Bridget Jones' Diary (2001 Sharon Maguire)

I think I recognise some of the Richard Curtis bits e.g. Broadbent also being in costume at the vicars and tarts party, but he hasn't spent as much as the guy sat nearby dressed as a bishop.

Fielding now regards some of the behaviour of the men unacceptable, e.g. 'uncle' who keeps groping her bottom.

The ending is ridiculous. Firth's finally about to hook up with Zellweger, finds her diary and without a word goes out into the night to buy her a new one. 

She's absolutely fabulous. Hugh Grant was on Graham recently and revealed that her accent originally was like Princess Margaret, then she worked on it, and it sounded like Princess Margaret after a stroke, then she hit it.

A Working Title Production.

Edited by Martin Walsh (Oscar winner for Chicago; also Iris, V for Vendetta, Eddie the Eagle, Wonder Woman). Q particularly liked this sequence:

The Beautiful Lie (2015)

Sarah Snook (the sister in Succession, also The Dressmaker, Steve Jobs), Benedict Samuel, Rodger Corser (the farmer), Sophie Lowe (the sister with mental health problems), Celia Pacquola (the other sister), Daniel Henshall (cheating husband, Snowtown), Kath and Kim's Gina Riley and Robert Menzies, Daniel Wyllie.

More The Slap than This Is Us (we were led here by the latter's fan site) as Australians fuck around with one another emotionally. Tragic, in the end, though episode one did give away the ending, which I'm not sure was the right thing to do.

Alice Bell wrote it, apparently as an update of 'Anna Karenina', with Jonathan Gavin. Directed by Glendyn Ivin and Peter Salmon. Liked the music by Alan John, and the band/ singer being recorded.

How to Get Away with Murder(ing your screenplay) - Season 1 (2014)

This review title isn't of course fair. It may be funny, but the screenplay - well let's say story - is at fault to begin with.

It's Legally Blonde! Well, sort of. Why are four law students disposing of a body in the green night? Through annoyingly flitty flashbacks, accompanied by wooshing sounds, we find out. It's untroubled by anything interesting, and populated by largely unlikable characters. The scripting or acting or directing is uncertain, e.g. the Viola character is hard-as-nails sometimes but weepy and weak in others, same applies to the nose-ring girl (and the collusive student).

Some of the dialogue is juicily bad, e.g. 'Why is your penis on a dead girl's phone?' Someone's idea to intercut love-making to an autopsy was really not a good one. It's just a bit incredible, and really not that good.

With Viola are Alfred Enoch, Billy Brown (cop), Jack Falahee (gay student), Katie Findlay (nose ring girl), Aja Naomi King, Matt McGorry (preppy), Karla Souza (legal aid), Charlie Weber (married attorney).

We made it as far as episode 10, expecting that to be the finale, only to find five more episodes of this turgid and unbelievable series awaited us, and promptly gave up. We could only assume it has kept running, series after series, because it follows the 'difficult case every episode' format, thus following in the lines of Ally McBeal, The Good Wife/Fight etc.

新宿泥棒日記 / Diary of A Shinjuku Thief (1968, released 1969 Nagisa Oshima)

Oshima's investigation into sexuality and society (I think) is an extremely frustrating experience. It displays some very Godardy moments, some interesting cutting, titles and newsreel footage to accompany a plot which is basically a story about the relationship between the (book) thief of the title Tadanoori Yokoo and a mischievous young woman Rie Yokoyama. Some of its tangents (group of men interviewed about sex, Kabuki theatre, songs, experimental performances) are a combination of fatally dull and deeply irritating. If I had to hear 'This is Ali-Baba, town of mystery' once more I think I would have committed hara-kiri.

Featuring the real life essayist and bookstore owner Moichi Tanabe. And Juro Kara as the singer / actor.

It's amusing to speculate how the film went down in its native country.

Bad Moms (2016 Jon Lucas and Scott Moore & scr)

Stressed mom Mila Kunis has had enough of the pressure, and the Hitleresque head of the PTA Christina Applegate (beautifully bitchy) so rebels, banding with Kathryn Hahn (so good in She's Funny That Way) and Kristen Bell (The Disaster Artist, Veronica Mars) in revolution... You know how it's all going to turn out but it's enjoyable. Emma Hickox (and James Thomas) cuts fast in the modern comedy style and has fun in two set pieces in a supermarket and a party. Undoubtedly the best thing about it is the end credits in which the stars' moms talk about how 'bad' they all were.

