The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017 Noah Baumbach & scr)

We are in familiar Baumbach territory here with a misfunctional family redolent of The Squid and the Whale and a large cast including alumni Ben Stiller, Adam Driver and a fox (he co-wrote Fantastic Mr Fox).

With Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Grace van Patten, Elizabeth Marvel (having literally just seen her in Homeland 7), Emma Thompson, Candice Bergen, Judd Hirsch and Sigourney Weaver.

The mother of the older two at least knows she hasn't cared for them whilst father Hoffman just doesn't listen to a goddam thing. These family links and traits which emerge in shouty outbursts (almost always cut off in mid flow) are subtly introduced and weaved together. It's pretty funny.

I was most surprised to see it was shot by Robbie Ryan, though did notice a smooth and continuous hand-held tracking shot into the house, and the way the camera is right down there on the ground with Driver and Stiller fighting is recognisable. He's also shot the newest Baumbach which features Scarlett Johannson, Adam Driver and Laura Dern.

The music's by Randy Newman.

But why make the film available only on Netflix, for whom it was made? Sky always made their titles available, thus you can enjoy all series of something like Stella without being a subscriber. Amazon locks you out too - thus you can only see Roadies if you're a subscriber. I get it, but I think they are limiting the audience and limiting the sales. There's also nothing to stop you signing up for a month and then not renewing. Following the argument through logically, if we wanted our current playlist and physical media didn't exist, we'd need to subscribe to Sky, Netflix, HBO, BFI, Amazon, LoveFilm, BBC iplayer, ITV Hub and All 4 and then certain rarities and obscurities would simply be inaccessible.

Homeland - Season 7 (2018 Alex Gansa)

DJ in redneck gun stand-off that ends in tragedy - quite believable. The war's now taking place on home turf. With the external bad guys turning out to be the Russians.

There's a real family tragedy going on here as Carrie is patently unfit to be a mother and shouldn't be allowed to look after Frannie until she has switched careers to become a librarian.

I thought Carrie's capture was a bit lame. If she was wearing a wig (which presumably she was) why didn't she just ditch it? And even if she wasn't, she could have changed her style, outfit or something - they were after all looking for another woman.

With Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin are Elizabeth Marvel (President), Maury Sterling (Max), Linus Roache (Chief of Staff), Jake Weber (DJ), Morgan Spector (Dante), Amy Hargreaves (Carrie's sister), James D'Arcy, Beau Bridges, Dylan Baker, Sandrine Holt (his Chief of Staff). Gansa is the showrunner and wrote some of it.

IKWIG (1945)

The irony is, she doesn't know where she's going.

The fusion of back projected, studio and location is wonderful, especially in climactic whirlpool scene.

That is Valentine Dyall, better known as the owner of the apartment in Brief Encounter.

The music, and in particular the mournful use of a harmonica, is like a pointer towards AMOLAD.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017 Denis Villeneuve)

The first Blade Runner - whilst being sensational to look at, to feel - was not the best film in the world to start with This is so true to the original in music and design too that it looks like a remake. But it also seems like everything is designed to run at half speed and when a plot point is made, the film discovers it twenty minutes after the audience has already worked it out. I'm sorry, but I found it as interesting as surveillance camera footage of a dockside.

We didn't realise either that you have to phone up Harrison Ford and remind him to appear.

It's so long that you can actually read the whole of Nabokov's 'Pale Fire' (referenced early on) while it's playing, and when we got to two hours 15 finally gave up, never to discover that Harrison Ford is Ryan Gosling's father.. oops! Notable mainly for Roger Deakins' finally Oscar-winning photography. Some of his images are just stunning, e.g. the fight between Gosling and Ford in the nightclub. But some of the design just looks silly - I would have thought in the future you'd try to make your environment look better, not worse.

I was mildly interested to see how they had brought Sean Young back in to the sequel, but it was just a way of passing the time really. "Is it her?" I enquired. "They can do anything now." To which Q replied "Well it would have been good if they'd made this interesting."

