Man Up (2015 Ben Palmer)

Have documented problems with this film elsewhere, but like the last one, a big factor in its success is - Simon Pegg.

Midnight in Paris (2011 Woody Allen & scr)

Can't quite put my finger on why I love this one so much. Though yesterday this big thought did occur - Owen Wilson.

Who says Woody doesn't write happy endings?

Hadn't remembered the genesis is Woody's 1971 short 'A Twenties Story' published in 'Getting Even'.

Didn't get 'That was Juna Brown? No wonder she was keen to lead.' Have to download screenplay...

3:42. That's how long that fabulous day in the life of a city opening montage is.

The Crown - Season 2 (2017)

Why is Victoria better than The Crown? we began musing - well better than Season 2 anyway...
it's partly that Victoria's character is much more fun (thus in Jenna vs Claire, Jenna will win). And The Crown is actually too recent - I mean they're both fucking alive for God's sake!

And - it's just a little bit dull, isn't it?

Creator / writer is Peter Morgan.

Full of recognisable people we can't put a name to.

Big budget? Lots of green screen, I'll bet.

Picks up a bit with Margaret (Vanessa Kirby) story about photographer Matthew Goode (she's a much more interesting character than Elizabeth) and episode involving royal critic John Heffernan, who's rather good.

Shocking story of Edward's involvement with Hitler doesn't conclude properly, Charles at Gordonstoun vs. Philip there, Queen doesn't tell Margaret about her husband-to-be's infidelities...

Claire Foy has some great expressions, plays the Q well. Matt also good in less likeable role. With Victoria Hamilton, Alex Jennings, Anton Lesser, Jeremy Northam, Pip Torrens, Greg Wise. Sylvestra Le Touzel..

Shot by Adriano Goldman and others, directed by Philip Martin, Benjamin Caron, Stephen Daldry. Suffers from scenes which are supposed to be big in drama or emotion with tons of music over them.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018 Joel & Ethan Coen)

Bruno Delbonnel joins the group with his wonderful low light offerings. Otherwise it's the usual Burwell, Jaynes, Zophres partnership, with production design by Jess Gonchor (Hail Caesar, Inside Llewyn Davis, True Grit, No Country for Old Men).

Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother Where Art Thou?) is the cheerful singing gunman of the title, which features some of the funniest moments.

James Franco attempts to hold up a bank 'Near Algodones', experiences savage Indian attack and is lynched twice. Stephen Root is the teller.

In perhaps the most dispensable (yet oddly haunting) story 'Meal Ticket' (like one of those 50s horror comics) Liam Neeson trades limbless actor Harry Melling (Harry Potter's Dudley Dursley) for a chicken.

Tom Waits is the prospector in 'All Gold Canyon', Sam Dillon the assailant. 'The Gal Who Got Rattled' features Bill Heck, Zoe Kazan and Grainger Hines and the ghostly finale 'The Mortal Remains' has Brendan Gleason, Jonjo O'Neill (wonderful), Saul Rubinek, Tyne Daly and Chelcie Ross. Love the gradual darkening in the carriage.

It was the first Coen Brothers film shot digitally, partly because being a Netflix non-theatrical release it would have been too expensive to do it the normal way. And Delbonnel had the experience with Darkest Hour.

Did notice references to John Ford, Leone and Shane. Writing is model of making left turns. Wild West depicted as seriously savage place. Also tear-inducingly funny.

Small Time Crooks (2000 Woody Allen & scr)

It's very funny, has line after laugh out loud line, like 'What are you waiting for - the drilling season?'

And as mentioned before, a truly sparkling plot.

"You mean you were reading this map upside down all along?"

And, it's got one of his happy endings....

I disagree with my carp about Zhao Fei's lighting of the river scene - he is providing just enough foreground light in this and the rooftop scene so that we can actually still see the actors against the sunsets.

Misery (1990 Rob Reiner)

William Goldman died November 16 - this was Q's choice of memorial.

