Louis Malle directs Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine and Susan Sarandon in this period drama about a child growing up in a New Orleans cathouse, matter of factly becoming a prostitute. 

A well made film, full of convincing visual detail and relaxed natural performances. Obviously the subject matter is troubling. A pubescent girl embracing life as a whore for that is all she knows. It is done casually, with little fanfare. Any nudity with the 12 year old Shields is shown away from a sexualised context (yet there is then unnecessary nudity) and during the first act her corruption is so subtly played out so that you fool yourself into thinking it won’t happen… and then later that it has but we will not witness it. Eventually she is sold off into auction, happily. Malle treads a high wire act, never showing his hand. His assessment of the small microcosm of the cathouse as a friendly, warm environment where residents once they are of age want to earn their keep is well essayed. The moral issues of this are not really explored, the emotional issues are presented from the johns perspective. Most are presented as lucidious but polite and respectful, any kink or rough proclivities seen as part of the menu on offer, for behind closed doors. Carradine’s photographer named Bellocq makes the mistake of falling for the child sex worker and this is seen as the transgression… not his desire to fuck the underage human, but in wanting to form a lasting, domestic relationship with her. The only directorial judgment explicitly made is it is wrong to apply adult emotions to our eponymous protagonist. As someone who sees the exploitation and destructiveness of selling a child into sex slavery (should I really need to type that), I can take Pretty Baby as a non-manipulative recreation of a case that agrees with my viewpoint. But I could also see how a paedophile could view Pretty Baby as a titillation or even justification of their perversion. Operating within a narrow margin, managing to be both cinematic exploitation and sensitive exploration. A litmus test as to whether the viewer needs ominous music, tragic third act consequences or tearful Oscar speeches to know whether the situation they are being presented with is “wrong”. Malle cleverly and provocatively presents everything from the child’s point of view, she knows no other world than this, and from that limited perspective sees no issue with it. And within that context he creates a film of strong cinematic technique, surprising  affection and good humour.

7

Roman Polański directs Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka and Zygmunt Malanowicz in this psychological drama about a couple who take a hitchhiker on a boat trip with the intention of creating tension. 

Dead Calm in reverse, here the interloper with the knife is under threat from the couple as they toy with him. It makes for a sexy, brutal and gripping 24 hours on the lake which announced Polanski as a major talent. I was utterly hooked throughout.

9

Sydney Pollack directs Robert Redford, Will Geer and Delle Bolton in this true tale about a Western frontiersman who tries to live the life of a hermit until the army, relationships and the natives intrude. 

Fine when it is just Redford against the elements or warming to the makeshift family he acquires by accident. A near silent extravaganza of beautiful scenery and hunting skits for a long old ways. Once the revenge plot is introduced Pollack attempts to jazz up his solid direction, especially of the violence, so it becomes a mesmerising kaleidoscope. I’m not entirely sure that works. Also noteworthy is the film has a symmetry, with character and locations from the first half reappearing in reverse order in the second. Evidence of the smart tricks at play. Not sure the tricks are of any true value though. Watch The Revenant instead if you want superior pretty boys in harsh nature yucks.

5

Blake Edwards directs David Niven, Peter Sellers and Claudia Cardinale in this bedroom farce about a gentleman thief trying to steal a diamond from a beautiful princess under the watchful eye of a clumsy inspector. 

I’m not sure it makes a lick of sense but I like Niv and Cardinale, and loves Sellers. Too much time is restricted to one hotel room set, too much of Robert Wagner’s pointless young buck is inflicted upon us. Take half an hour of those elements out and you’d have a perfect slapstick pleasure full of froth and beauty.

7

Mike Newell directs Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell and Kristin Scott Thomas in this romantic comedy that takes place over…. yep. 

Even though this is the antithesis of everything I stand for cinematically (posh luvvies, Andi MacDull, poshy poshness poshness, honky hell, cucumber sandwiches, poshos) it is submitted quite attractively. The vapid loves of annoying people who control the country retains some of the barbed wit of Richard Curtis’ earlier best (Blackadder and The Tall Guy), and proves a decent vehicle for Grant and Scott Thomas, who I guess cannot help the distasteful privilege they were raised in and that is glorified here.

6

Brian De Palma direct Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffiths and Bruce Willis in this big budget adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s tome about Eighties New York tearing itself apart. 