Some of the very quiet dialogue seemed to me to include these lines:

"You can't stop the future with a plum."
"Many a night I think of cheese."

With Ana de Armas, Jared Leto, Mackenzie Davis (The Martian, That Awkward Moment, Breathe In; and coming up in Tully), Robin Wright, Sylvia Hoeks, Lennie James (as Fagin).

Villeneuve on set. ASC magazine

Roger was probably thinking 'Good job Chivo doesn't have a film out this year...'

Breathe (2017 Andy Serkis)

A true story, produced by Jonathan Cavendish, the son of the polio sufferer featured in the film, played beautifully by Andrew Garfield, and featuring Claire Foy, two Tom Hollanders, Hugh Bonneville, Ed Speleers, Amit Shah and Diana Rigg.

Shot in a ridiculously wide ratio of 2.75:1, for no good reason, by Robert Richardson.

Good music from Nitin Sawhney

Written by William Nicholson who seems to specialise in true / historical stories. It's a warm and funny script. I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but did.

Jerry Maguire (1996 Cameron Crowe & scr)

How do you follow Wilder? You either watch another, straight away, go back to Lubitsch, or forward to Crowe.

This is so full of quotable lines you might as well just quote the entire screenplay.

106 EXT. DOROTHY'S FRONT PORCH -- NIGHT

Door opens to reveal Jerry Maguire with brown bag, shoulder hang-up bag, disheveled hair and sunglasses.

JERRY

I'm Jerry Maguire.

LAUREL

(super pleasant)

You seem just the way I pictured you. I'm

her disapproving sister Laurel.

JERRY

Honesty. Thank you.

Bonnie Hunt as Laurel is great.

And then there's:

"That's a bad cut."
"Thank god I didn't get her the ring she really wanted."

Avanti! (1972 Billy Wilder)

Film writing masterclass - this way...

I'm running out of things to say about this fried gold masterpiece. Though I did notice the lovely detail that the hotel reception rug has been turned up to clean around it better - that's a really professional touch.

"Right now he's writing a musical called 'Splash'. It's about the sinking of the Titanic."

We think the room with the green blind is our room, the real Room 122:

The people in the hotel don't even realise this film was made there.

Maybe why I love those mini vans so much is that J.J. Blodgett is delivered to the hotel on one:

Juliet Mills has the most expressive feet in film history:

"The things that go on on this floor."

"Three bullets, right between the photographs."

"I don't want to land on Africa."
"That would be bigger sir."

"What are we going to do about you?"

Molly's Game (2017 Aaron Sorkin & scr)

Entertaining and very dialogue heavy, as you'd expect from this writer, and based on Molly Bloom's autobiography. It seems that Leonardo di Caprio, Ben Affleck and Tobey Maguire were all in her game. The girl had integrity, and the judge had compassion (but not the IRS).

Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba are both good. With Michael Cera, Kevin Costner, Chris O'Dowd, Jeremy Strong.

Shot by Charlotte Bruus Christensen in Panavision.

Edited by Alan Baumgarten (also co-edited Joy and American Hustle and did Charlie Bartlett solo), Elliot Graham (Steve Jobs) and Josh Schaeffer.

It was interesting to have seen it almost back-to-back with another true story about a woman who gets involved with gambling, Lay the Favorite.

Safe (2018)

Created by novelist Harlan Coben - who against trend and very sensibly wanted all the answers in Season 1, like a novel - and produced by Netflix and Canal+, this eight parter set in the UK stars Michael C Hall as a man whose daughter goes missing. It's written by Danny Brocklehurst, Mick Ford etc. Actually it does feel a bit like a novel, with plenty of plot rushing at you and a good momentum, but a slightly questionable story (she's next door??) and outcome. Also the most upsetting bit - Warren's stabbing - is completely unconnected to anything, not avenged, and Warren seems to recover remarkably quickly.