With Clark Duke, Jada Pinkett Smith, Annie Mumolo, Wendell Pierce.

Career (1959 Joseph Anthony)

Actor Tony Franciosa leaves girlfriend Joan Blackman to try his luck in NYC. A year later, he's befriended theatrical hustler Dean Martin but gotten nowhere. She moves in and they marry, then another year goes by and she understandably feels like he should get a proper job, particularly after losing a baby. By this time we've met platinum blonde Shirley MacLaine, and theatrical agent Carolyn Jones (who's rather good), but nothing goes right for our aspiring actor, who is betrayed by Martin and even survives the Korean war only to be branded a communist (I guess things were just changing - the year after, Kennedy would cross a picket line to watch the blacklisted Spartacus).

Screenplay from his own play by James Lee, the ending is perhaps a shade too hopeful for the preceding events.

Joe LaShelle was Oscar nominated, though in our from-VHS copy it's difficult to judge (though interestingly he shot MacLaine again the next year in the Apartment). Film is as rare as a Penny Red, but worth seeing if possible. We were lucky to just make it to the end (almost) as the disc developed irremediable problems. The studio he visits is presumably Paramount, who made the film.

Sparrows Can't Sing (1963 Joan Littlewood & co-scr)

Very interesting slice of East London life 1963, based on a play by Stephen Lewis - I know, you wouldn't think so, as it's very mobile and has a great on-location feel - and written by he and the director.

Brutish sailor James Booth returns to Stepney, known for causing trouble, hopes to take up with his ex Barbara Windsor, but she's now living with UFO's George Sewell.. and a baby. Not only that, their old house has been pulverized and she now lives in one of those new-fangled tower blocks, of which the caretaker is most proud. (Their door bell doesn't work though - nice touch.) Ironically those tower blocks were themselves demolished in the late nineties and replaced by a low rise housing development.

Interesting credits scene made up of clips from the film to Barbara singing the theme song. It was her first starring role and she went on to join the Carry On team the year after. A much beloved celebrity, she died December 10 and this was a better tribute probably than one of the comedy vehicles. She gives a wonderfully natural performance.

It has a palpable feeling of community, shot realistically by Max Greene and Desmond Dickinson. And just about everyone's in it - both Brian Murphy and Yootha Joyce, Roy Kinnear, Murray Melvin, Avis Bunnage (The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, The L-Shaped Room), Griffith Davies, Arthur Mullard, Barbara Ferris, Victor Spinetti, Harry H Corbett (uncredited) and singer Queenie Watts (Up the Junction).

The same year Littlewood produced 'Oh What a Lovely War' for the stage. She'd produced 'A Taste of Honey' in 1958 and a London underworld West End hit, 'Fings Ain't what They Used T'Be' and 'Sparrers Can't Sing' both starring Windsor.

Man Up (2015 Ben Palmer)

If you want any evidence that films are cut faster than they used to be, here it is. Paul Machliss ping pongs every shot / reverse shot. It's exhausting. The film's fun though.

Problems identified here.

Andrew Dunn has great credits. The United States vs. Billie Holliday looks intriguing.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019 Marielle Heller)

Nothing to add to this. Love it.

Neither Micah Fitzerman-Blue nor Noah Harpster had hardly any prior credits apart from a Domestos ad, but an eight part series Painkiller is in the works.

Jody Lee Lipes' cinematography is pretty diffused.

Marielle's still acting - she was in The Queen's Gambit.

Peter and Wendy (2015 Diarmuid Lawrence)

Brilliant Adrian Hodges script cuts the Peter Pan story against a young lady (Hazel Doupe) who's at Great Ormond Street hospital having heart surgery. Like AMOLAD (which may have been an inspiration), actors play characters in both scenarios.

With Laura Fraser (mum), Stanley Tucci, Bjarne Henriksen, Dorothy Atkinson (nurse), various young people.

The Holiday (2006 Nancy Meyers & scr)

Here's what's wrong with The Holiday. 1. Jack Black is miscast. He and Kate - despite her hard work - display no chemistry. 2. Law's children are miscast. They come over as pukey and make their scenes icky. 3. The dog that comes and goes. I have a feeling the dog was more present in the film - for example the moment Diaz enters the cottage - but was edited out. I'm going to ask Nancy about that.

