Pedro Almodóvar directs Penelope Cruz, Lluís Homar and Blanca Portillo in the Spanish drama where a blind movie director remembers his affair with an actress being ‘kept’ by a jealous titan of finance.
A rather staid and unmemorable melodrama. Feels like Almodóvar spinning his wheels. There are some nice shots of torn photos and private moments.
Kenny Ortega directs Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy in this Halloween kids comedy where witches from the past are unleashed into the mid-90s.
I was a little too old for this back in ‘93 so it passed me by. I’m way too old for it now and its rising cult baffles me. Standard product from Disney – formless adventure, punchline-free jokes, shrill performances, uneven tone (bloodthirsty yet somehow bloodless).
Steven Spielberg directs Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss in this adventure movie where a shark terrorises a tourist island.
The summer blockbuster invented. The unsettling, persuasive threat of John Williams’ score. The expert jump scares. A timeless on-location, at sea adventure. COVID-19 politics played out at a micro level, just replace the shark for the virus. A study in masculinity… three very different heroes emerge… all human. Robert Shaw’s barnstorming, movie shifting, iconic powerhouse as Quint. The sea shanties and the shooting stars. I first watched Jaws with my cousins at a holiday camp in Cornwall. Nothing compares though to the magic of seeing it on the big screen. It is flawless, flowing from note perfect scene to impeccable set piece. A cinematic storytelling masterclass. “Smile, you son of a…” KA-BOOOOM!
Aaron Sorkin directs Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Rylance and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this dramatic recreation of a Sixties civil rights landmark case where political activists where put of trial for the violence their protest ended in.
A pageant of well attuned casting and smart dialogue this should be a backboard shattering slam dunk. Sorkin, in his political and courtroom wheelhouse, letting illuminated, impassioned people monologue, dialogue and make statements. It never really thickens though. Scene after scene pass out abruptly never finding their ultimate point. The fine work by the leads is usurped by showier one or two scene roles from Michael Keaton and John Doman. Frank Langella’s dangerously combative judge all but dominates the movie. You walk away knowing you have seen an intelligent film but not entirely sure why you were supposed to care. The Bobby Seale narrative feels like the more Hollywood friendly tale to tell but here it is a garnish to the white nerds of history. Very watchable but somehow not worthy of the pedigree of those involved.
Steven Brill directs Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Julie Bowen in this broad comedy where the town joke protects his community from a Halloween night full of unseen terrors.
Big, dumb, unrelenting stupidness. This is the first time in a while Sandler has played one of his Jerry Lewis inspired man-child schmucks. It is the strong, forgotten, kid friendly flavour he founded his stardom on and it opens his unique formula up to having a lot more gross out jokes and unabashed saccharine heart. Probably not particularly good for you but very entertaining to watch. Littered with silly memorable roles, especially for Steve Buscemi, Julie Bowen and Ray Liotta. Hubie Halloween outstays its welcome by forgetting to end but everyone is having a ball so you just have to wait them out.
Woody Allen directs Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning and Liev Schreiber in this romantic comedy where two erudite but callow college lovers visit New York and have their worldview expanded.
What looked for a while like it might have been Woody Allen’s last hurrah. Thank goodness it wasn’t as this is a pretty weightless and musty epitaph to a fantastic career. A teen comedy where the kids only reference points are Yasser Arafat, Greta Garbo and their ridiculous inherited wealth. The conspicuously old fashioned dialogue, mores and flitting, unstable nature of the plot suggests this is just a lot of off cuts and half realised ideas for scenes that Woody never found a plot for. 50 years worth of notes and uncompleted drafts strung together. That might explain why the highly punchable Chalamet, Liev and Jude Law are all simultaneously playing the “Woody Allen” role in this. The jarring anachronism of the characters and plotting means it proves very hard to settle into the few witticisms and seductions that land. Elle Fanning, once again, turns mince into steak… her innocent wannabe film journalist swings from pretentiousness to naïf to bimbo to mistress yet you never not want to take yours eyes off her in her random farcical scenes.
Jonathan Demme directs Talking Heads as they perform a career defining concert.
Puts you right in the mix. You share the thrill of what it must have been like to be in the front row while experiencing the immaculately joy and rehearsed effort of the performers.
Éric Rohmer directs Phillippe Marlaud, Marie Rivière and Anne-Laure Meury in this French romantic comedy where a jealous postman follows his non-committal girlfriend’s ex.
I tried a Rohmer when I was younger and could not get into it. Dull-a-go-go! This one though grabbed me. We get a look at a day in the life of a group of discontent Parisiens. Anne is rude to everyone and wants a relationship where she is left alone most of time. The callow Francois is overbearing and out of his depth… his paranoid clinginess turns to full on stalking. 15 year old Lucie mistakenly thinks he is following her… and she could be the woman of his dreams… if only he wasn’t so obsessed with his (not unjustified) paranoia. Their interlude that forms the core of the film is delightful, with Anne-Laure Meury’s precocious flirt electrifying the film. Nothing ends up how you expect but the quiet mundanity and gentle ironies Rohmer revels in here really hooked me. A new director to explore. If you are a fan of Before Sunset, give this a try.
Mélanie Laurent directs Ben Foster, Elle Fanning and Beau Bridges in this neo-noir Western where a hitman rescues a young whore and her little girl.
Decent action, rote miserablism dramatics. Foster and Fanning are far too good to ever be unengaging, it looks appropriately gritty and sweaty. Just travels from its well trodden A-B with enough flair to survive but not enough to meet the expectations brung along by the talent involved.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa directs Kōji Yakusho, Masato Hagiwara and Tsuyoshi Ujiki in this Japanese serial killer mystery where a group of murders are easily solved, each perpetrator is found disorientated near their victim, but a dogged detective feels a creepy drifter might be equally culpable for the crimes.
*** POSSIBLE SPOILERS *** Cure didn’t even get a cinema release in the U.K. in the late Nineties but has grown in cult reputation and stature over the past two decades. This was my first viewing and it has pretty much everything I like and need in a new favourite. An unsettling narrative, never fully resolved, so you pick and pull at the puzzling loose ends long after. This could keep you up at night worrying about what was real and who has become whom. I shan’t discuss my theories on the playfully open dreamlike second half but will say it still works throughout as an accessible thriller. A rebellious detective, cut from a different cloth from his colleagues, gradually solves the bizarre mystery. A villain emerges who is unnervingly blank. Seemingly brain damaged, he cannot remember who he is, or focus on conversations for more than three sentences, responding to every interaction with non sequitur queries of his own… then insidiously after he has baffled those around him he becomes in control of people. A devil… a puppet master… one who has evaded the scene long before deadpan violence erupts and whose grand scheme or method is never truly revealed. Masato Hagiwara is fantastically obtuse in the antagonist role, evoking a supernatural disconnection and virulent undercurrent of genius. Koji Yakusho is equally compelling as the outsider detective, smarter than everyone else but not clever enough to realise staring too long into this particular abyss will warp him too. Kiyoshi Kurosawa directs it with a clinical precision that gives way to a spaced out surrealness. The look of the film is clearly influenced by the dank dystopian interiors of Se7en or The Silence of the Lambs. The central hero / nemesis dynamic owes a debt to The Usual Suspects. This forgotten gem is clearly an influence on Bong Joon Ho’s Memories of Murder. But the feeling it reminded me of the most was the shifting unease and unnavigatable warping of time and space you get watching David Lynch. He executed similar mindfucks with both Fire Walk With Me and Lost Highway. If any of those half a dozen mentioned revered classics are your cup of tea then quite the sanity altering jewel awaits you with Cure. I can see the below score rising on revisits.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 