Cast: Amanda Abbington and Hannah Arterton investigating, Amy James-Kelly as the missing girl, Marc Warren, Audrey Fleurot, Amy-Leigh Hickman (good as scheming daughter), Nigel Lindsay, Emmett J Scanlan, Liala Rouass, Louis Greatorex.

There are one or two flashes of welcome humour. "Don't let anyone in. Except us, obviously."

There's also some composition that's way to the edge of the Panavision frame, like Pawel Pawlikowski had made it.

Lay the Favorite (2012 Stephen Frears)

A true autobiographical story, adapted by D.V. DeVincentis, co-writer of Grosse Pointe Blank and Frears' High Fidelity, set in the world of gambling and betting in Vegas, New York and Curacao. Rebecca Hall is bouncy and extremely engaging in lead. With Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Laura Prepon, Frank Grillo, Vince Vaughan, Wendell Pierce, John Carroll Lynch.

Shot by Michael McDonough and edited by Mick Audsley.

Burke and Hare (2010 John Landis)

Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft (who also wrote the St Trinians' films for Barnaby Thompson's Fragile Films) offer for our entertainment a short and bouncy series of events in which Irish Burke & Hare (Simon Pegg in variable accent and Andy Serkis) go into the cadaver business, and invent 'protection' and 'funeral parlours' - Pegg ends up as a study in anatomy.

A name cast is extremely noticeable for its lack of Scottish actors: Jessica Hynes (who's great). Tom Wilkinson, Michael Smiley, Ronnie Corbett, Tim Curry, David Hayman, Christopher Lee, Isla Fisher, Allan Corduner, Reece Shearsmith, Hugh Bonneville, Steve Speirs, Paul Whitehouse and Jenny Agutter (completely missed her), with guest appearances by Ray Harryhausen and cinematographer Robert Paynter (who shot American Werewolf in London, Into the Night and Trading Places - and The Zoo Gang).

Isla Fisher's all-girl Macbeth cross-cut to the closing in of the militia is one of the films' more effective moments.

Six Shooter (2004 Martin McDonagh & scr)

McDonagh's film debut short. Martin's a prolific Irish playwright, many of his plays from 1996 centred around County Galway. The brothers' relationship with Brendan Gleeson I think stems from here (Gleeson was very active in the Irish theatre), which is essentially a two-hander between him and slightly psycho Ruaidhri Conroy. As dark and darkly funny as the rest of his work, it won him his first Oscar.

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017 Martin McDonagh & scr)

McDonagh writes complex material cloaked beneath simple storylines, both dark and funny. Thus I found the film was touching on race, the media, police brutality, families, religion... Anything else? Third World debt? We wanted Rockwell's character to somehow improve throughout the film. It does. It's a great screenplay.

Enacted by a sterling cast with Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell winning Oscars. With Woody Harrelson, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbie Cornish, Lucas Hedges, Zeljko Ivanek, Sandy Martin, Peter Dinklage and Clarke Peters.

Won BAFTAs for Best Film and Outstanding British Film and for the screenplay, McDormand and Rockwell.

Has a scent of the Coen Brothers about it, reinforced by the presence of McDormand and the music of Carter Burwell. Edited by Jon Gregory and shot by Ben Davis in Panavision.

The small 'o' in the title is exactly as it's written on screen.

Film of the year so far, ahead of Battle of the Sexes, Paddington 2, Logan Lucky, This Is Where I Leave you, Wonder Wheel and The Big Sick.

Save Me (2018 Nick Murphy)

Lennie James wrote his own simmering, dark story, centred around a London pub and its regulars, but "I DID NOT write this part for myself. I was busy so I didn't think I'd be able to do it anyway." He's brilliant in it, of course, ably assisted by Suranne Jones, Stephen Graham and the rest of this top drawer cast: Jason Flemyng, Alexander Arnold, Camilla Beeput, Alice May Feetham, Susan Lynch, Struan Rodger, Adrian Edmondson and Nadine Marshall (detective).

