - she was helping to solve the murder of a nurse in a country house setting. Ruth Bradley (Humans, The Fall) is the writer. With Dean Andrews, Pippa Haywood, Tim McInnerny, Bebe Cave, Blake Harrison (The Inbetweeners), Luke Pierre, Joshua Silver, Samantha Spiro.
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| "I'd like to design a golf course!" |
Sunday 23 December 2018
It's a Wonderful Life (1946, released 1947 Frank Capra)
I like the record player connected to the spit. And hadn't noticed in initial scene between George and Clarence, there's a clothes line that perfectly separates the two characters from each other. It looks everso sparkly on Blu-Ray. Cried in all the usual places.
Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett were commissioned by Capra to write the screenplay from Philip Van Doren Stern's short story 'The Greatest Gift' (First Edition $8800) - it certainly seems to be 'A Christmas Carol' to me. Then they found out to their great annoyance that Capra and Jo Swerling were also working on it, and the last nail was when Capra called Frances 'My good woman ' - which you didn't do to Frances. They quit the project. Later Michael Wilson also worked on it ('a polish') and Dorothy Parker ('a dialogue polish').
Karolyn Grimes (Zu Zu) is 78. Here she is in interview.
Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett were commissioned by Capra to write the screenplay from Philip Van Doren Stern's short story 'The Greatest Gift' (First Edition $8800) - it certainly seems to be 'A Christmas Carol' to me. Then they found out to their great annoyance that Capra and Jo Swerling were also working on it, and the last nail was when Capra called Frances 'My good woman ' - which you didn't do to Frances. They quit the project. Later Michael Wilson also worked on it ('a polish') and Dorothy Parker ('a dialogue polish').
Karolyn Grimes (Zu Zu) is 78. Here she is in interview.
The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017 Bharat Nalluri)
Les Standiford's non-fiction book provides the source material but Susan Coyne has worked it in to a most engaging diversion, which imagines how characters Dickens meets might have provided the inspiration for his tale, as well as plunging back into his own unhappy childhood. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
Dan Stevens. Morfydd Clark (his wife), Justin Edwards (his ?agent / friend), Anna Murphy (maid), Christopher Plummer, Ian McNeice, Miles Jupp, Jonathan Pryce, Simon Callow.
Shot by Ben Smithard (& operated), music by Mychael Danna, production design Paki Smith. It was shot in Ireland.
A First 1843 Edition, signed by Dickens, is on Abebooks at $35,000.
Dan Stevens. Morfydd Clark (his wife), Justin Edwards (his ?agent / friend), Anna Murphy (maid), Christopher Plummer, Ian McNeice, Miles Jupp, Jonathan Pryce, Simon Callow.
Shot by Ben Smithard (& operated), music by Mychael Danna, production design Paki Smith. It was shot in Ireland.
A First 1843 Edition, signed by Dickens, is on Abebooks at $35,000.
Saturday 22 December 2018
Tropic Thunder (2008 Ben Stiller)
We thought it 'rather disappointing' ten years ago - maybe we were sober? (For the record, it was a Saturday.) But from the faked ads, trailers and chat shows on, we found it this time hilarious. Black Downey made us howl with laughter, fat suit Cruise though maybe steals the film.
With Stiller are Jack Black, Brandon T Jackson (Get a Job) and Jay Baruchel. Danny McBride and Nick Nolte are in pursuit. Bill Hader is Cruise's No. 2 and Steve Coogan exits early. And Matthew McConaughey. Also loved Brandon Soo Hoo as triad gang boss - thought he must have had fun. Though guffawed at much of it, think the performance of Simple Joe to tribe was the highlight.
Written by Stiller, Justin Theroux (also co-wrote Iron Man 2, acted in Maniac, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire) and Etan Cohen, and references Vietnam films, Forrest Gump etc with much glee. The comment about Black's character not being insurable after latest bust-up surely is a veiled reference (not so veiled) to Downey.
Shot by John Toll in Panavision.
