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The Good Shepherd (2006)
The Good Shepherd
So rather than spend a fortune on special disguises, plastic surgery and prosthetics, the secret of being a successful counter-intelligence agent is loads of Bryclream, a pair of thick-set spectacles and a fawn, knee-length, mac. That's what puts the c into overt! That theory sort works for Matt Damon here with this lacklustre drama set around the time in world history when the American government realised they needed to gather intelligence about whom their potential 20th century foes might be. He is "Edward Wilson", who after being sworn into some top secret masonic style of society at school finds himself learning the arts of espionage in a wartorn London, then to Berlin, the back to Uncle Sam where his accrued skills leave him well placed to root out Nazi sympathisers and Soviet agents and defectors. Initially he is full of the joys of spring, his task a patriotic duty. Increasingly, though, as his hastily arranged marriage to "Margaret" (the sparingly used Angelina Jolie) starts to suffer, cynicism creeps in and what semblance of decency he had begins to become subsumed into a determination to get results - regardless of the methods frequently employed by his sidekick "Ray" (John Turturro). Robert De Niro clearly has pulling power with his directorial promise, but most of the supporting cast add little to this muddling drama that trips over it's own cloak way too often looking for the dagger. Quite where Billy Crudup's accent came from is anyone's guess and the plodding nature of this rather wearisome, if stylishly filmed, drama makes it quite a slog to sit through. It's all just a bit too self-indulgent and presents us with a rather ungracious and arrogant side to an American superiority complex that I found a bit dull.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
What a gorgeous, gentle, film about the end of empire and of an era that showed a culture of respect and deference that has now long since vanished. Robert Donat always managed to portray the quintessential Englishman well - if, at times, in a little overly stilted fashion; and with Greer Garson's beautiful representation of a lady of the times this leaves us with a slightly warm feeling. Certainly, it doesn't not promote any equality amongst the sexes, but the "Blue Danube" scene has to be amongst the most romantic ever committed to film and it brings home the horrors of two wars poignantly, too.
Green Lantern (2011)
Green Lantern
It's an whole twenty year old, this - and I still like it. OK, perhaps it is Ryan Reynolds wandering about in his tiny whities, and he is most certainly at his most easy on the eye for just shy of two hours. He is "Hal" a pretty flaky test pilot who manages to cost his employer - mainly the equally gorgeous "Carol" (Blake Lively) a lucrative government contract. Meantime, this shapeless baddie to end all baddies - who feeds on fear - has escaped from his remote prison at the far end of the universe, and the eponymous "Corps" must mobilise to defeat him. One of their best falls foul of this menace and his ring - the symbol of the power of the Order - passes to the unlikely "Hal". What now ensues involves our Ryan in spray on leather clothing and wearing goggles that wouldn't conceal his identity from a blind person in some fun adventures as he learns all about willpower, discipline and the power of green! Meantime, there are some shenanigans going on with "Hector" (Peter Sarsgaard), the hapless son of the powerful "Sen. Hammond" (Tim Robbins) that sees "Hal" and "Carol" with just a little more on their plates than they need. The special effects are fine; Mark Strong hams up perfectly as "Sinestro" and the wise guys in the impractically long capes add a bit of fun too. No, it's not "Star Wars" and the script is pretty diabolical, but, still - what's not to like...?
Drive (2011)
Drive
If it's got wheels, then Ryan Gosling's nameless character can use it. When he is not doing triple rolls as a movie stunt-man, he is being the freelance getaway driver for criminals who need a reliable man to get them out of trouble. His friend "Shannon" (Bryan Cranston) fancies himself as a bit of a motor sport aficionado and suggests to his wealthy (and pretty crooked) pal "Bernie" (Albert Brooks) that he chip in $300k so they can start a team. Just as that's all getting on track, the driver starts to get the hots for a neighbour "Irene" (Carey Mulligan) and so engineers a meeting with her and her young son. She's not without her own baggage - but he (Oscar Isaac) is incarcerated for the moment and so their relationship burgeons. When he gets out of jail her boyfriend needs help with a petty robbery at a pawn shop. That goes pear-shaped and next he knows he has a corpse, a bag of mob money and just about everyone on his tail. He needs to keep her safe and stay on his toes for quite an exciting and action packed last half hour that sees this meticulous man fighting for survival. It's all about Gosling this film, and he owns the screen. His charismatic effort as the wheels works well throughout and as the thing stealthily gathers pace, he delivers confidently. Mulligan doesn't really feature so often to make that much of a difference, but essentially it's a one-man show and that weaves the threads of greed, corruption and romance entertainingly.
