Billy Wilder directs William Holden, Don Taylor and Otto Preminger in this POW drama where a low level racketeer is suspected of being a snitch to the Germans by his bunk mates.

A very bleak look at POW life, slightly camouflaged by the witty dialogue and some daft broad comedy moments. It doesn’t entirely shake loose of its stagey source material as a feature film. William Holden’s Oscar winning lead turn is exemplary though.

7

Abel Ferrara directs Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo and Paul Calderón in this week in the life of an irredeemable cop who takes and deals coke, is getting deeper in the hole with his bookies and has to solve the rape of a nun… a case that mirrors his own drug and faith fuelled perversion.

What starts out as transgressive and visceral, quickly becomes very one-note. Harvey does some drugs. Harvey gets nude. Harvey wanks at two girls he pulls over. This was a bête noire on release, a cult film accessible just when I was getting into less mainstream cinema. I was unimpressed by it at 13 and see little value in it at 39.

5

Rob Bowman directs Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey and Izabella Scorupco in this apocalyptic fantasy movie where dragons have driven modern humanity to the brink of existence.

London has become a dragon’s nest. US military skydivers think they have a way of killing them. Christian Bale just wants to keep his orphanage of very clean children out of the firing line. A film that was always going to be a better poster and trailer. The production design owes a lot to Alien3; sackcloth and industrial gothic. Hell, the score even steals the starbeast’s brass section’s urgent wail. And if it just stuck to physical looks then it would be an adequate actioner. The dragon effects are ropey though. McConaughey chews some scenery for the longueurs when the wispy polygon threat toddles off away from the narrative. And then it never really gets going. The finale feels particularly limited and truncated. Probably best you just imagine where this concept could go in your head for 90 minutes rather than sit through this passable grim fudge.

5

Frank Capra directs Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur and Lionel Stander in this tale of a small town eccentric who inherits a fortune and has to move to the city.

The thing about Capra is he goes dark really quick. For the first hour this a daft comedy, where much of the humour comes from straight talking everyman Cooper outwitting various wiseguys and corporate sharps. Then we get into the ‘socialism would help people’ message (admirable) and the courtroom drama to destroy our quirky, affable hero. Like It’s A Wonderful Life or Mr Smith Goes to Washington the lows our protagonist are pulled down to feel almost distastefully manipulative. Capra really tries to break his heroes, torture them with the very idea of themselves, before offering them or us any kind of quick redemption. I’m not sure Passion of the decent man holds up as entertainment these days quite so well.

7

Peter Weir directs Mel Gibson, Mark Lee and Bill Kerr in this Australian war drama where two young lads who meet at a running contest sign up for The Great War only to find themselves in a wasteful desert assault.

A very beautiful film. One that captures outback way of life as well as it does the fish out of water tragedy as the boys arrive in North Africa. There’s a sense of adventure and camaraderie to even the darkest moments. Weir adds spirit and humour to all the running and diving whether it be trench warfare or larrikin athletics meets. He’s helped by some gorgeous location widescreen photography by Russel Boyd and anachronistic use of music. Jean Michel-Jarre’s electronic Oxygen somehow adds to the mythical atmosphere. A young Mel Gibson puts in a fine bit of lead acting; laddishly restless in the early sequence, desperate by the end. The big inevitable finale is heart breaking. A masterpiece.

10

Cecil B DeMille directs Charlton Heston, James Stewart and Betty Hutton in this ensemble drama set around Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Not Academy Award for Best Picture worthy but still a perfectly serviceable afternoon killer. You get elephant parades and high wire stunts. Love hexagons and train crashes. Genuinely priceless documentary footage of the big top being raised and crowds being worked. A dozen big name cameos and James Stewart as a lovelorn clown with a dark secret who never removes his make-up. Forget all that though… as Gloria Grahame’s eighth billed elephant girl sets fire to the screen every time she appears. It makes you wonder why all the soapy back stabbing and powerplays aren’t over her?

6

My Top 10 James Stewart Movie

1. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1963)

2. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

3. Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

4. Rear Window (1954)

5. Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

6. Winchester ‘73 (1950)

7. Rope (1948)

8. The Philadelphia Story (1940)

9. Vertigo (1958)

10. The Glenn Miller Story (1954)

David Lynch directs Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Justin Theroux in this L.A. surreal mystery where a naive wannabe star ends up in a Hollywood of dreams and nightmares.

