Funny Cow (2017 Adrian Shergold)

"A wickedly funny film" according to the front cover of the DVD - attributed to 'Film Seekers'. Who? It's the funny that this rather gritty and serious film is lacking, although Maxine Peake is good. The in-betweener bits of her to camera don't really add anything and could safely be removed. Tony Pitts is the writer, and it seems a bit familiar - think Little Voice but with comedy instead (of which there's precious little). An unsatisfying experience and not a little dull.

With Paddy Considine, Tony Pitts himself (Line of Duty, My Mad Fat Diary, Remember Me, Scott and Bailey), Stephen Graham, Alun Armstrong, Christine Bottomley, Kevin Eldon, Hebe Beardsell and Macy Shackleton (the younger and even younger Funny Cows). Shot by Tony Slater-Ling in Panavision.

Keeping Faith (2017 Creator: Matthew Hall)

Had to mention this because of Eve Myles, who's absolutely terrific - forget Nicola Walker, everyone. She was in the 2008 Little Dorrit - but way down the cast list. And Victoria, Broadchurch, A Very English Scandal, Torchwood. She's just great in every little shot, completely owns the show; filmed so close there's nowhere to hide. Why is this being shown over the summer and not in peak season time?

Hall was a trial lawyer - started writing Kavanagh QC with John Thaw. Unfortunately has one of those endings that is both maddening and forces you into watching season 2, and has taken eight hours to get there. When you think Any Human Heart is only five... And nice cop brother-in-law's character (played by Matthew Gravelle) wasn't really exploited at all. Written by Hall, Anwen Hughes and Sian Naiomi.

Like the direction - especially the way that missing husband Bradley Freegard is always shot in extreme close up. With Mark Lewis Jones (nice rogue), Aneirin Hughes & Rhian Morgan (father- and mother-in-law), Eiry Thomas (nasty detective with frankly unbelievably bad haircut), Catherine Ayers.

A Quiet Place (2018 John Krasinski & co-scr)

It was funny hearing that Krasinski is not a fan of horror films - he has made an efficient B movie, a bit difficult to take seriously, from a story by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck. Various thrills are done well - birth, baby, nail, mill - but you have to buy silly alien thing.

Actors had few lines to learn. JK, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmons (good), Noah Jupe. Simmons actually is deaf, Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck being her only other feature. (I like the bit where she dreams she can hear.)

Just Jim (2015 Craig Roberts & scr)

Opens with a nice deadpan tone as Roberts finds himself (girl) friendless in Welsh community. Then wild Emile Hirsch turns up as a neighbour and everything changes... or does it? We're no longer sure of anything by the end, which is a shame.

Michael Price provides the music, and Richard Ayoade is in the 'thanks to' list.

It's short, anyway (in fact might have made a better short film). Funded by S4C, Film 4, BFI and Welsh Film.

Murder on the Blackpool Express (2017 Simon Delaney)

An average script by Jason Cook, slightly recreates Car Share in its teaming of that show's Sian Gibson with Jonny Vegas. Crime writer Griff Rhys Jones (his awful book titles aren't awful enough) visits places which inspired murders but there's a real murderer among them. Nigel Havers, Kevin Eldon, Mark Heap, Kimberley Nixon, Una Stubbs etc. provide distractions as passengers. Awful music doesn't help.

This is though kind of all my fault for suggesting back in a May review there should be a Murder on the Sheffield Express.

War on Everyone (2016 John Michael McDonagh & scr)

For a Bank Holiday Sunday McDonagh double bill. See here.

In their version of a Western shoot-out, they shoot the bad guy first - good plan. Yes, westerns again...

Three Billboards

See here.

Thelma & Louise (1991 Ridley Scott)

Written by Callie Khouri, her debut screenplay which won the Oscar, perhaps for its timely pro-women stance - the only problem is the ending, which sort of has to go that way, but is unsatisfying.

It's a sort of road movie / film noir (Michael Madsen in particular would seem at home in the latter). Has too much music over it. Photographed in Panavision by Adrian Biddle (Oscar nominated, as were Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis). Harvey Keitel is the sympathetic lawman. With Christopher McDonald, Stephen Tobolowsky, Brad Pitt.

Geena pulls off the politest gas station hold up in history.

Isle of Dogs (2018 Wes Anderson)

An absolute treat of a film, which despite its setting, frequent use of Japanese titling and beautiful design and symmetry appears to be a US only production.

Written by Wes with frequent collaborators Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman, and Konichi Nomura, Isle of Dogs is not really a kids' film, and seems to me to have an underlying taste of the Holocaust, but is extremely funny and beautiful (Q thinks this is the work of a big kid). This is another flat on presentation, like Grand Budapest Hotel, chock full of lateral and vertical tracking shots (which even make their way into the black and white news reports), and brilliant framing and animation.