With Stiller are Jack Black, Brandon T Jackson (Get a Job) and Jay Baruchel. Danny McBride and Nick Nolte are in pursuit. Bill Hader is Cruise's No. 2 and Steve Coogan exits early. And Matthew McConaughey. Also loved Brandon Soo Hoo as triad gang boss - thought he must have had fun. Though guffawed at much of it, think the performance of Simple Joe to tribe was the highlight.
Written by Stiller, Justin Theroux (also co-wrote Iron Man 2, acted in Maniac, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire) and Etan Cohen, and references Vietnam films, Forrest Gump etc with much glee. The comment about Black's character not being insurable after latest bust-up surely is a veiled reference (not so veiled) to Downey.
Shot by John Toll in Panavision.
Holiday Affair (1949 Don Hartman & prod)
Can't find any source info on John Weaver's 'Christmas Gift' to see whether the whole story is in there, but in any event, Isobel Lennart's screenplay is beautifully done - Janet Leigh's mother remains self-deluded throughout whole film. Robert Mitchum, Wendell Corey and Gordon Gebert are the men in her life. They're all good. Use of model trains at beginning and end inspired as train set is major plot point, as is gaudy tie. I'm beginning to get it.
Harry Morgan is a sarcastic cop. It's shot by Milton Krasner and scored by Roy Webb (not that there is much music), for RKO.
Harry Morgan is a sarcastic cop. It's shot by Milton Krasner and scored by Roy Webb (not that there is much music), for RKO.
Friday 21 December 2018
Lethal Weapon (1987 Richard Donner)
Best screenplay of Shane Black is humane, mixes humour and drama brilliantly and has a Vietnam resonanced story. But director's cut DVD is in weird shape, like slightly squeezed, I'm telling you.
Will buy Blu-Ray to be sure.
"There's no more heroes left in the world" (just before Riggs bursts in to save the day). Classic.
Will buy Blu-Ray to be sure.
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| "Shoot me!" |
Bridget Jones The Edge of Reason (2004 Beeban Kidron)
Could actually repeat last review in its entirety and would still be same. Am delighted Q still does not remember JB twist. Film is funny - has enough writers so should be. Four. Andrew Davies, Helen Fielding, Richard Curtis, Adam Brooks. Usual fuckwits on CGI. Way too many songs. Adrian Biddle on camera. Still love the three of them.
A Pocketful of Rye (2009 Charles Palmer)
Julia McKenzie. Helen Baxendale, Joseph Beattie, Ken Cambell, Lucy Cohu, Ken Cranham, Rupert Graves, Ralf LIttle Matthew Macfadyen, Anna Madeley, Ben Miles, Hattie Morahan, Wendy Richard, Edward Tudor Pole, Liz White, Prunella Scales
Written by Kevin Elyot.
Take large country house. Add several relatives who don't get along. Provide murders and absurd clues. Produce policeman who alone can't solve case. Sprinkle with Marple.
This one at least has a copper who's halfway decent, enacted by the delectable Macfadyen. There's no romantic sub-plot, which seems to be a feature of the best of these ITV adaptations. There is some very variable acting. It's a bit palsy.
Written by Kevin Elyot.
Take large country house. Add several relatives who don't get along. Provide murders and absurd clues. Produce policeman who alone can't solve case. Sprinkle with Marple.
This one at least has a copper who's halfway decent, enacted by the delectable Macfadyen. There's no romantic sub-plot, which seems to be a feature of the best of these ITV adaptations. There is some very variable acting. It's a bit palsy.
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| This, though, is Laura Haddock, who in an Any Human Heart tangent is married to Sam Claflin, |
Thursday 20 December 2018
Christmas Films
Lethal Weapon
Black Christmas
Tales from the Crypt
What? Yes they are.
OK, we must have:
The Holiday
Love, Actually
It's a Wonderful Life
The Shop Around the Corner
Miracle on 34th Street
Bad Santa
The Man Who Came to Dinner
La Père Noël est Une Ordure
A Christmas Story
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (grudgingly - but NOT Home Alone)
Holiday Affair
Rear Window (it just is)
Black Christmas
Tales from the Crypt
What? Yes they are.
