The Assassin (2025 Harry & Jack Williams)

Well, episode 1 put me off right from the get-go as a scene takes place in such darkness that you don't really know what's going on. (Also it looked to me like a computer game.) This is becoming a real problem for me. I mean, it's great that with modern technology you can shoot in very low light conditions but you still have to be able to make out what is going on (unless of course it's a directorial decision that you can't for deliberate reasons). In fact we had gone from Master of Light John Alton to this and you can see that in terms of lighting the 76 years earlier film was far superior.

And the next thing that pissed me off was that the assassin trying to kill our assassin gratuitously kills lots of wedding guests, and then when some more assassins turn up they just start executing the rest of the wedding party, which seemed dangerously like Nazis or any bunch of Fascist killers and not creating a very nice tone at all.

Which is a shame as I tend to like things about assassins, but this just seemed quite crap.

Keeley Hawes and Freddie Highmore.

Border Patrol (1949 Anthony Mann)

Here's a tip - when films of this era begin with a documentary-type voiceover, that drily talks of some problem and how the US authorities are trying to deal with it - like Kansas City Confidential or T-Men and this - don't be fooled into thinking you're going to be watching some dry-as-dust documentary-type blandness - no, it's more likely you're going to encounter true nastiness. And that's what happens here. A room full of people, making jokes in the face of the danger they're going to be in - and it gets extremely nasty.

One of six collaborations between Mann and cinematographer John Alton is another incredible looking film. (They are: He Walked By Night (Mann uncredited, 1948), The Black Book (1949), Devil's Doorway (1950), Raw Deal (1948), T-Men (1947) and this.) They like putting actors very close to the camera in certain shots (or at least, that's the way it looks. I might have to buy Alton's book 'Painting with Light'. No - too technical, I think.)

The (to me) unknown cast: Ricardo Montalban (Mexican undercover, latterly best known for Fantasy Island), George Murphy (American undercover), Howard da Silva, James Mitchell (Mexican friend), Arnold Moss, Alfonso Bedoya, Charles McGraw (The Birds, Spartacus, The Narrow Margin, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, T-Men, The Killers), José Torvay and Sig Ruman in a rare straight role.

The scene where Montalban and Mitchell are unable to save Murphy is extremely tense and shocking. I love it when a film of this era still has the power to shock.

It's about people trafficking and illegal employment, so still a hot topic. Written by John Higgins from a story by him and George Zuckerman. According to The MGM Story, Dore Schary produced - and then says absolutely nothing helpful about it.

The Pelican Brief (1993 Alan J Pakula & scr)

We were extremely confused when the film just stopped just over an hour in. Luckily we worked out that you had to turn the disc over, not something I remember ever having to do before. Which was good as we were most enjoying Pakula's political / conspiracy thriller, which was coming over very much like one of his best like The Parallax View and All the President's Men.

Julia Roberts is the legal student who comes up with an unlikely theory that connects a dodgy oil and gas baron with the President. Cue assassinations from cool killer Stanley Tucci (looking impossibly young) and involving legal teacher Sam Shepherd and journalist Denzel Washington. It's another John Grisham at source. With John Heard, William Atherton, Hume Cronyn, Nicholas Woodeson, Robert Culp (President).

Photographed darkly by Steven Goldblatt, edited by Tom Rolf and Trudy Ship.

Private Hell 36 (1954 Don Siegel)

Typically brisk and economic thriller from Siegel, featuring a particularly good silent sequence of high speed car chase ending in death, and then the brazen theft of stolen money. Steve Cochran is good as the cop gone wrong and hoping to win over materialistic nightclub singer Ida Lupino. Howard Duff, the family man married to Dorothy Malone, wants to go straight, their boss Dean Jagger is on the case.

Ida Lupino and Collier Young wrote it and it was made for their production company The Filmakers. They were drinking too much vodka as was most of the cast and it was not a happy shoot. It tuned out well, though, and is very watchable. Burnett Guffey shot it in the same year he won the Oscar for From Here to Eternity.