I remember not being too impressed by this the first time we saw it, but if taken as a black comedy it's good fun. The writer has some great touches - ' tombstone' cutting to the crashed car, her hitting her head on the typewriter, then the bludgeoning with pig. He jumps into the story fast and drops in little touches, like when Kathy Bates (won Oscar) mentions something about being on the witness stand.

I still wouldn't have bumped off Richard Farnsworth, though.

Also funny about writing / audiences.

George Roy Hill was originally asked to direct it but he felt he couldn't because in Goldman's original draft he had left in the original hobbling scene - she cut his feet off. I know. And he was absolutely convinced he was right. But Reiner and producer Andy Scheinman changed it to what we see now. And Goldman was furious....

And you know what?  I was wrong. The audience would have hated Annie, and, in time, hated us... 

For the record, Butch Cassidy is my favourite Goldman film, followed by The Princess Bride. Both of those were a little familiar, so I was pushing for Marathon Man - with Scheider and Conrad Hall, what's not to like? But I also love the opening of The Great Waldo Pepper...

Funnily enough I tried emailing Goldman recently. I wonder if he ever read it?

'Is it safe?'

Cross of Iron (1977 Sam Peckinpah)

Yes, a very tight anti-war film, reminiscent of the Sven Hassel novels, though in fact based on Willi Heinrich's novel 'Das Geduldige Fleisch' ('The Willing Flesh') published in 1955 and based on his own experiences on the Eastern Front.

James Coburn (one of my favourites) is perfect in the lead, with good support from officer material in the shape of James Mason, David Warner and Maximilian Schell. But all the cast is good: Dieter Schidor, Klaus Löwitsch, Vadim Glowna, Roger Fritz, Burkhard Driest and Senta Berger as a sympathetic nurse.

Yes, the montage that comes out of battle into hospital - Steiner's concussion - is seriously brilliantly done, and the ensuing hospital scenes. Indeed the editing, by Tony Lawson and Michael Ellis, is outstanding throughout, and the great underpraised cinematographer John Coquillon shoots in a suitably melancholic hue. (He died too young - 56.)

Has a most memorable ending also (which, incidentally, seems to have come about because the production ran out of money). Orson Welles reportedly loved it.

Once More / The Magic of Belle Isle (2014 Rob Reiner)

Alcoholic former writer Morgan Freeman befriends lazy dog, woman and three daughters next door. I'm glad he moved in, because I'm not sure the kids would have had a very good time over the winter, when everything closed. Also the eldest daughter should have been allowed to see her dad, surely. But where are my manners? Virginia Madsen is the neighbour, and the girls are Emma Furhmann, Madeline Carroll and Flora O'Neil; with Kenan Thompson (the nephew), Fred Willard (neighbour), Ash Christian (Carl) and Kevin Pollak (agent).

Well, entertainingly written by Guy Thomas (and, apparently, with uncredited help from Reiner and Andrew Scheinman) but with too much sprinkling of Hollywood sugar (particularly in the music department). 'Mrs. O'Neil.' 'Mr. Wildhorn.'

In Her Shoes (2005 Curtis Hanson)

Written by the reliable Susannah Grant from Jennifer Weiner's novel.

Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, Shirley Maclaine, Richard Burgi, Mark Feurstein, Candice Azzarra and Ken Howard (parents), Brooke Smith (friend), Francine Beers, Norman Lloyd.

Good acting, good direction allows actors to breathe (e.g. scene between Diaz and Maclaine where she decides to go into business).

Very satisfying story, knock-out final poem by e.e.Cummings.

Shot by Terry Stacey.

It's No. 53 in the Cahiers du Cinéma Top 100 - ahead of Les Quatres Cents Coups, if you can believe that!*

* I absolutely do not believe that and was right to double-check the list. No. 53 is Some Came Running - In Her Shoes is not in the list at all. Truffaut's film is 58.

