Kenneth Branagh directs himself, Emma Thompson and Andy Garcia in this mystery where a woman who has lost her memory is taken in by a Los Angeles orphanage, and a private eye is enlisted to track down her identity.
Existential potboiler that leaves out the sense and sex, aiming for a twist more metaphysical than mind blowing. The luvvie acting doesn’t gel. Robin Williams cameos as a disgraced psychotherapist and is the best thing in this. It is amazing how something with such bonkers plotting can be so predictable. Intrusive score. I really love this sub genre of film and this is one of the worst examples that still just about passes muster on a Saturday night. Swap Andy Garcia and Branagh around on the call sheet, let Garcia and Thompson have a few hot and saxophone heavy scenes and, kids, we’d have a VHS worth renting.
Wim Wenders directs Patrick Bauchau, Allen Garfield and Samuel Fuller in this art film where a film crew hang about after their shoot runs out of money and their producer disappears.
A palette cleanser for Wim after a bad Hollywood experience. The languid hang out movie of the first two acts is cool. The movie snaps into focus in the final third once we are riding around in La La Land, movie billboards and hip self aware shots everywhere, lost in a paranoid neo noir. Not essential viewing by any means but a fine curiosity. I think Wenders knows he is doodling with celluloid and that is fine. The unused short ends from this were donated to Jim Jarmusch to make Stranger Than Paradise.
Josef Rusnak directs Wesley Snipes, Eliza Bennett and Lena Headey in this “action” thriller.
Asks the question – what if a hitman made friends with a young horse girl? And seriously thinks we will care. Set in London but certainly not filmed in London. Dire. Oh, Wesley!
Richie Smyth directs Jamie Dornan, Emmanuelle Seigner and Mark Strong in this war film where Irish Commandant Pat Quinlan leads a stand off with troops against French and Belgian Mercenaries in the Congo during the early 1960s.
Christian Gray cashes in his juice to make a vanity project that me and my Dad can watch on a Saturday evening together. Up the Irish, the only white people who have never done any colonising. No wonder we are first choice for such UN shitshows.
Boaz Davidson directs David Bradley, Anna Thomson and Ashley Laurence in this erotic thriller about a workaholic cop who begins to suspect that his new lover may also be a serial killer.
Taco Bell Basic Instinct. Explicit nudity straight after the credits, the American Ninja playing a poor man’s Shooter, a ludicrous sex scene on a home bar top (ICE CREAM), the final girl from the Hellraiser movies playing the good girl partner who has “Lisa Hoberman” written all over her student ID. Goes mega wacky in the final face-off. Which is, of course, the best bit of the movie.
Jonathan Demme directs Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt and Bill Irwin in this drama where a young woman who has been in and out of rehab for the past ten years returns home for the weekend for her sister’s wedding.
I didn’t love this. The rich hipster garden party wedding would be insufferable to attend. Would drive me to self destructive levels of drink. Even if the music is good. Too much love, not enough resigned boredom. Maybe that’s a point. The dynamic here is claustrophobic and cyclical. A pressure cooker with only one outcome for the most vulnerable guest. Hathaway makes these occasional stabs at becoming the next Close or Streep but she is more a Pfeiffer. A star who is on her very best form in mainstream product. Adding class, glamour and understated acting into studio releases. The big showy thespian swings are never as satisfying as a Devil Wears Prada, a Les Mis or an Interstellar. The movie certainly didn’t leave me cold. I liked what Bill Irwin (cyclops reunion!) and Debra Winger were doing as the imperfect parents. Just found the whole vibe draining. I’d steal a car and hit that off-licence too. In Britain this is perfectly normalised behaviour during a long weekend with your immediate family. The sheer diversity of guests feels very much in conversation with Demme’s career. Every previous movie is seemingly represented by a background player.
Peter Duffell directs Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Denholm Elliott in this British horror anthology set around the same cursed country house.
Writer’s block. Wax museums. Child terrors. Possession via cloak. Not the finest Amicus compilation of Tales Of The Unexpected. These are all by Psycho’s Robert Bloch. The last chapter with Ingrid Pitt is the silliest tonally which is a shame as the concept has the most potential to be proper scary if played straight.
Jason Reitman directs Adam Sandler, Kaitlyn Dever and Rosemarie DeWitt in this drama where a group of high school teenagers and their parents attempt to navigate the many ways the Internet has changed their relationships.
A social media age The Ice Storm. I can absolutely see why this didn’t ignite. The satire is preachy and a little too on the nose. But it does land a fair few emotional blows and it ain’t hard to care about a support cast as muscular as this. An Oscar bait movie that lost all its Award Season heat after some shoulder shrug initial reviews that probably warrants a reassessment.
The Twenties were defined by a lot more mouth-on-mouth kissing than you’d ever expect…
Our Hospitality (1923)
John G. Blystone and Buster Keaton direct Buster himself , Natalie Talmadge in this parody of D.W. Griffiths where a city boy innocently returns to his Appalachian homestead only to be caught in a feud that has be going on for generations.
Takes a little while to get going. I’m guessing because the first few scenes out of context are spoofs of Griffith’s where the jokes are now lost to time. Once the less subtle sight gags start coming there are some doozies. A horse’s rear dressed as an old maid. Yes please! That central conceit of not being able to leave a house as the hosts are no longer obliged not to kill you is robust and rewarding.
8
The Kid (1921)
Charles Chaplin directs himself, Edna Purviance and Jackie Coogan in this dramedy where The Little Tramp cares for an abandoned child, but events put their relationship in jeopardy.
Hands up… I’m not Chaplin’s biggest fan. This is iconic but more often mawkish rather than silly. Also no one seems to be noting his big Heaven dream sequence at the end imagines “Heaven” as the place where pre-teens are sexualised beauties well up for a snog. I don’t believe I’m overthinking it because he later knocked up the same child actress before she was 16 and had to marry her. Oh Charlie! Those few seconds of this classic film aren’t the only thing that mar it. I just prefer the daredevil knockabout of Harold Lloyd or Laurel & Hardy.
6
Speedy (1928)
Ted Wilde directs Harold Lloyd, Ann Christy and Bert Woodruff in this comedy where a hapless go-getter saves the city’s last horse-drawn trolley, operated by his girlfriend’s grandfather, from being taken over by a nefarious corporation.
Easily the highlight of this mini-season. There is a half hour interlude from the main narrative where Speedy and his girlfriend go on a trip to Coney Island – rides the neckbreakers and try ALL the food. This would be deliciously watchable if it was just played straight but then we get a new suit, a crab in your pocket and a stray dog causing all kinds of mayhem. Just a perfect sequence. The rest of the movie is pretty wonderful too with old men rioting in the street and a Manhattan chase so hectic that it puts Die Hard With a Vengeance to shame.
9
Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
Buster Keaton directs himself, Kathryn McGuire and Joe Keaton in this comedy where a film projectionist longs to be a detective.
A mish-mash of ideas. Loads of very clever tricks shots. I’m just not sure all the celluloid film-flam is as funny as it is clever.
Olivia Wilde directs herself, Seth Rogen and Penélope Cruz in this comedy of manners where two sets of ageing millennial neighbours talk sex and noise bleed.
Sharp. Continually funny without breaking reality. Wilde makes excellent use of the claustrophobic space keeping it cinematic but also a pressure cooker. Everyone is on top form. The most laughs we have had in a multiplex in a long old time. Also the most pale blue on film since Brokeback Mountain’s stonewash denim budget almost bankrupted Ang Lee. I’m so glad we don’t invite people over and barely know our neighbours.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 