The Special Relationship (2010 Richard Loncraine)

Blair (Michael Sheen) wins the election and buddies up with Clinton (Dennis Quaid) and stands by him even when the Monica Lewinsky story comes out. Then Blair forces action in Bosnia and backs Clinton into a corner ... he's not going to be reelected anyway. Then Blair buddies up to Bush..

I'm not sure what any of this tells us really, other than that international politics is a tricky business. The portrayal of Blair is really shallow, doesn't even hint at the coming lies and war with Iraq. Helen McCrory and Hope Davis play the wives. With Adam Godley and Mark Bazeley. Written by Peter Morgan.

This was a BBC / HBO co-production, photographed by Barry Aykroyd, edited by Melanie Oliver, music from Alexandre Desplat.

The Last Anniversary (2025 Samantha Strauss)

Based on Liane Moriarty's novel (though that isn't made at all clear in the credits?) There's a somewhat bewildering array of characters thrown at you in episode one but it all becomes clear. Characters behave oddly - perhaps that's just people? Good on its exploration of post-birth depression, enacted by Claude Scott-Mitchell. Teresa Palmer (ohhh - Mix Tape of course! It's the same production company, Binge) is the protagonist who inherits the dead woman's house (why is never made that clear). Miranda Richardson looks sullen most of the time. (Josephine Blazier as her young self.)  It's very nice to see Danielle Macdonald in something of a malicious role. Helen Thomson is the stupidly-named 'Enigma'. Plus Uli Latukefu and some other people.

6 x 45 minutes for Binge Productions Australia. Filmed in New South Wales.

Palmer was in The Fall Guy, Warm Bodies, Hacksaw Ridge, The Choice.

It's a bit wha'? Not sure I'd watch it again. somehow.

Julie Walters double bill: Calendar Girls (2003 Nigel Cole) / Educating Rita (1983 Lewis Gilbert)

Juliette Towhidi and Tim Firth wrote it, based on a true story. It features an excellent ensemble cast of Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Linda Bassett, Annette Crosbie, Celia Imrie, Geraldine James and Penelope Wilton, with John Alderton, Ciaran Hinds, Philip Glenister, Graham Crowden.

Some of the third act conflict seems a bit forced. Otherwise, most enjoyable.

The worst beard in the world

Then, rewind twenty years. I was amazed to find that we didn't own a copy of Educating Rita. Luckily it was on ITVX and so when the ad breaks came up we were able to flit back to see how the Lionesses were doing in the Final against Spain. 

Julie Walters had played Rita on stage in 1980. Both she and Michael Caine won BAFTAs and Golden Globes. (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala won screenplay for Heat and Dust.) They and Willy Russell were also Oscar nominated. They are both fabulous and Russell's screenplay is still brilliant. 'This tutor came up to me and said 'Are you fond of Ferlinghetti? And it was on the tip of my tongue to say 'Only when it's served with Parmesan cheese'.

People perhaps just think of Julie Walters as a comedienne but actually she's seriously good in dramatic roles, e.g. G.B.H, where she plays twin roles. It was her film debut. "Michael was lovely, so generous to me." I was thinking he probably was. Quoted in The Guardian.

With: Maureen Lipman. Photographed by Frank Watts (mainly TV). David Hentschel's music doesn't let the side down too badly.

Poker Face: Season Two (2025 Rhian Johnson)

The Game is a Foot. Cynthia Eribo (Widows, Bad Times at the El Royale) gets to plays five members of family, vying for inheritance of mother's estate. Great fun. Writers Laura Deeley, Teo Ho. Directed by Johnson.

Last Looks. Charlie befriends a woman (Katie Holmes) who's going to leave her husband, mortician Giancarlo Esposito. He uses a movie filming to cover his crime. Written by Natasha Lyonne (and directed by her also) and Alice Ju.

We both loved this shot

Whack-a-Mole. Crime boss Rhea Perlman catches up with Charlie and tries to get her to help with spies in the organization, leading to great line 'You want me to rat on my mole, like a snake?' Writers Wyatt Cain, Tea Ho. 

We love the character of Charlie and the way Natasha plays her.

The Taste of Human Blood. Mad episode featuring a friendly alligator, 'Daisy' (except when on meth). (It was only after that I remembered there is a film called An Alligator Named Daisy.) And Gaby Hoffmann. Wyatt Cain and Tea Ho wrote it.