Luckily these things are outweighed by Kate's relationship with Eli Wallach and the Law-Diaz pairing.

It's also really well edited by Joe Hutshing and photographed by Meyers regular Dean Cundey.

There's no dog in this film.

Occupation (2009 Nick Murphy, scr Peter Bowker)

Murphy started out in factual film making in the 60s; this was one of his first dramas. He was blessed with a great cast and script. (Lenny James' Save Me one of his recent successes.) Bowker started out teaching young people with learning difficulties, including autism (good background for The A Word and Marvellous). Started writing for TV in the early 90s. As far as I can tell he had no particularly relevant war experience, making the authenticity and credibility of this mini-series all the more remarkable. Definitely worthy of inclusion in William Boyd's list of worthy war films. It's brilliant. I can't get over it.

Jimmy Nesbitt, Stephen Graham and Warren Browne are bonded by common experience in Basra, and for various reasons, they all return there. The flashes of humour are welcome, and the back-at-home scenes are perhaps what really makes it (think The Best Years of Our Lives updated), and where Bowker excels anyway. But then the other stories start to take shape - the doctor (Lubna Azabal, The Honorable Woman, The Little Drummer Girl) who comes to England and her husband (Igal Naor, also The Honorable Woman, Riviera), the Security Forces founder (Nonso Anozie), the friendly Iraqi pizza maker (Lewis Alsamari).

It's often shot very close (by David Odd) and editor Victoria Boydell keeps us there, but also pulls off some fabulous montages to music. And the action scenes are vivid and exciting. It was filmed in Morocco, of course.

Graham makes a great impression. He seems utterly credible in the midst of combat scenes - in fact here he's really the most at home. Loved the scene in which he appears more and more a threat to an oncoming tank and ends up having to strip entirely to prove he's not.

Peter's script usefully addresses several themes about the after-effects of war: the conflict that remains within the country, the corruption, and the increasing fundamentalism, perfectly depicted in the scene in which Nesbitt is only allowed to communicate with Azabal through an interpreter when they all know she can speak perfect English. It's a gutsy, gripping and ultimately tragic conclusion, with Odd catching the action in an almost documentary style. 'Occupation', it turns out, is about what job they all have, and why they have it. And why they were there in the first place:

'At least now I know what I'm risking my life for.'
'What happened to you?'
'I went to Iraq. Why? What happened to you?'

It doesn't read as well on the page but to hear Graham deliver this ending is truly great and moving.

Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017 Simon Curtis)

Curtis directed My Week With Marilyn; Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Simon Vaughan (Parade's End, War and Peace) wrote it as an original, based I guess on the facts of the matter - that Milne was suffering from after effects of the War, that his wife was a bit of a bitch, and that the closest person in CR's live was his beloved nanny. It's a very well balanced tale, with Domnhall Gleeson particularly good in the lead, through well supported by Kelly Macdonald, Margot Robbie, Will Tilston and Alex Lawther, and Stephen Campbell Moore.

Evocatively photographed (and operated) by Ben Smithard and edited in a way I can't really put words to by Victoria Boydell. It's a bloody elusive art, editing, I tell you. Ian Wilson is the supervising sound editor - great sound. Carter Burwell wrote the music.

The Undoing (2020 Creator David E Kelley / Director Susanne Bier)

Or 'Command Z' as Q calls it.

Did Hugh Grant kill his ex lover? Wife Nicole Kidman isn't sure either way, whilst various friends and investigating detectives behave annoyingly. Cut to - six hours later.

With the still great Donald Sutherland, Noah Jupe (son), Edgar Ramirez (Carlos the Jackal; lead detective), Lily Rabe (lawyer friend), Matilda de Angelis (the victim), Ismael Cruz Cordova (her husband), Noma Dumezwemi (defence barrister; lots of British TV including Capital), Sofie Grabol, Janel Moloney (West Wing) & Douglas Hodge as some kind of investigator. And this points out a couple of things. The Janel character is a non-part, and the Hodge one just disappears and we're left wondering why he was in it at all.

It was written in such a way that you end up suspecting everyone, wanting to know what happened, but ultimately not really caring about anyone in it. Grant continues his great second career. It's stylishly made by Bier, cameraman Antony Dod Mantle and editor Ben Lester.

When I saw that first clip of Ramirez sticking her junk in Kidman's face I thought 'This is going to be crap'. Well, it wasn't crap, but it wasn't very good really. Still have no idea what 'The Undoing' is supposed to mean. It was adapted from a novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz called - ironically -  'You Should Have Known'!

