Rye Lane (2023 Raine Allen-Miller)

Fresh, wanting to be noticed, like a keen puppy, Rye Lane is a breezy delight.

Both getting over break-ups, sensitive David Jonsson meets impulsive Vivian Oparah at an 'art' exhibition and they spend the day together. Well written and funny, Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia (both lots of TV, the latter a frequent writer on Hollyoaks). The director uses lots of tricks like ultra wide angle lenses, bright colours and an interesting sound track comprising effects as well as well-chosen and original music. No doubt all this was helped by seasoned editor par excellence Vic Boydell (more on this after we've had lunch).

A bright and funny cast also includes Poppy Allen-Quarmby (her best friend), Karene Peter (his ex), Benjamin Sarpong-Broni (hilarious as her new BF), Simon Manyonda ('artist'), Malcolm Atobrah, Levi Roots. Colin Firth (who Q spotted in a little Love Actually joke-reference).

Portrays a vibrant Brixton really well.

Camera: Olan Collardy.

Loved the timing of the restaurant grill flames to certain parts of dialogue, the lateral track out of the fridge trick, people in the backgrounds, the way flashback scenes are portrayed (especially the cinema full of Jonssons).

20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932 Michael Curtiz)

Filmed on sets at Warner Bros. and at MGM, where the cell block sets for The Big House were still standing. Spencer Tracy had made a big impression on stage as a prisoner in 'The Last Mile' and this won him good notices, but still didn't make him a star. And the film didn't exactly put Bette Davis on the map either (though she loved working with the pretentions-free actor). Seen today, it's a tight, taut drama, written by Wilson Mizner and Brown Holmes, based on Warden Lewis Lawes non-fiction account of his own tenure as governor in that prison and his argument for the abolition of the death penalty.

Tracy is the tough-guy gangster who is worn down by fair governor Arthur Bryon, gets compassionate release to visit dying Davis, gets involved in the murder of Louis Calhern (though Bette actually popped him), returns to Sing Sing and faces the death penalty rather than let her take it.

With Lyle Talbot, Warren Hymer, Grant Mitchell, Ward Bond. That wasn't Paul Muni on death row (I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang had already come out) but Harold Huber (The Thin Man).

Well photographed by Barney McGill.

Typical short, violent, fast-moving type of film you associate with Warner Bros. in this period (it was actually released under the First National name).

Poker Face (2023 Creator Wyatt Cain, Rian Johnson)

Slightly odd but highly successful concept vehicle from Knives Out's Rian Johnson about a former poker player who can always tell if someone's lying. She's played by the husky-voiced Natasha Lyonne (Slums of Beverley Hills). Q thinks she's a Columbo reinvention (voiced by Marge Simpson).

Starts out when she's involved in crooked poker game in Vegas, run by Adrian Brody; her friend is killed and she sorts it out. Quite enjoyable.

Different writers construct one hour mini-detective stories in different locations as she goes on the run. With guest stars. So in two, she helps trucker Hong Chau from being framed for gas station murder.

Barbeque episode (writer Wyatt Cain) is particularly delicious because of (a) the smells associated with different barbeque wood (b) a 'devil' dog and (c) a DJ who can impersonate everyone and is the voice of diverse TV shows. Danielle Macdonald features.

And she solves the murder of a drummer (an exuberant Nicholas Cirillo) in Chloe Sevigny's band.

Fabulous story (written by Wyatt Cain and Charlie Peppers, who's also the story editor) about two women in care home who seem rebellious and great, but Charlie realises they're cold blooded killers, and where at the outset we were on their side, we've suddenly very much not. Features The BBT's Simon Helberg.

Ellen Barkin and Tim Meadows are murderous theatre actors; Tim Blake Nelson is a racing driver also with murder on his mind (with Charles Melton). Nick Nolte is a special effects wizard who holds key to murder.

Great penultimate episode in the snow, 'Escape From Shit Mountain', echoing both Misery and The Shining (it's set in Colorado), written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, features a convict on remand Joseph Gordon Leavitt, his mate David Castanedo and a kleptomaniac Stephanie Hsu (The MMM, Everything Everywhere). I'd hoped the hunk Charlie hooks up with earlier would come to the rescue; but what's more satisfying is the final twist how Charlie catches the bad guy and ends up without an identity... Though the guys from Vegas catch up with her in the end, and the whole thing goes back to the on-the-run beginning (cueing, we presume, season two).

