Midnight in Paris (2011 Woody Allen & scr)

Reviewed here. Still love it.

Mighty Aphrodite (1995 Woody Allen & scr)

Last seen in January 2013. We should add that Michael Rapaport plays the thick boxer, who was not in Roxanne and thus the Q owes me £1 million.

We wanted to laugh and we did, raucously. The Greek chorus, headed by F Murray Abraham, and assorted Greek characters are hilarious (it was filmed in Taormina in February and was still hot, by Carlo di Palma. Almost inevitable then that he and Mr A stayed in the Hotel Timeo next door.) Mira Sorvino was one of his Oscar winners. Helena Bonham Carter is Woody's errant wife. With Tony Sirico.

My Blueberry Nights (2007 Wong Kar Wai & co-scr)

Norah Jones walks into Jude Law's café....

What would be annoying in most directors really works for Wai here - he's constantly shooting through something, textures, like Shangai Express... And his step printing is fantastic. Darius Khondji shot it, of course, and the editor William Chang worked on all the other Wais.

Story is deep and affecting, particularly in the episode with David Strathairn and Rachel Weisz, both of whom are just brilliant, and later with Natalie Portman (equally good). Jude is so charismatic that we just love him.

The music, by Ry Cooder. also features a great acoustic version of 'Yumeji's Theme'.

Ishtar (1987 Elaine May & scr)

Much-maligned film is tremendous fun, with Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman (excellent) as the worst singer-songwriters in history. Could have done with a bit more stupid Beatty - he underplays a lot considering he's the producer. And if Billy Wilder had been watching, he's have said 'They go through all that, and neither gets the girl?' (Isabelle Adjani, who I fell in crush with watching Herzog's Nosferatu).

Charles Grodin is the CIA operative; with Jack Weston, Carol Kane. Apart from a couple of stunning desert shots, you wouldn't know Vittorio Storaro was behind the camera.

Lots of very funny moments include a servant in a royal palace walking backwards quickly out of the room; their best ever gig; a blind camel etc And that great line 'I recognised your men from the Kalashnikovs we sold you'.

With theme of turbulent Middle East and technology it's actually very topical.

Wild (2014 Jean-Marc Vallée)

You never know whether a credited writer has actually written all of a screenplay, viz. Polanski's huge, uncredited involvement in Robert Towne's Chinatown screenplay. From this quote of Nick Hornby's from The Telegraph I think he did it himself:

"I decided that we had to create a kind of mystery in the story – what has messed this young woman up so badly? So we spool back from the divorce until we get to the wellspring of everything, Bobbi's death."

It beautifully constructs Reese Witherspoon's life story through artful time jumping. The editors are Vallée himself (under the pseudonym of John Mac McMurphy!) and Martin Pensa, and Yves Bélanger shot it (in Panavision) (so the same personnel as Dallas Buyers Club).

Both Reese and Laura Dern were nominated.

It's really good. Kept making me think of 'The Little Prince'.

Such Good Friends (1971 Otto Preminger)

Elaine May season continues with her adaptation of a novel by Lois Gould, which was based on her own true experience (her husband died in minor surgery and she found a diary containing all his love affairs). Funny and black e.g. scene where all the husband's 'friends' gather at the hospital like it's a social gathering.

Dyan Cannon is the Candide-like central figure (the nude photo of her is clearly faked - from her revealing top we can see she's no bikini shadow which the photo clearly has), James Coco is great as a doctor 'friend' (again), Laurence Luckinbill is the husband, Ken Howard and Jennifer O'Neill as more 'friends'.

Call this a 'review'?

Sweet Home Alabama (2002 Andy Tennant)

Reese Witherspoon returns home to finally divorce Josh Lucas - even though he has a nice dog - because she wishes to marry Patrick Dempsey, who has a horrid mother (Candice Bergen). Mary Kay Place (It's Complicated) and Fred Ward (The Player, Short Cuts) are her parents  and I thought Mary Louise Parker looked funny - it wasn't her. Though it is a young Dakota Fanning at the beginning.

