Sam Peckinpah directs Charlton Heston, Richard Harris and James Coburn in this western where a Unionist Major leads a squad of Confederate prisoners after a marauding tribe of natives.

The director. The cast. It certainly is manly. Just not very memorable. Heston convinces as a “good tyrant”. Not much of Peckinpah’s later trademark ultra violence and chickensweat fatalism finds a purchase here. Some good trad action though.

5

Johannes Roberts directs Claire Holt, Mandy Moore and Matthew Modine in this survival thriller where two tourists find themselves trapped on the ocean floor in a rusty shark cage, their oxygen running out and the predators circling.

So I watched this mainly for Claire Holt who impressed in the TV show Aquarius. She doesn’t get much chance to shine here, being stuck behind scuba gear for the bulk of the running time and behind Mandy Moore’s character in the writers’ affection. It struggles to fill its short running time, delivering almost precisely what you’d expect from seeing the trailer with little deviation. Claustrophobic thrillers like this are hard to pull off and this is adequately inventive in keeping things ticking along and busy… The Shallows did it better, with a stronger lead and that still wasn’t exactly brilliant. Passable.

5

Robert Moore directs Peter Falk, Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers in this parody of a murder mystery where the world’s greatest detectives (all strangely familiar) find themselves trapped in a murder mystery mansion.

I had high hopes for this but Clue did it all better 10 years later with a lot less talent. The humour is very Carry On-ish – bad puns, worse innuendos and lazy slapstick. The plot is too tiresomely random to care about. Sellers and Guinness have the funniest characters but 45 years down the line politically sensitive people will find them very troubling totems. A relic, probably best for the trivia blast of its starry ensemble.

4

Jim Jarmusch directs Chris Parker, Leila Gastil and John Lurie in this low budget indie where a dispossessed hipster wanders a broken New York.

The opening credits of an ignored busker playing the mean streets is the highlight. Then… nothing happens slowly. There are flashes of wit and madness and decayed beauty. Smithereens did this better a year later, Slacker filled the void this cinematic form leaves with more captivating voices. Of interest only to Jarmusch completists or people who like grainy footage of Manhattan being mooched about in.

4

James Kent directs Keira Knightley, Alexander Skarsgård and Jason Clarke in this post-war romance where the troubled marriage between a grieving officer and his beautiful wife catches the attention of the Hamburg architect who loses his stately home to them.

Who doesn’t like a glossy period romance? This ambles along beautifully. It is also far less distasteful than the similarly pitched Suite Francaise. Here every character is given a delicious blur of humanity and shadow. All actors inhabit their roles with bold, sexy star power. The Nazi youth subplot and sympathetic look at life in the ruins of occupation for the defeated Germans adds bite. The wrap-up is unexpected yet hopeful. Better than you’ve been led to believe, if not quite the classic it wants to echo. Brief Encounter, Casablanca, A Foreign Affair are all cribbed from though it never reaches any of those giddy heights. The costumes are particularly lovely… yet how a resplendent Keira Knightley managed to cram quite so many dresses and skirts into her little red suitcase, as seen at the start, I’ll never know?

6

Steven Soderbergh directs Andre Holland, Sonja Sohn and Bill Duke in this basketball drama where a sports agent tries to break up a negotiation deadlock threatening his rookie player and company.

Steven Soderbergh wanted to make Moneyball at one point. And he wanted to make it with the real baseball players. This is the compromise. A digital Jerry Maguire clone with points to score about the exploitation of young black athletes and the game changing potential of streaming services. It is a film that has corporate buzz terms like “game changer” and “disruptor” dripping from its lips like scraps from a rich man’s feast. As if the technologies and distribution systems Soderbergh suggest will rebalance the finances of sport are not already in the control of the same predatory class that command the sports leagues. But Soderbergh presents it as a heist, only one where the scam is obvious from the get-go. The wordy, erudite dialogue has force, flow and punch. The ensemble all impress. This is mature, playful, gripping drama. The conclusions though are facile.

