Waking Ned (1998 Kirk Jones & scr)

Charming Irish comedy with a shade of Local Hero to it, about a village who pretend their lottery winning member is still alive. Ian Bannen and Fionnula Flanagan head the proceedings, but David Kelly - who we grew up with on Robin's Nest - quietly steals the film. Best scene - funeral service where Bannen gets to say what a great friend he's had whilst he is still alive.

Kelly had quite a career beginning in the theatre, on TV from 1951 - The Wrong Man is an early appearance as uncredited copper. (He was a ticket collector in The Girl With Green Eyes.)

Also with Susan Lynch, James Nesbitt. Jones was previously an ad man, writing and directing award winning ads - this was his first film.

Atlanta - Robbin' Season (2018 Donald Glover)

Is 'Florida Man' going to turn out to be real? After seeing the Invisible Car, you can't be sure!

After trading $4k for a trade card which turns out to have a limited shelf-life, Earn deserves to be fired.

Record company types amusingly shallow and incompetent.

Episode with Paper Boi and the most annoying barber in the world Robert S Powell is highly enjoyable (writer Stefani Robinson), followed by the very weird episode about 'Teddy Perkins' (written by Donald Glover). One of the best things about this show is the reaction shots - particularly of Henry - to the fools and incompetents and idiots around him.

Zazie Beets and friends attend a posh party - hats off to DP Christian Sprenger (shot 34 episodes) for this tricky, lovely shot:

Ends interestingly with a flashback episode to Earn and Alfred at school, then we set off on European tour, not really knowing if Earn is still Paper Boi's manager.

Leave Her To Heaven (1945 John Stahl)

"First his brother, and now his son..." We think we know what happened at the end  but the disc buggered up in the last 15 minutes. Jo Swerling adapted Ben Ames Williams' lurid novel to become a glossy melodrama for Fox. Gene Tierney is the beautiful psycho bitch who murders her husband's brother and eliminates her own child. It's quite a lot of fun.

With Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain (A Letter to Three Wives), Vincent Price, Mary Philips, Ray Collins, Gene Lockhart, Chill Wills. Won Oscar for Leon Shamroy's cinematography (art direction also nominated); scored by Alfred Newman.

River of No Return (1954 Otto Preminger)

Scared of cutting in CinemaScope, Preminger keeps things in long takes, which is good. Mitchum (usually line perfect) would have had no problem with that but Marilyn - well, you wonder. She was yet again under the grip of her acting coach Natasha Lytess, who made her over-articulate, and who upset the boy Tommy Rettig, saying now was the time he'd start losing his talent, after which he had trouble with lines. The fact that Monroe and Preminger weren't talking didn't help matters.

Filmed in Canada by Joe LaShelle, music by Cyril Mockridge, edited by Louis Loeffler. Both Mitchum and Monroe perform 'River of No Return' (Lionel Newman / Ken Darby), she nicely sings other numbers too. Writer Frank Fenton, Louis Lantz. 20th Century Fox. With Rory Calhoun, Murvyn Vye, Douglas Spencer.

The end result is most enjoyable.

Mitchum & co bravely navigate green screen whilst having water chucked at them

Mitchum found Marilyn sweet but sad and confused, and learned that her frequent lateness and unpredictability were the result of particularly prolonged and painful periods. (Source: Lee Server 'Baby I Don't Care'.)

World on Fire - Season 2 (2023 Writer Peter Bowker)

The somewhat delayed continuing adventures of a disparate group in WW2. 

Lesley Manville, Jonah Hauer-King, Zofia Wichlacz, Julia Brown, Ewan Michell (her brother) Harry Chase, Parker Sawyers, Kasia Tomaszeski, Blake Harrison, Ahad Raza Mir (in the desert), Ceallach Spellman, Eugenie Derouand (nurse / Resistance), Parker Sawyers (jazz sax player in camp), David Sulkin (charismatic pilot), Mark Bonnar, Miriam Schiweck (German girl), Yrsa Daley-Ward (ambulance driver). Also loved the sergeant's wife in brief but excellent appearance - we think it was Posy Sterling.

Really well written cross-cutting between England, Egypt, Paris and Berlin. Exciting flying scenes. Sulkin's luck of course runs out eventually.

Really enjoying (again) the interplay between Hauer-King and his disrespectful sergeant Blake Harrison, who's great. Shameful racism in desert exposed towards Indian troops. Sulkin's engineer also amusingly disrespectful to pilot.

Good production values - looking forward to finding out Sahara was played by Margate etc!

Most watchable, but somehow doesn't once make you cry, gasp with surprise, burst out laughing... it's a few inches away from being great. But we will watch the next seventeen seasons.

Editor (ep 2 anyway) Jeremy Strachan, DPs Bastian Schiott, John Lee, music Dan Jones. Mammoth Screen for BBC.