With the voices of Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton, Bob Balaban, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel, F Murray Abraham, Tilda Swinton and Yoko Ono.

Shot by Tristan Oliver, film frequently resembles a western. Animation director is Mark Waring, music by Alexandre Desplat. Incredible design throughout. Like most of Wes's films, produced by Indian Paintbrush, for Fox Searchlight.

Critical (2015 Created & scr Jed Mercurio)

It's funny how I do that - credit the writer on long form TV shows, rather than the director, often because there's more than one. But it acknowledges the importance of the writer. Only in exceptions (Hitchcock for example) is the director as important. Have to think about that one...

Anyway, opens in typical JM style with an extended and extremely dramatic trauma situation, packed with gore and medical detail, demonstrating the importance of a highly skilled team, giving us character development very subtly, and surprising us with plot twists. For sure, Jed loves to wrong-foot the audience - where the hell did Claire Skinner go?

Jed plots in spider's webs. He qualified and became a junior doctor, thus his first show Cardiac Arrest (1994). Bodies (2004-6) was another medical-set drama but he's also written comedies (The Grimleys, The Legend of the Tamworth Two), sci-fi (Invasion Earth), horror (a futuristic Frankenstein), and period drama (Lady Chatterley) whilst also having embarked on the sublime Line of Duty in 2012.

Through episode 3 I am beginning to think Jed has lost half his audience by now, who can't stomach all these graphic operations, this one involving a young man who loses both legs, has most of him opened up, then dies. Can't help thinking it would make a great training film though. And as it progresses we can't help feel the device of one tricky operation after another isn't balanced well enough by plot.

Ultimately, we just couldn't bring ourselves to complete the series - Jed lost even us.

Made for Sky by Hat Trick.

Metroland (1997 Philip Savile)

Superb acting in Simon Hodges' adaptation of Julian Barnes' 1980 novel. Christian Bale's old friend Lee Ross comes back into his life, triggering memories of life in Paris with Elsa Zylberstein; wife Emily Watson isn't amused. Great structure. On theme of 'what happened to the old you?' John Wood as retired commuter familiar (Chocolat, An Ideal Husband, Sabrina, Shadowlands, The Purple Rose of Cairo), as is French barman Rufus (Amélie, A Very Long Engagement, Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000). With Amanda Ryan.

Our 'Prism Leisure' edition was uncomfortably cropped to 4x3. Music by Mark Knopfler.

Hodges wrote the great Peter and Wendy, My Week with Marilyn, The Shadow in the North. Saville's mainly a TV director, responsible for Boys from the Blackstuff, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil and Count Dracula.

Scarlet Street (1945 Fritz Lang)

Based on novel 'La Chienne' by Georges de la Fouchardiere, and play written with Mouezy-Eon. Dudley Nichols wrote a satisfying adaptation, rich with irony (he can't get arrested at the end - quite unusual in that legally he does get away with it). In Alexander Golitzen's Greenwich Village, 'lazy legs' Joan Bennett starts to milk middle-aged cashier Edward G. Robinson, egged on by shiftless boyfriend Dan Duryea, with murderous results. Great plot twist as Robinson's paintings (painted by John Decker) start to attract attention. Great stuff as Edward G goes crazy to flashing light and well done audio flashback.

A Walter Wanger production, shot by Milton Krasner, scored by Hans Salter. Wanger was married to Bennett and shot her agent in 1951. I know. Life is weirder than the movies. He suspected her of having an affair with him. He didn't die, and Wanger served four months. And that didn't end his career. But it effectively killed Bennett's.

Eye in the Sky (2015 Gavin Hood)

Written by Guy Hibbert, who wrote Prime Suspect 4: The Scent of Darkness (I guess I forgot to review that one when we watched them all in 2015) in 1995, and more recently One Child and A United Kingdom. Opens with a quote from Aeschylus: "In war, truth is the first casualty" - which is good and thought-provoking, but doesn't really have anything to do with what follows.

A simple and focused film is almost like a play in that it cuts between several static locations whilst attempting to take out terror suspects from above - and neatly uses it as a debate for all sides of a controversial issue. Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman (his final performance) represent the UK military, Aaron Paul and Phoebe Fox are the (somewhat too emotional) people with their fingers on the button, Barkhad Abdi the man on the ground, Iain Glen, Richard McCabe, Monica Dolan and Jeremy Northam represent politics, Babou Ceesay is a conflicted number cruncher.

A little girl selling bread makes an unlikely but highly effective focus of tension.