A Sky Atlantic production.

Legally Blonde / Legally Blonde 2 (2001 Robert Luketic / 2003 Charles Herman-Wormfeld)

Previous reviews:

Like Bridget Jones, the heroine goes to a regular party in fancy dress - maybe the writers of this had read the book? (The films came out pretty simultaneously.) We needed bland enjoyment to wash away A Perfect Couple.

It's not really very well written but fun. Holland Tayor is the stern professor, Ali Larter the accused and Oz Perkins the tall dork.

The music's by Rolfe Kent. Overall, it's very packaged.

It's reliable, like a favourite T-shirt. Reece is impossible to dislike and Luke provides the soothing tone of a Wilson.

Amanda Brown write the original novel based on her own experiences at Stamford Law (from which she never graduated) published - when? Same year? (Difficult to establish.) Almost all the reviewers on goodreads.com say the film is much better. It was screenwritten by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith who had written 10 Things I Hate About You.

Red, White and Blonde: Eve Ahlert, Dennis Drake and Kate Kondell wrote Pink's assault on Washington to save dog's mother (Bruiser is well played by Moondoggie). New cast includes Sally Field, Regina King, Bruce McGill, Dana Ivey, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Bob Newhart, with fleeting appearance from Octavia Spencer.

Despite the fact it becomes increasingly silly in the last third, it's good fun overall, and featuring winning performances from Reece Witherspoon, Moonie and Sally Field. Music's by Rolfe Kent again. Considering its heart is in the right place it suffers from terrible online reviews such as 'I'd rather staple my eyelids shut', written, no doubt, by someone in the first grade.

Even better shot than the original: Elliot Davis going very old school with his back lighting making the girls' hair look 1940s. He also shot I Am Sam, Out of Sight, The Birth of a Nation, White Oleander and Lawn Dogs. 

Not sure I'd get on quite so well with it sober, but there you go.

The Servant (1963 Joseph Losey)

Remarkably close in theme and style to Performance - both films are about two males who reverse roles, with two women involved, in distinctive, characterful London properties (this one 30 Royal Avenue, Chelsea, where houses now cost a cool £6 million).

Bogarde is absolutely brilliant as the sinister manservant who's clearly up to something (the moment we see him drinking beer when he's said he doesn't); with grim amusement we see the tables being very slyly turned. It was James Fox's first starring role (he's fourth billed) and he, Wendy Craig and Sarah Miles are also terrific.

Douglas Slocombe's camera prowls through the house (Losey also highly rated operator Chic Waterson*, amazing credits), beautifully lit, and bear in mind this is not a hand held or Steadicam shoot. He won the BAFTA, along with Bogarde and Fox (Newcomer, for which Craig was also a contender).

That song by Cleo Laine 'All Gone' is used very creatively: to Fox and Craig making love, then to Fox seducing Miles, to a shattered Fox having Miles attempt to come back, and finally to the 'orgy' when Fox smashes it to pieces.

It was the first of several fruitful collaborations between Losey and Harold Pinter, who adapted Robin Maugham's novel. Alexander Walker in his book 'Hollywood England' posits it was the Government scandals (Profumo etc.) of the previous year that made the subject matter so popular with audiences - it was a big hit - as well as the (suggestions of) sex.

Johnny Dankworth's score is memorable; Reginald Mills edited.

And some of it's very funny of course, e.g. the restaurant scene, the bickering like a married couple, and the game below:

Also a brilliant bit of lighting

Also memorable is the scene where returning home, Fox and Craig realise the servant and his 'sister' are in the 'master's' bedroom (everything is shifting, changing), and Bogarde's silhouette suggests that he knows they have returned but says and does nothing - still quite shocking.

* He and Slocombe collaborated dozens of times, from The Man In The White Suit on.

Bright Young Things (2003 Stephen Fry & scr)

Well, we were somewhat blown away by the wit and energy, big laughs, compassion, tragedy and suspense of Mr Fry's adaptation (although I have to admit I thought it was the twenties not the late thirties).  Changing the name from 'Vile Bodies' was also a good idea. He gets the best out of an absolutely sterling cast too, led by Stephen Campbell Moore, Emily Mortimer, Fenella Woolgar, Michael Sheen and James McAvoy. And imagine directing Sir John Mills to sniff cocaine! ('Naughty salt'!)

