Jean-Marc Vallée directs Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend and Paul Bettany in this romantic period drama where the future queen has to navigate everyone trying to be in control of her before she takes the throne or a lover.
Every young British actress on the rise has to make one of these. It is the law. Blunt either lucked out or somehow managed to soar above her rote material. I reckon the reason this is a bit more special is the latter.
Crystal clear dialogue. Perfect outfits. Witty silliness. The older you get the more you just want some immaculate magic in your life. Billy Wilder was a neat sorcerer. Audrey Hepburn will always be a overpowering spell. Bogart was too old but a good sport even so.
Costa-Gavras directs Debra Winger, Tom Berenger and John Heard in this thriller where an FBI informant goes undercover into a farming family with ties to the Neo-Nazi movement.
Joe Eszterhas’ salty script makes itself known in the first five seconds. Formally this has the same spine as his Basic Instinct or Jagged Edge or Jade. Is your lover the killer? Are you attracted to them, trying to get close enough to clear them of suspicion or are you seduced as much by the danger as the person? Only it ain’t wholesome like a sexy sex killer this time. They might be a racist terrorist leader of a white power group. Berenger is it at his best here and Debra Winger never made enough like this (see also: Black Widow). She really is great. The third act doesn’t know what to do with itself after some mad All-American Hate sequences where we go fully down the racist rabbit hole. But there’s a strange out-of-sync epilogue that is haunting. Too memorable and prescient to be hobbled by its obvious flaws.
P. J. Hogan directs Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths and Bill Hunter in this dark Aussie indie comedy where a sad sack loner steals money from her parents and starts a new life for herself centered around a fantasy wedding.
Australian cinema split two ways until the 1990s. There were the carefully crafted, politically charged dramas and thrillers of the New Wave (see Peter Weller or Bruce Beresford). Or the demented Ozploitation that reached its pinnacle with the Mad Max trilogy. By the last decade of the 20th century though all that talent had fucked off to Hollywood leaving a void for quirkier voices to fill. A lot of the cinema Australia exported was independent, satirical and gaudy. Far more interested in skewering suburban attitudes than rampaging through the outback or exposing top level corruption. Muriel’s Wedding is probably the peak of this second cycle. The audience who embraced it love it. I find it way too shrill and tonally discombobulating. It can be really camp, then really bleak. Switching on an unsettling dime. The closest thing it probably matches is John Waters later works where he had professional crews and big name stars to play with. There are iconic moments here… ABBA is utilised so well that you know Mamma Mia couldn’t exist without Muriel. Any film that introduced both Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths to the world has to be worth a movie fan’s time. When I was 15 this felt like a waste of a video rental. These days it still isn’t for me but I can at least see it’s value.
Dome Karukoski directs Pekka Strang, Seumas Sargent and Chris Myland in this trad biopic about the life and art of Touko Laaksonen, a Finnish homoerotic artist who glorified beefcakes in leather and uniforms.
A fascinating figure in gay culture and outsider art is given a bog standard biopic. I learnt but I didn’t love.
İlker Çatak directs Leonie Benesch, Anne-Kathrin Gummich and Rafael Stachowiak in this German drama where a new teacher struggles to trust anyone when a series of thefts occur in her staff room.
Constantly escalating, emotionally chilling. A quicksand situation where the stakes are low, everyday, recognisable. Yet every decision leads to further complications and deeper conflicts. This taut little shocker puts Leonie Benesch through the wringer and she rises to the challenge with quiet intensity. A name making lead performance. A stark reflection of current working practices in education and the wider western world. Where corporate policy, victim playing and toxic team dynamics stifle any chance to achieve… anything.
Liliana Cavani directs Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling and Philippe Leroy in this post-war Nazi drama where a hotel clerk revives his controlling relationship with a young woman he coerced into sex when he was her concentration camp overseer.
Controversial in its day, just a bit moribund now. It is a ripe idea but this delivery switches from obtuse to oblivion. Offers the viewer very little but some shocking SS kink imagery and weak old man conspiracy. Bogarde and Rampling are strong despite their frustratingly unexplored characters.
Shinya Tsukamoto directs Asuka Kurosawa, Yuji Kohtari and himself in this Japaneseerotic thriller where a repressed counsellor is blackmailed into committing sexual acts in public.
Memorable, and not just for it unique silvery blue monochrome beauty, this is hot and creepy in equal measures. Like all Tsukamoto features I’ve seen so far A Snake Of June is weird, icky and grows repetitive. Yet Asuka Kurosawa central performance is captivating, she is both embattled and curious, and it really sticks it to the voyeur. Us! Tsuksmoto himself! Hard to dislike, impossible to forget.
Hirokazu Koreeda directs Arata Iura, Erika Oda and Susumu Terajima in this Japanese fantasy drama where in a drab building the recently deceased must choose a memory from their life to be recreated and relived for eternity.
A beautiful film. Deceptively simple. Quaintly ordinary. People must decide which memory they want to relive. Some really struggle with the process. The case workers try to make sure their decision is timely but also a good one. Then we get to the “videoing” of the memory where the moment that a person’s life is boiled down to is recreated on a small lo-fi set. These re-enactments precede Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind. Ultimately this is an ignition movie. What are you doing with your life? Do you find value in your work? Have you made the right relationships? Don’t settle even if settling can sometimes be the only option. It really works on multiple levels.
Ridley Scott directs Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Pedro Pascal in this historical action epic that serves as a belated sequel to the ‘Russell Crowe goes from Roman general to inspiring gladiator’ smash.
The original Gladiator was a blockbuster I always admired rather than loved, enjoyed rather than embraced. It never entered into my regular rotation after its triumphs. So personally I had no hunger for a belated sequel with no Russell or Joquain. I always have time for Ridley… world building Ridley… historical Ridley… but he has been in this mode a fair bit recently and built this exact world to scale already. At least he brings Denzel along for the rerun and Mr Washington eats with a fey, aggressive and relishable sorta fairy godmother, sorta villain turn. I spent a lot of the generous running time ticking off the differences. They all felt like devaluations. Mescal is a fine actor and a good looking spud but he doesn’t fill big Russ’ macho sandals well. There is one scene where he is led away from a battle defeated and he looks like an overpaid footballer who is disappointed by a red card decision that didn’t go his way. Better, more appropriate roles in Hollywood await him. There are way too many set pieces that rely on naff cgi animals. Bad for two reasons – the FX works is shoddy and I struggle seeing animals harmed, even distractingly fake ones. And as it follows the basic narrative of Gladiator on a rail there are few surprises… which is not what you want from 150 minutes of butt numb-er. Quibbles maybe, but enough to make me shrug on exit. I wanted hell unleashed (did they forget the best Gladiator quote!?), I got purgatory as IP holding pattern.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 