Inventing the Abbotts (1997 Pat O'Connor)

Low key drama, lacking in humour, written by Ken Hixon, adapting Sue Miller's novel. It's 1957, Illinois. Two brothers from the wrong side of the tracks are obsessed by the three wealthy sisters of the town. These are played by Billy Crudup, who's pretty much permanently angry, and Joaquin Phoenix, and Liv Tyler, Jennifer Connolly and Joanna Going. The boys' patient widowed mother is Kathy Baker, you know, from The Jane Austen Book Club.

In common with Circle of Friends (another period novel adaptation) it's well acted, photographed by Kenneth MacMillan and scored by Michael Kamen. Curiously, it's a film without any highlights.

Dancing at Lughnasa (1998), The January Man (Kevin Kline, 1989), The Ballroom of Romance (1986) and Fools of Fortune (Julie Christie, Michael Kitchen, 1990) probably worth looking out for. Cal was his feature debut in 1984, with Helen Mirren, which was nominated for the Palme D'Or.

Art School Confidential (2006 Terry Zwigoff)

 Written by Daniel Clowes, based on his own graphic novel.

He also wrote Ghost World, which Zwigoff also directed, and thus giving a roundabout link to Thora Birch, who was in it.

Ironic view of art establishment as gifted artist Max Minghella (yes, son of) attends art school, finds both teachers and students are more impressed by talentless crap - as is the commercial art world. He attempts to romance Sophia Myles, another Brit known to us from Our Zoo and the Marple Sleeping Murder. Meanwhile roommate Ethan Suplee is trying to make a movie, and there's a strangler on the loose.

With John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Matt Keeslar, Anjelica Huston, Steve Buscemi.

The classical music - Strauss' 'An Artist's Life' and Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5 - add something.

Now and Then (1995 Lesli Linka Glatter)

Good coming of age drama. Childhood friends Christina Ricci (excellent), Thora Birch (Ghost World, American Beauty), Gaby Hoffman and Ashleigh Ashton Moore grow up to become Rosie O'Donnell, Melanie Griffith, Demi Moore and Rita Wilson, respectively, but most of the film is set in 1970. With Walter Sparrow (Crazy Pete), Cloris Leachman, Lolita Davidovitch, Janeane Garofolo and Hank Azaria. Good acting all round. Uncredited Brendan Fraser as Vietnam vet.

Q points out the Kickers are still in fashion

We expected more 'now' but it didn't matter. Title is unimaginative.

Always remember Glatter as a Twin Peaks director - other credits include The Newsroom, Homeland, True Blood, ER and Mad Men. This was her feature debut.

Moscow on the Hudson (1984 Paul Mazursky & co-scr)

The other writer being Leon Capetanos, who worked with Mazursky on Down and Out in Beverley Hills and Richard Dreyfuss comedy Moon Over Parador (1988).

This is terrific. After a depressing opening in Moscow (actually Munich!) saxophonist on tour defects in Bloomingdales, security guard Cleavant Derricks takes him in, shop assistant Maria Conchita Alonso (playing an Italian?) becomes his girlfriend. But its not sugary, quite tough. And everyone he meets is from somewhere else (even Derricks quips he's also a refugee - from Alabama).

It was well overdue, first watched it 29 December 1989. Most fitting music, from David McHugh. Good acting down to smaller roles, including Saveliy Kramarov as KGB agent, himself only recently emigrated from Russia, and Elya Baskin as his friend. Wild Bill Hawthorn is a fictional character (played by George Kelly). The film they go to see - which Williams criticises - is An Unmarried Woman with Jill Clayburgh, directed by Mazursky.

DP Donald McAlpine.

Line of Duty: Season 87 (2021 Jed Mercurio)

Martin Compston's grown a beard - and that's the major shock in the opening episode. What? I know - no one's thrown out of a window or killed the wrong person. But Kelly Macdonald looks like she's up to something.

The fact that the announcer had to explain what CHIS means is I think both funny and a weakness in the writing (Covert Human Intelligence Source) - it's kinda obvious they meant 'informant' and it might have been easier to leave it at that. But that would be too simple for Mr Mercurio... Ooh - that's got a nice ring to it. Sounds like a cult seventies TV show for kids, like Ace of Wands.

Anyway it does build slowly but putting Kate in danger at the end of Episode 5, very good... Then to strangely fluff the next episode. Kate and Kelly do a runner? 'No comment'. Think Kelly very good, but don't buy her as senior police officer. Anna Maxwell Martin terrific. Don't care who 'H' is. Have to say I found the ending unremarkable, especially if you think of the show's highlights since 2012.