OK, we must have:
The Holiday
Love, Actually
It's a Wonderful Life
The Shop Around the Corner
Miracle on 34th Street
Bad Santa
The Man Who Came to Dinner
La Père Noël est Une Ordure
A Christmas Story
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (grudgingly - but NOT Home Alone)
Holiday Affair
Rear Window (it just is)
and
The Thin Man
The Long Kiss Goodnight and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Die Hard
We're No Angels
Three Godfathers
And - OK, then - Home Alone 1 & 2.
Jaws 2 (1978 Jeannot Szwarc)
Well. This is not bad, actually. Having Carl Gottleib as writer again (with Howard Sackler) no doubt helps. OK, obvs another Great White isn't going to attack Amity Islanders again, and we're clearly playing the same game (who will survive this scene?) but without the beautiful Brodie/Hooper/Quint relationship that is one of the key factors in the original's success. (Brodie does put in a call to Hooper, but amusingly he's on an Antarctic research trip and 'out of contact till Spring'). And mayor (or whatever he is) Murray Hamilton surely can't be such a putz again, though in the original cut, the mayor is the only one to vote for Brodie (in fact the story of mayor and developer Joseph Mascolo just fades out, as does animosity between Brodie and developer over his wife). Intriguingly, Dorothy Tristan's original draft had Amity Island a ghost town following the first film, with the developer and council in debt to the Mafia - thus ignoring Brodie's warnings made more sense...Universal disliked that (good) idea and brought in Gottleib to make it more humorous and actiony.
Strangely, unless we saw a cut ITV print that was on at 11.35 pm, there's hardly any gore in it.
Anyway, Roy Scheider's good as always, and the focus on the predicament of the teens is well done. John Williams wrote the score again, and the widescreen cinematography of Michael Butler (confusingly, no relation of the original's Bill Butler) is fine. And there's a great scene in which a girl water-skiing is pursued by the shark.
With Lorraine Gary, Mark Gruner (older son), Jeffrey Kramer (deputy), and a bunch of 70s attired teens including Ann Desenberry, Donna Wilkes, Marc Gilpin (young Brodie) and Keith Gordon, who I guess we recognised from Stephen King's Christine and Dressed To Kill. And three more malfunctioning mechanical sharks.
Verna Fields, editor of the original, was one of Universals' executives by this time - one of her contributions was to break up a fight between Scheider and Szwarc.
Strangely, unless we saw a cut ITV print that was on at 11.35 pm, there's hardly any gore in it.
Anyway, Roy Scheider's good as always, and the focus on the predicament of the teens is well done. John Williams wrote the score again, and the widescreen cinematography of Michael Butler (confusingly, no relation of the original's Bill Butler) is fine. And there's a great scene in which a girl water-skiing is pursued by the shark.
With Lorraine Gary, Mark Gruner (older son), Jeffrey Kramer (deputy), and a bunch of 70s attired teens including Ann Desenberry, Donna Wilkes, Marc Gilpin (young Brodie) and Keith Gordon, who I guess we recognised from Stephen King's Christine and Dressed To Kill. And three more malfunctioning mechanical sharks.
Verna Fields, editor of the original, was one of Universals' executives by this time - one of her contributions was to break up a fight between Scheider and Szwarc.
Wednesday 19 December 2018
Informer (2018 Rory Haines & Sohrab Noshirvani)
Well... It begins... No. It actually begins with a man rushing to try and give a woman her phone back, that she's left on the train. He finds her in a coffee shop, and then the shooting begins. And the inquest into this begins each episode. But who's the shooter?
Is it Nabhaan Rizwan (who's rather good) after the frankly unbelievable way he is blackmailed into becoming a snitch by Paddy Considine and Bel Powley - who could blame him? It's a damning indictment of the way counter-terrorism operates, in fact, emphasised by Considine's question 'Do you feel safe?', which is less to Nabhaan as it is to the audience. And Powley making out Nabhaan was sexually abused at school to get the information which blackmails him.
The writers (whose debut this is) show lots of promise, humour and leading the audience down the wrong path (the eventual identity of the killer doesn't really make sense to me). I really liked Bel correcting one of the suspects on his misunderstanding of the Koran - she then gives him the next line in Arabic. And we were hoping that they would re-use the statue dripping with red paint later... and they did!
