Mr Sunshine (2011-12)

Created by Matthew Perry, Alex Barnow and Marc Firek. A fairly pleasing series in which Perry is the manager of a huge stadium dealing with erratic boss Allison Janney, her maladapted son Nate Torrence, marketing director Andrea Anders and love rival James Lesure (also in Studio 60), and arsonist Portia Doubleday.

Exec producer Thomas Schlamme was known to us as a West Wing producer.

But it wasn't good enough and you can see why after 13 episodes it wasn't recommissioned.

Q laughed most times at the 'Mr. Sunshine' jingle. She thought Matty (who's the main reason for watching it) was 'wired'.

Actually, I say the main reason, but it gives you a chance to admire Allison Janney again, a hard-working, always reliable performer who finally achieved the big time with I, Tonya in 2017.

Playing Nice (2024 scr Grace Ofori-Attah)

Niamh Algar and James Norton find out their son was switched at birth with that of James McArdle and Jessica Brown Findlay. What larks!

The Children's Hour (1961 William Wyler)

Another director who remade his own film (These Three, 1936, also with Miriam Hopkins). You think of Hitch, don't you - The Man Who Knew Too Much - and Leo McCarey, who remade Love Affair as An Affair to Remember. I'm sure there's others.

So - Lillian Hellman's debut play, a powerful work, in fact based on a true similar story that occurred in Edinburgh in 1810. Unlike the early version, this one honours the source and keeps the lesbian angle in, which had to be removed from the 1936 version, which therefore can't be as good. It doesn't feel play-like. Of course the performances are immaculate: Audrey Hepburn Wyler had worked with before, Shirley MacLaine fresh off The Apartment, Miriam Hopkins (I still think too theatrical), James Garner, Fay Bainter, and particularly Karen Balkin as the hideously destructive girl and Veronica Cartwright as her victim.

Despite firing him from Roman Holiday, Wyler does work with DP Franz Planer again, perhaps at Hepburn's insistence (he had since photographed her in The Nun's Story and Breakfast at Tiffany's). He gives him the deep focus that Wyler had enjoyed with Gregg Toland. Wyler's blocking is marvellous.

There's a similar shot to this in Wyler's Mrs Miniver

It would be interesting to write the horrible child Mary Tilford as a grown-up.

Films of the Year 2025

 Coup de Grace

I Walked With a Zombie (1943 Jacques Tourneur)

Funny that on the same day we watched Fred Zinnemann's Julia, we see a film co-written by one of his Berlin / People on Sunday buddies Curt Siodmak. Actually (according to Chris Fujiwara, author of 'Jacques Tourneur: Cinema of Nightfall') Ardel Wray rewrote it and introduced the slavery element which makes it so resonant. (The original idea is credited to a short story by journalist Inez Wallace, her only film credit). This is the beautiful restored Criterion Blu-Ray on which J Roy Hunt's glorious images finally are seen as they should be. Had to thank Lee Kline and Giles Sherwood who managed the restoration for Criterion.

It was a bit weird because we only normally watch it in super-hot weather.

North Shore (2023 Mike Bullen)

Not realising it was Bullen, I found some of the dialogue quite clunky. Watchable story, though, with fish-out-of-water London detective John Bradley lent to Sydney police force to investigate murder of politician Joanna Froggatt's daughter.

Julia (1977 Fred Zinnemann)

Based on a section of Lillian Hellman's series of portraits 'Pentimento' (1973), though the 'Julia' in question is believed to have been a fictionalized account of the life of Muriel Gardiner, who did work in the Resistance in Austria but returned to the US in 1939. You've got to watch these writers, they're always making things up.

(We know Hellman of course from The Little Foxes and also Watch on the Rhine, though have yet to catch either version of the Children's Hour, the first of which, filmed in 1936 by William Wyler, apparently the best, though he directed the 1961 version also. Ah. I now see that we do have the later version and watched it last in 2005.)

Anyway, Alvin Sargent's screenplay is about two girl friends from teenage years. Julia is brought up in a rich family, grows to hate privilege and becomes a socialist, friend Lillian becomes a writer, involved with Dashiell Hammett. They haven't seen each other for years when Lillian is summoned to Vienna and finds her friend severely battered. She loses touch, but then (I'm not quite sure what year this is, but the film begins in 1934) is asked to help her on a mission to Berlin - and it's this section of the film that is most exciting in almost a Hitchcocky way, as Lillian is watched and helped and spied upon on her trip from Paris to Berlin to Moscow.

The cast is good: Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Maximillian Schell, Hal Holbrook, Rosemary Murphy, Meryl Streep, and Dora Doll and Elizabeth Mortensen as her two fellow passengers on the train. Redgrave, Robards and Sargent won Oscars; BAFTA awarded Fonda, interestingly enough, the Film and Sargent, as well as bestowing Douglas Slocombe his third BAFTA. Naturally his buddies Chic Waterson and Robin Vidgeon are part of the crew, though the camera movement is infrequent, with use of subtle zoom here and there. Generally Zinnemann has chosen to film the performers too much in close up. It's an artful piece of work, though, and editor Walter Murch mixes things up wonderfully well.

