Noah Baumbach directs Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Laura Dern in this longform drama looking over a divorce.

That annoying kid destroyed their beautiful marriage. They say it was career and infidelity and stifling behaviour. But that fucking kid… Lovely to see Julie Hagerty, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Merritt Weaver and especially Laura Dern in such well written support roles. Visually this has a really playful sense of space – look at the shots in Laura Dern’s office where both actress are filmed dead centre on but one seems in control of her environment, the other askew with this world. Baumbach imbues a nice humour to it all, not quite as lacerating and punchy as his early rough draft The Squid and The Whale, but certainly nowhere near as constantly miserable as Kramer V Kramer. Marriage Story stretches out and breathes a lot more, so you aren’t pummelled with negativity like it’s 40 year old influence. It is a better film, in spite of that homewrecking brat. Take home: Don’t have children!

7

Paul Feig directs Emilia Clarke, Emma Thompson and Henry Golding in this Christmas romance where a screw-up who works as an elf in a gift shop puts her life in order with the help of a mysterious hunk.

Right-Ho… this is an utter mess of a movie. You can pull apart its weird anti-Brexit but homeless people should sing for their supper politics. Roll your eyes 720° at that terrible and duffly guessable twist ending. Splutter at the indulgence of Emma Thompson adding unwanted scenes of her own one-note character to the wrap-up as if she were a hit with some imagined test audience that exists only in her head and the studio mandated more grating Emma Thompson bits. Yet Emilia Clarke is unswervingly adorable – whether dressed in bright green moleskin or hungover, scoffing a burger. This will become a seasonal tradition, she guarantees that with her saviour of a starry, sparkly turn. The George Michael songs chosen to durdle away over montages aren’t the best selection but the eponymous one by Wham gets plenty of airtime too. Nice on the eyes, terrible on the head, awful on the heart. I’ll watch it again in 11 months times.

5

Mark Sandrich directs Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds in this musical where a nightclub singer opens up a country retreat that only hosts shows on holiday dates while his old partner tries to woo his newfound star attraction.

Just lovely. Apart from the blackface sequence and the toxic masculinity on display. And the montage of patriotic death machine construction. These things were not jarring back then. And in all honesty feel forgivable when snuggled up among all the niceness, warm mulled singing and pastoral razzmatazz here. Edith Head’s costuming of the ladies is spectacularly on point.

8

Bing Liu directs Keire Johnson, Zack Mulligan and himself in this skateboarding documentary that explores the life of three young working class American adults taking in their relationships, cycle of abuse, poverty of opportunity and racism.

Fucking haunting.

8

Jack Starrett directs Warren Oates, Peter Fonda and Loretta Switt in this action horror where a group of holidaymakers witness a satanic sacrifice and are pursued along the highway in their R.V..

Now THIS is a fucking movie! Warren Oates wears a sports jacket. Warren Oates looks morosely at a little dog. Warren Oates takes off a helmet after a stunt double pretends to be him on a scrambler bike. Warren Oates drinks hard on garden furniture. Warren Oates witnesses a devil worshipping ceremony and runs his top lip over his big white brick teeth when he sees a nude girl. Warren Oates is not listened to when he tells the wives to turn that R.V. light off. Warren Oates is not listened to when he tells the wives to stay in the R.V.. Warren Oates still wants to go on his skiing holiday. Warren Oates looks morosely at a nerd couple who make intrusive smalltalk at him. Warren Oates buys a shotgun. Warren Oates uses a shotgun. Warren Oates drives maruading pick-ups full of devil worshippers off the road in an all action, stunt packed finale. Warren Oates decides everyone should get some rest and parks up just outside of the city limits…

8

Luis Mandoki directs Susan Sarandon, James Spader and Jason Alexander in this romantic drama where two damaged souls start a sex based relationship despite him being rich, Jewish, young and her being “white trash” and in her 40s.

I don’t think I had the guts to rent this from Selecta Video as an adolescent. Two of that era’s most sexually daring stars appearing in what the VHS cover promised to be an absolute bonkathon. There’s actually only two significant steamy scenes here. They happen in the first act and are notable for the desperation and ungainlyness rather than being particularly erotic. At one point a half eaten sandwich is accidentally grabbed. Mandoki is clearly aiming for a different kinda filth. The drama surrounding the “selling points” is about grief and class and solace. And is actually really rather good. It takes some nice jabs at liberal American Democrats hypocritical values and Sarandon’s dialogue has nice defensive sparring humour to it. She is excellent here. Different than what I expected it to be, somehow better than what I expected it to be too.

7

Jeff Wadlow directs Chloë Grace-Moretz, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jim Carrey in this sequel to the everyday nerds try to be vigilante superheroes parody.

Derided on release I can’t really see how this is any better or worse than the overhyped original. If anything the slightly stodgy, familiar subplots it doles out to the return players actually settles into a flick more suited to casual, throwaway, brainless viewing. Hit Girl goes Mean Girls? I’m in. Jim Carrey forms a boiler room Justice League of damaged souls? Fair enough. It is all a lot more easy to swallow than the clunky, directionless first entry. Just as colourful, gory, safe play “edgy”. I prefer it.

6

Alain Resnais directs Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anny Duperey and Charles Boyer in this fractured biopic of financier and fraudster Alexandre Stavisky, whose bond scam caused an international scandal in the 1930s.

The luxurious interwar decadence is marvellous but the story and character nuances washed over me. I don’t think I really cared.

4

Mati Diop directs Mame Bineta Sane, Amadou Mbow and Ibrahima Traoré in this Senegalese drama where a soon-to-be-married off girl misses her other boyfriend when he abruptly crosses the ocean looking for work yet begins to be blamed for the strange goings on that happen in his wake.

A strange, sincere film that shifts awkwardly between romance, detective story, supernatural chiller, broad comedy and agit prop. Can’t say I really enjoyed or engaged with it but you can’t fault its ambitions.

5

Anthony Mann directs Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris and Ulla Jacobsson in this action packed WWII movie following the Norwegian resistance fighters who took down a Nazi heavy water facility, stopping Hitler from getting The Bomb.

I mainly work nights. And after a hard shift there’s nothing better than catching half an hour of an old forgotten classic with a glass of whisky on my chest or a Heineken on my coffee table. I worry. Am I giving these films the chance they deserve, watching them exhausted and chopped up over a week? Then I catch something as epic as Heroes of the Telemark this way and know it doesn’t really matter. I want to get home, pour that hard earned drink and see what happens next. The set pieces here are brilliant; procedural, often silent, threat filled. The snowbound setting gives the film the same wonderful stark white visual appeal as On Her Majesty’s Secret Service or the penultimate mind-level of Inception. Kirk Douglas is a rooster in waterproofs, Harris the true believer. The ticking clock finale is fantastic. A superb true story, told with adventurous sweep and thump.

8