Like the seventies credits.

Ladder 49 (2004 Jay Russell)

Well, I did not expect Lewis Colick's story to end up that way, anti-climactically and tragically. Story of attempt to deal with terrible fire, cross cut to Joaquin Phoenix's initiation into service, years of duty, romance with Jacinda Barrett, friendship with boss John Travolta and other colleagues, inevitable tragedies. Set in Baltimore, I think, and filmed there.

I don't know how they do this fire stuff. It's very impressive.

Mr Deeds Goes To Town (1936 Frank Capra)

Probably most fun in the opening, with Deeds encountering city types, moochers, servants, the press agent and boards of directors, which he does with both bemusement and scorn, well portrayed by Gary Cooper. Somewhat bogs down with Jean Parker's appearance, and ending courtroom insanity trial doesn't make much sense. Best bits are back home, supported by servant Raymond Walburn and PR man Lionel Stander, and great moments on the staircase ("Now let that be a lesson to you").

George Bancroft, Douglass Dumbrille, H.B. Warner (judge), Ruth Donnelly, Walter Catlett, John Wray, Franklin pNagborn (uncredited, and yes, I am going to spell it that way).

Lights: Joe Walker, music: Howard Jackson; action: Gene Havlick. Words: Robert Riskin.

I don't know where you get 2000 lunches from in New York in 1936. Macy's? Did though like Deeds' observations on the various fidgets / habits of the people in the courtroom.

Mr. Monk Goes to Town

Perry Mason - Season 2 (2023 Creators Rolin Jones, Ron Fitzgerald)

1933 LA. Haunted by the suicide of the woman from the previous case, Mason reluctantly takes on the defence of two Hispanics charged with the murder of a wealthy charity worker, who has a distinctly shady past. It turns out there's corruption from on high. Complex story, very well worked out, perhaps easier to follow than the first one. We very much enjoyed it.

It's beautifully designed (Keith Cunningham) and shot (Eliot Rockett, Darran Tiernan and John Grillo).

Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk, Justin Kirk (DA), Diarra Kilpatrick (Chalk's wife), Eric Lange (corrupt cop), Katherine Waterston (teacher), Hope Davis, Jen Tullock (screenwriter), We thought Mark O'Brien as the prosecuting barrister is one to watch.

Eight part HBO production.

Lymelife (2008 Derick and Steven Martini)

Actually, Derick gets the directing credit, they both wrote and edited it (with Mark Yoshikawa) and Steven wrote the quirky music.

The late 1970s. Alec Baldwin is a successful but unfaithful property developer, his wife Jill Hennessy is a bit of a mess, the kids suffer - Kieran Culkin has joined the army and Rory Culkin is having problems at school and in fancying neighbour Emma Roberts, whose mum Cynthia Nixon is shagging Baldwin, and whose dad Timothy Hutton, suffering from Lyme's disease, is in a horrible funk.

It's quite painful at times, e.g. dance where Baldwin and Nixon are flirt-dancing right in front of Hennessy; then Culkin elder confronts him. Seems quite honest and is loosely autobiographical, the Martinis having been influenced by a film-loving grandfather (the film is dedicated to him) who introduced them to Truffaut, Fellini and Leone. Unfortunately their careers didn't really seem to go anywhere.

Obsession (1949 Edward Dmytryk)

Dmytryk was in England briefly after serving prison time in the US as one of the HUAC 'Hollywood Ten', and directed this independent thriller, which is quite nuts. A doctor (Robert Newton) is fed up with his wife's continuing infidelities and decides to murder her latest BF and hide the evidence. (She's 'Storm', Sally Gray, and he's Phil Brown.) Which is a bit bizarre to start with - wouldn't you bump off the wife? So he imprisons the BF in a ruined building (plenty of those about) for four months, all the while bringing in daily a hot water bottle containing acid, that he fills a bath with.

Story involves a dog, but not in the cleverest way, and the film often doesn't make sense but is reasonably engrossing and picks up when laid back superintendent Naunton Wayne gets (slowly) involved.

Intriguingly, the score is by Nino Rota.

Dmytryk became a film professor and wrote a series of books - including On Filmmaking / Acting/ Writing / Editing. In the course of checking that out, I discovered that in 1969 a copy of Alice in Wonderland was published, illustrated by Salvador Dali!

This was one of Gray's last films (she married a Lord and retired). She was also in Green For Danger and They Made Me a Fugitive.

