Paul Michael Glaser directs D.B. Sweeney, Moira Kelly and Roy Dotrice in this ice skating romantic comedy.
Surprisingly good. Sweeney ain’t no Spencer Tracy but Kelly makes a good fist of replicating a Muppet Baby Kate Hepburn. Feels like watching a whole series of some forgotten sitcom… in the nicest way that sentence can be interpreted.
Max Barbakow directs Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti and J. K. Simmons in this time loop romantic comedy.
An epic for beercan drinkers. Our Lawrence of Arabia. Very much Groundhog Day 2.0 but super cute whether colouring inside or outside the lines. Having other people actively sharing the loop is the masterstroke. Definitely the movie that finally sold Andy Samberg to me. He is very much a millennial Bill Murray… softer, slightly more excited by the world but has the right energy. Choice of location, costumes and pitch perfect cinematography makes this one of the best looking comedies of the decade. Get the feeling I might revisit this a fair bit…
Davy Chou directs Ji-Min Park, Oh Kwang-rok and Guka Han in the French Korean drama where a young woman casually investigates her Korean biological parents who put her up for adoption over in France.
Solid arthouse drama with well observed culture clash and generational clash moments. The disruptive time leaps sometimes can seem a bit fantastical but Ji-Min remains consistent in character and attitude as she suddenly ages, shifts milieu. Probably would have gone up a point if I watched this in a cinema.
6
Perfect Double Bill: Flirting With Disaster (1996)
Ridley Scott directs Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby and Tahar Rahim in this historical epic depicting the French leader’s rise to power as well as his relationship with Empress Joséphine.
Big, weird and moving at a tremendous clip. There’s lots to love here, it feels like karaoke Kubrick in the very best ways. Phoenix puts in a strange, spoilt, almost alien performance as Bonaparte and that means we connect with the historical figure’s fears and desire far more intimately than if he were played straight. His own petulant confusion when he is ejected from his own coup. His little horny horse noises when he is gearing up for meat-and-potatoes sex with Josephine. Kirby has the showier part as the mercenary by default wife and lover of the Emperor. Ridley can be trusted to give his leading ladies the most flattering limelight. Battle sequences up the wazoo, the flow of history is managed just right. We know where we are, who is who, what is what without having to have read a 1000 page biography in advance or reams of studied exposition. Just a great time at the movies, roll on the four hour streaming version.
Aki Kaurismäki directs Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen and Janne Hyytiäinen in this Finnish arthouse flick about a drunk and a zero hour contract worker who can’t seem to get their mutual attraction to click.
Deadpan, snail paced, depressing frustrations… both human nature and caustic fate. So probably the best and definitely the most beautiful romcom of the decade so far. Alma Pöysti is stunning in a shopworn kinda way and the dog acting here is even better than Anatomy Of A Fall’s breakout canine star. One point knocked off for pretending The Dead Don’t Die is an enjoyable cinematic experience.
William Oldroyd directs Thomasin McKenzie, Shea Whigham and Anne Hathaway in this period drama where a lonely boy’s prison clerk starts a dangerous infatuation with the hot new female psychiatrist.
Have been looking forward to the next William Olyroyd after the eye catching Lady Macbeth. This is full of cheeky wanks, ambiguous seductions and leery everyday boredom. All the name acts put in an enthusiastic shift, Whigman’s drunk abusive father has the most well written bit. The costume design by Olga Mill is particularly sensuous and outstanding. And yet a six day week, a few late shifts and I couldn’t keep my eyes open for the finale. Natalie briefed me after I reawakened the last two minutes before the end credits.
John Frankenheimer directs Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield and Jeanne Moreau in this wartime thriller where a resistance saboteur must risk the lives of his men to save a train full of modern masterpieces as the Nazis retreat from Paris.
Exaggerated from a true story and all the better for it. One of the last big Black And White releases of the Hollywood era and it looks beautiful. Steam engines racing and crashing for reals. Lancaster, the bureaucrat of action, reluctantly pulling out every con and bunging every wrench into the works to stop a train whose cargo he does not care about. Scofield, superb as the blinkered Nazi whose mission becomes both personal and obsessive. A little bit of Moreau – for the ladies, for the sexiness, to let us all know how futile all this boy-ish fanaticism is. Even though most of this movie never travels more than 50 miles outside of the Parisian city limits it is exciting and expansive. One of those “they don’t make em like this anymore” marvels. The ending feels like the first time a main character walks away from their victory utterly disgusted by the cost of the action, dejected from their old way of life. It is a conclusion that would become a staple of manly character arcs through the Seventies.
John Boorman directs Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty in this adventure thriller where a group of weekend kayakers find themselves fighting for their lives.
On the year of its release Deliverance was the fifth highest grossing film at the American box office. Wow! I’ll just let that sink in. Last year, the movie to reach that milestone was Jurassic World Dominion. Two moments from the seminal film reached into the western world’s shared psyche and became permanent parts of the cultural lexicon: the phrase “squeal like a pig” and the duel of the banjos. This year it’s “Hi Barbie” and… err… A nightmarish, adult movie that preys on male fears. One that has deeper things to say about the fragility of the environment and just how thin the line is between civilisation and insect politics which we all walk. The set pieces are gruelling, the location work is almost timeless. And there are no heroes. OK… so I’ve hidden the fact that Oppenheimer will occupy the same ranking in this year’s box office charts to make a point. But Oppenheimer for all its strengths is a movie driven by a well defined protagonist. Deliverance is motored by failure, fuck up and mistrust. Nobody achieves anything, everybody leaves shattered.
Rowdy Herrington directs Patrick Swayze, Ben Gazzara and Kelly Lynch in this action movie where a star bouncer cleans up a dive nightclub and then goes after the corrupt town patriarch.
The epitome of a guilty pleasure in that it really is a bad movie, with awful script choices and minimal reality yet it proves always Friday night pleasurable and not solely for reasons of camp or schadenfreude. Swayze is full of zen, one beat per minute swagger. His body, which is often shirtless, is undeniably sexy. He offers a different action tonality than the pure muscle of an early Arnie, van Damme or Stallone but shies away from the glib zaniness of Gibson, Willis or later Arnie. There is nothing sophisticated about Swayze – he is a body, a pretty face, a big hairdo, a discipline, a blank philosophy, a soul within an action. It is no surprise his best on-screen chemistry was when he handed over his (until then) unique mantle to Keanu in Point Break. The movie is sleek but erratic. It forgets its core hook after the bar is conquered and the girl is won. Gazzara makes for strange but always enjoyable villain. I wouldn’t say he goes at the role with relish but his half baked nastiness proves a decent counterweight to Swayze’s more soulful hero. The third act goes off the rails with spectacular trailer moments and essentially remakes Shane with muscle cars and titties. The big fight between Swayze and a chickensweat Jack Palance wannabe is homoerotic as fuck. “I used to fuck guys like you in prison.” In your dreams, pal. Say goodbye to your throat.
Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker direct Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Suarez and Rick Moranis in this Disney animated adventure comedy where a Native American teen is turned into a bear.
Beautiful backgrounds but overly worthy and maudlin. The Disney doldrums start to take their toll. Not enough comedy Canuck moose action.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 