With Anneika Rose, Nigel Boyle, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Perry Fitzpatrick, George Costigan

DP on 5-7 is Ray Carlin. Tim Palmer shot the others.

Liar Liar (1997 Tom Shaydac)

We had some time to kill before the last Line of Duty, and this was on. It saved having to think. Jim Carrey is way, way over the top, channelling 'Jerry Lee Lewis' (Q, we know who she means) and Basil Fawlty in an almost unwatchable performance. He's excruciating.

Best moment by far was one of the outtakes, when Swoosie Kurtz breaks the scene by calling him an 'overactor' - he hugs her and then quips 'They're on to me'.

Also with Maura Tierney from E.R., Cary Elwes, Anne Haney (loyal secretary), Jennifer Tilly, Amanda Donohoe, Jason Bernard, Mitchell Ryan (Lethal Weapon).

Circle of Friends (1995 Pat O'Connor)

Andrew Davies adapted Maeve Binchy's book about young love affecting three friends in and around Dublin in the 1950s. Minnie Driver, wonderful in her first feature, falls for rugby playing medical student Chris O'Donnell, Geraldine O'Rawe for student Aiden Gillan, but Saffron Burrows has more ambitious aims towards English bounder Colin Firth. Meanwhile the lizard-like Alan Cummings is after Minnie. Good secondary cast too includes people like Ciaran Hinds, Mick Lally, Britta Smith, John Kavanagh, Ruth McCabe.

When it ends on Minnie saying she knows what to do with her life - become a writer - you sense the whole thing may be autobiographical.

Great performances, nicely realised by O'Connor, good detail. Production designer Jim Clay worked on The Singing Detective, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The Trench, Children of Men and Match Point; art director Chris Seagers also Aunt Julia, and Saving Private Ryan. Q was clearly feeling tired - she didn't say 'Nice bus' once (and there were a few on offer). John Jympson edited, the music's by Michael Kamen, Kenneth MacMillan is the DP.

Made for ITV.

An American Pickle (2020 Brandon Trost)

Trost made The Disaster Artist, Simon Rich wrote for SNL. Seth Rogan is great, especially as pickled European from 100 years ago, Herschel Greenbaum, but also as his great grandson Ben. Plot is mad, obviously, but has some things to say about progress, identity, religion and family along the way, and is pretty funny, e.g. overnight success of artisan pickles, response of gay couple on the street.

With Sarah Snook. Music by Nami Melumad, based on Michael Giacchino themes, photographed by John Guleserian (About Time, Breathe In, Like Crazy), edited by Lisa Zeno Churgin (The Cider House Rules, In Her Shoes).

French Postcards (1979 Willard Huyck)

Written by he and Gloria Katz. Concerning US students in Paris. Miles Chapin falls for French shop girl Valérie Quennessen, David Marshall Grant sets his sights on teacher Marie-France Pisier, Blanche Baker is lonely. Debra Winger's in it a little bit.

Some of this works better than others. The weirdest bit is where Pisier takes the young man back to hers, then shows him a book about sex, then keeps him at arms length, e.g. in a jacuzzi, before they have sex (which they don't).

It feels a bit messy, overall, but is quite enjoyable.

Carol Littleton edited.

Jean-Jacques Beineix was 1st AD - he made his first feature, Diva, in 1981.

Roman Holiday (1954 William Wyler)

One of Q's writer's group just watched it for the first time, and described it as the 'template' for Notting Hill, which initially seemed an interesting idea, but really they're quite different. Peck's newspaperman is quite ruthless really, and exploits the innocence of the princess; Curtis's inspiration came from the idea of turning up to his friends for dinner with someone really famous in tow. (Ironically that's probably happened in real life by now.) The scenes at the end with all the journalists grouped together is the closest they get.

It was Hepburn's first starring role - she stole the hearts of the world, and the Oscar.

According to IMDB, Franz Planer fell ill, which is why Henri Alékan came on. That's not the story given here. Georges Auric's score is lovely.

Two Distant Strangers (2020 Travon Free, & scr, Martin Desmond Roe)

How do you deal with the spate of killings of innocent black people by American cops? By turning it into Groundhog Day? It doesn't sound like it should work, but it does, horribly well, as Joey Bada$$ attempts to get home every day and he's always killed by the same cop, Andrew Howard, no matter what he does or the conversations he has with the man. At least it ends on a note of hope - somehow or another, he's going to change things and get home.

