Toshio Matsumoto directs Peter, Osamu Ogasawara and Yoshio Tsuchiyain in this Japanese art film following trials and tribulations of Eddie and other transvestites in Japan.
Experimental, meta and flip. Made for the exploitation market but way too candid, compassionate and playful to really satisfy the gore and nudity crowd. Startlingly ahead of its time in terms of representation but also very of its time in terms of form.
Noah Baumbach directs Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black in this adult comedy where a highly strung sister arrives at her old family home to disrupt her slacker sister’s wedding.
Some real bitter nasty here. Everyone plays an absolute weak willed scumbag. I don’t think it is intended as an eat-the-rich satire. There are moments with potent ambiguity (what is going on behind that fence, for example?) Maybe the ultimate point is humanity is awful whether you know them intimately or at a remove? There are a couple of times that characters repeat small gestures in different contexts. Baumbach clearly intends a deeper meaning here than just “look at this set of bastards”.
Alfred Hitchcock directs Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave and May Whitty in this classic British comedy thriller where a young traveller is convinced the kindly old lady who helped her onto the train has been kidnapped when everyone on board denies she even existed.
Brexit stopover. Potential threesomes just aren’t cricket. Noisy meet-cute. Rotten behaviour but I think they’ll warm to each other. Death by serenade. Flowerpot assassination attempt. Tea packet clue. Where did she go? Teaming up. Bandaged red herring. Murderous magic tricks. Fake nun. At least everyone isn’t a fascist?! Obligatory clinging to the outside of a moving train stunt. Shoot out under siege on the side line. “Pacifist, eh? Won’t work, old boy. Early Christians tried it and got thrown to the lions.” Race to the foreign office. Fun, fun, fun.
Reinaldo Marcus Green directs Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch and James Norton in this musical biopic of Bob Marley.
Love the man, love the music. This is a flat, family approved whitewash which really struggles to hold the attention. Maybe alright if you care about the deeper story behind certain lyrics but even then only if you believe the fairy tales being conjured up here. Lacks the immersive sensuality of an Ali or a Marie Antoinette. Misses the epic cheese of a Bohemian Rhapsody.
Jonathan Glazer directs Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller and Ralph Herforth in this Holocaust art film observing the complicit family who live next to and profit from the Auschwitz Death Camp.
At first I thought it was going to be a coy game of spot the genocide. All middle as we know the beginning and the end. Mica Levi’s soundscape makes you feel nauseous from the off. I’m not sure what the point is but it is impeccably made. I score films based on how much I’d want to rewatch them. This?
Floyd Mutrux directs Tim McIntire, Fran Drescher and Jay Leno in this musical biopic of Alan Freed, the DJ who popularised Rock N Roll but became in embroiled in the PAYOLA scandal.
‘Biopic’ probably isn’t the correct word. We follow Freed through a fictionalised week at the peak of his fame. He is trying to organise a massive concert. He is pulled at from all sides. Fans want to meet him. Hopefuls want to audition in front of him. Promo and A&R men seek his favour. The authorities want to destroy him. And how they will is slowly drip fed to us as he makes his way from performance to business meeting to broadcasting booth. A closed off man, a near silent man. There’s an obvious sadness to him. It is a deep, patient central acting turn by Tim McIntire. We get the feeling we are experiencing exactly what it is like to be the calm centre of the counter cultural storm. His clothes are loud, his passion for music and youth are blatant yet he is just present. He makes a point of listening to the music he plays on the airwaves. He knows the kids can tell. Around him is an American Graffiti / I Wanna Hold Your Hand / Dazed and Confused of kids on the scene. Dreamers, songwriters, fans, the warring co-workers underneath him. Nobody’s story moves forward so much as happens. Swirls around him. Then the final act is that showstopping concert featuring Screamin’ Jaw Hawkins. The squares stoke a riot, Freed knows this is his swansong. The pressure piles on… the stakes are our future. Never available on any form of physical media this is a bit of a white whale for youth movie fans.
Gerald Thomas directs Sid James, Kenneth Connor and Charles Hawtrey in this British comedy where four incompetent new recruits fight crime in the suburbs.
Even my nostalgia for this comedy team can’t save the stiff, staid early ones. A series of saucy postcards come to life with very little guile and no colour. The core characters are starting to form at least but there’s no vibe just yet. It is dumb and wholesome rather than dumb and sleazy, and I kinda prefer them sleazy. All of Hawtrey’s bits are good as he’s the more seasoned performer. The dolly birds include Goldfinger’s Shirley Eaton, who looks lovely. Filmed around West Ealing and Hanwell where I grew up but largely unrecognisable.
Norman Jewison directs Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr and Bonnie Hunt in this romantic comedy where a soon-to-be-wed dreamer elopes to Italy in the hope of finding the man she believes to be her destiny… with only a name to go on.
Trite and contrived, babyfaced Downey Jnr is absent for an hour and then looks distracted for the remainder.
Daniel Goldhaber directs Ariela Barer, Kristine Froseth and Lukas Gage in this climate change thriller where a group of appositely motivated young strangers commit a terrorist act.
After this and Cam, Goldhaber is fast becoming a director of note. Turning non-fiction works into Gen Z fantasies. This takes a direct action agitprop book and refilters the content into a Michael Mann-esque process thriller. Successfully. The small t twist wrap-up escapes reality a little but otherwise this has enough grip and grit to be very rewatchable. Previous attempts to cinefy these groups by more established directors (The East, Night Moves) have come nowhere near to achieving anything as rounded and as hopeful as How To Blow Up a Pipeline. Synth score.
Olivier Assayas directs Charles Berling, Jérémie Renier and Juliette Binoche in this French drama where three well-to-do siblings must deal with their mother’s idyllic estate, filled with art, after she passes.
On paper, not my bag. Rich people with rich people’s problems. Yet it explores its prescient themes with an accessible rigour. Art, legacy, globalisation, fractured families. Value. What has value? This is probably Assayas’ straightest project and yet I really engaged with it. Appreciated its ambitions and pure hearted craft. Could have used a little more Binoche but…. C’est la vie.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 