Some Kind of Wonderful (1987 Howard Deutch)

Eric Stoltz is some kind of wonderful as misfit who gets the dream date Lea Thompson while his best buddy drummer and tomboy Mary Stuart Masterson is really the one for him. Add in high school jock Craig Sheffer, sister Maddie Corman and nice skinhead Elias Koteas, season and stir well. One of the least sentimental John Hughes scripts is fun. High School was a dangerous place even before people started shooting everyone.

Too Late For Tears (1949 Byron Haskin)

Lizabeth Scott is one of those archetypal noir dames - she's greedy, manipulative, slutty, lies, kills and is wholly irredeemable - fabulous! She bumps off husband Arthur Kennedy and then embroils petty blackmailer Dan Duryea (whose money it is) in her scheme. Meanwhile this Don DeFore character turns up, claiming to be an old airforce buddy of Kennedy's, and sister Kristine Miller also thinks something's afoot...

Very economically made, and utterly engrossing right up to the Mexican finale (where - well, she couldn't get away with it, in those days - but.. it somehow would have been the right ending if she had..)

I guess we know Kennedy best for A Summer Place and Peyton Place.

Shot by William Mellor, music by R. Dale Butts, written by Roy Huggins and based on his own Saturday Evening Post serial. Scott's a great noir creation, like a cute but poisonous dog...

Without a Clue (1988 Thom Eberhardt)

Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther (mainly writers for TV) inventively reimagine the Sherlock Holmes legend with Watson (Ben Kingsley) as the genius and Holmes (Michael Caine) a drunken actor. With Jeffrey Jones (Lestrade), Lysette Anthony (who Q recognises from Hollyoaks) and Paul Freeman as Moriarty. It's got its broad slapstick moments but overall is largely successful.

Caine's great as always, Kingsley and Freeman nicely restrained.

Music by Mancini, shot by Alan Hume.

Another in my Guess the Film series.

Friends - Season 3 (1996-7)

The One Where Ross is a PRICK. (Cue the following line: 'Ross, stop squeaking, you oily worm.')

I was thinking that the three girls all have long beautiful hair, and that there's no non-white people in the cast. Then there's an episode in which Ross's gorgeous girlfriend shaves her head, and he immediately goes off her. Very curious messages they were sending.

Q observes that in the pre-Internet age the friends actually hang out together all the time, have coffee, walk in and out of each other's apartments - no one's got their head stuck in their phone. It's most refreshing.

Guest stars include Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, Jon Favreau, Teri Garr, Tom Selleck.

The Circle (2017 James Ponsoldt & co-scr)

Co-written with Dave Eggers (Away We Go, Promised Land, A Hologram for the King), based on his own 2013 novel; Ponsoldt directed The Spectacular Now.

Emily Watson and Tom Hanks are as good as ever in topic-ticking plot which covers big corporate misuse of data, social network peer pressure, privacy and surveillance and leaking of confidential information, perhaps in a fairly unsubtle way, and misfires in what could have been a good thriller. The bit with mysterious programmer John Boyega is mishandled - either use him or don't use him. Also I thought she was going to plant one of those spy cameras in Hanks' office. Plus the fact she's swallowed a tracker - they would have known she was in the underground data storage centre. I don't know, I quite enjoyed it, but it lacked suspense or intrigue. The whole big campus thing would have set up a great spooky prison camp / paranoia feeling like in seventies films.

Some of the (fast) on-screen messages are fun though like 'If The Circle was a cult, what kind of a cult would it be?'

Karen Gillan is in energetic form as her Scottish friend - we've seen her only in We'll Take Manhattan as Jean Shrimpton. Ellar Coltrane is the young man who won't play, parents are Bill Paxton and Glenne Headley, co-boss is Patton Oswalt (Young Adult) and with Ellen Wong (Scott Pilgrim vs The World).

"What do you mean, you're not on Facebook??"

Another Netflix thing. Dave Eggers certainly had an interesting life - felt I should read his memoir from 2000 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius'. (P.S. Did buy it - looked pretentious - got rid of it.)

The music's by Danny Elfman, by way of Kraftwerk.

Our Souls at Night (2017 Ritesh Batra)

Neustadter and Weber are the adaptation kings - this one is from Kent Haruf, who completed the book just before his death in 2014. It's another quiet film with Redford being propositioned by Fonda to spend nights together to alleviate loneliness, joined by a repressed boy Iain Armitage (and a collie) and his conflicted father Matthias Schoenaerts. Judy Greer and Bruce Dern appear fleetingly, and Phyllis Somerville (Fonda's friend) is recognisable to us from such things as Little Children, The Double, Restless and Bringing Out the Dead. It's an unfussy, clear-footed film, Batra being the director (and co-writer) of The Lunchbox.