But - why the fuck didn't they call the police when they knew about the bidding on the girl? And why didn't anyone think he could easily be outbid?

It's a show that makes you feel kind of sick, with tension and disgust, though the flashes of humour and comradeship are welcome. There's a certain poetry about the writing which made me think of that film noir.. y'know. What's it called again? Force of Evil. The overlapping dialogue is very distinctive (think Orson Welles) and the quirky background details are often interesting.

The Post (2017 Steven Spielberg)

Written by first-timer Liz Hannah, then touched up by Josh Singer, and featuring timely story for the Trump era of political cover-ups and strong female leadership. According to the DVD cover the Observer review is 'One of the best films ever made'. I have just searched The Observer's website (a frustrating experience as I had to turn off my ad blocker to do so) and didn't find that anywhere.

I think my favourite bit was Streep talking to the girl from the Government who says she's on their side 'but don't tell anyone I said so .. my boss would fire me for even talking to you...'  (Coral Peña). And the very end, which shows the Watergate episode beginning. And the daughter's lemonade business success.

Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Bradley Whitford, Sarah Paulson (Tom's wife), Bob Odenkirk, Jesse Plemons, Matthew Rhys, Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man, Fargo's 2017 season), Alison Brie (Meryl's daughter) and lots of other people who looked vaguely recognisable...

Usual team behind camera, though Sarah Broshar is assisting Michael Kahn in the editing.

A quiet film. It was good.

Some of Casablanca

We had been gardening, barbecuing in the sun, drinking and writing, and eventually later I managed to get this on as an exemplary study in screenwriting. Well it is of course magnificent, but I have to admit some of it does sound a bit corny.

Though not S.Z. Sakall -
'I have already given him the best table, knowing he is German and would take it anyway.'

Or Greenstreet -
'As the leader of all illegal activities in Casablanca, I am an influential and respected man.'

Though ultimately, you just can't help but get lost in Bergman's beauty and brilliance. She was Oscar nominated that year, but for For Whom the Bells Toll.

Steiner gets his own credit - not often that happens.

Six Feet Under Season 5 (2015 Alan Ball)

I do like it when Frances Conroy suddenly blows up like a volcano. She does this in an imaginary scene with mentally unwell husband George (James Cromwell), and Nate does it to wife Brenda (Rachel Griffiths) in her own day dream.

In one of the funniest openings, a former friend of Nate runs over himself when lazily trying to pick up a newspaper without getting out of his car.

As pro-gay as ever - must have been something quite revolutionary on US TV at the time... Although they had had Tales From the City, this is much more explicit. But also dares to talk about gay adoption.

Liked the idea of 'ecotone' - the overlap between wildness and civilisation. And that Claire's boyfriend Ted actually turns out to be a decent guy, despite the fact they are completely at odds politically.

Then - spoiler ahead. Splice the main brace...

Death of an icon. Everything's changing...

I had forgotten, and was therefore quite shocked, when (after a great dream featuring stoner David) Nate dies for real. Always one of my favourite characters, conflicted like they all are, a lost idealist.

Then Alan Ball finally does some work, writing and directing the ending (I'm joking, Alan), which I am glad to say remains my favourite of any TV series, starting with that great moment when Nate, running behind Claire's car, gradually drops our of sight in the wing mirror, then causing quite copious tears at the fates of all the characters (there are some very subtle touches in this, even after rewatching this incredible scene, like the fact that one of David and Keith's kids seems to have a boyfriend...) But it's only so incredible if you have watched all five series beforehand.

Delivery Man (2013 Ken Scott & scr)

Based - Q  tells me - on true events. And in fact a remake of Scott's French version, co-written with Martin Petit 'Starbuck'. Former sperm donor Vince Vaughan finds grown up children are interested in meeting him - and why not? Totally predictable film doesn't follow the easy answer, also carries a suggestion that none of the 150-odd kids' adoptive parents are that great. Or is that just me?