The Spanish Gardener (1956 Phillip Leacock)

Whilst experiencing the film in an uncomfortable 4x3 crop of whatever VistaVision shape it's supposed to be in, this is an interesting on-location relationship drama involving brink-of-madness Michael Hordern, his son Jon Whiteley and gardener Dirk Bogarde. With Cyril Cusack, Maureen Swanson, Geoffrey Keen (the doctor), Bernard Lee, Lyndon Brook, Josephine Griffin.

Takes the assertive stance to voice all the Spanish characters in English accents. From A.J. Cronin's 1950 novel, adapted by John Bryan and Lesley Storm.

Shot by Christopher Challis in Technicolor, edited by Reginald Mills, music by John Veale. Filmed in Sagaró near Girona on the Costa Brava.

Mister Johnson (1990 Bruce Beresford)

Male Joyce Cary spent time in Africa and wrote 'Mister Johnson' in 1939, and the character was based partly on the letters of a local fantasist he read as part of his censorship duties and on a terrible clerk he worked with.

William Boyd's adaptation - he has a good way of dropping you straight into the story - places the action in West Africa 1923, where the titular clerk, played by  Maynard Eziashi, works for local official Pierce Brosnan. He is reckless, spendthrift, entrepreneurial, positive, polite and impeccably dressed and apes the European style - it is the destiny of every man - he says - to be civilised. This is the key - without it all, Johnson wouldn't have these materialist dreams. On the other hand he is a flawed human being (Brosnan: "You'd steal the smell off a goat".) And stealing from the local store owner (Edward Woodward) leads Johnson to kill the man - in self-defence, we assume, but nevertheless he must face his fate.

While all this is going on he tries to behave as a husband, though his wife Belle Enahoro is constantly being returned to her village when he cannot pay the bridal duties, and dealing with the shady local liar Waziri (Femi Fatoba).

Also with Dennis Quilley, Beatie Edney, Nick Reding.

Good (Nigerian) flavour and music (one frenetic song with the road-building sounds strangely close to a 1980s fruit machine), earthbound music by Georges Delerue, photographed by Peter James and edited by Humphrey Dixon (Room With a View). Seems to exist only in crappy from-VHS 4x3 cropped version.

Bad Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2014 Nicholas Stoller)

From the sublime to the ridiculous... It's not as bad as some, though the tone is set in scene one with just pregnant Rose Byrne throwing up into the face of Seth Rogan.

Chloe Grace Moretz leads a new sorority next door - largely fuelled by an appetite for weed and partying - funny how weed has become so pervasive in everything. This threatens the couple's plans to sell, and must try and get them out, with the help of former next door enemy Zac Ephron.

You know, one of those babies with dildoes kind of films... (I like the fact that OED states the origin of this word is 'unknown'.)

Spaced (1999 Edgar Wright)

Written by its stars Jessica Hynes and Simon Pegg, all of Edgar's later films are present in budding nascency here - Sean of the Dead (Playstation episode), Hot Fuzz (paintball), Scott Pilgrim vs the World (argument to computer game) and even Baby Driver ('Tyres' episode).

This is also where Wright and editor Chris Dickens learned to collaborate so brilliantly.

With Julia Deakins, Nick Frost, Mark Heap, Caty Carmichael, Bill Bailey, James Lance, Peter Serafinowicz, Michael Smiley. Even David Walliams is in it. And John Simm. And Lee Engleby. And Joanna Scanlan. And...

It's very inventive and stylish and brilliantly written, bursting with film references, clever and very funny, not like anything you find around now...

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943 Powell & Pressburger)

That Time Out review that celebrates the film for its 'generosity of spirit' is exactly the right thing to say about this pinnacle of British cinema, this gold standard of screenplays. Not just about war either - but a celebration of love and friendship. (Interestingly, Derek Malcolm also uses exactly the same phrase in his review in 'A Century of Films' published 2000.)

I have waffled on about it many times. In the key scene - that slow track in on ageing Anton Walbrook / Pressburger, as he explains why he needs to be back in England - notice how the officer behind him, though out of focus, stops what he's doing to listen. It's one superb take, lasting 2 minutes 35 seconds, and the camera starts pulling back out as it ends.