Zinnemann was of course one of Wilder's Berlin buddies on People on Sunday - quickly moved to the US, Austrian by birth.

It's quite a harrowing story, really, almost European in its treatment. Really good and well overdue.

Marple: The Secret of Chimneys (2010 John Strickland)

See here for 2020 review (though in 2019 I found it a 'rather dull episode, all talk talk talk').

It's another ingenious tale, originally an early Christie from 1925. Paul Rutman's adaptation considerably changes the story and brings in details from a Marple short story 'The Herb of Death'.

Good cast, overall. Stephen Dillane's just great, who we last saw in Boxing Day and before that, Sherwood. The Outrun (2024, Saoirse Ronan) might be worth watching.

Charlotte Salt, Julia Mackenzie, an Austin Healey and Hatfield House

Charley Varrick (1973 Don Siegel)

Fabulous thriller which was originally to have been a Peter Bogdanovich script - info here.

The camera positioning, movement and editing are all just right - it's a film that's really there. Lalo Schifrin's score helps. He helped invigorate the car / biplane scene by writing music that was in tune with both the engines of the vehicles - an amazingly clever touch. Frank Morris is the editor.

The long take against the setting sun was "one of the most difficult" scenes Siegal ever attempted. They nailed it on the third take:

I like Matthau in his serious roles, but unfortunately he told every interviewer that he neither liked nor understood the film, and it negatively affected the film's success. What an idiot.

What happens after? I don't think he can risk going back to the Felicia Farr character... at least, not for a while...

Howard Rodman wrote the first draft of the script but the studio didn't like it. Siegel worked with Dean Riesner (who rewrote many a Clint Eastwood script) getting it right.

What Just Happened (2008 Barry Levinson)

Good satire on movie business, written and produced by producer Art Linson (e.g. Into the Wild, Yellowstone), and not really based on his book of the same name at all.

Producer Robert de Niro is struggling with the ending of prima donna British director Michael Wincott's film 'Fiercely', featuring Sean Penn - Exec Catherine Keener wants it changed. Also he's having trouble with a Bruce Willis film - he won't shave his beard and John Turturro doesn't have the guts to tell him. Whilst fending off problems everywhere, de Niro is struggling to maintain personal relations with ex Robin Wright Penn and eldest daughter Kristen Stewart. With Stanley Tucci. A good entry in the films-about-films genre, not as good as The Player but well worth a look.

Photographed by Stéphane Fontaine, edited by Hank Corwin with a certain dazzle.

Coup de Grace (2023 Woody Allen & scr)

We finally get to see Woody's latest, and it's his best film for a while and my first Film of the Year.  It's a reasonably straight drama along the lines of Match Point and Irrational Man, with themes of fate and irony. 

In a single shot, Lou de Laâge is approached on a Paris street by a former classmate, Niels Schneider, and they begin to reignite, even though she's married to wealthy Melvil Poupaud, who it turns out is not just a snob, but controlling and murderous.  (What's the model railway thing about?) Into the mix comes de Laâge's mother, Anna Laik, who amusingly loves her son-in-law as much her daughter.

It's a cool film, underlined by several cool tracks by the like of Nat Adderley, 'Cannonball's' younger brother, such as In the Bag. Vittorio Storaro's photography is as sublime as ever, the performances are good, the murder quite shocking in its casualness - I even wondered if there was a Jamal Kashoggi reference going on here.

It's also funny to see Woody's regular font Windsor Elongated in French! We assume AD Delphine Bertrand was bilingual. And then she messaged me! "I have lived in California and work mainly on American feature films coming to shoot in France. I was 2nd AD on Midnight in Paris and Magic in the Moonlight… It was a very nice surprise for me when 10 years later, they asked me to be Woody’s 1st AD. Working with Woody and Vittorio is one of the best experiences of my life!" 

There's an argument for saying it's like a Golden Era Chabrol: high society, food, adultery, murder, irony and cool detachment.

Singles (1992 Cameron Crowe & scr)

See Cameron's comments here. With these in mind, his aim to serve tribute to Manhattan becomes understandable and indeed the chapter headings are quite Woody Allenish too (Hannah and her Sisters). What is less easy to understand is how Pulp Fiction would have solved the script problems he had. PF's innovation was I suppose the way that the film ends in flashback, and I don't see how that would have helped what is a linear story here. I'll have to ask him.

It was nice to see Seattle playing itself for a change.

I think it's rather good.

The Jerry Zeismer cameo

The Champ (1979 Franco Zeffirelli)

Stupid film  - well, no, a stupid ending - I hated the ending. A remake of the 1931 Wallace Beery / Jackie Cooper picture which had the same story. Jon Voight and Ricky Schroder are the washed up boxer and his son, Faye Dunaway the removed mother. I'm surprised it was remade in the otherwise fruitful seventies but am sure tears were flooding the cinema aisles. For some reason I didn't find Dunaway very convincing.