Has some cute moments, though ending makes you want to puke. Was the disabled guy disabled? No, sadly it was an actor, Sébastiane René.  Film has some nice moments, isn't especially funny. Brother Bobby Moynihan, solicitor / friend Chris Pratt, father Andrzej Blumenfeld all good value.

Shot by Eric Edwards (Life of Crime).

The Huggetts Abroad (1949 Ken Annakin)

Olaf Pooley is the villain, Hugh McDermott the unlikely jewel thief in back projected Africa adventure, with Dinah Sheridan a replacement Huggett daughter. Like the last film, the villain, who in essence tries to kill the family by screwing with their compass, doesn't get a proper comeuppance (a punch in the jaw from Warden). What's going on?

Vote for Huggett (1948 Ken Annakin)

Seemingly made back-to-back with the last one, and featuring much of the same cast, fairly predictable story involves H. running for local council over lido vs community centre scheme, whilst all around are corrupt. Ending is not only banal. but forgers Dors and Blythe get away with it (which I thought was unacceptable in films of this era?) Hubert Gregg is the baddie.

Here Come the Huggetts (1948 Ken Annakin)

The family has been remodelled for some reason, thus Harrison and Warner's children are now Jane Hylton (Passport to Pimlico), Susan Shaw and Petula Clark, and centres mostly on arrival of tarty relative Diana Dors and the disruptions she causes.

Jimmy Hanley, David Tomlinson and Peter Hammond also feature and there's a mini This Happy Breed reunion with Amy Veness (as grandma, of course), John Blythe, Alison Leggatt and even (I think) Merle Tottenham in the Royal Wedding crowd.

A gin and french = gin and vermouth. Doesn't that = a martini?
A gin and it = gin and sweet vermouth.

Six Feet Under Season 4 (2004)

Begins in a particularly conventional manner (Ball nowhere to be found), with no talking corpses or black humour. The opening casualty isn't even in the first episode. Then slightly soapy plot lines - Federico having an affair, James Cromwell's shit sending son, Nate grieving, Keith not being out at work as a celeb security guard.

Still flashes of perverse creativity - religious woman who interprets floating sex dolls as something divine, and is run over... And then that black After Hours-ish episode where David is forced to spend the night with a violent criminal who threatens to kill him... With its ensuing fallout. Also some excellent dream sequences and fantasy moments.

I think I remember on watching it originally that it's the whole Nate-Maya-Lisa-Brenda is a bit wearying, though the twins Brenna and Bronwyn Tosh who play Maya are really good!

Of the acting I think I'm most enjoying the performances of Peter Krause and Lauren Ambrose, though there's always welcome fresh air from Kathy Bates, Patricia Clarkson and Richard Jenkins.

Holiday Camp (1947 Ken Annakin)

Interesting historical document of the Brits on holiday in giant prisoner of war camp on weird bicycles with seats that go up and down when you ride them. Multiple stories centre around Huggett family Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Hazel Court and Peter Hammond (leading to sequels), involving Flora Robson, Dennis Price, Jimmy Hanley, Emrys Jones, Esma Cannon, Esmond Knight and some other people.

Chaplin (1992 Richard Attenborough)

In memory of Anne Coates, who died on the 8th. I can't claim to have spotted any of her stand out signature moments, but on watching it very closely, it seems just to move perfectly, the shot lengths and sizes all working together in harmony. The invisible art at work, invisibly.

We hadn't see it since 5 April 2012, when we were clearly doing a William Boyd blitz (other films seen this month include his version of Scoop, Armadillo, Tune in Tomorrow, Dutch Girls, and Stars and Bars - in fact we must have met him soon after).

My review then: 'Based on his biography and autobiography and Diana Hawkins' story, and written by William Boyd and William Goldman and Bryan Forbes. Barry's score isn't suitable, somehow, ('fights with dialogue', I had written even earlier) and although it's very well acted, doesn't quite hang together, oddly. Difficult to finance, because of Downey. Carolco made it on the back of Terminator 2! It seems Forbes' original script wasn't used, but the WGA ruled he was credited as it provides 'framework'.'

