David Raymond directs Henry Cavill, Ben Kingsley and Alexandra Daddario in this serial killer thriller where a nonce hunter and an intense cop chase the same psycho.
A wobbly nasty… too slick to be exploitation, too cliched to be memorable. There are a couple of passable twists but every name actor has one eye on their paycheck and the other anywhere but the script. An almost autistic endeavour.
Ken Loach directs Carol White, Terrence Stamp and John Bindon in this British Kitchen Sink drama that follows a young woman’s shifts in fortunes as she shacks up with London career criminals.
Based on Nell Dunn’s novel this is a rarity: a feminist, socialist gangster film. Carol White gives a warm and complex lead performance as the blonde we’d usually see voiceless sitting in a booth tarted up with a Face’s arm around her. We see her financial struggles and the pull between her heart and sexual needs. Loach is careful to avoid judgment even though a lot of her harder choices generate scenes that put this comfortably in the saucy / seedy milieu. He’s not making exploitation just following a young woman who is at least articulate about her desires in the darker side of Swinging London. It makes for quite the beguiling character study. Her more brutish husband is played by John Bindon a real life gangster who also appears in Get Carter and Barry Lyndon. I’m not saying he was the best actor in the gaff but he brings an authenticity and cockiness that shows up the more studied improvising of sensitive thief Terrence Stamp. There are a lot of bleak and frank moments here and you’d struggle to say Loach finds much hope in the stalemate conclusion. Yet it feels like a lighter, less didactic exploration of urban life that a lot of his left wing canon. Really liked this one.
Alan J Pakula directs Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffmann and Jason Robards in this true story of the cub reporters who broke the Watergate Scandal that toppled the Nixon presidency.
Probably my third time watching this and I still find it more admirable than thrilling, dry rather than rich. Like sitting through a modern history lesson that cuts off short once momentum builds and the important dominos start falling. I know this focussed on the grind and deadends that Woodward & Bernstein endured to get sources confirmed that a conspiracy had and was occurring. Eavesdropping on them get shutdown mid phone call or in face-to-face meetings has a procedural dullness to it. The veracity of a thriller set in open plan offices, mundane reception areas and messy living rooms. The film is at its paranoid best when we go out on the shadowy streets and into the murky darkness of the parking lot rendezvous. Gordon Willis trademark opaque location cinematography is an indisputable strength. I also rate Jason Robards prickly, intelligent turn as Washington Post legend Ben Bradlee. I would never quibble its CLASSIC status, I guess I’m just a more 3 Days Of The Condor kinda guy. “If you’re gonna do it, do it right. If you’re gonna hype it, hype it with the facts. I don’t mind what you did. I mind the way you did it.”
Mia Hansen-Løve directs Paul Blain, Constance Rousseau and Marie-Christine Friedrich in this French drama following a young girl’s estrangement from her father witnessed at 6 years old and then again at 18.
A competently and sensitively made debut. Hansen-Love keeps a certain detachment from the otherwise intimate scenes. I know I enjoyed watching this in the moment but very little has stayed with me only a little later.
William Friedkin directs William Petersen, Willem Dafoe and John Pankow in this cop thriller where a corrupt Secret Service agent enters into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a flamboyant counterfeiter.
Wow! Much like the walloping centrepiece car chase (all hail Buddy Joe Hooker’s stunt driving madmen) where our protagonists’ race down the wrong direction of a freeway… this is a movie that revels in making the least sensible survival choices. And it absolutely rocks because of it. We get more explicit male nudity than female, we get a “white hat” who proves more repugnantly villainous than any of the criminals and we get a shock resolution that must have made test audiences throw up on their opinion cards. To Live And Die In LA looks and sounds like someone distilled the mid-Eighties into a coke caked test tube… Wang Chung does the omni-present poppy rock soundtrack for fucksake. Everything is bright, seedy, overwrought and striking. An absolute nasty blast of a thriller, morally bankrupt in all the best ways. Strange to think that the three releases that toppled Friedkin’s intense career are among his best. Sorcerer, Cruising and this are scorching adult entertainments, up there with The Exorcist and The French Connection. Featuring an early John Turturro support: “That doesn’t mean I’m gonna roll over and play informer. If you’re looking for a pigeon, go to the park.”