Red Dog (2011 Kriv Stenders)

Based on Louis De Berniere's collection of stories about Australia's apocryphal dog, who roamed the North-East in the 1970s. Good screenplay (Daniel Taplitz) frames these stories from a night in a boozer, anxiously waiting on the dog's progress, as stories are told to a passing stranger.

Sweet, mad, proud, crazy (shark is 'Lord Nelson'), talking of which loved the Jaws and Leone references, and that high speed fight between Red Dog and Cat.

Josh Lucas, Rachel Taylor, Noah Taylor, Rohan Nichol, Luke Ford (the stranger), Arthur Angel (Italian), John Batchelor.

And Koko as Red Dog. He won the Golden Collar Award in LA but not the Palm Dog (which went to Banjo and Poppy for Sightseers).

Photographed by Geoffrey Hall (The Tourist 3 episodes, Chopper), edited by Jill Bilcock (Baz Luhrman films, Road to Perdition).

The Parallax View (1974 Alan J Pakula)

Notice how high billed Gordon Willis is for his cinematography - his dark compositions perfectly match the dark goings-on, and Pakula likes to keep things at a distance, e.g. fight scene in river in which we can hardly see what's happening. Written by David Giler (Southern Comfort, The Money Pit) and Lorenzo Semple Jr (Fathom, Pretty Poison, Three Days of the Condor), novel Loren Singer, this is a perfectly timed American paranoia / conspiracy thriller. Warren Beatty is the dogged journalist investigating the deaths to a number of people who witnessed the killing of a political candidate.

With Hume Cronyn, William Daniels, Paula Prentiss, Kelly Thordsen, Bill McKinney (The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Shootist), Jo Ann Harris.

Also very well edited by John W Wheeler - the 'Parallax Test' movie alone is outstanding.

Willis once again received neither an Oscar nor BAFTA nomination.

'Future Shock' a bestselling non-fiction book by Alvin Toffler, is about the effects of too much change in too short a time - Wendell Armbruster Jr finds his Dad has been reading it in Avanti.

Something's Gotta Give (2003 Nancy Meyers & scr)

There's something suspect in all this, the talk of empowered women over 50 frightening off men - then when Diane's rejected she keeps sobbing like a baby. Pull yourself together girls!

My favourite scene is still the 'pyjama party' being interrupted, a delicious bit of editing of wonderful performances, one of those 'ballet of the eyes' sequences. (Another one going on in Paris restaurant.) Joe Hutshing is the credited editor, though there's also a credit to Stephen A Rotter for 'additional editing'. What's that all about? We'll have to ask him.

They missed a trick here - Jack should have been playing Orson Welles!

Added treat - Jack sings us out with 'La Vie En Rose'. I am reliably informed that he also sings in The Who's Tommy (had forgotten he was even in it).

Michael Inside (2017 Frank Berry & scr)

Already on probation, 18 year old Michael is arrested for a small amount of cocaine (€2k worth) and sent to prison - ridiculous. There of course he becomes brutalised, while on the outside his grandfather is victimised by the same gang. It's extremely depressing and can only go one way. Undoubtedly intelligent and realistic but a real downer - fortunately it's only 90 minutes.

With Dafhyd Flynn, Lalor Roddy, Moe Dunford. Good acting.

It put me in mind of the rather more optimistic Starred Up.

Atlanta - Season 1 (2016 Donald Glover)

A slightly messy 10 x 25m series for FX in which we vaguely follow the management of rapper 'Paper  Boi' Brian Tyree Henry by his cousin Earn, Donald Glover, but the series takes pot shots at whatever it wants and tangents accordingly - thus we have long stretch with Earn waiting in detention while they process his paperwork, or where he and girlfriend attend a posh Juneteenth which has been totally misappropriated by the white head of the household (notice also the hostility of the black barman), or exposing the shallowness of the nightclub experience. Writing is often on an absurdist level (e.g. invisible car, fake ads) but when it wants to drop in some powerful random violence or shit it doesn't flinch from doing so.

Great to see how their careers took off. Henry has been in Widows, If Beale Street Could Talk, Joker, The Woman in the Window; Lakeith Stanfield's appeared in Get Out, Sorry to Bother You, Knives Out, Judas and the Black Messiah.

Get Shorty (1995 Barry Sonnenfeld)

Scott Frank's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's twisty 1990 story shows how far the TV series diverged from it.

John Travolta is super-cool as the mob fixer who gets interested in the movie business.

With Gene Hackman (funny), Rene Russo, Danny de Vito, Delroy Lindo, James Gandolfini, David Paymer, Dennis Farina. The success of this may have inspired Soderbergh to make Out Of Sight in 1998, also adapted by Frank.

DP Donald Peterman, music John Lurie, editor Jim Miller.

Liked the Touch of Evil references.

Escape From Alcatraz (1979 Don Siegel & prod)

In many ways, the original Shawshank Redemption (King's novella was published three years later). Siegel and writer Richard Tuggle ramp up the tension as a quartet of lifers decide The Rock is not for them. J Campbell Bruce had related the story in his study of the prison, released in 1963. As repeated in the film, the trio were never found.