There've been more Fonda-Redford pairings than I thought - The Chase (1966), The Electric Horseman (1979) and Barefoot in the Park (1967)... and you'd have to include (obscure pub quiz question) 1960's Tall Story in which Redford is an unbilled basketball player (Fonda's debut).

Shot by Stephen Goldblatt, aged 73. A Netflix film.

Testament of Youth (2014 James Kent)

Solemn and sincere big screen version of Vera Brittain's 1933 memoir, written by Juliet Towhidi (Death Comes to Pemberley, Love Rosie). Alicia Vikander is Vera, Taron Egerton her brother, Kit Harington the fiancee and Colin Morgan the other friend. With Dominic West, Emily Watson, Joanna Scanlan, Miranda Richardson, Daisy Waterstone (Q knew she recognised her - The Durrells), Nicholas Le Prevost, Anna Chancellor - and Hayley Atwell in a splendid cameo as a nurse with alacrity in the abattoir of a field hospital.

It's perhaps a little light on the feminism/ independent woman side of things and Alicia comes off as rather surly in the first sections, and is it all slightly at arm's length? But the end-as-beginning and the numerous little flashbacks all add something. That crowd scene (shot at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich) which frames it has a completely different resonance when you see it repeated at the end.

Diffused Panavision photography by Rob Hardy, music Max Richter, editor Luchia Zucchetti (Boy A, The Queen), production design Jon Henson, costumes Consolata Boyle. Produced by BBC Films.

As far as I can tell, the great line 'All of us are surrounded by ghosts - now is the time to learn how to live with them' is not from the book.

State and Main (2000 David Mamet)

William H Macy, Alec Baldwin, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rebecca Pidgeon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Clark Gregg, Julia Stiles, Charles Durning, David Paymer. It was four years ago already that Philip died.

What happens in the end? Baldwin is acquitted as Gregg is bribed, but does the film get made? I always think it's going to end with the pot-hole being repaired (that's used beautifully well).

It's great writing, I mean anyone can - er, er, well the thing is, it's - yes, that's what it is. OK then. Write like David Mamet. OK.

One of the most cheerfully amoral films about film-making. Sharp, sparkling dialogue and great plotting.

Very end joke - in the credits - 'Only two animals were harmed during the making of the film' - I assume one was the dead horse!

The Great Moment (1944 Preston Sturges & scr)

A rare event - a Preston Sturges non-comedy. Based on the 1938 factual book 'Triumph Over Pain' by René Fülöp-Miller this recounts the true story of the dentist who popularised the use of ether as an anaesthetic - but in his effort to patent the product, ruined himself and died prematurely. The end's at the beginning.

Joel McCrae, Betty Field (Kings Row - of course), Harry Carey, William Demarest, Porter Hall, Franklin Pangborn, Robert Greig, Esther Howard and Jimmy Conlin (all these three from Sullivan's Travels).

Shot by Victor Milner.

Interesting.

The film was recut ('for comedy') and retitled against Preston's wishes, and led to him leaving Paramount.

Sullivan's Travels (1941 Preston Sturges & scr)

Its serious last section is what makes this unique in his run of comedies, but it's the genius in twisting a comedy into exactly the kind of serious movie John L Sullivan wants to make that makes it so clever.

Lots of silent film sequences as well.

Good juxtaposition of negro spiritual 'Let my people go' with chain gang convicts.

Nice to see the incomparable Eric Blore in his one and only Sturges.

Prompted this classic exchange:
Q: "What an enormous pool."
N: "Yes, she has got nice legs."
For explanation, see here.

Max Dugan Returns (1983 Herbert Ross)

Recognisably, quippily written by Neil Simon, film doesn't end properly, which is a shame, as it's mainly delightful. The property renovations is a bit OTT, also. Marsha Mason, Jason Robards, Donald Sutherland and Matthew Broderick are a most engaging cast. Keifer is one of the stoneheads.

Brilliantly filmed motorbike scene. Editing by Richard Marks. Photography by David M Walsh, music by David Shire.

Adult World (2013 Scott Coffey)

Good title from writer Andy Cochran as it refers not only to the sex shop where Emma Roberts finds a job, but also the grown-up world she aspires (unsuccessfully) to be in, whilst she dogs famous poet John Cusack and hangs out with Evan Peters and drag queen Armando Riesco. It's enjoyable - I love the way Cusack keeps running away from her.

With her pink nose and full mouth she reminds me a bit of Felicity Jones. We know her from We're the Millers, Valentine's Day and It's Kind of a Funny Story and though she's good here, it appears she hasn't really made too much of an impression.