Steve McQueen directs Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham and Brian Milligan in this true story of IRA political prisoner Bobby Sands’ hunger strike following an unsuccessful ‘no wash’ rebellion in the Maze Prison.
One of McQueen’s lauded but unpleasant wallows in pretentious misery that kickstarted his career. I prefer his warmer, more recent work. There’s no way you can watch nameless beardy prisoners smear shit on a wall for half an hour with occasional breaks to be brutalised and tell me this is the cinema you want to watch. No matter how well intentioned and carefully crafted. It is a combative art project, there to document cruelty the target market middle classes are now safely distant from and an oppression they still benefit from… as if witnessing it filmed with an artist’s eye for detail somehow omits their roles and complicity in the process. McQueen’s film does have strength among all its Guardian reader exploitation. The Brit security services are given surprisingly fair glimmers of humanity as the continual degradation takes it emotional toll even on them. The Babylon breaks even the paid bully. Fassbender and Cunningham stage a perfectly acted, one shot 20 minute play as a sympathetic priest tries to talk Sands through his motivations on visiting day. Sands story should be told and this is less hypocritical than a sanitised Hollywood biopic that thankfully will never be greenlit… but who is it really for? Sadism as art.
Denis Villeneuve directs Pascale Bussières, Alexis Martin and Richard S. Hamilton in this existential romantic comedy where two friend… one of whom might be dead, the other in a relationship… fly to the desert to have sex.
A competent calling card debut, set in a series of chaste purgatories where time has seemingly stopped. The kinda movie you often would find playing on TV when you got home after closing time, too drunk to log but that then hides away in your subconsciousness. Deadpan, resourceful, unresolved. There are stunning shots and a degree of well composed intimacy. The narrative is disjointed enough that you can bring your own meanings to the riddler components. Made in a decade where this sort of low key, magical realist independent cinema was the norm, it now feels like a nostalgic relic.
Jackie Chan directs himself, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao in this period action comedy where Jackie’s disgraced coastguard kicks pirate butt in 19th century Hong Kong.
Breathlessly enjoyable. Barfights, bicycle chases, death defying stunts and an explosive finale. The plot gets a little lost, all but forgetting the piracy aspect for the first hour. But dotted between all the rumbles and slapstick are some neat bits of broad comedy: a Police Academy style training camp and password skit that rivals The Marx Brothers in its pay-offs. Hung and Chan have magical chemistry together and even though it often feels like everything including the kitchen sink has been thrown into the production no element is overused to the point where you don’t want to see more of it. The dangerous clock tower set piece is particularly memorable and you know it was done for reals as Jackie shows us it five times before we fade to black and the lights go up.
Nuri Bilge Ceylan directs Cihat Bütün, Emin Ceylan and Fatma Ceylan in this Turkish arthouse film following the population of a small town in winter.
The everyday is filmed from a striking perspective during the first half of this debut. You get a real feeling of just how emotionally isolated this close knit community is from each other. The focus on the casual cruelty of the children to animals and outsiders matches with Haneke’s The White Ribbon neatly. The second half of the film we sit with three generations of a family around a campfire as they discuss themes Ceylan would explore in later films with more elegance: individuality, responsibility and restlessness with the mundanity of life. After the cinematic mood poem start, a static staged yet rambling conversation feels like a bit of a disjointed comedown.
Summer holidays were defined by Happy Days in my house. We started our day watching The Fonz, Mrs. C and Richie before the freedom of the day unfolded. I probably didn’t realise until Far & Away came out that Richie Cunningham now directed movies… and one of them… Willow was also on constant repeat in my house.
He is a director who often transcends genre and a definable visual style. As comfortable in fantasy as he is grit. He has made both blockbusters and Oscar Sweepers nearly all of which feature a reassuringly welcome small speaking part for his brother Clint and a guaranteed slickness. But for me his starry ensembles are his strength. He seems to flourish with family dynamics and worlds of work. While he has made as many prosperous stinkers ( The Da Vinci Code series, A Beautiful Mind) as great entertainments (Ransom, Solo) , I’ll always have a soft spot for the child star who became a dependable cap wearing journeyman.