I quite like this spunky girl who as the plot develops turns out has been up to all sorts of mischief in her past. How does it all turn out though, I wonder, with her as the new New York fashion darling whilst he has just opened his glass blown business down South? No matter. It may be quite shallow but it's a pleasant enough way to finish the evening, especially if you're a Reese fan.

Andrew Dunn shot it.

The Invisible Woman (2013 Ralph Fiennes)

Abi Morgan has 'dramatised' 1990 Claire Tomalin's no doubt interesting biography - through frankly if story wasn't about Dickens, it wouldn't be worth telling as it is a somewhat sombre, humourless affair which if anything plays down the drama (e.g. Dickens boarding the bedroom into two). I wouldn't have minded so much had we seen any evidence of this great passion to start with.

Well acted of course by Fiennes and Felicity Jones, who does though look grumpy for much of the time. And also by: Kristin Scott Thomas, Tom Hollander, John Kavanagh (the priest) and Joanna Scanlan.

Ilan Irshkeri's music is somewhat dissonant; Rob Hardy shoots in (low light and) what seems to be becoming a diffusion revival.

A bit dull, not sure about Ralph's direction.

Kings Row (1942 Sam Wood)

A bit. Kissing took over. Korngold's remarkable score. Betty Fields' remarkable performance. Nobly described here.

Love Hurts (2009 Barra Grant & scr)

Richard E Grant gives a fantastic comic performance as an uptight man separated from his long-time wife Carrie-Ann Moss and influenced by son Johnny Pacar in somewhat predictable story. He meet slots of women (that typo somehow works) including Jenna Elfman, Janeane Garofalo and Rita Rudner.

A film which we will watch time and again.

Northanger Abbey (2007 Jon Jones)

Jones made Titanic (not that one), The Great Fire etc. Andrew Davies has adapted Austen's novel for ITV and whilst Felicity Jones is gorgeous as the impressionable heroine, Carey Mulligan steals the film. JJ Feild is the good guy and Attachments' William Beck the baddie. That scandalous 'Udolpho' gets a lot of airtime (not to mention 'The Monk').

It moves along briskly enough and made us laugh about 13th century crenellations (the Abbey is Lismore Castle in Ireland and they are in fact 12th).

Like Crazy (2011 Drake Doremus & co-scr)

In a most elliptical style, Felicity Jones falls for Anton Yelchin but visa problems keep them apart. Meanwhile he embarks on an affair with Jennifer Lawrence, who has bravely accepted a small secondary part in which she barely speaks. Alex Kingston and Oliver Muirhead are the whisky-loving parents.

The fragmentary approach denies us some of the emotion, though is interesting, so overall we felt it wasn't a great success.

Garden State (2004 Zach Braff)

He wrote this one single-handed, his feature debut as director and writer - thematically it has much in the way of Wish I Was Here (dying, estranged father (Ian Holm), fear of swimming, protagonist as actor etc.). Lots of style e.g. the diploma that is hung on the ceiling as the wall's full. Natalie Portman is fantastically natural and charming as an epileptic liar, Peter Skarsgaard rather cool as low-achieving friend, Michael Weston, Jim Parsons again (moment he arrives in kitchen in suit of armour is hilarious), Ato Essandoh and Denis O'Haire, the Noah's Ark guy at the end (from The Good Wife, Dallas Buyers' Club, Changeling etc.).

A bright, sweet and tangy film shot again by Lawrence Sher. Also funny in encounters with former colleagues.

Liked the description of family as "other people that miss the same imaginary place".

Starter for 10 (2006 Tom Vaughan)

David Nicholls has adapted his own novel, under guidance of various seasoned producers like Sam Mendes and Tom Hanks.