Exciting film, with good flashes of humour. Clint Eastwood, Roberts Blossom ('Doc', Home Alone), Jack Thibeau and Fred Ward (Big Business, Short Cuts) (brothers), Paul Benjamin, Patrick McGoohan, Frank Ronzio, Bruce Fischer.

Photographed by Bruce Surtees on Alcatraz; good twangly score from Jerry Fielding; edited by Ferris Webster (Joel Cox assisting).

On Dangerous Ground (1951 Nicholas Ray & co-scr)

Ray and A.I. Bezzerides adapted Gerald Butler novel, creating what starts as a noirish police psychological drama and turns into something more strange, more lyrical and more romantic, underscored by a terrific Bernard Herrmann score which considerably uplifts Ray's already great film.

Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino (she's actually top billed but doesn't come in until 40 minutes through) are really the whole show. Though also with Ward Bond, Ed Begley, Charles Kemper, Ian Wolfe, Jimmy Conlin.

The film has a wonderful momentum too - editor Roland Gross (also The Thing From Another World). Photographed by George Diskant. An RKO film produced by John Houseman.

Star Trek: Charlie X (1966 Lawrence Dobkin)

Interesting early episode (the second broadcast) in which a teenager exhibits uncontrollable power over Kirk and the Starship Enterprise, confused by feelings for Yeoman Janice (Grace Lee Whiney). Distinguished by the performance of Robert Walker Jr (then 26 ish) as the intense young man. Also features Uhuru singing a cheeky song about Spock, with which he looks fairly uncomfortable.

Walker was in Young Billy Young, Ensign Pulver, The War Wagon and Easy Rider.

Screenplay by D.C. Fontana from Gene Rodenberry idea. Music Fred Steiner, photography Jerry Finnerman.

I must say they have preserved the series well - it looks sharp and colourful.

Same Time Next Year (1978 Robert Mulligan)

Bernard Slade adapted his own play which debuted in 1975 initially with Charles Grodin and Ellen Burstyn, who reprised her performance for the film opposite Alan Alda. The film begins badly, with a montage of a couple meeting in 1951 to a rather crap love song duet, something I think you should never do, but picks up after that, when they are seen reuniting every five years or so. Black and white photo montages fill in the years in between.

Didn't love Marvin Hamlisch's music; nicely photographed by Robert Surtees (then about 72, his last film) and edited by Sheldon Kahn.

The Sea Shadows Inn is now the Heritage House resort in Little River, California.

Get Shorty - Season 3 (2019 Davey Holmes)

Miles - a brilliant Chris O'Dowd - is released from prison and gets a job as a producer's assistant for the bastard who was responsible for his prolonged imprisonment (Steven Weber, who I guess we recognise from Studio 60). I like that it's written that Miles still has this pent-up anger and dangerous edge, amplified by that great drumming that goes throughout. Ohhh.... Antonio Sanchez  is  the drummer / composer from Birdman, and before that was a member of Pat Metheny's band. (Should call this nick's slow film jottings.) It gives the whole thing a distinctive edge in the same way that Terence Blanchard's horn elevates Perry Mason.

Sean Bridgers, Ray Romano, Lidia Porto, Goya Robles, Megan Stevenson, Sarah Stiles, Isaac Keys, Carolyn Dodd. We like the new security guy, Toby Levins.

Despite only seven episodes it wraps up fairly nicely with Miles having played the long game and getting his revenge.

Sneakers (1992 Phil Alden Robinson & co-scr)

Despite the 'high tech' fixings (which we'd now see as 'low tech') you'd basically file this under 'crime caper with oddball characters', something Robert Redford would already have known about from The Hot Rock.

Is this the most unlikely thing you'd expect to find Sidney Poitier in? Is Poitier a French name?

The misfits are Redford, Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix and David Strathairn, with Mary McDonnell an honorary member. Bad guys are Timothy Busfield and Eddie Jones, and that guy from Ghandi. And Stephen Tobolowsky. And James Earl Jones.

Good fun overall, perhaps bitty - 'written by Phil Alden Robinson and Lawrence Lasker & Walter Parkes'. Ending is straight out of The Trouble with Harry.

Nicely photographed by John Lindley and with a good score from James Horner.

Didn't get 'Who framed Pete Rose' at all.

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017 Martin McDonagh)

Can't believe it didn't win the Best Screenplay Oscar (Get Out was better?? I don't think so), though did the BAFTA, and Best Film. Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell at least won the acting Oscars (and BAFTAs). It's a potent screenplay with many targets.

Woody Harrelson, Lukas Hedges, Caleb Landry Jones, Kerry Condon (Jones' receptionist), Abbie Cornish (Harrelson's wife), Zeljko Ivanek, Sandy Martin (Rockwell's mom), Peter Dinklage

The scene where Rockwell throws Jones out of the window is so powerful because it's in one long hand held take.

Forgiveness is a potent theme here.