Jessica Raine also very good. With Sunetra Sarker, Reiss Jeram (brother), Sharon D Clarke & Stanley Meadows (police bosses), Paul Tylak, Arsher Ali (good, Four Lions, Line of Duty, The Missing), Nell Hudson. We weren't entirely sure about Roger Jean Nsengiyumva's performance in an otherwise strong cast.
Tony Slater Ling shot it and the rather good music was by Ilan Eshkeri.
Is it Nabhaan Rizwan (who's rather good) after the frankly unbelievable way he is blackmailed into becoming a snitch by Paddy Considine and Bel Powley - who could blame him? It's a damning indictment of the way counter-terrorism operates, in fact, emphasised by Considine's question 'Do you feel safe?', which is less to Nabhaan as it is to the audience. And Powley making out Nabhaan was sexually abused at school to get the information which blackmails him.
The writers (whose debut this is) show lots of promise, humour and leading the audience down the wrong path (the eventual identity of the killer doesn't really make sense to me). I really liked Bel correcting one of the suspects on his misunderstanding of the Koran - she then gives him the next line in Arabic. And we were hoping that they would re-use the statue dripping with red paint later... and they did!
Jessica Raine also very good. With Sunetra Sarker, Reiss Jeram (brother), Sharon D Clarke & Stanley Meadows (police bosses), Paul Tylak, Arsher Ali (good, Four Lions, Line of Duty, The Missing), Nell Hudson. We weren't entirely sure about Roger Jean Nsengiyumva's performance in an otherwise strong cast.
Tony Slater Ling shot it and the rather good music was by Ilan Eshkeri.
Tuesday 18 December 2018
The 39 Steps (1959 Ralph Thomas)
Frank Harvey's version of - what? Is it an adaptation of the book, or the Hitchcock version? I'd have to say the latter, as much of the classic is copied verbatim, but there are some inventive (Hitchcockian, even) differences - the opening, featuring a nanny with a pram and a gun, a moment where Hannay hides in a wheat field, only to have it being harvested, and turning his female foil into a teacher at a girls' school, where he has to make an impromptu speech.
Of course it's easy to say "Murmur, murmur, not as good as the original, blah blah" but it's really not bad, though Kenneth More is perhaps a little too easy-going and Taina Elg is no actress. Compensations come with Brenda de Banzie (Hobson's Choice, The Man Who Knew Too Much), Reginald Beckwith, Faith Brook ('Nanny'), James Hayter ('Mr Memory'), Joan Hickson and Sid James.
I knew of the Robert Powell seventies version (must watch this - David Warner's in it too and John Coquillon shot it) but there's also a 2008 Rupert Penry-Jones effort which has very mixed reviews.
Another of those fifties films that people are quite happy to show in a 4x3 cropped version (even the DVD is reportedly in this shape). Ernest Steward wouldn't have approved.
Of course it's easy to say "Murmur, murmur, not as good as the original, blah blah" but it's really not bad, though Kenneth More is perhaps a little too easy-going and Taina Elg is no actress. Compensations come with Brenda de Banzie (Hobson's Choice, The Man Who Knew Too Much), Reginald Beckwith, Faith Brook ('Nanny'), James Hayter ('Mr Memory'), Joan Hickson and Sid James.
I knew of the Robert Powell seventies version (must watch this - David Warner's in it too and John Coquillon shot it) but there's also a 2008 Rupert Penry-Jones effort which has very mixed reviews.
Another of those fifties films that people are quite happy to show in a 4x3 cropped version (even the DVD is reportedly in this shape). Ernest Steward wouldn't have approved.
Monday 17 December 2018
Swallows and Amazons (2016 Philippa Lowthorpe)
Despite presence of adults Rafe Spall, Andrew Scott, Kelly Macdonald and Jessica Hynes, a routinely acted and written film with score to match.
Sunday 16 December 2018
My Man Godfrey (1936 Gregory La Cava)
Like the previous film, marked by a strong central performance - from Carole Lombard, who's so natural, way ahead of her time.
Screwball at its most sublime.
Screwball at its most sublime.