Goldfinger (1964)
Goldfinger
This has got to be my favourite "007" outing. Shirley Bassey gets the ball rolling as our secret agent enters the murky world of bullion smuggling. It's end-to-end stuff with Sean Connery crossing swords with the best Bond baddie of all - "Auric Goldfinger" stylishly portrayed by Gert Fröbe. Honor Blackman has got to be the best Bond girl, she has oodles of sex appeal and panache, but is also much more sophisticated than the pretty "bimbo" character usually associated with this role. Harold Sakata must have done wonders for the sale of bowler hats and I'm sure we all wanted an Aston Martin (ideally with a passenger ejector seat) by the end of this cracking adventure film.
Godzilla (2014)
Godzilla
"Godzilla" is the sort of cinematic gift that keeps on giving, and the hunkily beefed-up Aaron Taylor-Johnson is always worth looking at - but sadly, neither of these features do enough to rescue this from a sort of disappointingly derivative mediocrity. This iteration of the plot picks up the story many years after a nuclear disaster in Japan. "Ford" (ATJ) is the son of the plant supervisor "Joe" (Bryan Cranston). They are not exactly close, but when they discover evidence near the ruins that the destruction was not accidental - and that a giant trapped, flying, "MUTO" - which feeds on radiation - might well be coming for more lunch, they can only hope that "Godzilla" might become aware and come to the rescue of a totally out-gunned mankind. It's a bit of a sprawler, this film. It takes far too long to get going, with characterisations that offer little of substance and a dialogue that borders on the inane - especially when the military are involved. The supporting cast features a sparingly used Juliette Binoche and Elisabeth Olsen, but they aren't really on screen long enough to add much value. On the plus side, the photography and visual effects are good - they flow with a realism that is quite convincing, but that's standard fayre nowadays for this kind of adventure. The rest of the photography really could have done with some more wattage. Darkness can add eeriness to a scenario, but after a while I do want to recalibrate my eyes! The ending is certainly effective, but I'm just not sure it was worth the wait - the whole film just needed something to bring it to life more.
Oisin (1970)
Oisín
Aside from a slide at the top of this short documentary, there is no visible contribution from mankind as we watch the wildlife of Ireland thrive. That slide invites us to consider the delights of nature rather than those man made (or reilgious!) and for quarter of an hour or so we see things gambolling, flying, swimming, foraging and nesting whilst all is accompanied by a buzzing and flapping natural soundtrack. The photography just lets the creatures get on with their lives, undisturbed and free to roam. Turn the sound down and it's a remarkably soothing film to watch, ideal to put on the television to fall asleep to whilst reminding us to consider our own place in the grand scheme of things.
Is It Always Right to Be Right? (1970)
Is it Always Right to be Right?
Fifty years on from this admittedly lacklustre animation, it's still worth listening to the words of Warren H. Schmidt's narrative (from Orson Welles) about the repetitive and fruitless nature of human belligerence. All the vested interests convinced that they, and they alone, are correct. No-one prepared to even hint that there might be room for manoeuvre or compromise as chasms begin to exist in society based on things like age, politics, race, sex, faith - and even chasms within chasms. Until, that is, someone somewhere has the courage to say that everything isn't just a case of black and white or right or wrong. Maybe bridges can and should be built if tolerance and understanding can be found amidst the hitherto bloody-minded and opinionated. Social media "influencers" in 2024 take note!