And everything else in the film is as good as that.

It's a bit of an epic, and by far their most serious work, pulled off in the height of the war (Churchill tried to ban it), which just makes it all the more extraordinary.

Deborah Kerr turned twenty one during the filming. (Wendy Hiller, the original choice, became pregnant.) Roger Livesey's wife Ursula Jeans is Walbrook's date at the first bridge game. James McKechnie is 'Spud'.

The pub is still there - The Bull in Gerrard's Cross.

Difficulty level: high

It existed for years in severely truncated forms and was only restored in 1983. It came in at 45 on the BFI's 1999 100 Greatest British films - should have been #1. (AMOLAD is at 20, The Red Shoes no. 9.)

The Time Out 2018 poll (which included Mike Leigh, Sam Mendes & Wes Anderson) placed Red Shoes at 5, AMOLAD at 6, Blimp at 14, Black Narcissus at 16, Canterbury Tale at 17, IKWIG at 26... Much more like it!

"This is dead cow crossroads." Sure I also heard a reference to "corned horse"!

Talking of which, I liked the note in Kevin Macdonald's book: like Clive and Theo, 'Emeric and Michael frequently addressed each other as 'old horse' (or variations: 'antique stallion, 'viejo caballo' etc) or as 'Holmes and Watson' (Emeric was Holmes; Michael, Watson).'

I guess it must be a double for Livesey when he falls into the pool, and emerges, without edit, as young Blimp. Must have been. Otherwise..?

Baby Driver (2017 Edgar Wright & scr)

Splendid. A true original. We had to watch the gun fight which provides the score in gun shots twice.

Paul Machliss and Jonathan Amos's editing won the BAFTA and was Oscar nominated (as was the sound mixing and sound editing).

Most interesting collection of songs.

There's a reference to a Dolly Parton song, something about 'If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain', which funnily enough is the key to our earlier film.

Inside Out (2015 Pete Docter, with Ronnie del Carmen)

You need the sadness to have the joy - so posits this ambitious, interesting film, which takes us from this

to this

Inside the cat's mind is the funniest bit.

Overboard (1987 Garry Marshall)

A familiar old friend with its heart in classic screwball comedy (especially scenes on yacht, e.g. 'Do you need a valium? Here, take one of mine'), written by Leslie Dixon, with the unbeatable combination of husband and wife team Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.

I think my favourite scene is where Goldie is told off by the school teacher about her kids then - on seeing them covered in poison oak - turns the tables on her.

You'd have to know the film really well to get this one

Lovely shades!

Props as plot points: knickers, T-shirt, birthmark.

Shot by John A Alonzo. Catchy music by Alan Silvestri.

Q recognises one of the kids - probably Jared Rushton, who was also in Big.

Incredibles 2 (2018 Brad Bird & scr)

Yes, just one writer - Q was marvelling over how detailed the script must be, I was taken by the two cinematographers Mahyar Abousaeedi (camera) and Erik Smitt (lighting). Michael Giacchino's back with his Bond-alike score.

It's a marvellous sequel with little in-jokes for the adults, including (in the background) Godzilla, a seventies kids' TV cartoon and an ad in which the housewife says 'It's so easy, even he could do it'! And a sly reference to Coppola's Dementia 13. But above all a good wife-at-work, husband-at-home twist.

The multi-powered baby ('All babies are full of potential') is a treat.

Joining Craig T Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell and Huck Milner are Bob Odenkirk and Catherine Keener. Samuel L Jackson is Frozone.

The end credits scene is a wonderful animation in itself.

Gods and Monsters (1998 Bill Condon & scr)

From its confined settings and two hander (three if you count Lynn Redgrave) interchange between ageing James Whale Ian McKellan and yard worker Brendan Fraser, you might think it's theatrical in origin. But Christopher Bram's novel no doubt also provides the flashbacks to Whale the younger, at war, and on set. Had noticed that Fraser's flat head does resemble that of the monster's - thus when he becomes him it seems apt.