Aunt Julia and The Scriptwriter / Tune In Tomorrow (1990 Jon Amiel)

This is the title we saw it under originally, on VHS on 7 June 1994, and it's also the title of Mario Vargas Llosa's 1977 novel which is set in Peru. Screenwriter William Boyd had to adapt it to the US and chose New Orleans, and also had the task of managing fifteen different radio stories which were going on in the book, knowing this would have to be simplified for the screen. He actually consulted Llosa about this who was very supportive 'Go for it. Do the best you can.' (I wonder if he had read any of Will's books?) 'He was very pleased with the film. What got him furious was that the American distributor changed the title to Tune in Tomorrow...they thought they had a comic hit on their hands and felt that the original title was too arthouse. I protested vehemently; Vargas Llosa refused to have anything to do with it; the film did no business at all; and every review started with 'What idiot changed the title?' ' (William Boyd, 'Bamboo'.)

It's certainly a briskly paced adaptation, and the mirroring of real life with the serial story is superbly done. Characters and themes are introduced succinctly, it's funny, well directed. I originally thought the chemistry was lacking between Barbara Hershey and Keanu Reeves - I'm not mad about the lad, but he's OK in this - but maybe that's a fair assessment. Hershey's a brilliantly capable and adaptable actress, if you think of her evil in Last Summer and her innocence and confusion in Hannah and Her Sisters and now the New York brittleness of her Aunt Julia.

Peter Falk's is an eccentric character, though he manages the situation and gets the couple together.. and exits as a priest, having upset all the local Albanians!

It's romantic, funny, eccentric, clever and original.

Shot by Robert Stevens, music by Wynton Marsalis.

Cast includes Bill McCutcheon, Patricia Clarkson, Richard Portnow, Jerome Dempsey, Richard Shull, Hope Lange, Peter Gallagher, Elizabeth McGovern, Dan Hedaya and Michelle's sister Dedee Pfeiffer.

The Death of Stalin (2017 Armando Ianucci & co-scr)

Coincidentally another film set in 1953, this a black comedy about the power grab following Stalin's death. Great idea to keep all accents regional - particularly effective in Jeremy Isaac's brash Northern Field Marshal.

Great cast: Simon Russell Beale, Steve Buscemi, Jeffrey Tambor (always thought he was weird looking - now can confirm it), Andrea Riseborough, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Rupert Friend (hilarious as buffoon son), Paul Whitehouse, Paddy Considine, Adrian McLoughlin (Stalin), Tom Brooke (The Boat That Rocked), Paul Ready (Witness for the Prosecution), Dermot Crowley (Luther), Karl Johnson, Sylvestra le Touzel.

Has the same sort of mixture of blackness and buffoonery that made Four Lions so successful, plus the kind of political silliness familiar from The Thick Of It. Based on the (fabulous looking) comic novel by Thierry Robin (artist) and Fabien Nury (writer), who wrote the original screenplay. This screenplay was by Armando, David Schneider (actor and writer on The Day Today) and Ian Martin (Veep, The Thick of It, Time Trumpet), with additional material by Peter Fellows.

Good music from Christoper Willis, cinematography by Zac Nicholson (The Honorable Woman, Capital), editing by Peter Lambert and production design Cristina Casali, shot in the Ukraine and England.

That wonderful bit of music I recognised halfway through is from Tchaikovsky's 6th, and Olga plays Mozart's piano concerto 23 in A major.

Jeremy (1973 Arthur Barron & scr)

Because it was recommended on some list of forgotten classics. Well, on the one had, this is a sensitively sweet and true account of what young love is like, well played by Robby Benson and Glynnis O'Connor. The portrayal of the parents too is quite realistic - people with their own problems and lives, not too interested in the kids really. Perhaps that's why Barron - who really was not known for anything else - won a Cannes award for 'Best First Work'.

So that's all good then. Unfortunately there are some minuses. The photography  is badly composed and framed (e.g. in pizza scene, the people in the background are far too prominent and distracting) and cramped, grainy, occasionally out of focus and (in two scenes) with dirt on the lens. That wouldn't be so bad on its own (well, it is kinda bad) were it not for the worst theme song probably ever and generally schmaltzy music.

Never trust lists.

Jenny's Wedding (2015 Mary Agnes Donoghue & scr)

Film about dumb people aimed at a dumb audience might have worked a minim better had it been set in the seventies... It doesn't seem at all believable to me, even though you might argue there are families and communities like this... If there are, they are the exception rather than the rule. The people in the world I live in are not as ridiculous or intolerant. Nah - I don't buy it. It seems very clichéd. Also didn't like the fact the fiancée Alexis Bledel isn't a character.