The Further Adventures of Uncle Sam (1971)
The Further Adventures of Uncle Sam
"Uncle Sam" is running a gas station in the middle of nowhere amidst his patriotically sculptured cacti and with his bald eagle for company. Then a mysterious car shows up and he is kidnapped! Perplexed and alone, the bird sets off to investigate - on foot for some reason, whilst we are whisked to a dastardly scenario for "Uncle" as he has been strapped to a barrel of TNT by some ruthless folks bent on stealing a distinctly curvaceous and operatic version of the Statue of Liberty. Can the eagle arrive, set his fellow icon free and then thwart the evil scheme? The animation is drab and not my favourite, and the pace is sluggishly accompanied by a confused soundtrack that complements a story that seems to want to take a ping at pretty much all things American - even to the point of mutually assured self destruction, before a denouement of epically bland proportions in ancient Rome! The socio-political message is clear but it's unoriginal and reminiscent of a 1920s cartoon that I'd no need to recall.
Met het oog op avontuur (1972)
Adventures in Perception
Whilst we do see a little of the man at work here, this isn't really a film at all. It's more of a documentary that extols the virtues of some fine rostrum camerawork used to great effect showing us a catalogue of Escher's animations. Initially examples of more straightforward imagery, but gradually many of them seem to defy just about all of the laws of physics and perception as shapes fold into and out of themselves; stairways go up and down or is that down and up. There are images within images, like watching a complex and puzzling series of eye tests - some in colour some monochrome. Geometry, gravity and symmetry feature heavily as his imagination assumes quite an astonish degree of three-dimensional thinking. There's a little rather dry narration and a nondescript score to accompany this creatively assembled montage that offers us a sense of the skill of this man at layering and giving depth and detail to his quirkily conceived works.
Two Cars, One Night (2003)
Two Cars, One Night
This reminds me of the times we were left outside the pub whilst our folks were inside boozing. The time, it's nine year old Romeo (Rangi Ngamoki) and his young bookworm brother "Ed" (Te Ahiwaru Ngamoki-Richards) who are waiting when they spy "Polly" (Hutini Wakiato) in the car next to their's. A bit of teasing goes on before a chat that might just see the embryo of undying love born? How many of us had our first crush in a car park whilst bored to distraction? It's a simple story with the younger, entirely indifferent, lad stealing the show as he refuses to fib for his brother trying to impress the girl. It's an honest and amusingly light-hearted observation that does raise a smile now and again.
Victoria (2016)
In Bed with Victoria
"Victoria" (Virginie Efira) hasn't her problems to seek! She's a divorced lawyer with custody of two children and a messy and fairly fluid love life. She manages to fall out with her baby sitter and so is even more stretched when the tousled young "Sam" (Vincent Lacoste) - an aspiring lawyer himself, offers to help her out. He will be her cook and bottle washer, mind the children and work with her - all for free! Suspicious, she gives him a week but soon he proves his worth and becomes a bit of an anchor for her increasingly complicated life. These complications emanate from her decision to sue her ex (the father of the children) for using her career as a template for his popular and salacious blog, and also from defending a friend and potential murderer (Melvil Poupaud) in a criminal trial that also involves another friend, too. The scene now set, this could have been quite a good scenario for Efira and the charismatic Lacoste, but the writing really lets it down. The story lurches from frying pan to not very humorous fire just once too often, the romantic melodrama is all just a bit passé and were it not for an outstanding effort from a Dalmatian with taste and a chimp adept with an iPhone, the humour would be distinctly lacking. The odd calamity in the plot would have been welcome, but here there are just too many implausibles and not enough comedy. Laure Calamy has a bit of fun as her defending counsel - French law courts are always so much more flamboyant and lively than British ones, but sadly she's not on screen often enough to make much difference. It's watchable enough, but just not that special.
Mies vailla menneisyyttä (2002)
The Man Without a Past
Probably not since Wendy Hiller in "Major Barbara" (1941) has the Salvation Army featured so prominently in a drama. That's lucky as a visitor (Markku Peltola) to Helsinki arrives and is promptly beaten to near death by three hoodlums. He manages to stumble to the railway station and next thing the machine in the hospital says he is dead. Well, he's not that easy to kill and next thing he is wandering about, bandaged and with a different pair of shoes trying to find a place to stay. He has no memory of anything, just a load of broken bones and bruises. He has no money either, and finds himself in the vicious circle of no ID, no help. That's where "Irma" (Kati Outinen) comes in. She works for the aforementioned charity and takes pity on his plight. She manages to get him some clothes and finding, thanks to security guard "Anttila" (Sakari Kuosmanen,) what looks like a converted storage container to live in, he begins to rebuild his life in a gritty and unforgiving city. His relationship with "Irma" strengthens and maybe he has turned a corner? An incident that brings him to the attention of the cops delivers him an unexpected degree of closure for his past life, but will it help? Peltola is on good form here and his characterisation of the man lost in a strange world, but not bamboozled by it, is strong and quite engaging - especially when the hint of gentle romance creeps in with the equally robust character of 'Irma" who has seen a great deal in her charitable role. I probably shouldn't have, but I did rather like the denouement. It offers us a bit of hope and a bit of retribution and there's some very dark comedy along the way.
