Luis Mandoki directs Susan Sarandon, James Spader and Jason Alexander in this romantic drama where two damaged souls start a sex based relationship despite him being rich, Jewish, young and her being “white trash” and in her 40s.

I don’t think I had the guts to rent this from Selecta Video as an adolescent. Two of that era’s most sexually daring stars appearing in what the VHS cover promised to be an absolute bonkathon. There’s actually only two significant steamy scenes here. They happen in the first act and are notable for the desperation and ungainlyness rather than being particularly erotic. At one point a half eaten sandwich is accidentally grabbed. Mandoki is clearly aiming for a different kinda filth. The drama surrounding the “selling points” is about grief and class and solace. And is actually really rather good. It takes some nice jabs at liberal American Democrats hypocritical values and Sarandon’s dialogue has nice defensive sparring humour to it. She is excellent here. Different than what I expected it to be, somehow better than what I expected it to be too.

7

Jeff Wadlow directs Chloë Grace-Moretz, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jim Carrey in this sequel to the everyday nerds try to be vigilante superheroes parody.

Derided on release I can’t really see how this is any better or worse than the overhyped original. If anything the slightly stodgy, familiar subplots it doles out to the return players actually settles into a flick more suited to casual, throwaway, brainless viewing. Hit Girl goes Mean Girls? I’m in. Jim Carrey forms a boiler room Justice League of damaged souls? Fair enough. It is all a lot more easy to swallow than the clunky, directionless first entry. Just as colourful, gory, safe play “edgy”. I prefer it.

6

Alain Resnais directs Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anny Duperey and Charles Boyer in this fractured biopic of financier and fraudster Alexandre Stavisky, whose bond scam caused an international scandal in the 1930s.

The luxurious interwar decadence is marvellous but the story and character nuances washed over me. I don’t think I really cared.

4

Mati Diop directs Mame Bineta Sane, Amadou Mbow and Ibrahima Traoré in this Senegalese drama where a soon-to-be-married off girl misses her other boyfriend when he abruptly crosses the ocean looking for work yet begins to be blamed for the strange goings on that happen in his wake.

A strange, sincere film that shifts awkwardly between romance, detective story, supernatural chiller, broad comedy and agit prop. Can’t say I really enjoyed or engaged with it but you can’t fault its ambitions.

5

Anthony Mann directs Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris and Ulla Jacobsson in this action packed WWII movie following the Norwegian resistance fighters who took down a Nazi heavy water facility, stopping Hitler from getting The Bomb.

I mainly work nights. And after a hard shift there’s nothing better than catching half an hour of an old forgotten classic with a glass of whisky on my chest or a Heineken on my coffee table. I worry. Am I giving these films the chance they deserve, watching them exhausted and chopped up over a week? Then I catch something as epic as Heroes of the Telemark this way and know it doesn’t really matter. I want to get home, pour that hard earned drink and see what happens next. The set pieces here are brilliant; procedural, often silent, threat filled. The snowbound setting gives the film the same wonderful stark white visual appeal as On Her Majesty’s Secret Service or the penultimate mind-level of Inception. Kirk Douglas is a rooster in waterproofs, Harris the true believer. The ticking clock finale is fantastic. A superb true story, told with adventurous sweep and thump.

8

Michael Cuesta directs Jeremy Renner, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Oliver Platt in this true story conspiracy thriller about the journalist, Gary Webb, who uncovered the links between the Contras, the Cartels and the CIA.

An impressively deep cast of modern genre faces brings to life this robust paranoid thriller / biopic. The first half where Renner’s Webb is chasing the story is more gripping than the second half where his reputation is attacked from all sides. Well worth a watch.

6

Louis Malle directs Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregor and Jean Lenauer in this arthouse drama where two New York theatre types have a conversation about existentialism over a sumptuous five star meal.

As pretentious as it sounds, only the first hour is pretty much Gregor barraging you with anecdotes and sidebars. It should really be “My Dreary Monologue at Wallace.” Every now again the waiter comes over to serve a course or clear a plate and looks increasingly depressed and judgemental at what he overhears. He can at least pop out for a fag on the fire escape between courses, I was stuck drifting in and out of the whole stifling, butt sniffing, word vomit. The location shots of New York, the final coda and Wallace Shawn’s face all have merits. Side note: Ordered this from Ebay and ended up unintentionally with a pirated copy of the Criterion Collection edition. The Koreans who made it have used images of the parody episode from Community on the back cover rather than the actual film.

3

Antonia Bird directs Linus Roach, Tom Wilkinson and Cathy Tyson in this controversial drama about a priest struggling with the real world problems of working class Liverpool and his own forbidden desires.

An infamous film in its day as it depicted, sympathetically and explicitly, a gay priest engaging in a loving relationship. Roach’s straight-laced and conservative parish newcomer’s travails of having to work through his feelings and beliefs forms the backbone of the film. Yet the drama takes in a lot more scope than what the headlines focussed on. It is an exploration of the ethical and philosophical problems of faith, the hypocrisy of certain tenets and the pull of dogma over humanity. Jimmy McGovern’s script scrabbles at the four or five powerful issues, big nasty dilemmas that crossover with each other. The sacrifices and compromises men of belief must make when faced with harmful realities and their own natural needs is the grand theme. McGovern offers no easy answers, approaching the conflicts with passion and an erudite earthiness. For all its inherent heaviness, Priest is a funny and very involving drama. I kinda prefer McGovern’s approach to the working class over Ken Loach’s and certainly over Mike Leigh’s. You get the feeling McGovern wants to celebrate us for what we are, approach our flawed, dark sides and hypocrisies unvarnished and know that pity only exacerbates our problems. I like his poetic anger and his fight and his superior understanding over Leigh’s caricatures. They feel more approachable than Loach’s binary bureaucrats and worthy martyrs. Which is ironic given the subject matter here. Shout out to the excellent Antonia Bird too, a female director who made a couple of great movies in the 1990s – her Face is also due a re-evaluation. Adept at marshalling rich performances from her British casts and capturing the harshness and silliness of urban life. There are a few moments of disruptive strangeness that elevate Priest from merely being a piece of celluloid agitprop. A wild lad chases some seagulls, a strict vegan housekeeper delivers a cold welcome. Small respites of magic, captured perfectly. Someone should give her a decent budget to make this kind of firey, involving, mature work again.

10

Rian Johnson directs Daniel Craig, Ana De Armas and Chris Evans in this ensemble murder mystery were a private detective tries to solve the death of a millionaire crime novelist.

Chris Evans > Daniel Craig. Toni Collette steals the show. They’ve been spoofing this form since the 1930s. In fact, I’m struggling to think of a completely straight faced release in my lifetime, away from prestige Agatha Christie adaptations. A wonderful cast and some nice wriggles keeps this chugging along steadily but I’ll be honest and admit I never felt lost. Knives Out never reaches a head of steam where you feel overwhelmed by the tightening tale. Part of the joy of these things, beyond seeing a load of good faces bounces off each other, is to have the rugged pulled from under you a few times. Knives Out is so painstakingly soft furnished you get the feeling the production designer wouldn’t allow the carpets to be tugged at, blood stained or even ran across. A very beautiful Cluedo board is set-up, the rules are certainly subverted but you end up spectating the board game rather than rolling the dice and mucking in yourself. Bright larks, all the same. That Rian Johnson sure dictates bold, colourful images.

6

Philippe Garrel directs Anna Wiazemsky, Henri Du Maublanc and Cécile Le Bailey in this semi-autobiographical arthouse recreation of a hipster couple in freefall – one is addicted to filmmaking, the other the heroin.

As boring as cold turkey.

2