Old Dogs

This Robin Williams-John Travolta film is so embarrassingly, cringily, nonsensically bad that we abandoned ship after 20 minutes. No, no, no!

Roadies (2016 Creator Cameron Crowe)

Cameron may not have written every episode but he positively shines out of this ten hour hymn to music and the people who help bring it to the audiences. It's in everything: the details about rock history ('this is where Led Zeppelin were introduced to America...' etc.), the story (Reg gets to understand the music by being on tour), the fact Cameron's probably interviewed and is friends with most of the guest artists, his own history of joining a band on tour when only 16; the obsessive super-fan collector (surely Cameron himself?), Phil's Lynryd Skynyrd story (no doubt substantially true)...

The entire thing is like a beautiful extension of Almost Famous. And you keep getting these reflections: a Hawaiian security guard with a Gift (Aloha); Shelley's husband coming to visit and bear gripping Bill (Aloha), 'I have something for you' (Elizabethtown), the nutty super-groupie (Almost Famous)...

There's something about Imogen Poots, she can say the simplest thing, or give the simplest look, and it's just so sweet, so real - she sort of reminds me of Audrey Hepburn, in a way...

At the time of writing it is no longer available to watch on Amazon, or anywhere, and you can't buy physical copies. It's beyond ridiculous. In fact it's criminal.

The Day of the Locust (1975 John Schlesinger)

A weird, pernicious film, very well made.

Hollywood, 1936. Though Donald Sutherland is top billed, William Atherton really is the main character, a production designer who falls for slutty gold-digging neighbour Karen Black. After a while, her father Burgess Meredith comes into the story, a drunk door-to-door salesman, possibly just as a plot device to get Sutherland, a reclusive introvert, into the story. Meanwhile Atherton is also competing with Bo Hopkins and Pepe Serna, and ends up almost raping her at a drunken party (after a Tom Jonesish food/seduction scene).

It meanders a bit - church scene doesn't really add anything, though is interesting (we've seen this zealous money-grabbing church thing also in Perry Mason Season 1).

Meanwhile his studio boss Richard Dysart reveals himself to be a somewhat seedy frequenter of prostitutes. Oh yes, there's also a little girl who's horrible, and looks older than she is - and in fact it's Jackie Earle Haley! (I knew there was something wrong about that girl.)

Things go from bad to worse - she treats Sutherland (whose character name, from Nathanael West's short novel, is bizarrely Homer Simpson) terribly, there's a cock fight, boozy misbehaviour, a terrible accident on the movie set (which the execs dismiss). The ending, in which Sutherland loses it and kills the girl/boy and the crowd tear him to pieces, is genuinely - and it's a word that's often used in reviews - apocalyptic, particularly the  way the horrible faces Atherton has been drawing appear in the crowd.

So it's a powerful and well acted film from the heyday of Paramount's 1970s (Chinatown was being made concurrently, Jim Clark would meet Sam O'Steen in Nickodell's bar by the old RKO studio there), but dark and upsetting to watch. The production design by Richard Macdonald is a major contribution, outstanding.

Conrad Hall: "The gauzy style of photography was meant to reflect the way these frustrated people saw themselves - in a romanticized light." He reached the effect using old school nets and silks. It is definitely a strange diffused texture, but as usual he lights everything wonderfully. He and Meredith were Oscar nominated but the film was a critical and commercial flop. It was written by Waldo Salt

Clark thought it was one of the best films he'd worked on, though Bill Atherton gave them problems to begin with - they don't show up on screen. He also said interestingly that he used temp music from an old acetate recording of Max Steiner's from A Star Is Born and that worked for him better than John Barry's subsequent score.

Jim: "I recall him [Schlesinger] saying , with glee and malice, that they would hate it in Los Angeles, and that the "sillies" would never get it. The "sillies" was John's way of referring to the general public." (Jim Clark, 'Dream Repairman').

Destination Tokyo (1943 Delmer Daves)

Submarine drama with Cary Grant in charge, leading men to Japan for risky mission. Crew comprises girl crazy John Garfield, cook Alan Hale (Juke Girl, They Drive By Night, The Strawberry Blonde), John Ridgely, Dane Clark (the aggressive one, quite methody), Warner Anderson, Robert Hutton (young recruit).

Model work good, film is long (2 hours 10).