I quite liked the exchange with his girlfriend Zaria - "What would you do if you were shot dead every day?" "Shoot back." Intriguingly it's the one course of action he doesn't attempt.

It won the Oscar for the best short film. However it seems the plot was lifted in its entirety from Cynthia Kao's hilarious 2015 film Groundhog Day for a Black Man (with Burl Moseley), which is truly bizarre, considering the same thing had happened with the original.

Not sure...

Viewpoint (2021 Ashley Way)

We're slightly in Pushover territory again (and, by extension) Stakeout. Hmm. Must watch Stakeout again. Noel Clarke is the surveillance expert - expert? I question that because in the very first episode he lets his camera battery run out when a proper expert would have been on mains power. Anyway, the surveillance semi-professional is staked out in Alexandra Roach's Manchester flat, and you see where that might be going.

We know her from Killing Exe, Sanditon, No Offence, Utopia, Cuban Fury, Anna Karenina and other TV shows. 

Written by Harry Bradbeer (a Killing Eve and Fleabag director), Ed Whitmore, Tom Farrelly. Not sure it's the greatest title. With Kila Lord Cassidy (daughter), Sarah Niles (good as DCI), Phil Davies.

In the end it's not the obvious suspects at all. The ending is downbeat.

While it was screening on ITV over five nights, a story broke in The Guardian that many people had come forward accusing Clarke of sexual assault and bullying. The final part was thusly relegated to streaming only, whilst BAFTA stripped him of his recent award for Contribution to Cinema.

Lassie (1994 Daniel Petrie)

Matthew Jacobs and Gary Ross (Seabiscuit  and Pleasantville) wrote it, actually giving the dog a job for once - as a sheepdog in Virginia. She (it's a male again - Howard) also helps unhappy teen Tom Guiry reconnect with his dead mom and remaining family, Jon Tenney, stepmom Helen Slater and little sister Brittany Boyd. (I can't believe he didn't share the discovery of the diary with the others. I suspect it was in the script but was cut for some reason of expedience.) With Richard Farnsworth, Frederic Forrest and a young Michelle Williams.

The dog seemed Pal-worthy; thus we were delighted (amongst a small handful, I'm sure) to see the name of Robert Weatherwax as trainer, son of Rudd. Thus we're sure he was a direct descendant of Pal.

Including some elements from the original story, this was a successful version.

It reminded me of Q's story about how her rough collie Bonnie appeared with her long-buried favourite toy, a teddy bear, and of Brian in Family Guy (no idea why).

Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991 Charles Sturridge)

Certainly the darkest E.M. Forster adaptation I've seen (by the director, Tim Sullivan and Derek Granger - all involved with A Handful of Dust also), involving an impetuous woman (Helen Mirren) who impulsively marries an Italian dentist (Giovanni Guidelli) and into a life she didn't anticipate. When she dies giving birth, two of her relatives - Rupert Graves and an extremely hysterical Judy Davis - come to bring the baby home, with tragic results. Graves, a self-confessed 'non-doer', falls for determined Helena Bonham Carter, who (we think) is after the child also. Lovely setting in the fictional Monteriano (actually Montepulciano, San Gimignano and Cuna, all in Siena).

It was Forster's first novel, published in 1905 when he was only 26. Did note the irony, probably from the book, that Davis fails to admire the Tuscan scenery because of the train dirt in her eye.

With Barbara Jefford. Terrific music by Rachel Portman and maybe Michael Coulter's finest work as a cinematographer.

It was Victoria Boydell's first job in cinema, as Cutting Room Trainee.

The Sun Comes Up (1949 Richard Thorpe)

The Lassie musical. Well, Jeanette MacDonald warbles powerfully, reminding me of Bianca Castafiore in the Tintin series. The dog is there principally to help her bond to orphan Claude Jarman Jr. Amusing stuff with locals, particularly general store owner Percy Kilbride, who I guess we recognise from Fallen Angel and The Southerner (and Margaret Hamilton from The Wizard of Oz). Lloyd Nolan shows up eventually.

Pal doesn't have an awful lot to do until a tense fire at the orphanage in the finale.

According to my records I previously saw this on 7 Feb 1976, and awarded it 3 out of 10!

Photographed by Ray June, music by André Previn.