6

Jeannot Szwarc directs Helen Slater, Faye Dunaway and Peter O’Toole in this superhero spin-off to Superman where his cousin crashlands on Earth looking for an orb that has been found by an amusement park witch.

It just has no logic to it. Scenes run into each other haphazardly with no rhyme or reason. Supergirl doesn’t understand what horses are but she can forge a high school transcript and file it efficiently. Peter Cook is a warlock / IT teacher who did date the villain but serves no real purpose to the plot and is given nothing vaguely amusing to do. SO WHY IS HE IN THE FILM?! Supergirl faces threats just because she exists – sometimes because of accidental proximity, other times directed at her even though Faye Dunaway’s witch doesn’t know who she is. Are any of these threats exciting? No.

2

Billy Wilder directs Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich and John Lund in this romantic comedy set around the dark backdrop of a shelled out, black market post-war Berlin.

There are some graceful comedic storytelling beats here that rocket fuel this bitter love triangle. A personalised birthday cake that makes its way around the black market. Jean Arthur’s investigator pretending to be a dumb fräulein to get two horny GIs to show her the real Berlin. A seduction involving filing cabinets and the ride of Paul Revere. Wilder just has a lovely cinematic hand, that no matter how grim the setting or twisted the characters’ true intentions, he lets them dance their quasi-romantic little dance in impressionable, inventive ways. Arthur and Dietrich are superb, though Lund as the man they circle, is a bit of a place holder. The setting, including real location filming of decimated and occupied Berlin, gives Wilder the chance to land some unguarded blows about the German situation. He has very little sympathy for the Nazis and their silent collaborators, but acknowledges the corruptible weakness of all humans. The final scene has a pointedly chilling moment. The American commanding officer tells a bunch of carousing Russians to go home… they pay little heed. Wilder understood the nastiness of what had happened before and saw the next darkness in Germany’s future. He comments consistently on Berlin’s precarious and compromised existence yet it all feels organic to the seductions and powerplays of our kissing and hustling leads.

8

Jan Pinkava and Brad Bird direct Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm and Lou Romano in this Paris set cartoon of a rat who wants to become a chef.

Like Marvel I think I’ve been inoculated from the Pixar formula. Built up a resistance that means it takes a particularly unusual or exemplary entry for me to not shrug my shoulders at one. Think of the man hours and passion that went into building the arcs, relationships, worlds, set pieces, simulacrum, the artificial magic, the synthetic emotional resonance here and I just nod along blankly to it. Appreciative but unimpressed. I’m not saying a Pixar contraption cannot get me ever again… but when it doesn’t my opinion of it plummets from masterpiece to standard operating procedure swiftly. There is no middle ground… I need to love it or it rings false and forced. Ratatouille doesn’t feel special enough, doesn’t feel different enough, actually plays out unevenly and slightly ungainly. Like a different shaped beast trying to cram itself into the Pixar mould. There will be Ups and Toy Story 3s again, they work too hard on these fantasias for one not to hook me in eventually. But Ratatouille just felt like more of the gorgeous same. Rats.

6

Matt Spicer directs Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen and O’Shea Jackson Jr. in this cyber stalking satire where a sociopath ingratiates herself with an Instagram influencer.

My accidental Aubrey Plaza season comes to an end. I reckon this is the entry of hers that could stand the test of time. Gorgeous, accessible, on the nose. It feels like a message in a bottle from this generation to future ones. Wanna see the Fifties then watch Rebel Without a Cause! Explore the looks and concerns of the Eighties then Ferris Bueller is your man! This decade… Ingrid Goes West has it covered. That’s not to say just because it gets the subject matter bang to rights and the hazy / lens flare filters looking on point, it all entirely works. There is no urgency, the conflict is promised but avoided or subdued. The comedy never boils over, and despite being a psycho, Plaza’s Ingrid is far more likeable than the vapid financially vampiric set she idolises and wants to join. It is a film of solid acting and slight moments. The darkness of the leads and the warped mindset of the others is always present but you do yearn for it to intrude a bit more violently into the strangely gentle, predictable plot a little more aggressively at times. That’s how you make us laugh, that’s how you make us revulse at the value system being lambasted.

6