The Aleutian Islands are in the Pacific on the way to Japan from San Francisco.

Good music from Franz Waxman, photographed by Bert Glennon, edited by Chris(tian) Nyby. Warner Bros. I hate it where they speed up action though - here it's a moment where they're getting into the hatch and going under. Everyone can see it...

The Japanese have no word for 'love', apparently, along with other propagandist nonsense.

That Sinking Feeling (1979 Bill Forsyth & scr)

Bill Forsyth's feature debut, enacted by the Glasgow Youth Theatre, is typically inventive, deadpan and funny. Robert Buchanan comes up with the bright idea to steal a warehouse full of sinks and make a 'fortune', enlists the help of other miscreants, including a baker who has invented a knockout serum.

Great little touches abound, such as boy eating other's burger, trying not to be overheard by a dog, the boys in drag sidetracking watchmen, unconscious man who's arm remains in a coffee-drinking pose.

Gritty 4x3 shooting in rainy Glasgow. We loved the scene between Buchanan and ex school friend now copper, with the two little kids watching them in the background.

"I'm a girl... I'm a boy" - shades of Some Like It Hot?

The Dish (2000 Rob Sitch)

Based on true events. The telescope at Parks, New South Wales is the only one in the southern hemisphere to cover the 1969 moon landing. The operatives are led by Sam Neill and we have opinionated Kevin Harrington and shy Tayler Kane, plus visiting NASA man. Eliza Szonert brings in lunch. Then we have the mayor and his wife, Roy Billing and Genevieve Mooy, and their militant daughter, plus a visiting American ambassador. Everything goes smoothly until it doesn't...

Most amusing - written by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, jane Kennedy and Rob Sitch. Edited by Jill Bilcock, photographed by Graeme Wood.

There She Goes (2023 Tim McKay, Writer Shaun Pye)

I can't remember when we saw this now actually so the date's a bit of a guess. A one-off episode. Now a teenager, Rosie is stronger and thus a real challenge and danger to her parents David Tennant and Jessica Hynes, flashbacked to their earlier life. The fact that they finally learn the name of the chromosome disorder doesn't initially help at all but then they find a small network of similar families and ultimately end up meeting - it turns out (I didn't realise) to be - the writer's real family.

The acting of Tennant, Hines and Miley Locke is just beyond words.

The Pumpkin Eater (1964 Jack Clayton)

Based on Penelope Mortimer's novel, perhaps about her relationship with her husband John, adapted by Harold Pinter, whose slightly absurd approach suits the material well. Example: scene between husband and wife about a young woman who's staying with them:

JO . The children said she fainted yesterday.
JAKE . I don't know. Did she ?
JO . They said you caught her.
JAKE . Me ?
JO . Yes.
JAKE . Why would I catch her ?
JO. To stop her . . . banging her head on the .
JAKE. What head ? What are you talking about ?
JO . Did you catch her when she fainted?
JAKE (a shout). How do I know ?

And people who repeat themselves - James Mason's oily man who tells everyone exactly the same thing about himself, or Jo's mum's repetitions. (It's a very good screenplay, actually, worth reading - it's in Pinter's 'Five Screenplays' and others.)

Jo, by the way is brilliantly played by Anne Bancroft, a woman on her third husband who cannot stop having children, suspicious he is having affairs. He is Peter Finch, and it's a well acted film, Bancroft's depression making it not that easy to watch, brilliantly photographed by Oswald Morris (winning BAFTA).

Jim Clark's editing is noticeable, especially in angry fight between the couple; and there's that famous track across a room they decided to reverse, giving the effect of the smoke going back into the cigarette!

Features some truly obnoxious people, such as Yootha Joyce's nutter in hair salon. The children, as you'd expect from Clayton, appear entirely natural.  Early appearance from Maggie Smith.

Loved Bancroft's outburst to psychiatrist. "Why are you going to Tenerife!"

Music by Georges Delerue. Good sound.

Filmed in Turville, and at Jim's house in Bourne End, and St Peter's Square Hammersmith (now a much desired location).

Bancroft  and Pinter also won BAFTAs.

Annika (2021 Writer Nick Walker)

Originally broadcast on Alibi, the ever-present Nicola Walker stars as a Norwegian marine detective up in Scotland. Not sure about her to-audience asides, they don't really fit, but the writing is reasonably humorous. Originally a radio series (where the fourth wall stuff probably worked better), written by Walker and starring Walker (who are not related).

