Jack Clayton directs Deborah Kerr, Megs Jenkins and Michael Redgrave in this classic psychological horror where a young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.
Lovely, gorgeous repressed Deborah Kerr becomes convinced her two wards are possessed by a horny dead couple. We have menacing creepy and wholly untrustworthy kids. Shadowy figures in the distance. Sleepless night. Paranoia. Doubting servants. Wandering a labyrinth of a country house with nothing the tenuous light of your candelabra. Histrionic and diaphanous. Nightie-tastic.
Gerd Oswald directs Robert Wagner, Virginia Leith and Joanne Woodward in this thriller where a ruthless college student resorts to murder in an attempt to marry an heiress.
Such a strange movie for its decade. The opening credits suggest it is going to be a Blake Edwards style Technicolor caper comedy. Jazzy, cartoonish. Then we spend the first half in Robert Wagner’s headspace as he tries to kill his pregnant girlfriend while executing the “perfect murder”. That has obvious frisson if you know the star’s infamous future. It all seems indebted / to be lampooning the moral anguish of A Place In The Sun. No such ethical qualms here though. The second half opens up. But there are at least three set pieces that Hitch would give up a year of his foie gras for. It just is so obtusely uneven and eerie. I’m not entirely sure all that is intentional. Seems to exist to be one of those half remembered out of time movies where that happened and then that happened… AND THEN THAT HAPPENED!
Joe Wright directs Hugh Jackman, Levi Miller and Garrett Hedlund in this fantasy adventure prequel where Peter, Hook and Tiger Lily team up to take on the evil pirate Blackbeard.
Derided and unprofitable back in its day, this came out just before I started blogging about every movie I watched. My decade old memory of it was that Wright got the short end of a critical pile on. Yes… the over reliance on CGI is garish but also ambitious. And Rooney Mara’s casting as Tiger Lily did not read the room of what was culturally appropriate… but she looks splendid and actually handles most of the combat action. One step forward, two steps back. I was spellbound by the cacophony of colours and hubris when I first saw this on the big screen. At home, on belated revisit, I do acknowledge the flaws but the only true terminal criticism is the set-up first hour is so much stronger than the second half. If you fancy The Greatest Showman meets Fury Road but “y’know for kids” then Pan is worth a gamble.
Desmond Davis directs Peter Finch, Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave in this rich adaptation of Edna O’Brien’s early Irish novel.
The Swingin’ Sixties / Kitchen Sink hits Dublin. Awful accents, amazing framing. A slight May to December romance shouldn’t be this provocative, philosophical or powerful. The underdog highlight of the Woodfall series of flickers. From the director of… Clash Of The Titans.
Gareth Edwards directs Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able and Mario Zuniga Benavides in this sci-fi romance road movie where two strangers travel through a forbidden zone together, restricted to humans as alien gargantuans stalk the landscape by the Mexican border.
Love me some Gareth Edwards. He is one of the few modern blockbuster directors who guarantees overwhelming visuals and emotional beats. He is both maximalist and minimalist. A respecter of the big budget genres he plies his trade in. A hands on, expert SFX guy. Monsters was his calling card. A Before Sunrise that hides its creatures teasingly, even more sparingly than Spielberg did with Jaws. But it is way too slow moving and monotone to stand up to repeat visits. Job done. It opened the door for him to play in the enviable sandboxes of Godzilla, Star Wars and Jurassic Park. His way.
Marc Forster directs Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko and Mathieu Amalric in this all action direct sequel to Casino Royale which sees Bond hunting down Vesper’s killers and uncovering a wide reaching geopolitical cartel that operates in the shadows.
I am not being contrary when I say I absolutely, utterly, sincerely love this one. It looks lush, the dialogue is pared back (thanks writer’s strike) so that it almost feels like an art film in the moments and the bang bang is relentless. It suffered from constant online snark once they announced they were using one of Fleming’s more esoteric titles. Hobbling it within the groupthink culture before we even saw a trailer. And people who don’t love Bond didn’t get what they want. Boo hoo! They care about car porn, Bond having the rules of golf or a board game explained to him and a certain embarrassed winking excess around the tropes. I want a movie that accepts the villain should be pure howling evil, the women beautiful but disposable and the physical razzmatazz is front and centre. Go watch Skyfall if you want a legacy Bond for the casual fan. I turn up to every entry and live and breathe them for the years in between. BASTARD BOND! COLD BASTARD BOND! This is all the way up there with the series high points. It does it for me from scarring demolition derby chases around Lake Garda to the scorching detonating hotel infernos in the Atacama desert. The leanest, angriest Bond ever and an all action extravaganza. Just had a check, dickheads and 007 first and foremost is an action franchise. And Jack White and Alicia Keys theme song… an absolute rabble rousing stomper!
Michael Chaves directs Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson and Mia Tomlinson in this horror sequel where paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren take on one final case involving a cursed mirror.
All the old tricks megamixed. Teases us constantly that one of the Warrens is about to peg it. The end of school celebration atmosphere is very cheesy. These flicks have long lost the fear factor but they are about as cosy and prestigious as mainstream studio horror gets.
Ethan Coen directs Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans in this sex comedy thriller about a lesbian private investigator who delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church.
Goofy hard boiled larks. Doesn’t add up to the sum of its parts but is unassumingly breezy, silly and horny. Qualley oozes star power and Evans, Charlie Day and Lera Abova are all memorable presences. Just go with it.
Joan Freeman directs Melissa Leo, Randall Batinkoff and Dale Midkiff in the VHS exploitation flick where a teen runaway lands in New York and begins turning tricks for an unstable pimp.
Roger Corman gave more female directors a break than mainstream Hollywood ever did in the Eighties. Been a competent crew member on one of his productions before? Well as long as the poster was grabby, there was nudity and violence contained within, then he knew he could sell it, he gave you a shot. Streetwalkin’ can be absorbed as straight arrow sleaze. Yet it walks a line between being non judgmental about sex work without glamourising it. You can put a roof over your head in the big bad city if you can deal with the pimp battles and creepy johns. The survive-the-night thriller elements often happen at a remove from our heroine until the finale. So we just hangout in the milieu. Future Oscar winner Leo, in her film debut, is unsurprisingly vivid in her acting, adding an emotional consistency to her farm girl turned lady of the night… she also looks smoking in the buff. There were a few of these prostitute thrillers churned out in Eighties. This is, in my book, the best of the bunch.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 