Katherine Heigl, Tom Wilkinson, Linda Edmond, Grace Gummer (Frances Ha and Larry Crowne).

Is a good example of what Roger Deakins was talking about in that it's a 'filmed play' - almost all of it is dialogue driven. Also has too many montages to music. And - if you want a good tip here - the opening credits scene is boring. Watch out for credits scenes - they are a pointer to the rest of the film.

Another lesson in not to buy films based on a trailer.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006 Dito Montiel & scr)

His 2003 autobiography wasn't just about the stuff in the film, but his life in hardcore punk bands and as a Versace model. The characters presented here are an unlikable lot, but we start getting some feeling for what's really going on in 1986 Queens, particularly with the lives of Dito and Antonio, Shia LaBoeuf and Channing Tatum. Whilst finding this, our grown up Dito Robert Downey Jr (great as always) comes back to visit, connects with Rosario Dawson, the older version of Melonie Diaz.

This story - getting away from your roots, coming back - isn't all that original, but the film works, overall, though displays signs of pretentiousness. No idea what the title means, either.

With Diane Weist, Chazz Palminteri, Martin Compston.

In Bruges (2008 Martin McDonagh & scr)

"After I killed him, I dropped the gun in the Thames, washed the residue off me hands in Burger King and walked home to await instructions." We needed more McDonagh gallows humour but as always there's something quite dark at the heart, that Colin Farrell has killed an innocent boy (whilst assassinating priest Ciaran Hinds - no one seems to mind that) and feels he must die (whether he does or not, we never know) after black comic ending featuring Ralph Fiennes' murderous crime boss and dwarf dressed as schoolboy Jordan Prentice.

The leads are fantastic, as is the moment where Gleeson is about to shoot Farrell in the head, only to have Farrell pull out a gun on himself. Something about the way it's shot evokes westerns. Also love the McDonagh as playwright touch where Gleeson has to pretend Farrell leaves the hotel room, and the late knowledge that it has been Farrell's first assignment.

Great backup cast too with Eric Godon (arms dealer), Zeljko Ivanek (Canadian), Clémence Poésy, Jérémie Rénier, Thekla Reuten, Jordan Prentice and Elizabeth Berrington.

Q thinks the McDonaghs are the Irish Coens - the fact that Carter Burwell has scored this is no coincidence. I buy the comparison - also like an Irish Tarantino, but much darker. It's shot in Panavision by Eigil Bryld and edited by Jon Gregory.

Won BAFTA for best screenplay (and Oscar nomination); film, Gleason and Gregory all BAFTA nominated; Golden Globe for Farrell.

Like Father (2018 Lauren Miller Rogen & co-scr)

Seth's wife's feature debut is unfortunately one of those scripts which feels like it has been written using an app - pick 'estranged father and daughter' and it writes the rest for you. Reuniting of Kelsey Grammar and Kristen Bell is predictably enjoyable but sentimental and at times barf-inducing - a funny fat black man - really? Seth Rogan co-stars. It's filmed in 2.55:1 for some reason, perhaps to get all the people around the dining table in comfortably...

Amusing Netflix warning that 'This program contains product placement' - was that the monstrous cruise ship? Less amusing is the way they don't run the end credits and there seems to be no way to do so (OK there may be a way).

Next Stop Greenwich Village (1976 Paul Mazursky & scr)

1953. Wannabe actor Lenny Baker moves out of home, to the psychotic consternation of mother Shelley Duvall - father Mike Kellin is more phlegmatic (The Boston Strangler, Banning, The Wackiest Ship in the Army). Joins group of wacky friends including free-spirited Dori Brenner,  enigmatic Chris Walken (very good), gay Antonio Fargas, suicidal Lois Smith (nice nun in Lady Bird) and reliable Ellen Greene. And bumps into Jeff Goldblum along the way, whilst Bill Murray is an uncredited guy with a moustache in the background. Lou Jacobi is the deli owner.

Most enjoyable, well acted by everybody. Shot by Arthur J Ornitz and edited by Richard Halsey. Good 1950s production design by Philip Rosenberg. Talking of Rosenbergs, the two mentioned who were executed were Julius and Ethel, convicted of spying for the Russians.

Baker was primarily a theatre actor who had a few smaller film roles. He died of AIDS in 1982, aged 37 (same year as Kellin, who was himself only 61).

Characters seem to me very real and believable.

Election (1999 Alexander Payne & co-scr)

Last reviewed here, written with Jim Taylor, from Tom Perrotta novel (he also wrote 'Little Children' which was also adapted). Playful, bouncy filming, characters come in and tell their own (voiceover-driven) versions of events. Did recognise Colleen Camp this time.