With Jamie Sives, Silvie Furneaux, Katie Leung, Ukweli Roach, Kate Dickie.

I now know that salted licorice is a thing in Norway, and that Glasgow is on the River Clyde. And that Aeschylus wrote Agamemnon about a king who sacrificed his daughter to the Gods, and when he got home, his wife killed him.

Our Mother's House (1967 Jack Clayton & prod)

An extraordinary film, written by Jeremy Brooks and Mrs. Clayton Haya Harareet, based on a novel by Julian Gloag.

As the eldest of seven children, it falls on Margaret Brooks (the writer's daughter) to tell the others that Mother has died. Realising this probably means the orphanage, they decide to bury her in the garden and not tell anyone. Which works, until one of them becomes very ill..

Fifty minutes in, their alleged 'father' Dirk Bogarde pops up (an atypical but good performance). And young Pamela Franklin (The Innocents) develops a bit of a crush on him.

Rest of family: Louis Sheldon, John Gugolka, Mark Lester, Phoebe Nicholls (much on TV still), Gustav Henry. With Yootha Joyce, Clare Davidson (teacher), Anthony Nicholls (neighbour), Gerald Sim (bank clerk)

Clayton doesn't seem to have any difficulty whatsoever marshalling this young cast in complex sequences, which are superbly observed by DP Ian Pizer with absolutely state-of-the-art camera operating by Denis Lewiston (and focus pulling, not credited), who can go from a closeup of a hand on a bible to a two shot so smoothly that you barely notice.

Music by Georges Delerue. Edited by Tom Priestley (Deliverance, The Great Gatsby, also with Clayton).

The house was 12 Chichester Road, Croydon, since demolished.

Thanks to reelstreets.com for identifying the dinosaurs at Crystal Palace lake.

Clayton was associate producer on Moulin Rouge and Beat the Devil.

Significant Other (2023 David Sant)

Depressive Youssef Kerkour (Home) is in the middle of committing suicide when lonely neighbour Katherine Parkinson (Humans) interrupts with a heart attack. They end up getting to know each other, though he is obsessed with his ex-wife Kelle Bryan, from whom he's separated.

Written by Dana Fainaru and Hamish Wright, based on Israeli series of the same name. Good believable writing. We watched all six ITV episodes without even realising.

With Mark Heap, Shaun Williamson.

Wanted for Murder (1946 Lawrence Huntington)

Emeric Pressburger adapted the play (by Percy Robinson and Terence de Marnay) for independent producer Marcel Hellman back in 1938 (for £175) - his screenplay credit here is shared with Rodney Ackland.

Good meet cute opening on board tube train between shop girl Dulcie Grey and bus conductor Derek Farr. Then they are separated at Hampstead Heath fair. We start to believe fairly early on that Eric Portman is the serial strangler, particularly when it's revealed his father was a hangman. Detectives Roland Culver and Stanley Holloway are on the case. Cat and mouse interplay between Portman and Culver good.

The film is reasonably exciting, with good touches (cigar evidence is smoked by one of the coppers!) and features a good amount of on location London filming (the house looks like it's on Chelsea Embankment - Cheyne Walk?) One note though is that Mischa Spolianski's theme is repeated way too often. Interestingly 'Max Greene' aka Mutz Greenbaum is credited not only as DP but associate producer as well.

With Barbara Everest, Bonar Colleano, Jenny Laird, Kathleen Harrison, Bill Shine, Wilfred Hyde-White, Moira Lister.

Best Interests (2023 Writer Jack Thorne)

Sharon Horgan and Michael Sheen disagree over terminally ill daughter. Four part BBC drama. Points of view well expressed, but to us it was always a no-brainer. 

Ill daughter to well one: "I don't mind if you hate me."

Good stuff between Sheen and independent welfare officer with thalidomide fallout Mat Fraser (though he doesn't do anything in court?)

Good cast also includes Alison Oliver and Niamh Moriarty (elder and younger daughters), Noma Dumezweni (head clinician), Chizzy Akudolu, Lisa McGrillis (Mum), Pippa Heywood.

I have to say that Jack Thorne is absolutely prolific at the moment. In addition to this he has two west End plays running: 'The Motive and the Cue' about the conflict between director /actor John Gielgud with Richard Burton, and 'When Winston Went to War with the Wireless'. And apparently is to write a new adaptation of 'Lord of the Flies' for TV.