Does however have bonuses in the shapes of Joan Blondell and Elisha Cook Jr., and Jack Warden. And the most interesting credit - 'Consulting Editor Reginald Mills'. It was actually his last credit.

Photographed by Fred Koenkamp. MGM.

We Bought a Zoo (2011 Cameron Crowe & co-scr)

 His use of music (existing numbers or composed for film) is wonderful. Dylan again. Neil Young.

And - kids. He gets such good stuff out of them. I noticed there's a salute with forks, the same way Cruise and Lipnicki do it with spoons in Jerry Maguire.

"That is the posture of a quittin' man."

I always forget the ending.

It's magical.

Lover Come Back (1961 Delbert Mann)

Weak, suggestive sex comedy from Universal, in which even the title doesn't make any sense in relationship to the story of rival advertising account managers Doris Day (always shot with a filter) and Rock Hudson. Features a subtle reference to pot and an amusing performance from Jack Kruschen as the scientist. Also features another Apartment co-star Edie Adams, though I would not have recognised her Miss Olsen at all as 'Rebel' Davis.

Tony Randall also fun as totally clueless head of agency.

Shot by Arthur Arling.

A nod to Pillow Talk

"What the fuck is that on your head?

Say Anything (1989 Cameron Crowe & scr)

Cameron's debut as director, in which he was faithfully served by AD Jerry Zeismer, the first of three films they did together ( no - four. His book 'Ready When You Are, Mr Coppola, Mr Spielberg, Mr Crowe' stops before Almost Famous). He was also lucky enough to get Laszlo Kovacs on camera - perhaps introduced via producer Polly Platt - and Richard Marks as editor.

An iconic moment, above... but actually it doesn't lead to anything.

Jerry Maguire (1996 Cameron Crowe & scr)

"First Class used to be a better meal - now it's a better life."

Triggered by reading Cameron's great Rolling Stone article, in which he states that the screenplay took three and a half years to write. I assume that three and a half years included his research period when he travelled around meeting sportsmen and agents for background research (let's not forget he spent a year back in high school to research Fast Times at Ridgemont High). I couldn't do any such thing myself, but then look at the results he's got - this is a superb movie, though admittedly its centre is not about sport at all, but the way a man finds out he's capable of committing to an adult relationship.

Do you think he wrote the Mission Statement as well? Yes - of course he did - It's here.

Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger are perfect, with great support from Cuba Gooding Jr., Bonnie Hunt, Regina King and of course Jonathan Lipnicki.

It was Jerry Ziesmer's second to last film as AD, the last being Almost Famous. He plays the man trying to wake Cuba - "Can you feel your legs?" Cameron: "It is one of my greatest delights that when Rod Tidwell comes back to life, the first face he sees is Jerry Ziesmer's. It is a metaphor for the relationship between a director and his assistant director, or at least mine. More than a few times, I've blinked back to life only to see the face of Ziesmer cheering me on. And like Tidwell, he has allowed me to dance. I didn't use to be a dancer, but I am now, thanks to Jerry." 

And Jerry was also good at keeping away the 'suits'. Cameron again: "..one afternoon, I overheard Jerry soothing the anxiety of an inexperienced moneyman. "This is how it always works on the great ones", he said calmly. I will never forget it. He said those words loud enough for me to hear them too, simultaneously inspiring me and silencing the worried man in front of him. That's why he is the King."

The Call of the Wild (2020 Chris Sanders)

Never stopped watching a film so quickly - about 120 seconds during which we saw a horrible CGI dog and thought 'No!' Totally the wrong approach, especially after watching the excellent White Fang.

A shame, as Harrison Ford and Omar Sy were in it.

What Price Hollywood (1932 George Cukor)

A fascinating film, attributed to RKO Pathé, which itself is an interesting piece of history. A film studio developed by silent film maker Thomas Ince, it went through several name changes and held this one from 1931-1935, after which it became Selznick International Pictures, and that's interesting because Selznick was the executive producer. But at the time it was a subsidiary of RKO.

Anyway, the film is really successful. Constance Bennett is good as the Brown Derby waitress who hooks alcoholic film director Lowell Sherman (a sort of Barrymoreish performance) and becomes a star. Neil Hamilton plays a millionaire who marries her, Gregory Ratoff is the archetypal film producer always wanting more, but sympathetic. The story of a star on the rise while a director falls is clearly the seeds of A Star Is Born. The screenplay is credited as 'By Gene Fowler and Roland Brown, based on a story by Adela Rogers St. John, screenplay by Jane Murfin and Ben Markson'. Charles Rosher is on camera and Max Steiner is the Musical Director. There are some remarkable montages, credited to Slakvo Vorkapich and Lloyd Knetchtel, notably the one that goes into Sherman's suicide.

It moves along at a good pace, has plenty of funny moments. Louise Beavers and Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson have good roles. The inside look at Hollywood is fascinating. Films about filmmaking are always popular in this household and this is a good one.

Didn't think I knew Constance Bennett but we had met in Topper and As Young As You Feel.