Uh-oh… I didn’t enjoy this quite so much on a revisit. Held up as one of the 21st century’s very best movies, the Mulholland Dr. in my memory has iconic sequences of surreal interaction, erotic oblivion and horrific dread. We all know the horrific dread I’m talking about. The shitman who lives behind Winkie’s Diner. He’s still terrifying, he’ll burn himself on your fear receptors. The sequence where Naomi Watts’ good girl and Laura Harring’s femme fatale get it on is as hot and heavy as ever too. The strange mystery is still compelling. Although the puzzle of what is going on now seems easier to follow, defanged after two decades of academic theories and normalisation. Mulholland Dr. is a clunky affair in the main. Extended from an abandoned TV pilot into a self contained feature film. When released, it was lauded as a phoenix from the flames. We marvelled that something so unusual and affecting could come out of a salvage job. Watching it now, its recycled nature rears it ugly head far too often. The first hour is full of loose ends and dead ends… deadpan scenes establishing characters and plot lines abandoned by Act Two to focus on the tragic romance between glamorous lost souls. Half of that opening hour is wasteful filler, included as it was shot and edited, though useless to the project the film evolved into. I also read that Lynch originally envisioned the TV series as a Twin Peaks spin-off; Audrey Horne’s adventures in LaLa Land. I would have watched that. Maybe that is why Naomi Watts lead is so thinly sketched. The game actress brings a lot to a very one dimensional role, this is the movie she’ll be remembered for… but maybe Audrey Horne’s back story would have filled in some blanks that haven’t been considered as the story went through different incarnations. Mulholland Dr. is still very watchable, with moments of greatness and a gut wrenching death blow of an ending. But it is starting to show its age and ramshackleness a bit too much to be considered Lynch’s or this millennium’s finest work of cinema.

8

David Robert Mitchell directs Andrew Garfield, Riley Keough and Grace Van Patten in this L.A. set slacker mystery set around missing girls, secret symbols, wealthy conspiracies and THE DOG KILLER.

This opened to awful reviews and got buried in a very limited release. As Mitchell’s follow-up to It Follows it is raggedly loose where his horror breakthrough was iron tight, with a less easily likeable protagonist where as that film gave us Maika Monroe in a pleasing final girl mode. Both however share a beautiful creepiness, an unashamed male gaze and unfathomable curses. What might have stopped this unclassifiable film from gaining popularity is its length and lack of resolution.

Garfield’s horny loser opens up many cans of worms… there’s at least five different Fortean intrigues that pull at his attention… some crawl into each others’ cans neatly, others wiggle off unexplained and a few just takeover the story leaving more questions than answers. If there is any point to it all by the end credits, it is maybe that Garfield’s meandering detective should be getting his life in order and maturing rather than wasting his time on secret codes and retroactive stalking. We all need to grow up and give less of a shit about old pop culture and passing fancies.

Yet the joy of the film is exploring him – and us – making connections. Some are easy movie buff references. Rebel Without a Cause, Zodiac, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Great Gatsby and many other classics are winkinly stolen from. Other are self contained. A Playboy cover, a ‘signed’ Nirvana poster, a hobo symbol, an antique cereal packet, a balloon girl… all are introduced then echo visually throughout the haphazard journey. Whether it be pairing up obtuse images or joining narrative dots between quirky characters who vy for his and our attention. Some are quirky hipster wannabes, others Lovecraftian threats.

I’ve only watched this once but I got lost in a deep, rich, often surreal piece of cinema that felt like it demanded repeat viewings. As a man, and we all know our faults as a gender, I found it very arousing, as a cinema buff I found it self aware and playful. Sure, it would have been easier for Mitchell to tie off his wavering obsessions in a neat bow, or to shift completely into a familiar genre like psychological horror or neo-noir by the third act. But instead it sits like an awesome puzzle, showcasing a lesser seen side of sleazy Hollywood, a brave and subtle performance by Garfield (his best so far) and lots of beautiful starlets in strangely erotic situations. Some sequences will do nothing for you, others (like our meeting with THE SONGWRITER) stay with you creepily like Lynch’s or The Coens’ best enigmas. Either way, this is distinctive, idiosyncratic auteur filmmaking, the kind cults are born from.

9

My Top 10 L.A. Movies

1. True Romance (1993)
2. The Terminator (1984)

3. Pulp Fiction (1994)
4. Die Hard (1988)
5. Blade Runner (1982)
6. Speed (1994)
7. Singin’ In The Rain (1952)
8. Lethal Weapon (1987)
9. Falling Down (1993)
10. LaLa Land (2016)

Don Siegel directs Clint Eastwood, Shirley MacLaine and Manolo Fábregas in this comedy western where a mercenary escorts a nun south of the border.

The simple pleasure of a genre mash-up getting it all right. The romance convinces as Eastwood and MacLaine have a lovely back and forth with each other. An unlikely screen pairing that pays off finely. The comedy is well timed and smart. The cowboy action can hold its head up proudly among Clint’s more straight affairs. If you come for any strand you’ll be satisfied, if you are a fan of all three then you’ll have a whale of a time.

8

Robert Siodmak directs Ella Raines, Franchot Tone and Alan Curtis in this film noir where a man accused of murder’s only hope is for his loyal secretary to turn undercover detective to help find the mystery woman who could provide an alibi for him.

Essentially three different films that flow into each other. The first act is a moody mystery where a depressed man and a secretive woman meet-cute and go on a chaste one night stand. Then we get plucky Secretary Ella Raines try on various personas as she tries to figure out why the various witnesses in the first act are lying. This is the highlight of the film. The final acts sees Raines trapped with her boss’ ‘old friend’, we know he is the psychopath behind the conspiracy but she doesn’t. All three sections are ominous and unpredictable. They vibe with a seedy sexuality and pessimism. Siodmark captures impressive city scapes and oppressive blurs of light and shadows. Ella Raines is wonderful as the good egg mystery solver, throwing herself into peril essentially for a sexist pat on the head by her doomed employer. This is a great noir.

8