Hmm. I thought it did 'hang together' and was thoroughly engaging, and whilst it wasn't part of Boyd's vision to use the framing device of old Chaplin discussing the book with his publisher (this was written by Goldman), I think this works quite well, for example in the two versions of how Chaplin gave the Tramp his look.

Robert Downey Jr. is sensational (won BAFTA, Oscar nominated - lost to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman), not just for the way he emulates Chaplin's performances, but also for his mastery of two British accents, and the subtle way he plays both the ageing and the old Chaplins. But the whole cast is terrific: Anthony Hopkins, Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine Chaplin (inspired casting - also brilliant), Paul Rhys (brother), John Thaw, Kevin Kline (a good Fairbanks), Marisa Tomei, Penelope Ann Miller, Milla Jovovich and Moira Kelly, who intriguingly plays both Charlie's first love Hetty and his final wife Oona. Of Hetty, I love the romantic scene played between he and her at a tea stand, where the vendor just watches both of them, but says nothing.

I think Barry's score is one of his best later ones and there might be one or two scenes where it might be best not to run the music under the scene but that's all.

Sven Nykvist's photography is beautifully melancholy (Jeff Cronenweth is an assistant) and Stuart Craig has many fabulous sets to design.

Q sometimes wonders why these reviews take so long. Well today, I had to find and check my own previous reviews, read Will's thoughts from 'Bamboo', research Goldman's contribution (which led me to the discovery of a sequel to 'Adventures in the Screen Trade' which had to be bought), which also involved reading the New York Times review, checked the Anne Coates obit, composed a short email to Will and found and cropped (a) the screen shots (b) that great photo of Will and Robert:

The 1972 Oscar compilation was made by Peter Bogdanovich and Richard Patterson.

Paper Towns (2015 Jake Schreier)

Left to right: Justice Smith, Jaz Sinclair (sorry, Jaz), Austin Abrams, Halston Sage and Nat Wolff.

I'm not sure this is quite as successful as the other Neustadter / Weber screenplays, despite being based on a novel by John Green, one of the Vlogbrothers and author of The Fault in Our Stars, which they also adapted (as well as The Spectacular Now and The Disaster Artist, leaving (500) Days of Summer to be their only original screenplay). I mean, it's refreshing that the kid doesn't get the girl, the journey being the thing (I was thinking of Stand By Me more than once) - the kid grows up. As I thought the last time, the Cara Delevingne character is quite annoying. (That's not her sister Poppy playing her younger self nor her sister, who's Caitlin Carver.)

The concept of 'paper towns' being imaginary places put on maps so that cartographers can tell if their work is being copied is intriguing, and indeed, may be true.

In the scene where the cow wanders in front of the car, Q shouted at it 'Get off the road!' Then it does. 'How did you do that?' I asked her. 'I have contacts' was her enigmatic reply.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1968, released 1969 Ronnie Neame)

Based on Jay Presson Allen's stage adaptation of Muriel Spark's 1961 novel. Maggie Smith and Pamela Franklin both make impressions as deluded teacher and strong-willed pupil. Good support from Robert Stephens (then married to Maggie), Gordon Jackson, Celia Johnson, Diane Grayson, Jane Carr and the somewhat sinister looking Ann Way.

Maggie won both BAFTA and Oscar. Celia received BAFTA, Pamela a nomination. It was shot by Ted Moore.

I'm in the middle on this one. Other prize-winning reviews to follow.

Stuart: A Life Backwards (2007 David Attwood)

"Now, has Alexander told you, I'm an alcoholic, a stage one offender and a thief, but I won't give you no trouble."