Half Nelson (2006)
Half Nelson
Ryan Gosling is on very natural form here as the teacher "Dan" who has a bit of a drug habit after school. He's a good teacher. Well liked. A man who gets results from a class of students who would almost all rather be somewhere else, and he coaches the girls' basketball team too. Luckily for him, it's one of his pupils, "Drey" (Shareeka Epps), that discovers him a bit worse for wear in the school toilet and swiftly a friendship develops. It's one of mutual understanding. His life is a mess and she is having to deal with divorced and largely absent parents. Her brother "Mike" is in jail for drug offences, but quickly we learn that it's "Frank" (Anthony Mackie) who's really the culprit there. He tries to take care of the girl, but when the two men meet it's clear that "Dan" thinks" Frank" should leave her alone; he's a bad influence. Needless to say, there are views taken about the appropriateness of their friendship but somehow that just galvanises them into trying to help each other. For "Dan", to perhaps stop treating the women in his life like dirt; and for "Drey" to have the confidence to grab life by the throat. It's a slowly paced look at human nature this film and there's quite a degree of chemistry between the charismatic Gosling and the Epps. They are walking a tightrope that puts his career at risk and she is at a junction in her life where choices will map her future. Mackie only features sparingly but again, his character is a little more sophisticated than your usual drug dealer. "Frank" does appear to care for his charge and seems prepared to engage with "Dan", up to a point, to help the girl choose a better life. Is there room for optimism or is it all a fait accompli? Plenty of plausible emotions on display here.
Me and My Moulton (2014)
Me and My Moulton
Three sisters live in a small Norwegian town with their slightly eccentric mum and dad. They are both architects and he's the only man in town with a moustache! It's a very regulated life these girls live, especially when compared with their neighbours downstairs who have just about everything they need to have a lively time. The siblings want a bike. They ask their parents and promise to share it, even to ride it all at once if needs be. OK, they agree - but it will be a special bike eventually coming from the UK. Meantime events with the family downstairs take a bit of an unfortunate turn and the girls realise the grass maybe isn't greener. It's quite an interesting concept this. The three girls - with decent age gaps between, wanting what they want whilst their parents still want to exercise a degree of control over not just them, but what they do and have. They are even bribed by their resident grandmother to behave and not bicker! I didn't love the linear style of the animation but the story is worth telling about growing up and independence.
The Janitor (1995)
The Janitor
I quite enjoyed this. It's a very simple animation, almost a series of moving etchings, depicting just how God asked his janitor to water the Earth after it started to look a bit dirty. He turned on the waterworks then got distracted by various other chores - including double-coating Mars with red paint! Anyway, clearly his Earthly business slipped his mind until God showed up again to point out it had been forty days and the whole place is flooded out! Luckily, the ark was safe and sound and now God sent his son down to share some love around the newly populated world. We all know how that turned out! The narration is wittily irreverent and it packs quite a lot into a four minutes that does raise a smile.
Herring Hunt (1953)
Herring Hunt
Funnily enough I had a kipper for breakfast earlier, so was especially interested in this short feature depicting a day in the life of a small Canadian fishing fleet. With the salmon season now behind them, these hard working men have but a short time to land 40,000 tons of this staple before the catch quota is reached and they have to stop. After a little mishap from an over-enthusiastic rookie, it falls to the captain to use his skill and a their basic sonar to try and pick up a shoal. That can bring in as much as 1000 tons per haul - so a find can involve a fleet of up to half a dozen small boats and some skilful net laying if they are to get paid. Commission only here - no wages! The documentary is presented as if it were an extended news report with little time for embellishments as the single camera captures what they capture. It's worth a watch to see just how much hard work was required here.