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001 Sharon Maguire)
Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies and Richard Curtis' script well matched by players, particularly Renee Zellweger as Bridget, but also Hugh Grant and Colin Firth - it's a sort of The Philadelphia Story for a new generation.
Stuart Dryburgh shot it in Panavision, Patrick Doyle wrote the music (worked often with Kenneth Branagh).
Doesn't really need the very ending.
Stuart Dryburgh shot it in Panavision, Patrick Doyle wrote the music (worked often with Kenneth Branagh).
Doesn't really need the very ending.
Thursday 13 December 2018
Brothers in Law (1956, released 1957 Roy Boulting)
The legal milieu (difficulties of newbie barrister - bless them!) seems true, probably because it's based on a 1955 comic novel of the same name by Henry Cecil, a former barrister and High Court judge. The screenplay's by Frank Harvey, Jeffrey Dell and Roy Boulting.
I've become a real fan of these fifties Boulting Bros. films: Private's Progress, Lucky Jim, I'm All Right Jack, Carlton Browne of the F.O., Suspect (biological warfare thriller), Heaven's Above. My favourite of these genre pictures is nothing to do with them - School for Scoundrels - but many of the same faces appear, and that's partly why they're so enjoyable - precisely because we have Ian Carmichael, Terry Thomas, Dickie Attenborough, Jill Adams, Irene Handl, Miles Malleson, Peter Sellars, Nicholas Parsons, John Le Mesurier, Kynaston Reeves etc.
This film is distinguished by an out-of-character performance from Terry Thomas as a criminal who knows the law better than the barrister. Interestingly Dickie gets a higher billing than Carmichael.
Tudor Productions / Charter Film. For more info - and Jill Adams' legs - see here.
I've become a real fan of these fifties Boulting Bros. films: Private's Progress, Lucky Jim, I'm All Right Jack, Carlton Browne of the F.O., Suspect (biological warfare thriller), Heaven's Above. My favourite of these genre pictures is nothing to do with them - School for Scoundrels - but many of the same faces appear, and that's partly why they're so enjoyable - precisely because we have Ian Carmichael, Terry Thomas, Dickie Attenborough, Jill Adams, Irene Handl, Miles Malleson, Peter Sellars, Nicholas Parsons, John Le Mesurier, Kynaston Reeves etc.
This film is distinguished by an out-of-character performance from Terry Thomas as a criminal who knows the law better than the barrister. Interestingly Dickie gets a higher billing than Carmichael.
Tudor Productions / Charter Film. For more info - and Jill Adams' legs - see here.
 |
| Carmichael is about as good at golf as I would be |
Wednesday 12 December 2018
The More the Merrier (1943 George Stevens & prod)
Robert Russell and Frank Ross story written by them and Richard Flournoy and Lewis R. Foster.
Has a slightly slapstick feel, but then some great laconic repartee between Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn - with these two involved it's a mystery why we hadn't seen it since 2005. With topical background of accommodation shortages in wartime Washington, Coburn acts as cupid between McCrea and Jean Arthur as they all share her flat. Most entertaining.
Shot by Ted Tetzalff. Columbia.
Has a slightly slapstick feel, but then some great laconic repartee between Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn - with these two involved it's a mystery why we hadn't seen it since 2005. With topical background of accommodation shortages in wartime Washington, Coburn acts as cupid between McCrea and Jean Arthur as they all share her flat. Most entertaining.
Shot by Ted Tetzalff. Columbia.
Sunday 9 December 2018
The Limehouse Golem (2017 Juan Carlos Medina)
Jane Goldman has made a good screenplay (interesting structure) from Peter Ackroyd's 1994 novel - this is a guy who clearly knows his Victorian London shit. Bill Nighy and the great Daniel Mays are accompanied by Olivia Cooke - who? we thought, then realised.. only Vanity Fair. So that's all good. I was less sure of the performances of Douglas Booth and Sam Reid. With Maria Valverde, Paul Ritter, Eddie Marsan, Nicholas Woodeson.
Handsomely staged and shot by Grant Montgomery and Simon Dennis, who had worked together on Peaky Blinders. In fact we wanted all the sets for our Black Cab Halloween episode.