Not sure the attempted whatever-you-call-it which Whale does to try and make Clay strangle him is credible, especially as we've had the death by pills signalled early on.

Otherwise it's cohesive and interesting, nicely shot by Stephen M Katz in Panavision. (The BBC copy we had kindly cropped the image to 16x9. Apart from the compression of space this didn't hurt the compositions too much - which is maybe a bad sign. If you can crop your widescreen composition without a noticeable loss of information, maybe you're not framing it as well as you might?)

Rest of cast: Lolita Davidovich, David Dukes (playing film producer David Lewis - they were together till 1952, five years before this takes place), Jay Plotnick (gay fan), Rosalind Ayres (Elsa Lanchester), Jack Betts (Karloff).

His interpretations of his own classic Bride of Frankenstein make for interesting reading.

Condon's screenplay won the Oscar, McKellan and Redgrave were nominated, she also for the BAFTA.

Did not know Cukor was gay...

The File on Thelma Jordan (1950 Robert Siodmak)

Assistant DA Wendell Corey is having some marriage difficulties and enjoys at least six whiskies in the first scene, then bumps into married Barbara Stanwyck, and before long, they're seeing each other. Then her aunt is murdered and he must prosecute her for the murder...

It's a neat, suitably noiry plot, from a story by Marty (aka Mary) Holland, who also wrote the novel on which Fallen Angel was based - the screenwriter is the great-named Ketti Frings (also wrote the novel of Hold Back the Dawn).

Rest of cast: Paul Kelly, Joan Tetzel (wife), Stanley Ridges, Richard Rober (baddie), Minor Watson (judge).

Music by Victor Young, shot with shadowy flourishes by George Barnes, for RKO. Siodmak had a creative 1940s in which he made The Killers, The Dark Mirror, Criss Cross, The Spiral Staircase and Phantom Lady.

These are DVDBeaver captures, not from the soft and noisy print Film4 was kind enough to share.

The Barefoot Contessa (1954 Joseph Mankiewicz & scr)

A literate script - does that mean some of the dialogue scenes go on too long? - which was Oscar nominated. Follows (copies?) Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) in film world milieu and rotating points of view of three of the characters involved - a good structural idea.

Ava Gardner is the titular star in the making, who can't get over her background. The narrators are friend with integrity, writer-director Humphrey Bogart, PR man with a fine line in bullshit Edmond O'Brien (won Oscar) and wistful Count Rossano Brazzi (a sort of  shoo-in for any fifties Hollywood film needing an Italian romantic lead).

It's a studio-bound film (though thought that was Portofino near the end? - if so Bogart is handily placed to be in Italy for Beat the Devil - or, he already was) despite Spain, Riviera etc settings. Expansive cast includes Marius Goring, Valentina Cortese (Brazzi's sister), Elizabeth Sellars (Bogie's wife), Warren Stevens (chilly money man).

Shot in a distinctive hue by Jack Cardiff (our MGM DVD release is in 4x3), scored by Mario Nascimbene, edited by William Hornbeck. An independent (Figaro) production.

vs.

Looks like it was shot open matte. (The above from the Eureka Blu-Ray, thanks DVDBeaver.)

My favourite bit - Ava's opening dance where we see nothing at all of her but just the spectators - who all have little stories going on.

Best War Films

As it was Remembrance Sunday.

A Time to Love and a Time to Die.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

Cross of Iron.

The Way to the Stars.

Come and See.

The Best Years of Our Lives.

In Which We Serve.

Apocalypse Now.

The Trench.

Sword of Honour.

Military graveyard from Harold and Maude

Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964 Bryan Forbes & scr)

Kim Stanley (who's clearly nuts) plans to kidnap a child so she can show off her powers as a medium to locate her - why on earth does husband Dickie Attenborough agree? Our DVD fucked up at the end, so we're not quite sure what happened... but we hope the child (Judith Donner) was alive.