Hometown Hero. Murder at the ball game. Carol Kane the only actor we recognised. After the alligator one, this features some very trippy material in animated form. Writers Tony Tost.

Sloppy Joseph. A very competitive girl in public school. Featuring David Krumholtz (who acted with Natasha in Slums of Beverley Hills) and Margo Martindale. Written by Kate Thulin.

The format seems to be - something happens, then we wind back and see how Charlie is involved.

Which is certainly the case in brilliant episode One Last Job written by Taofik Kolade, in which a writer Sam Richardson has written a great heist screenplay about a man who cracks the safe at work and steals the money, but the gang fall apart. To push him into becoming a professional writer, his boss Corey Hawkins fires him. Embittered, he joins up with dodgy James Ransone and they decide to commit the burglary for real. Then... And then, or rather before, Charlie turns up as an Indian takeaway deliverer and hooks up (eventually) with Hawkins.  The riffs on film vs reality climax in the action movie finale. Also a brilliant use of the Lady From Shanghai hall of mirrors scene projected over dozens of TV screens. It was directed by exec producer Adam Arkin.

However the normal format is disrupted in The Sleazy Georgian, when Charlie gets mixed up with a group of con men, written by Megan Amram - Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures) is the woman who gets sucked into the con game, John Cho the sucker. With Joel Marsh Garland.

And then Charlie interferes with the murder of Awkwafina by getting pushed out of a window in A New Lease on Death, with Alia Shawkat, written by Tea Ho and Wyatt Cain.

The Big Pump. Murder at gymnasium, where owner is dealing baby milk as a health supplement! Charlie tells new Patti Harrison her special powers under an amusing '23 seconds later' title.

The Day of the Iguana. Andrew Sodroski. The End of the Road. Laura Deeley.

I just looked up Natasha Lyonne - Wilder, has she been in a lot of things. And her debut, believe it or not, was in Heartburn! (Meryl Streep's niece.) We never did watch Russian Doll, which she co-created.

Helen Mirren Birthday Double Bill: The Queen (2006 Stephen Frears) / Gosfield Park (2001 Robert Altman)

Written by Peter Morgan, the first thing about The Queen is to recognise what a huge news story Diana was - Lucia Zucchetti does a lovely non-chronological montage of her early on - and how much her death impacted the country, evoked through good use of contemporary news footage. Peter Morgan's screenplay is good - there's no mistake that Elizabeth and Philip didn't like her and don't seem to rate Charles that highly either; that Alistair Campbell seems to be a prick and there's a good scene where Blair loses his temper with him; and another good scene where Blair and his wife argue about the role of the Crown; and the best scene - the Queen seeing the lovely stag and trying to shoo it away.

Mirren won the Oscar and BAFTA. She's well supported by Michael Sheen, Roger Allam, Alex Jennings, Sylvia Syms, John Cromwell, Helen McCrory.

Photographed by Affonso Beato with a terrific score from Alexandre Desplat.

Helen herself introduces Gosford Park with interesting stories. The 'upstairs' scenes were all filmed first, thus some of the 'downstairs' staff hardly saw the rest of the cast. Helen and Kelly Macdonald didn't understand a scene, Helen told 'Bob' they couldn't see the point of it and he agreed and just dropped it. But later, when Helen said they needed an extra scene - the one between her and her sister Eileen Atkins -Altman said, 'You two go off and write it' which they did. Helen reckons it's only because of that scene that she was Oscar nominated.

She also said that with two cameras constantly moving you had no idea if you were even on camera let alone in close up (which takes the pressure off). That most of the cast were theatre based and so understood ensemble working. And that everyone was radio miked so they had the option of editing 6 - 10 channels of sound as well as picture.

It's such an incredible cast that it's hard to isolate stand-out performances but I'll do it anyway and say they are given by Mirren, Clive Owen, Macdonald (who's really the protagonist) and Michael Gambon. 

Andrew Dunn photographed it and Tim Sqyres edited.