Fabulous cast: a gawky James McEvoy, Dominic Cooper, Alice Eve (daughter of Trevor), Rebecca Hall, Benedict Cumberbatch, Catherine Tate, Guy Henry, Mark Gatiss, James Cordon, Charles Dance, Lindsay Duncan. That the name of Nina Gold is credited for casting is no surprise as she seems to be associated with every decent project. Ashley Rowe (Dancing on the Edge) shot it.

It's a slightly familiar tale but entertaining and well acted, filmed in Bristol and Jaywick, Clacton-on-Sea. There's perhaps too much 1980s music though the choices (lots of Cure, Psychedelic Furs etc) are good.

Wish I Was Here (2014 Zach Braff)

A family affair as much as the film, with Zach also starring in screenplay written by him and his brother Adam; they also co-produced.

Failed actor Zach is forced to home school children Joey King and Pierce Gagnon whilst mum Kate Hudson suffers in dull job which Zach has described to his hyper-critical father Mandy Patinkin as great. Zach's brother Josh Gad is a loser, Jim Parsons is a fellow failing actor.

Ph, Lawrence Sher, who also did Zach's Garden State. Nice montage ends film much as it did The Theory of Everything. Good morning.

Love Ranch (2010 Taylor Hackford)

Nasty, unnecessary violence and Pesci's too believable performance as a cunt undermine tale of whorehouse madame's fling with younger Argentinian boxer. Mirren is fab (accent too this time) and Sergio Peris-Mencheta winning as the doomed boxer - in fact you know it isn't going to end happily (in the end it defies expectation).

It's all a bit seedy. Gina Gershon makes impression as feisty prostitute; Bryan Cranston is in it for a full 60 seconds, The Wire's Wendell Pierce for a little longer.

Paul Hirsch edited.

The real Mustang Ranch apparently featured in Charley Varrick.

The Jokers (1967 Michael Winner)

Not the biggest fan of Mr Winner or his films but this one is written by the reliable and funny Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais whose career had only just begun with the previous year's Likely Lads.

Michael Crawford and Oliver Reed are quite unlikely as brothers (Reed was very cool in these days). Script suitably mocks establishment types and film acts like a travelogue of swinging sixties London, with editor Bernard Gribble having fun cutting in random shots of tourists etc.

Harry Andrews, Edward Fox, James Donald, Daniel Massey, Michael Hordern.

Carry on Loving (1970 Gerald Thomas)

Carry on Shagging more like is about as low and obvious as you can get, though in some ways still rather sweet. Sid and Hattie run the Bliss Wedded agency (she describing him as an 'ancient and dissipated walnut'), Kenneth Williams is a counsellor, Bernard Bresslaw a wrestler - you know the kind of thing. Skirts and dresses couldn't have gotten any shorter without becoming tops.

With Charlie Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Terry Scott, Richard O'Callaghan, Jacki Piper, Imogen Hassall, Patsy Rowlands. Weakness evident in final custard pie fight.

Q was right, most of the locations were Windsor, usefully detailed here.

The Year of Getting to Know Us (2008 Patrick Sisam)

Jimmy Fallon, Lucy Liu, Tom Arnold, Sharon Stone, Illeana Douglas.

Man gets in touch with himself, growing up a bit in the process, while visiting coma-ridden father.

The Theory of Everything (2014 James Marsh)

Eddie Redmayne's astonishing as Hawking, easily matched by Felicity Jones in Anthony McCarten's well-written adaptation of Jane Hawking's book. (It must be easier to give a better performance if the person you're opposite is fantastic.) Felicity's face - to steal Orson Welles - would make a stone cry.

With David Thewlis, Simon McBurney (who's getting around a lot these days), Emily Watson and Charlie Cox.

Shot in diffused manner by Benoit Delhomme and featuring a stunning closing montage - in which the film flies backwards - by Jinx Godfrey, who also cut Marsh's Man on Wire and that Red Riding episode.

That great line "I predict that I am wrong" sure sounds like one of Hawkings' own, but I can't corroborate that.