The Escort (2016 Will Slocombe)

Not sure why I got on to this now - maybe it was a well-regarded romcom? Slocombe (no relation) made a previous film called Cold Turkey (2013) which starred Peter Bogdanovich, which he also wrote, but didn't this time - it was Michael Doneger (who plays the lead) and Brandon A Cohen. Lyndsy Fonseca (Kick Ass 1 & 2, Hot Tub Time Machine) is the titular heroine.

Apart from the guy being a sex addict, this is pretty routine romcom material, really, a sort of Runaway Bride variant. (It gets the Pretty Woman comparison out of the way pretty early.)

Father and sister - Bruce Campbell and Rachel Resheff - are quite fun but even these are faintly sketched traditional character types more than characters.

It was OK.

A Country Called Home (2015 Anna Axster & co-scr)

It was her first feature having just made two shorts, and had contribution for crowd-funding Kickstarter (only a hundred grand, though - for development, I guess?)

Imogen Poots (great as always) returns to Texas when estranged alcoholic father dies, learns almost everyone hated him. Gets to know his girlfriend Mary McCormack, who's also a manipulative alcoholic, and her taciturn son Ryan Bingham, and meets a performer Mackenzie Davis. And, finally connects with their grand-parents, who are lovely - June Squibb and Presley Jack Bowen (his only film).

I suppose it would have just been too much to hope for that she finds a factory to make her furniture and thus becomes an entrepreneur... listen, it could have gone that way, but Axster prefers something quiet and reflective and more realistic.

We've seen Mackenzie in Breathe In and That Awkward Moment but not the intriguingly titled Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town. Ryan Bingham is best known as a composer / performer for Crazy Heart. And Mary McCormack (who's good) - nothing I think we've seen, lots of TV...

The Disaster Artist (2017 James Franco)

Neustadter and Weber's screenplay is based on the real Greg Sestero's book about the making of The Room and working with Tommy Wiseau. It was optioned by Seth Rogan and the director, who plays Tommy, with his brother Dave playing Greg.

Q remarked early on - perhaps when Tommy elects to shoot the film in 35mm and digital - 'I have a sinking Ed Wood feeling', and certainly the clips at the end - shown against marvellous recreations - indicate how truly awful the original was (it cost $6 million and took $1800 on its opening weekend). Rather marvellous to hear of its cult following and that it had turned a profit, but Q was disappointed we didn't find out about the enigmatic Tommy.

I wondered really why a film about a failure of a film was a good idea, but were laughing by the end. With Ari Graynor, Alison Brie (the girlfriend), Jacki Weaver, Paul Scheer, Zac Ephron, Megan Mullally (Greg's mum - Will and Grace), Sharon Stone and Melanie Griffith (acting class teacher), Bob Odenkirk and Bryan Cranston.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore (1993 Martin McDonagh)

A revival of a play first performed in 2001, at the Noel Coward theatre, directed by Michael Grandage, beginning with a dead cat and ending up in a Peckinpah abattoir. It's brilliantly plotted, and utterly hilarious, and the underlying political messages darkly funny. An Irish lady in the audience particularly liked the father's response to the announcement that Padraic and Mairead would be married 'when there's peace in Ireland' with 'That'll be a long fecking engagement then'.

Aiden Turner fine as the psychotic cat-lover. With Denis Conway (Dad), Julian Moore-Cook the dim neighbour, Charlie Murphy his crack shot sister, Will Irvine, Brian Martin, Daryl McCormack and Matthew Blaney.

Now need to see ALL of McDonagh's plays. It was the best thing we'd ever seen in a theatre.

The Knack... And How To Get It (1965 Richard Lester)

There isn't a lot to add to this. The whole 'rape' scene is very interesting because it's in this that the power balance shifts, Rita Tushingham becomes the one in charge and the horrible womaniser Tolen (chillingly well played by Ray Brooks) is crushed and rendered powerless. Trivia extra: he was in Carry On Abroad.

It's an assault on the senses really - in those amazing scenes of supposedly 'overheard' bits of dialogue you have to catch both the tremendous humour of the writing (Charles Wood - 'Glad I'm on me last left leg') and the very great skill in which Tony Gibbs puts the material together, the dazzling photography and the amazing music, the performances, Swinging London - this film is a bit like an acid trip, and seems permeated by sixties fuelled sensibilities.

It won the Palme D'Or at Cannes. It's exhausting.

Acid, I'm telling you

It was David Watkin's feature debut!