The Painted Hills (1951 Harold F Kress)

The last of the MGM Lassie films, this is an adaptation of Alexander Hull's novel 'Shep of the Painted Hills', written by True Boardman, concerning gold prospecting in the 19th century. 'It's not Treasure of the Sierra Madre' I told Q, but actually she'd hit the nail on the head - the greed for gold turns the wheels of the plot (and as such, Greed can't stop coming to mind). Paul Kelly is the nice prospector who's murdered by Bruce Cowling, who then poisons the dog. It turns into a battle of vengeance between these two, ending in the snow.. I hadn't expected it to be so good - Pal at his most growly...

With Gary Gray as the kid, Art Smith, Ann Doran, Chief Yowlachie. Music by Daniele Amfitheatrof, photographed by Alfred Gilks and Harold Lipstein. We saw a public domain version with very washed out colour. The Roan Group copy is apparently the one to go for. I am told the Digiview 'Digitally Remastered' copy is as bad as all the others.

'Lassie' actually gets top billing!

Harold Kress was of course the editor of The Yearling, later in life Oscar winner for How the West Was Won and The Towering Inferno, which he shared with his son Carl (who actually cut 75% of it). Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Mrs Miniver were other notable credits. This was one of just three features he directed.

According to my old filing card records, I had never seen this one before.

The Deal (2008 Steven Schachter & co-scr)

William H Macy helped adapt Peter Lefcourt's novel. We very much enjoyed his Hollywood wheeler-dealer, who manages to get a black Jewish action movie about Disraeli (!) into production whilst beguiling exec Meg Ryan (who's in her weird hair and lips period cf. Kate and Leopold (2001)).

We have it on good authority that Hollywood actually is this crazy.

With LL Cool J, Elliott Gould, John's son Jason Ritter, Fiona Glascott, Sharon Raginiano (director), Natasha Nova.

Soul (2020 Pete Docter (with Kemp Powers), co-scr)

They and Mike Jones wrote a story about a jazz musician who's stuck in a kind of pre and afterlife, where he has to engage recalcitrant spirit 22 to follow him to Earth to get his body back. It's quite weird and not as focused as Docter's others (and perhaps over the heads of children) but the jazz sequences are absolutely remarkable and the barber's shop / sycamore scenes lovely.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross shared the soundtrack Oscar with Jon Batiste, who provided the jazz compositions and arrangements. It also won for Best Animated Film.

The eclectic cast comprises Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad (This Is Us), Angela Bassett.

The Descendants (2011 Alexander Payne)

The other great Hawaii film.

Ten years... Clooney (I think it's his best performance) lost the Oscar to Jean Dujardin, Payne to Hazanavicius, Kevin Tent to Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The screenplay won. It's very nicely shaded - you can't help thinking that part of the reason he's not selling the land is simply to deprive his wife's lover of commissions from sales of property that would be built there.

Amara Miller: "George is amazing. He’s a really, really fun guy. I mean he’s hilarious, of course! He’s really energetic and super playful. He definitely made me feel really welcome and I learned a lot from him. It was fantastic working with him on my first movie."

Shailene Woodley: "I’m not an actor who approaches films doing a lot of research. I do zero research... On this film, I thought a little about her back history, but I maybe spent an hour thinking about it, and that’s it. I think you get the most honest performances when an actor shows up to set with their lines memorized. That’s a very important thing that a lot of people seem to forget. You have a pre-conceived notion of what you want the scene to be, but once you get there, that goes out the window and it turns out to be a way that you never imagined. When you’re on set and you professionally listen to what the other actors have to say, then the emotion is naturally evoked, especially with this screenplay. So many times, you get a script and it says, “And then, the character cries,” and you read the lines and think, “That would never make me cry. Those lines are so untruthful.” But, with this script, if our characters were supposed to be emotional, we would be overly emotional because the words were so thought-provoking and emotion-provoking. My approach is just to be honest to the situation.... Someone asked me about George Clooney’s image, but he has no image. He has the image of what materialism has given him, but as a human being, he has no image because he is just so normal and so human. Talk about a professional. He’s a great actor because he’s a great actor, not because an editor makes him look good. I think a lot of people don’t realize that about him. I literally could talk about him for hours. It’s a dangerous subject."

'It's a dangerous subject.' I like that.

Shailene had been in lots and lots of TV, things like The O.C. and Without a Trace but this was her film breakthrough, which led to The Spectacular Now, Divergent, The Fault In Our Stars, Big Little Lies and The Mauritanian.

Aloha (2015 Cameron Crowe & scr)

 Utterly brilliant in all departments.