The two leads are fabulous, and the whole thing is made with style - Gerry Turpin's cinematography and John Barry's score are assets. Derek York (A High Wind in Jamaica) edited.

Stanley was best known for her stage work, and made many TV appearances. In an obscure pub quiz fact, she is also the voice of adult Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Patrick Magee and Gerald Sim are policemen, Mark Eden and Nanette Newman the worried parents...

I'm kinda glad we don't know in a way. It sort of puts you off wanting to watch it again for that reason...

Wish I Was Here (2014 Zach Braff & co-scr)

...with his brother Adam, utilising some of their childhood memories. The film isn't in fact that funny, but works. Zach, Kate Hudson, Joey King, Pierce Gagnon, Mandy Patinkin, Josh Gad, Jim Parsons.

Rich photography from Lawrence Sher in Panavision.

And So It Goes (2014 Rob Reiner)

Totally predictable, nevertheless Mark Andrus' screenplay is fun, and Diane Keaton and Michael Douglas are well-matched. She should have won awards - she's fabulous. He co-wrote As Good As It Gets too, which fits. Sterling Jerins is the girl. With Annie Parisse, Austin Lysy, Yaya DaCosta (The Nice Guys, The Butler), Frances Sternhagen, Rob Reiner.

Maybe it would be an idea to reverse the formula - start off with everyone liking the protagonist, then gradually going off him/her as the film progresses. A sort of anti-Hollywood story idea.

The 'gardener' who takes the last doughnut is a good touch.

I did have a problem with those doors, however. Felt one should have been flipped:

Music Mark Shaiman. Photography Reed Morano.

Trust (2017 Danny Boyle)

Danny, what's with all the tilted camera angles? And does this split screen stuff really add anything? (I found it quite distracting.) Several directors actually, some who wisely forsake the Titanic going down treatment. Look how it's used in Brief Encounter, for example, or The Third Man. Or Dead of Night, come to that.

Created and written (with help) by Simon Beaufoy. It's an excellent ten part series.

Impressive acting from all the cast: Donald Sutherland, Hilary Swank, Harris Dickinson as the young Paul (tangibly fragile but written to have a keen survival instinct), Michael Esper his father, Brendan Fraser, Anna Chancellor, Charlotte Riley, Luca Marinelli (scary as the psycho kidnapper), 'Ndrangheta boss Nicola Rignanese, sympathetic kidnapper Francesco Collela, go-between Nicolo Senni. Interesting side story about butler Silas Carson (Phantom Thread, Unforgotten). Plus Laura and Sarah Bellini.

In an audacious ending, we learn (from to-camera narrator Brendan Fraser) that Getty's money has helped build the port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, where an estimated 80% of Europe's cocaine arrives... and the port is shaped like an ear (well, this is a slight twist - it's actually the port of Reggio di Calabria that looks like an ear, but as a bit of scriptwriting goes, how am I to argue?).

It's a great series, despite slanting. We so feared for Paul Jr in episode nine... There's a flash forward that spells his end..? As the narrator says, ''Google it'...

Shot by Christopher Ross and Monika Lenczewska for FX.

And yes, I will credit all the editors: Elliot Graham (Molly's Game, Steve Jobs, Restless, Milk), Mags Arnold (The Trip series), Tom Hemmings (Doctor Foster, Murdered by My Boyfriend, My Mad Fat Diary), Morten Hølbjerg and Simona Paggi (La Vita è Bella).

Gregory's Two Girls (1999 Bill Forsyth & scr)

The writer-director:

I was trying to get a blend of comedy and seriousness and people seemed to have problems with that. Maybe when they see Gordon Sinclair in a school they’re not ready to take anything seriously. But it was enjoyable to write and very difficult to make. Actually for a similar reason to Gregory’s Girl: we had a bloody horrible summer. It just rained and rained and rained every single day.