I have just finished reading The Devil’s Candy, Julie Salamon’s unparalleled look at the making of this commercial flop. She had unprecedented access to the production of a blockbuster only to see all the compromises. It is an excellent book letting you in on the Hollywood movie production process from pitch to premiere and the psychology of the team who work their ambitious butts off to make a movie; whether it proves to be a masterpiece or a disaster. Is Bonfire of the Vanities as bad as its reputation suggests? No. Imperfect but quite watchable. The pluses are nearly all in the visually opulent choices made, thanks to the stunt direction of De Palma. He may not be able to imbue wit or intelligence to the endeavour but fuck me can the dude muck around with a steadicam, a split screen and a time lapse camera. The script cannot decide whether it is drama or a satire and succeeds as neither. Any adaptation really needed to ramp up its cartoonishness to Dr Strangelove levels of confidence to get away with its tasteless grotesque plot. It is miscast – Tom Hanks has the comic chops to make Sherman the sacrificial stockbroker fly but seems neutered, Willis is out of place and it is hard to see what real significance his weak turn has on the proceedings, but Griffiths gets “it” and has breathy, manipulative larks. To compare it to Strangelove again, you cannot help but imagine the fun Sellers and George C Scott would have with this material, keeping Griffiths still in there too. Anachronistic fantasy perhaps, but Bonfires is an experience as much about what it could have been as what it is. We would have to wait another decade for Mary Harron’s American Psycho to get the cinematic lampooning the yuppie era deserved. We are left with a film that is part visually dazzling, woefully straight faced and often clunkily racist. While we are playing “What if…?” Spike Lee as director would have shared all of De Palma’s bravo techniques with a more intriguing grip on lacerating the white chattering classes. Oh well…

6

Matthew Vaughn directs Taron Egerton, Mark Strong and Colin Firth in this over the top spy spoof sequel where the classy independents go American. 

A very baggy middle lets down this energetic retread of the original. Bringing Firth’s master agent back from the grave is sensible; spending quite so long messing around, looking for false emotion in his amnesia subplot is wasteful. Still once he is back so comes the funky action. A few of the gags don’t hit – basically as they have a warped Telegraph reader’s idea of what is cool at their base. Glastonbury isn’t “hip” but we only spend five minutes there, but having the charisma-free homunculus that is Elton John dominate the finale just because he was willing is almost unforgivable. These jarring wobbles weaken what is a big, spectacular, couldn’t give a shit, starry, bad taste Bank Holiday afternoon filler. Fast food, but we all like a gherkin and fat fused burp occasionally. No better or worse than the mid-level Roger Moore Bond’s that inspired it in spectacle, scale or sensibility but lacking the Pygmalion heart that made the first one stand out.

6

 

David Zucker directs Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley and Ricardo Montalbán in this spoof of cops shows. 

I loved this as a kid. I like it now. The inspired police siren credit sequence alone evokes waves of pleasing nostalgia – 10 year old me banging my VHS copy, longplay recorded off the telly, on for the hundredth time, no doubt with a Club bar and packet of Salt and Vinegar crisps to hand. Colourful, jaunty and with enough confidently sustained dumb jokes thrown against the wall that you don’t notice the low hit rate. The straight faced pairing of Neilsen (adorable) and Presley (something a whole lot more than adorable) manages to whack a fair few extra low balls out of the park. The finale is actually quite intense. Silly, silly movie.

7

Zoltán Korda directs Humphrey Bogart, J. Carrol Naish and Bruce Bennett in this ensemble war movie where a desert tank picks up a passenger from just about every nation participating in World War II and then they have to work together to protect a well from a Nazi battalion. 

Blatant propaganda that plays to stereotypes but with the brilliant Bogie front and centre and a strong Western plot transplanted to keep you gripped.

6

James Ponsoldt directs Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley and Brie Larson in this teen romance that sensitively explores the attraction between two mixed-up kids. 

This passed me by on release but I have enjoyed all of the James Ponsoldt’s movies I have discovered this year and the cast have all become big names since. So I gave it a try… and… Wow! Filmed with a slippery magic hour brightness and a timeless sense of fashion, this is an excellent teen movie trying to evoke the subtle truths of Say Anything… and Dazed and Confused – the teen genre’s high points. It casually explores the characters to start, allowing us to be seduced by their fresh faces and warmth to each other. There’s no love at first sight thunderbolts or fake rivalry. These kids get together with faltering uncertainty, they have sex with slightly worried / slightly surprised smiles on their faces and interact with the friends and exes still orbiting around them as people rather than as stock villains created to interrupt their binary happiness. Ponsoldt, with the help of some very charismatic leads, has somehow managed to bottle the temporary, elusive smoke of what a teen relationship actually feels and looks like. And then he introduces his second theme – our quirky and confident boy has bigger issues. Hinted at throughout the first hour, his alcohol dependency hides in plain sight. Characters comment on it obliquely but he is oblivious, we rarely see him in a scene without a drink to hand, and it is only when his new love Aimee starts carrying a hip flask to school too that we begin to question how healthy his lifestyle is, for them both. The movie switches on us – we thought we were being sold on a fun guy taking a chance on falling for a shy girl romance, a Cinderella story in faded t-shirts. Instead we start to explore what Miles Teller will be when he no longer has high school as a safety net to fall into, hungover each morning. Will he straighten up and be responsible? Will he grow up and stay with the girl clearly smitten on him? And as he explores who he is and what his future looks like, the heavier drama grips and still rings true. Remarkable stuff.

9