Parenthood (1989)
Ron Howard directs Steve Martin, Dianne Wiest and Jason Robards in this comedy drama that follows an extended families’ ups and downs raising their kids.
The sprawling cast here also contains Rick Moranis, Keanu Reeves and a pre-fame Joaquin Phoenix. Spinning a lot of narrative plates, you can never get bored as we spend no more than two consecutive scenes stuck in one household. There’s a surprising amount of raunch but it is the drama that works better than the zany comedy. You care about the sensitive arcs of Wiest’s single mom, Martin’s over anxious son and Robards blinkered patriarch a lot more than the innuendo and the off the wall kids parties. The wrap up is a little pat and the normally scene stealing Moranis feels a little wasted in a one note role.
6
Backdraft (1991)
Ron Howard directs Kurt Russell, Billy Baldwin and Robert DeNiro in this action thriller where two warring brothers end up in the same firefighting unit.
An almost insanely busy plotline manages to fit in plenty of blazes and bravery. It could be a Top Gun inspired two hour recruitment advert for the Fire Department? Is it an East Of Eden style battle of the siblings drama? Or a The Silence of the Lambs crime thriller with arson as the M.O.? There’s romances, corrupt officials, bunkhouse comedy and training montages… even some Irish dancing. And with all this spilling fuel lying around Backdraft ignites! A hit that delivers thrills and soap in spades. The roaring fire FX work is still blisteringly suffocating. You can feel the heat, believe the peril. An early Hans Zimmer score rouses and hustles you along over the junkyard narrative. So pretty boy Billy Baldwin isn’t the finest actor for us to be focussed on, everyone around him screams quality. DeNiro is subdued and intelligent, Jennifer Jason Leigh is cute and resourceful in a rare straight romantic support role and Donald Sutherland has mischievous larks as a firebug rip-off of Hannibal Lector. Star of the show is Kurt Russell… not for the first or last time… channeling his inner John Wayne as the blowhard legend who is right goddamn it. All little boys want to be firemen and the rescue sequences where we get to ride the engine or run by Russel’s side as he dashes head first into danger are wish fulfilment of the highest order. Howard has a keen eye for the mechanics and details of the everyday life of the firehouse and this feels very much like the start of an unofficial trilogy where he deep drills into a workplace subculture over an intense life or death period. There’s an admiration and respect for the graft and teamwork needed to save lives on a daily basis and that celebration of people being dedicated to their jobs (a rarity for Hollywood) carries over into The Paper and Apollo 13.
9
The Paper (1994)
Ron Howard directs Michael Keaton, Glenn Close and Marissa Tomei in this comedy drama following a day in the life of a New York tabloid where all the editorial staff are reaching definitive crossroads in their careers.
A personal favourite. I really don’t know why this has such a lukewarm reputation. It outzips and outzings His Girl Friday, moves at a relentless pace and features Keaton’s best performance. Some contemporary middling reviews quibble that the black youths the breaking story is about receive minimal screentime but that misses the point. The film is not about the people in the news, it is about the people who investigate, write and gatekeep the news. Their search for the truth within a deadline, for a story within the financial pressure of a struggling service. The hustle and workplace banter and seething conflicts to get a sellable paper out everyday is captivating. A loud cacophony that turns into a symphony. People may love their All The President’s Mens and Spotlights with their grinding conspiracies slowly dragged out over months of dead ends and dogged research but what about the journalists who have to land the exclusive every day, any day… with no idea of where the public’s shifting attention or appetite will be in 10 hours time when the presses roll. For a mainly office bound film, the chase is absolutely thrilling. We watch the imperfect machinations grind against each other. Keaton gets a fair few grandstanding rants, Close is baleful and resplendent as the ice queen bean counter and Duvall again adds a phlegmy glow as the old hand in charge of all the warring personalities. As the day tightens into night and we see various newshounds risk their outside lives to get the job done, their own personal dramas begin to echo each other. If Keaton stays at the New York Sun he could easily become estranged from his young family like Duvall’s mournful Bernie long ago has, if he moves into a more 9-5 corporate role, as Close’s Alicia has, will he be able to look himself in the mirror as he puts budgets ahead of honest reporting. These echoes the concerns of the work / life balance Howard explored in subplots involving Robards, Martin and Russell in Parenthood and Backdraft respectively. Howard keeps lots of plate spinning with the light touch of someone who spent his formative years on TV sets. The Paper proves his finest multistrand composition
and clearest hymn to the everyday professional.