Interview on theartsdesk.com. I think he managed to pull off that intention pretty well.

John Gordon Sinclair is back in the same school and having  unhealthy (well, let's say unprofessional) thoughts about student Carly McKinnon (her only feature), whilst rejecting colleague Maria Doyle Kennedy (most recently in Orphan Black and Sing Street). We feel for Gregory, who finds the world depressing and rejects company, and Michael Gibbs' rather sad score throughout underlines this - makes it quite different from Bill's 'quirky' films.

What's former classmate Dougray Scott up to? Is he really manufacturing sonic weapons? We never really know, but Gregory has his moment of activism, as well as catching the (right) girl.

The appearance of the illegal activist (self-proclaimed, anyway) Martin Schwab is somewhat contrived, though it helps with the underlying theme that globalisation is all around, even in Cumbernauld.

With Dawn Steele (former pupil), Fiona Bell (Gregory's always cooler sister), John Murtagh (headmaster), Alexander Morton (teacher), Kevin Anderson. Photographed by John de Borman.

Terror in a Texas Town (1958 Joseph H Lewis)

PB: When you walk on set in the morning, do you know the shots?
JL: I have everything well planned - exactly what I'm going to do, but exactly, diagrams and all: I did my work. and then the moment I walk on set, I throw them all away. But I maintain that a man must do his homework first, in order to be able to assume that attitude of throwing it away and saying "OK now let's do something". Because invariably, that the actors show me by giving them full freedom is far better than anything I could have put on paper.

Peter Bogdanovich 'Who the Devil Made It?'

Made in ten days, 8.30 - 6.00, when Lewis was recovering from a heart attack. It's not in the same league as Gun Crazy but has a certain verve, some interesting compositions. Script tends to get rather repetitive towards the end.

Lewis admired actor Nedrick Young as the gunman, used despite being blacklisted, as was co-writer Dalton Trumbo (here under a pseudonym). Certainly the theme of individuals collectively standing up against the fascist oppressor is relevant to the times.

With Sterling Hayden, Sebastian Cabot (when you really needed Laird Cregar), Carol Kelly, Victor Millan and Eugene Mazzola (billed as Eugene Martin) as the boy.

Little Men (2016 Ira Sachs & co-scr)

Ahh, I thought the name was familiar - Sachs is also responsible for Love Is Strange, which has a familiar, low-key feel, and was also co-written by Mauricio Zacharias. To be honest, I'm not sure if he had pitched the plot of this to me I would have been that interested (two boys in Brooklyn become friends despite - or because of - different backgrounds, but their parents fall into a legal dispute) and I'm not sure the arty lateral tracks add anything (let's be honest, Sachs is a little self-indulgent at times). But I liked the way the two of the them fall in together, and Michael Barbieri's experiences with acting (his improv lesson is a highlight) and girls (we don't see anything really of Leo Tapklitz's art, which is a shame).

Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Ehle are his parents, Paulina Garcia is his annoying brittle and stubborn mother, and Alfred Molina is a family friend. And Talia Shire (Greg's sister).

Liked the tracking shots of them through the streets, contrasted with Leo's solo journey at the end.

So, not unenjoyable.

Killing Eve (2018 Creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge)

An outstanding, irresistible performance from Jodie Comer and a pleasingly offbeat script by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, adapted from the Villanelle novels by Luke Jennings. Good supporting cast too with Sandra Oh, that guy from the Bridge - Kim Bodnia, wasshername (Fiona Shaw), Darren Boyd, David Haig, Sean Delaney, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Susan Lynch.

Good music too (David Holmes and Keefus Ciancia). Directed by Jon East, Damon Thomas and Harry Bradbeer in various locations, and with the contributions of several writers including, intriguingly, Emerald Fennell (Call the Midwife etc.)

Made by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America.