Code of Silence / Stupid Woman! (2025 Catherine Moulton)

Deaf kitchen worker Rose Ayling-Ellis (rather good) is recruited by police to help them read lips of suspected violent robbery gang. She gets sucked in and starts doing stupid things right from the off - hence our alternative title. In somewhat unlikely circumstances, she falls for one of the gang, the hacker Kieron Moore. Her police mates comprise Charlotte Ritchie, Nathan Armarkwei Laryea and a grumpy Andrew Buchan. With Joe Absolom, Beth Goddard, Rold Choutan (ex).

A six part four and a half hour drama. I mean, we watched it.

Has a really really fucking annoying use of those lenses which leave some of the image out of focus, used especially badly when Rose is being interrogated by the police - it's so distracting and just wrong.

Mix Tape (2025 Jo Spain)

Jim Sturgess is a - actually I'm not sure what his job is, oh yes, he's a music writer - and he seems obsessed with a relationship he had as a teenager in the 1980s (cue inevitable miners' strike footage) with a young girl - they are played in flashback by Rory Walton-Smith and Florence Hunt. She has grown up to be writer Teresa Palmer and lives in Australia - they both came from Sheffield. She's also found out her teenager daughter is pregnant,

As their own relationships begin to crumble they inevitably steer a course towards one another, whilst the flashbacks continue - why did she leave Sheffield so suddenly, without warning, and why did he not reply to her letters.? It's very well handled and makes for a most satisfying romantic relationship story. Spain adapted it from Jane Sanderson's novel.

Apart from a wrong move from mother, his parents are terrific - Mark O'Halloran and who? whilst her mother is the disastrous drunk Helen Behan (The Virtues). Julia Savage is the daughter down under. There's a couple of extraneous children we don't even meet who might as well not be in it.

Heartburn (1986 Mike Nichols)

Nora Ephron got her own back on philandering husband by writing her 1983 novel, disguising the names but essentially writing a roman a clef about her marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein, who threatened to sue her but never did. She had co-written Silkwood in 1983, also directed by Nichols and starring Meryl Streep.

Photographed by Nestor Almendros and edited by Sam O'Steen. With Jeff Daniels, Maureen Stapleton (Airport, Reds, Interiors, Cocoon, The Money Pit), Stockard Channing, Richard Masur, Milos Forman, Catherine O'Hara (recently seen in in The Studio and Away We Go - as John Krasinski's mum, Home Alone).

Amazingly coincidentally, it was Natasha Lyonne's debut! She appears uncredited as Meryl Streep's niece, and therefore I'm thinking this must be her:

Nicholson replaced Mandy Patinkin after one day's filming, but filming was hampered by script problems - Bernstein was threatening legal action so his character's part had to be toned down, not leaving Jack with that much to do.

Karen Pirie - Season 2 (2025 Emer Kenny)

Adapted from Val McDermid novel 'A Darker Domain'. Lauren Lyle is back as our most engaging and plain-speaking detective, investigating a kidnapping / ransom from the 1980s, over three ninety minute instalments. It's a terrific tale, which ends up taking us to Italy in search of missing children.

As in season 1, all episodes are directed by Gareth Bryn. The above image courtesy of Bjørn Stäle Bratberg.

The cast: Chris Jenks, Zach Wyatt (also B.F.) and Saskia Ashdown are the cops, and pathologist Emer Kenny herself (as 'River Wilde', also in The Curse). James Cosmo and Frances Tomelty are the parents of the disappeared girl Julia Brown. Steve Jon Shepherd is the DCS. Rakhee Thakrar the investigating journalist.

Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced (1985 David Giles)

I didn't cotton on until part 3 (3 x 50 minute episodes) that Alan Plater had adapted it. An interesting cast makes the most of Christie's 'locked room' type scenario, with Ursula Howells probably the stand-out. Her father Herbert wrote 'Hymnus Paradisi' after the death of her brother in 1935. She was a West End actress and appeared on TV in things like A Rather English Marriage.

Other cast: Renée Asherson, Sylvia Sims, Ralph Michael (thus somehow evoking The Way to the Stars, Ice Cold in Alex and Dead of Night!), Joan Sims, Samantha Bond, Joan Hickson, Simon Shepherd, John Castle as the investigating detective and Kevin Whately as his no. 2.