10
Apollo 13 (1995)
Ron Howard directs Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Ed Harris in this true story of a doomed NASA space mission in 1970 that saw it astronauts trapped in their lunar module with diminishing resources.
Critically acclaimed and a massive summer hit, Apollo 13 should probably be higher in my rankings. It has the same focus on “getting the job done right” and team dynamics as The Paper and Backdraft, but married to a true story. The film has loads of unfussy strengths… believable model work augmented with CGI, the magisterial Tom Hanks in one of his first serious adventure leads and a James Horner score that fills the low key problem solving action with a persuasive zeal. Yet I find it a little dry… outwith the genuinely thrilling set pieces, the drama in the claustrophobic cockpit and middle-aged white man populated control room becomes quite repetitive and predictable. Because this is a tribute to the ingenuity of heroes under pressure we get very little personal conflict. Tempers fray slightly but you’d struggle to say that Paxton, Kevin Bacon or even Hanks imbue their real life astronauts with much of their own natural star personalities. This version is a little too faithful and respectful. Always fun when you click on a movie’s Wikipedia page and someone lists the historical inaccuracies, none of which will hamper your enjoyment of this gentle disaster movie. They might niggle if you were a NASA obsessive but I came for a manly tale of stoic survival and ingenuity, not minutiae. There’s very little that jars or takes you out of the story. And maybe that’s why Apollo 13 only satisfies me rather than seduces me. It is a bit too academic, a bit too worthily procedural to survive repeated viewings.
6
Hillbilly Elegy (2020)
Ron Howard directs Amy Adams, Glenn Close and Gabriel Basso in this adaptation of a bestselling memoir following an Ohio boy’s tribulations growing up in a low income, mentally unstable family.
Holy Shit! What a bin fire! Laughable poverty cosplay where horrible people destroy each other’s lives and we are supposed to glean some dignity from their selfish, unhinged behaviour. Cut these fuckers loose. The central lad is a bit of a lunk… difficult to see why we should care about his job prospects or his personal life (which seem on course to be pretty decent) considering he seems to be so emotionally formless and inept at social interactions. Amy Adams gets lost in a “poor me” maelstrom of half tragedies. She is my favourite actress and even I just wished her character would overdose and stop being such a blight on everyone’s life by the midway point. There are hints that her Bev was abused by her own father and maybe the kids are the product of incest but the film shies away from doing little more than teasing that unfulfilled revelation for the hyper observant. Meanwhile Close is lost under Bo Selecta prosthetics trying to turn a racist old birdie into a firebrand hero. We are supposed to marvel at the sacrifices she makes; begging for extra Meals On Wheels to feed her starving overweight grandchild. Two minutes later, she is casually stocking up a pantry full to the rafters with tins and boxes. There’s at least three moments when you wish this alleged force of nature would knock her wayward daughter around the head or let the kids be taken into care. Instead she stares stoically and that silence and inaction is supposed to be seen as heroic. This is a gallingly bad piece of Oscar bait that never settles down long enough for us to even get a baring on who we should be rooting for. While there is nothing wrong with unlikable characters or movies that spotlights the struggles of poor people – you just need to do more than wallow in their distress. I chuckled so often at the pinball of fate that bounced callously around this generation hopping story that I wondered whether Howard should have approached it as a light comedy… a la Parenthood. Howard the director’s tastes have been off since the turn of the century. I know Cinderella Man, Frost / Nixon and Rush have their fans but for me only his fumbled epics like In the Heart of the Sea and Solo have shown any of the old promise and skill. The sad fact is, in spite of being a consistent moneymaker for the studios for over four decades now, Howard seemingly doesn’t have the creative control, power or inclination to launch projects like Backdraft or Ransom anymore. Which is a shame as some of us crave blockbusters set in the real world, certainly over indulgent dramas with no workable grip on reality.