Truly Madly Deeply (1990 Anthony Minghella & scr)

A sweet but tangy film about bereavement. Juliet Stevenson snots convincingly, Alan Rickman joined her in a BAFTA nomination (Minghella won for the original screenplay, which set him on his way - via Mr Wonderful - to The English Patient). It's subtly done - you can easily read it like AMOLAD - in that it's all in her head.

Best moment is a fight in a café interrupted by an impromptu magician trick, performed by Tony Bluto (who had an unsuccessful career).

With Bill Paterson, David Ryall, Christopher Rozychki, Stella Maris and a number of film loving ghosts, cuing name checks for Hannah and Her Sisters, Manhattan, Five Easy Pieces, Fitzcarraldo, Brief Encounter, Pinocchio, Easy Street and something about Venice - To Forget Venice maybe? Shot by Remi Adefarasin.

Terror by Night (1946 Roy William Neill & prod)

Sub-standard B movie entry set on a train where diamond is to be stolen. Watson has encounter with extremely rude passenger, Holmes is thrown out of the train, a coffin has a secret compartment.

Alan Mowbray is Watson's curry-debating chum along for the ride; Renee Godfery is absolutely awful, the appropriately named Skelton Snaggs (his real name) is a creepy murderer.

Universal.

Darling Lili (1970 Blake Edwards)

Well.

Partly because someone called Phil Hardy in Time Out said 'one of the most satisfying lyrical films in years', as supported by Maltin's three star review. (Maltin called it a 'spoof' - not sure of what - and mentions there's a more serious 114m cut Edwards did for cable, which is on DVD is the US.)

A very mixed bag, that's for sure. Q said 'I enjoyed two-thirds of it, and the rest was shit'. Well, I do understand that. There are a few too many songs (though the opener / closer 'Whistling away the Dark', by Mancini / Mercer is a good one (and like the score, Oscar-nominated). And both filmed in one take.) Rock Hudson looks past his sell-by. Slapstick episodes featuring French detectives Jacques Marin (Charade, Marathon Man) and André Maranne (Pink Panther films) are unrequested, have in fact wandered in from the director's Clouseau series. Film is overlong. Some scenes are annoying.

On the plus side, it's a handsome big budget affair shot by Russell Harlan in Panavision, with one of those French influenced scores I love. Lance Percival is fun as a permanently pissed flyer (he kept reminding me of Paul Kaye, as Jeremy Kemp did Jared Harris - it was a film full of impersonators!) Bernard Kay and Doreen Keogh add value as household staff. And, scene where Hudson and Percival blow up the airfield with the Baron's own plane, and the thrillery ending of flight, pursuit and trains (the songs have all stopped by now) are good, as are aerial sequences.

Edwards (Julie Andrews' husband) and William Peter Blatty wrote it. Gloria Paul is 'Crepe Suzette'.

As well as an overture, there's Exit music. ('You vill listen to all the exit music'.) Which is kinda funny. They weren't going to win TV audiences away like that (no - that took Easy Rider, sex, drugs, bad language and adult material - cue the startling period of seventies American cinema...)

On reflection, Phil Hardy's an arse...

The Bromley Boys (2018 Steve Kelly)

I thought this was only OK (weak script by Warren Dudley). Too much voiceover, very familiar sort of British recent history coming-of-age comedy-drama. Q says after I've seen it three times I might like it more. But it's more like I've already seen it three times.

Brenock O'Connor and Savannah Baker are the couple. With Alan Davies, a rather under-used Martine McCutcheon, Jamie Foreman, etc.

Funny that no one noticed the error message relating to a missing 'Elastic Aspect Max plug-in' that pops up early on. Who'd want to use it, anyway? It's an app for stretching images to 16:9. Dear oh dear.

Becoming Cary Grant (2017 Mark Kidel & co-scr)

Useful biog tricked out with pretentious sequences.

Most stunning revelation though is that Archie's mum left home when he was a teenager 'to stay with relatives' when in fact his dad had had her fraudulently committed so that he himself could move away and in with another woman... leaving Archie to fend for himself. Thus leading to a lifetime's uncertainty in relationships with women.