The thing about Nighy's character maybe being gay though is somehow irrelevant. His part was originally cast for Alan Rickman, and the film is dedicated to him.
Handsomely staged and shot by Grant Montgomery and Simon Dennis, who had worked together on Peaky Blinders. In fact we wanted all the sets for our Black Cab Halloween episode.
The thing about Nighy's character maybe being gay though is somehow irrelevant. His part was originally cast for Alan Rickman, and the film is dedicated to him.
The Little Drummer Girl (2018 Park Chan Wook)
Not sure about some of the muddy writing / exposition (Michael Lesslie, Claire Wilson , from John Le Carré). After three episodes it's certainly not in the same category as The Night Manager.
Florence Pugh is great - but don't get her lust for blank canvas Alexander Skarsgård. With Michael Shannon.
At the end of the day it was very slow and actually quite boring.
Florence Pugh is great - but don't get her lust for blank canvas Alexander Skarsgård. With Michael Shannon.
At the end of the day it was very slow and actually quite boring.
Saturday 8 December 2018
Casino Royale (2006 Martin Campbell)
This is what the franchise needed - a reboot with a tough and tender Bond, closer to Fleming's version - the script uses most of the original plot (even the credits scene vaguely invokes Richard Chopping's original jacket design). (Noticed however a couple of borrowings from 'Thunderball' - blue and white super-yacht and Bahamas - this sort of pillage eventually got the writers into hot water with Spectre.) You feel he's properly tough - can't imagine it with Roger Moore (or Brosnan, or Dalton - perhaps Connery.) The film constantly plays on and subverts the Bond myth, e.g. it features a female who's every bit his equal (Eva Green) - their scenes even have a slight romcom feel to them, and she even saves his life at one point! Bond is not at all respectful to M, who's again played by Judi Dench (inspired casting). There's no gadgets (the phones look really dated already) and the 1964 Aston Martin morphs into a new version (prefer the older, naturally). Bond says 'Ow'!
Robert Wade and Neal Purvis are largely responsible, so full marks to them, with Paul Haggis brought in to do a three week 'polish'. Stuart Baird edits at a hundred miles an hour, Phil Meheux shot it. David Arnold is responsible for the music.
Of course Giancarlo Giannini wasn't the bad guy! It's long (two hours fifteen) - too long - but so is any film if you keep stopping it and chatting. (For the record, OHMSS is longer.) With Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Wright, Isaac de Bankolé... and Tsai Chin.
Robert Wade and Neal Purvis are largely responsible, so full marks to them, with Paul Haggis brought in to do a three week 'polish'. Stuart Baird edits at a hundred miles an hour, Phil Meheux shot it. David Arnold is responsible for the music.
Of course Giancarlo Giannini wasn't the bad guy! It's long (two hours fifteen) - too long - but so is any film if you keep stopping it and chatting. (For the record, OHMSS is longer.) With Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Wright, Isaac de Bankolé... and Tsai Chin.
Friday 7 December 2018
Dumplin' (2018 Anne Fletcher)
A #MeToo film which ticks the boxes. An unsubtle screenplay by Kristin Hahn and Julie Murphy is enjoyable enough for what it is.
Danielle Macdonald, Odeya Rush, Jennifer Aniston, Maddie Baillio, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Luke Benward, Harold Perrineau. Someone called Sam Pancake is in it too. I like pancakes, though that has little bearing on this jotting.
It's shot by Eliot Davis in Panavision and edited by Emma Hickox.
Danielle Macdonald, Odeya Rush, Jennifer Aniston, Maddie Baillio, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Luke Benward, Harold Perrineau. Someone called Sam Pancake is in it too. I like pancakes, though that has little bearing on this jotting.
It's shot by Eliot Davis in Panavision and edited by Emma Hickox.
Thursday 6 December 2018
Hot Fuzz (2007 Edgar Wright & co-scr)
Chris Dickens won not one award for his jaw-dropping editing. (There's a wonderful piss take, near the beginning, of that editor trick of cutting on something passing the camera to hide the fact we've moved closer. It's so overdone it's brilliant.) The sound mixing / editing is great too.
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