And so we experience Alexander Masters' useful screenplay of his own book about a violent, psychopathic, drug-addicted street dweller who's been abused, let down by the system and criminalised - who becomes his friend ('a real meal for an actor', Tom Hardy says in the extras) through humour and honesty. Indeed it is Stuart's own idea to tell the story backwards and thus we don't really know what shit this guy went through until nearly the end.

It is a powerful, funny piece, incredibly well acted by Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch. From the interviews, Hardy sounds like he's had a tough life / issues of his own, speaks thoughtfully, and copiously; when he breaks into a smile, it's like the sun has come out. He talks about when you've learned the lines and are not bumping into the furniture, that's when you 'rise above the words' and start making it a performance - and this is certainly what Benedict does, as his part isn't written to be very revealing about himself, yet in his reactions and his presence he is every bit as good as Hardy.

Made by BBC Wales and HBO it was broadcast as a TV film and probably hasn't found enough of an audience. Q discovered it whilst researching production companies.

With Nicola Duffett, Claire-Louise Cordwell, Edna Doré.

Logan Lucky (2017 Steven Soderbergh)

Just how dumb is Channing Tatum's character in Rebecca Blunt's ingenious screenplay? Not dumb at all, it turns out, and nor's his daughter Farrah Mackenzie. And nor's Riley Keough, who plays their cool driver (I was sure that V8 was going to feature in a car chase finale, but refreshingly, it doesn't go that way). Engaging and funny crime caper also features Adam Driver, a blonde Daniel Craig, Katherine Waterston as the itinerant doctor (Fantastic Beasts and Inherent Vice), Jack Quaid (son of Dennis and Meg Ryan, divorced) and Brian Gleeson as the other set of brothers, Katie Holmes, Seth MacFarlane (didn't recognise him... oh, the arsehole 'British' promoter), Hilary Swank (giving a curious performance) and whoever plays the black guy from prison.

Blunt is apparently the pseudonym for Mrs Soderbergh Jules Asner. Soderbergh (male) also shot and edited under his usual pseudonyms. So what with this and the quirky casting and credits ('Introducing Daniel Craig') and screenplay, overall a playful affair.

South Carolina accents so good you can't always understand the dialogue.

Channing's been in Hail Caesar!, The Hateful Eight, Foxcatcher and Dear John. Riley was in American Honey and previous Soderbergh / Tatum collaboration Magic Mike. She's the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley.

Murder on the Orient Express (2017 Kenneth Branagh)

Why on earth did Ken commission American Michael Green to re-adapt Christie's novel, which has already been superbly filmed? (Green also wrote Bladerunner 2049, so that's going to be interesting, and - no! Yes. Death on the Nile has been announced, with double Branagh again...)

Unless you're going to do something different with it, what's the point? Set it somewhere else? Murder on the Sheffield Express...

We thought it was a botched job. Despite all the stars, no one really seems to have any room to act, there's just a sea of faces (at one point, I wasn't sure who a couple of the characters even were). We actually couldn't wait for it to finish. Most of the (unnecessary) external train shots really look like CGI. Branagh's accent is as dodgy as the moustache - he's miscast himself, essentially. The whole thing lacks passion or intensity (or humour).

No - go back to Dial M for Murder to see how this is done properly. Tut.

Patrick Doyle's music underperforms, Haris Zambarloukos shot it in large format 65mm, framed for 2.35:1, edited by Mick Audsley.

Victoria & Abdul (2017 Stephen Frears)

Lee Hall adapted Shrabani Basu's book (she had previously written about the queen's love of curry, of which there's curiously none involved here). There's too much 'Munshi' and burqas, if you ask me, and unexplained gonorrhoea.

Judy delivers a good monologue, Ali Fazar is fine, the brilliant Adeel Akhtar largely wasted, Thomas Newman's score sounds like a Thomas Newman imitation. Danny Cohen shot it, Melanie Oliver edited.

I know, let's have a picnic!