Plaire, aimer et courir vite (2018)
Sorry Angel
It's too long and the characterisations lack depth - but it is still quite an interesting story to follow. Pierre Deladonchamps is "Jacques" a (slightly) older Parisian writer who meets a young Breton "Arthur" (Vincent Lacoste) in a cinema. Initially neither are looking for much more than a quickie, but before long something clicks and the couple begin to test, probe and like each other. It transpires that "Jacques" lives every other day with his young son "Loulou" and that he isn't a well man - all of which serves to focus the emphasis of this film on their priorities and their desires - physical and emotional. It's set in the early 1990's so it's pretty clear what's going on, on the medical front - the relentlessness of the author's decline is evident but not allowed by Christoph Honoré to overwhelm what is essentially quite an engaging, but too shallow, character driven study. Denis Podalydès and the young son Tristan Farge provide potent diversions to the prevailing theme as the relationship and it's implications gather steam. The writing doesn't allow us to get bogged down in sentiment either; it's sexy and provocative, funny and sometimes just a bit course - and that gives the piece a bit more richness. I could have been doing with a little more one-on-one time between the principals. I still wasn't quite comfortable with the speed, or plausibility, of their romance - but this is much more than your bog standard gay romantic drama, and I'd suggest you stick with it.
Padre padrone (1977)
Padre Padrone
Based on the true story of author Gavino Ledda, we follow his life growing up on a Sicilian farm where he is subjected to the brutal realism of his father. It all begins when he is taken out of school at a very young age because dad (Omero Antonutti) needs him to tend the sheep and keep them safe from snakes, wolves and bandits! He's barely two foot tall at this stage. This is the template for much of the rest of his childhood as his education is sacrificed to keep them fed and housed. Reaching his adulthood he finds himself manoeuvred into joining the military by his father - a responsibility that rather backfires on the older man as Gavino (now Saverio Marconi) proves not only that he is quite capable of learning - not just the basics of reading and arithmetic, but of understanding the complexities of electrical engineering and radio operation. He decides to return to Sicily after his time in the army, but much more on his own terms and to study at university. Naturally, his disappointed father has other ideas - but can these two men reconcile and Gavino learn to (or want to) forgive his father? Initially, it's really quite easy to loathe the paternal character. Save for one tiny semblance of affection (after a beating) he shows no emotional connection to his son at all. As the film progresses though, it becomes slightly easier to understand that this man comes from a long line of people with little hope, living an hand-to-mouth existence with no education and little belief in opportunity. Is it despite him or partly because of him that Gavino has such an independent spirit? Marconi delivers strongly here and both he and Antonutti sustain the degree of familial tension as both realise that change is inevitable. Change and ageing. I like the indefinite nature of the conclusion - it's all a work in process and one I found quite compelling to watch.
The Tide of Traffic (1972)
The Tide of Traffic
This is a curiously dry documentary produced by one of the world's largest energy companies for the United Nations and it's not especially clear why. We start in the car-free Venice and then travel the length and breadth of Europe and the United States illustrating the exponential increase in motoring for leisure and business purposes and the concomitant increase in car production, road building and debris accrued after we are finished with cars and tyres alike. The narration is adequate. Descriptive but not especially insightful, and though it does remind us of a certain age of life before cars went everywhere all the time, it's still nothing of great interest or innovation beyond displaying the relentless and unstoppable progress for the roadbuilding and using lobbies. Some interesting car designs though - square and angular was clearly in style, especially Stateside.
Evolution (1971)
Evolution
A brightly coloured animation that pretty much does it what says on the tin. Jollied along by a cheery ragtime style of score, we see life emerge from the murky waters and evolve from cells to plants, other vegetation and well you can guess the rest. If the eye is the window to the soul, it's also the source of much of the joy here as hugely optically endowed creatures want to chase, play with and eventually eat each other - though always for survival, never for sport! Times change and the extinction of some leads to the development of others. The environment also changes and there's even room for some frolicking and a bit of shy romance before the original body clock delivers broods of offspring, a scenario of the survival of the fittest takes over - for four legs then two and next thing you know, it's us - and the wheel. I quiet enjoyed this light-hearted observation of what came when, who ate whom and the style of the drawing and exaggerated characteristics of the critters works quite entertainingly for ten minutes. It's vaguely prophetic, too!