The Railway Children (1970 Lionel Jefferies)

It was great today to see both films in their correct shape for a change - 1.66:1. And, our old copy from ITV was missing stuff, e.g. the scene where the kids get even with their horrible maid, who's then fired by mum Dinah Sheridan.

I didn't know that Jenny had played Bobby in a BBC version a couple of years before. Otherwise, the interview extras are wrecked by inane and dull questions 'How long were you on location? / Did you have much experience with steam trains before?' I sense - more from what was not said than was - that Agutter and Thomsett may have not been the best of friends. Great though Jenny is, Sally has a great bubbly presence in her scenes and Gary Warren is fine as the brother. Perhaps the nice old gentleman William Mervyn is a bit of a let down and some of the locals are a bit caricatured.

It's wonderful.

Flesh and Bone (1993 Steve Kloves & scr)

A dramatic (and beautifully visual) opening. Then... Which one is the baby? Is it Meg Ryan, or thief Gweneth Paltrow? Or someone else entirely? James Caan's high billed, so he must be back? What's going to happen when Dennis Quaid finds out it's her? What's going to happen when she finds out? Is he OK, or turned out like his Dad?

Constructing a screenplay like this is clever, because the audience is then pondering all these questions while Ryan and Quaid (they were married at this time, until 2001 - you wonder about that bedroom scene!) attach themselves to each other, but we know what he's got going on in his head - it frankly is stated quite clearly by his employee (played by Scott Wilson) when he says when people know what you've done, you feel guilty for things you haven't, neatly reflecting Quaid's own feelings. Everything seems quite believable - down to Quaid offering the father to let him kill him instead of her... but of course he can't because of the flesh and blood thing.

What else? Great music as always by Thomas Newman, nicely shot by Philippe Rousselot. Kloves directs in an unannoying way (good). Didn't know editor Mia Goldman, who cut Quaid's The Big Easy and the Alan Rudolph Choose Me, but we're having lunch Thursday, apparently.

Sixteen Candles (1984 John Hughes & scr)

I was two years out guessing the date from the music (1986). And very obviously aimed at the teen market through its overuse of pop songs, 'funny' incidental music and unsubtle sound effects, all of which add nothing.

Molly Ringwald's family has forgotten her birthday - they are Paul Dooley, Carlin Glynn, Blanche Baker and Justin Henry (Kramer vs Kramer) as the smartarsed kid. Anthony Michael Hall (still acting, recently in Affleck's Live By Night, some way down the cast list) is the nerd, Michael Schoeffling the hunk and Haviland Morris the other girl, with Cusacks John and Joan in smaller parts (Class the year before was John's debut; Joan was in it too, but before that My Bodyguard (1980) and Cutting Loose (1980)). Joan's scenes in neck brace are painfully unfunny.

Familiar-looking grandparents include Max Showalter (piano playing drunk from How To Murder Your Wife), Edward Andrews (Avanti's J.J. Blodgett and a million TV shows) and Billie Bird. Gedde Watanabe is embarrassing as exchange student.

Less sentimental than some of the others, the best joke being that when Watanabe crashes his car, the couple making out in the other car don't even notice.

Hall kept reminding me of Hayley Mills.

Who's Who? (1978 Mike Leigh & scr)

Well, the credits read 'devised', but we all know what that means. With its cast of unknowns (made for BBC) the title is an apt one. The proliferation of double-barrelled names had me thinking of one of Mike's favourites, Carlton-Browne of the F.O.

Mike has fun observing (rather than taking the piss out of) the upper classes, with focus on a dinner party hosted by insecure Simon Chandler and buffoon Adam Norton, and attended by womaniser Graham Seed, punk Catherine Hall (actually looking ahead of her time and more out of the 80s) and something-on-her-mind Felicity Dean. These scenes do contain some improvisation as they ran out of time while filming.

Meanwhile Richard Kane plays a petty and desperately boring snob who's obsessed by the upper classes and Joolia Cappelman is his wife and cat breeder (we both thought the door with 'No Admittance' was going to belong to a troubled teenager), selling to Geraldine James. Sam Kelly (from Porridge) is a visiting photographer. Phil Davis, as Kane's fellow worker, is really the only one who seems contented as he constantly winds up the older man. (Even he's got aspirations - he really is looking for somewhere in London to move to.) We think Phil might end up with fellow office worker Souad Faress, but see nothing more of it.

Then another stockbroker Jeffrey Wickham has to deal with his mother's over-spending, with David Neville and Richenda Carey, in awfully upper class circumstances (great writing also references out-of-the-way nanny and daughter).

Mike himself says 'the Ealing comedy roots are closer to the surface than most'. and also reveals that - in character - Kane wrote to famous people and thus the replies you see from Thatcher, Russell Harty etc are real!