That Awkward Moment (2014 Tom Gormicon & scr)

Or, 'Young Men are Assholes'. Indeed, it seems that every time friends Zac Efron, Miles Teller and Michael Jordan have a conversation, they end up referring to one another as an asshole, while they lie about not having relationships, Zac with the beautifully natural Imogen Poots, Miles with Mackenzie Davis (Breathe In) and Michael with Jessica Lucas.

Slightly has that feel it's written to a template. It's not often that I shout at the screen 'Take your cock off!' Outtakes end with 'Hey, there's the guy from The Wire on our couch!'

Men, Women & Children (2014 Jason Reitman)

Interesting ('thought provoking' says Q) film about how technology has affected everyone for the worse (for balance the script might have included something positive about it), with Jennifer Garner's controlling mother coming off even more malevolent than the Internet. Luckily, humanity prevails, in relationship between Kaitlyn Dever and Ansel Elgort. The way of showing the digital exchanges on the screen is creative, and you can actually read the text for once.

Reitman and Erin Cressida Wilson adapted Chad Kultgen's novel. With Adam Sandler, Rosemarie DeWitt, Judy Greer, Timothée Chalamet, Dean Norris, Elena Kampouris, Olivia Criocchia, J.K. Simmons and Dennis Haysbert. Emma Thompson provides the voiceover, which is perhaps redundant.

Shot by Eric Steelberg, edited by Dana Glauberman, good, ambientish music by Bibio. Reitman's doing something interesting with closed doors.

Ansel Egort, Kaitlyn Dever

Olivia Crocicchia, Judy Greer

The always interesting Reitman's new feature reunites him with Diablo Cody and Charlize Theron, Tully.

Suburbicon (2017 George Clooney)

'Is that a hint of AMOLAD, I pondered (upward shot of hospital light to breathing machine sound)? That's a definite Psycho nod, I determined (spanking scene in basement).  This is beginning to feel like Double Indemnity... He's definitely influenced by the Coens (latter scenes with bad guys and comic small bicycle).' Well, the latter might be explained by the Coens as co-writers (an eighties script, in fact) with Clooney and Heslov.

Overall good, funny and at times suspenseful in the true Hitchcock manner (e.g. the kid under the bed) - and Alexandre Desplat's music even sounds like fifties Herrmann in places. I liked the sub-plot involving the new black family, but felt the riot scene unbalanced the film, which could have done without it (though it does sort of cover the murder taking place in the house next door). But then what do I know? I didn't even realise it begins with two Julianne Moores.

The kid is played really well by Noah Jupe (oh.. from Wonder...) - Tony Espinosa good too as his new friend, though again here I'd like him to have been instrumental in helping save Noah somehow (criticisms that the two stories aren't properly integrated are fair enough). With Matt Damon, Oscar Isaac (investigator), Gary Basara (Uncle Mitch), and baddies Glenn Fleshler and Alex Hassell. Plus Karimah Westbrook and Jack Conley as a grizzled policeman.

It was shot in widescreen by Robert Elswit and edited by Stephen Mirrione. Production design by James Bissell who also worked on George's other films, and who evokes a great 1950s.

The Four Seasons (1981 Alan Alda & scr)

Alan's first film as director and featuring his two daughters and photographs of flying vegetables from his wife. We catch up with a group of friends on seasonal holidays. They are Alda and wife Carol Burnett, Len Cariou, who trades Sandy Dennis for the younger model Bess Armstrong, and Jack Weston and his wife Rita Moreno (West Side Story).

Subtle shifts in relationships between the men - the women are a rather more stable bunch.

Two Night Stand (2014 Max Nichols)

Yes this is the son of Mike Nichols (and Annabel Davis-Goff).

Mark Hammer's script is somewhat silly (would you flush a magazine page down the loo, would it cause flooding, why didn't she get out of the building down the fire escape?) The sex talk is a little franker than usual but the ending is as cheesy as most other rom coms.

Miles Teller and Analeigh Tipton are fine as the imprisoned couple. Quite fun but nothing special.