The Selfish Giant (1971)
The Selfish Giant
If you're a Cornish ogre, then next time someone comes to visit you, make sure it's not a giant who wants to stay for seven years! Finally taking the hint that it might be time to go home, the giant returns to find his castle garden a playground for the local urchins. He's not impressed, and makes it clear that it's his own exclusive pasture. The kids can play elsewhere! To make sure, he dismantles some of his castle and builds a great wall around it (this bit is accompanied by a rather jolly Peter, Paul and Mary style of ditty warning of the dangers of walling himself in). Task complete, the children now had nowhere to play but neither did the giant. His enclosed garden was abandoned by nature and left barren save for visits from frost, snow, hail (in a suit of armour) and the north wind who's characterisations adored and adorned the place! Hemmed in and literally cold as ice, he began to see the error of his ways as incessant inclement weather remained. Cold, hungry and with the elements pretty much reducing his lodgings to rubble with no sign of spring he began to despair! Will he ever feel the warmth of the sun again? Is there still time for him to repent? I loved this animation as a child and it's still a potent and engaging warning to those who would be selfish and uncaring. I'm not so sure Oscar Wilde would have loved loads of weans messing about in his garden, but this is a fine story of redemption that like his "Little Prince" has a story within it's story.
Cele doua executii ale Maresalului (2018)
The Marshal's Two Executions
This isn't really a film so much as a contrasting presentation of two versions of the execution, by firing squad, of the wartime Romanian leader General Antonescu. It's quite a testament to the vision of the archivists that the original photography has been preserved as completely as it has been, but without any context to illustrate the history of the men facing death, it comes across as a rather gratuitously filmed exercise in 1946 propaganda designed to convince everyone who cared at the time that he was most definitely dead. It is quite interesting also that the Church appears to ceremonially sanction these killings - a Church that was surely every bit as complicit in the Nazi persecution during WWII as anyone in front of the rifles here?
The Violin (1974)
The Violin
I always wanted to learn to play the piano as a child but we didn't have one (nor room) so I was encouraged to take up the violin. The sounds we hear here about five minutes into this drama were about the size of my skills too, as a young lad struggles to play an instrument that wasn't the one he really wanted from the pawnbrokers. Frustrated, he (mercifully) bins the thing only for it to be found by narrator and accomplished violinist Maurice Solway who shows what can be done when it's in the right, loving, hands. Set amidst a pretty tough and snowy winter, this is quite a touching little drama about dreams and aspirations, and the younger of the two boys is quite endearing as his ears are put through a sort of auditory torture time and time again. Things improve over time and as the youngster becomes more adept and skilful, the sounds become more melodic and less of a musical form of torture for their scene-stealing younger friend who all too frequently has to run and hide (and save the odd goose!). The ending seems a little unnecessarily maudlin and isn't really explained, but it's still quite an engagingly simple story with a touch of fairy godfather to it.
Don't (1975)
Don't
Born onto what looks like the surface of a tennis ball, we follow the life of a caterpillar that's surrounded from the start by creatures that look like they are looking for a nice juicy meal! It's surroundings are riddled with dangers as kids play - routinely trampling all before them and predators take more of an interest, as our critter starts to feed and grow - a continuous cycle to fatten it up before evolution into a thing of beauty. The close-up photography here is creatively presented sparing us little of the brutality of the bug eat bug world (especially the mantis) in which survival is certainly no given. The time-lapse imagery almost has you cheering on the creature dangling precariously from a branch as we begin to recognise the features of a beautiful Monarch butterfly about to emerge. There's no narration, just natural sounds to augment the uncluttered photography of the birth of this astonishingly complex, colourful and tiny insect. A bit of Chopin towards the end goes down well, too, as it continues to have to avoid pitfalls of nature, butterfly hunters and the more toxic and sterile environment of urbanisation to stay alive.