We're warming up to Hickson a bit but she does seem pretty much emotionless.

The Birdcage (1996 Mike Nichols)

Elaine May has transplanted the original French gay comedy to South Beach, Miami. (The original is reportedly even funnier, though they both have the same IMDB rating.)

We have the delicious combination of Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, pitted against Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest, with the children being Dan Futterman and Calista Flockhart.

The second of today's films directed by a theatre director, thus long confident takes and great performances. Also some very elegant camerawork from Emmanuel Lubezki.

And Hank Azaria is great as the very gay maid. With Christine Baranski.

Away We Go (2009 Sam Mendes)

Written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. Very pregnant Maya Rudolph and not-husband John Krasinsky journey around America to find roots and meet an assortment of terrible or damaged people, the worst of which are Maggie Gyllenhaal and Josh Hamilton. In fact the only nice one is her sister, Carmen Ojogo. Allison Janney makes an impression as a deluded and unpleasant woman who doesn't care anything about her kids, husband Jim Gaffigan. John's parents also are unbelievable - Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara.

Even a random kid they encounter talks of having tried to kill his baby sister.

She won't get married - ever. He keeps trying to shock her to get the baby's heart rate up. They're a lovely couple. A key moment is with his brother, whose wife has left and he's terrified that his daughter will never recover. They find a lovely house at the end and when Alexei Murdoch's chorus "If I should stumble" kicks in I could have burst into tears.

Photographed by Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine, Be Kind Rewind, Blow) and edited by Sarah Flack (The Limey, Lost in Translation and other Sophia Coppola films, Dan in Real Life).

Le Coquille et le Clergyman (1928 Germaine Dulac)

Alex Allin, Lucien Bataille, Genica Athanasiou.

Dulac had been making films since 1915. This surreal study of male desire predates Un Chien Andalou by a year, and anticipates some of David Lynch's most out-there moments, as well as even animated works by the likes of Jan Svanmajer and the Quay brothers. It is also of course an important film in feminist cinema.

Antonin Artaud is the writer.

Opens with 'It is not a dream, but the mode of images itself leading the mind to where is never would have consented to go, the mechanism is within everyone's reach.' The way images are twisted and distorted, the complex overlays, abrupt cutting, interesting lighting and bizarre use of props is altogether a unique experience.

I saw the 2005 restoration which is on YouTube, running 40 minutes.

Bookish (2025 Mark Gatiss)

He also stars as Gabriel Book of Book's Books. With Polly Walker, Connor Finch, Elliot Levey, Buket Komur, Blake Harrison, Tim McInnerney, Danny Mays, Rosie Cavaliero.

It was filmed in Belgium, thus many Belgians in credits.

I found the sound design to be curiously overdone - too much traffic, bicycle bells when none needed, barking dog adding nothing. Curious.

Story two, which I can't even remember now, seemed less involving but the third concluding episode involving Russian princesses and a fading hotel, with the final emotional climax - after a Brief Encounter moment - between Book and Jack, is most successful.

Insomnia (2024 Sarah Pinborough)

Pinborough? Created for the Paramount network, Vicky McClure is the sleep-deprived and childhood nightmare sufferer, Leanne Best her sister. It's a preposterous tale, and ends up beyond nonsense (and then beyond nonsense again). With Tom Cullen, Lyndsey Marshal, Dominic Teghe, India Fowler and Smylie Bradwell.

Sirens (2025 Molly Smith Metzler)

A feisty and somewhat sex-hungry woman (Meghann Fahy, The White Lotus) travels to an island recluse where her sister (Milly Alcock) is the perfect assistant to nuts millionaire Julianne Moore. Who's a bit worried, because if her husband - dope smoking Kevin Bacon - leaves her, she'll be left with nothing. The head of security Felix Solis (Ozark, The Good Wife) proves to be a good and likable character. Bill Camp is the girls' demented father. Trevor Salter is the ship captain.

Liked the scene with Fahy being pursued down the beach by three paramours.

Engage brain power to low. Only five episodes, which is refreshing.