With Dan Aykroyd, David Tennant, Jim Broadbent, Stockard Channing, Peter O'Toole, Julia McKenzie, Jim Carter, Simon Callow, Imelda Staunton, Richard E Grant, Bill Paterson, Simon McBurney, Harriet Walter, Angela Thorne, Guy Henry.

Great art direction / cinematography (Michael Howells/Lynne Huitson, Henry Braham) and editing / music (Alex Mackie and Anne Dudley).

Terrific stuff about 'Indian Runner' - you're never sure if the Major is pulling a fast one; great racing scene at Brooklands; brilliant No. 10 episode.

We'd just watched Stephen on Graham Norton, and he confessed to loving chick flicks like Clueless, Mean Girls and Legally Blonde. So when Q suggested the latter as our next entertainment, it was quite fitting!

From a BBC interview:
What would Evelyn Waugh say about the film?
Fry: God, I wouldn't like to guess. He was a pretty curmudgeonly old sod and he would no doubt have grumbled about it. He hated anything modern, so God knows.

Mank (2012 David Fincher)

The script was written by David's dad Jack, who died in 2003, and it's based on Pauline Kael's claim that Welles didn't write a word of Citizen Kane, a claim which has since been completely undermined by Peter Bogdanovich. And it doesn't make any sense of the suggestion that Welles objected massively to Mankiewicz being credited - the film doesn't address why he would do that.

However the screenplay does also have an intriguing sub-plot about Hearst's nominee only winning the California election because of fake newsreels put out at his command, and it's this that drives Mank from being a friend and frequent visitor to the Hearst castle to deliberately courting controversy by writing the script the way he did (and being a topical and timely theme).

There are some lovely little touches (the end of reel markers, for example) and bits of lighting that subtly reflect Kane itself, though the decision to shoot in widescreen was a little odd. No argument with cinematography (Eric Messerschmidt, in an unusual 2.2:1 ratio), production design (Donald Graham Burt), editing (Kirk Baxter), music (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross) and all the other behind the scenes stuff, though I'd still argue it's not as beautifully shot as some much older films, Last Year at Marienbad being a prime example. The film will likely be a strong Oscar contender, if such a ceremony ever takes place again.

Gary Oldman's great in the title role, Tom Burke's Welles impression is brilliant, even Amanda Seyfried is unusually convincing as Marion Davies. With Charles Dance (Hearst), Lily Collins, Tom Pelphrey (Mank's brother Joe), Arliss Howard (Mayer), Tuppence Middleton (Mank's wife), Monika Gossmann (nurse), Joseph Cross (Lederer), Sam Troughton (Houseman), Toby Leonard Moore (Selznick), Jeff Harms (Ben Hecht).

Au Pair Girls (1972 Val Guest & co-scr)

It seems the seventies Gerry Anderson sci-fi UFO show has remained a hit with its now more grown-up fan base, though the focus seems to have switched from shooting down alien spacecraft to the tight fitting silver costumes and purple wigs of the female moonbase crew - particularly Gabrielle Drake. Well, she led me to this film, one of a series of sex comedies popular at the time. She, Astrid Frank, Me Me Lai and Nancie Wait are the au pair girls in London, who are variously seduced, stripped, fucked over and idolized by a variety of sexist bastards, including Johnny Briggs, Richard O'Sullivan and Ferdy Mayne. The clothes are falling off all over the place, often in a very surrealistic manner. Some of the attitudes and behaviours of the men are frankly outrageous. But the girls seem on the whole to be able to look after themselves. It looked cold when they were filming so I hope the actresses were well looked after. John Le Mesurier's in it. By no means dreadful in execution, but thankfully, severely dated.

Enchanted April (1991 Mike Newell)

Elizabeth von Arnim's 1922 book beautifully adapted by Peter Barnes and filmed by Newell. Castello Brown above Portofino (the actual castle where the book was written) seduces the women who inhabit it - Miranda Richardson, Josie Lawrence, Joan Plowright and Polly Walker - and, ultimately, the visiting men - Alfred Molina, Jim Broadbent and Michael Kitchen. It's leisurely. Interesting in its switching over subjective voiceovers between the characters.

In this fabulous scene, Richardson is so chilled she doesn't make a move when a friendly gecko runs through her hair

Photographed by Rex Maidment, music by Richard Rodney Bennett, edited by Dick Allen.