Year: 1951 Director: Elia Kazan

Damn. My NY resolution is to consume more of the classics in one form or another, and the project began strongly with films of A Man For All Seasons (1966), The Crucible (1996), Cleopatra (1963), The Scarlet Letter (1995) and Far From the Madding Crowd (2015), all of which I’ve got a kick out of for one reason or another.

Things came to a screeching halt with Streetcar. I always thought I liked Tennessee Williams and remember enjoying the play at Leicester Haymarket in the early 1990s, but this? Non merci. Could I really dig the Demi Moore box-office poison of The Scarlet Letter more than a movie commonly considered to be one of the greatest ever made, a film Woody Allen calls ‘total artistic perfection’?

Yes. Perhaps it coming so soon after the latest lockdown announcement was to blame, but two hours of Vivien Leigh’s nails-down-a-blackboard screeching and Marlon Brando breaking things proved a stressful and exhausting experience, offering no insight into the human condition other than ‘these people really need to calm down’. Having recognised a chunk of sampled dialogue, I paused the film in order to locate and play the » Continue Reading.

Year: 2020 Director: Spike Lee

Stop Making Sense directed by Jonathon Demme is on many people’s list of best music concert films. Mine too. This is different to SMS but it is still rather excellent. It was filmed during a season at the Hudson theatre in New York which ran after their world tour. So the whole band is as tight as a fish’s arsehole, as we say down here. Back to the concert. I reviewed it for the blog so you can track it down if you want. I was mightily impressed by the staging, the lack of amps, leads and all the other usual stage paraphernalia. A bare stage with long, I thought ropes, but after seeing the film they are revealed to be chains. Long chains, heaps of them and highly effective as a backdrop, for use with lights and with their movement.The photo I have posted here from the Melbourne show is a good example. So I was expecting the usual front of house view of the stage all perfectly recorded. But no -this was filmed from on stage , up, down, around and behind. So up close that I started taking a ,possibly unhealthy, interest » Continue Reading.

Year: 2020 Director: Emer Reynolds

I’m surprised that there hasn’t been a film about Phil Lynott made before now. There are a fair few documentaries on Thin Lizzy but there was certainly room for the story to be told. In ‘Songs For While I’m Away’ we hear of the struggles of growing up in Dublin after Phillip is brought to live with his grandparents by his mother who has had to make the awful decision to leave her son and return to England to work. Phillip does indeed learn to look after himself from an early age. He turns to music and soon meets Brian Downey(Thin Lizzy drummer). Eric Bell(guitarist) introduces himself to the pair and Thin Lizzy(version one) is on the road.

The film mixes the words and music of Phillip with interviews that include one of his ex-girlfriends, his ex-wife, and his daughters all of whom have remained away from the spotlight in the years since Phillip died. There are also interviews with Brush Shiels/Brian Downey/Scot Gorham/Adam Clayton/James Hetfield/Suzi Quatro/Midge Ure and others. The film paints a portrait of Phillip the poet, boyfriend, husband, father. The Phil Lynott that’s not always portrayed or remembered when we think » Continue Reading.

Year: 2020 Director: Mike Figgis

Is there a more cheery, affable figure in the world of rock than Ronnie Wood? This film would certainly suggest not, lauded by friends, family and fellow musicians alike, no one has a bad word to say about him. The film dips in and out of his life, covering family, music, painting, and of course drink and drugs. Along the way we hear from some of the key artists he’s worked with over the years – Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart and various Stones among others. Oddly, there’s just the one clip of him performing with the Stones, although it’s apparent from comments by Keith Richards and Charlie Watts just how functional as an alcoholic and an addict Wood still was. Even Jagger concedes the band became much more ‘good-timey’ after his arrival in their ranks in the mid seventies. His personal life also gets its fair share of screen time, including his well documented run in with cancer, although his previous wives and their children don’t merit so much as a mention. A shortish film that’s interesting to watch once, but that you’re unlikely to return to too often. The DVD is rounded out with » Continue Reading.

Year: 2020 Director: Dean Parisot

*Mild Spoilers ahead*

Anyone who rejoices in youth, optimism and companionship will feel a warm glow when they remember the triumphant final scene of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, in which the two teenage Californian slackers, with the aid of persons of historical significance gathered from all ages, triumph in their history report and and are hence able to stay together so that Wyld Stallyns can create the music which will unite mankind. It’s one of the most joyous scenes in film, guaranteed to leave the hardest bitten cynic with a wide grin. The second film, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, in which robot doppelgängers are sent to thwart their future, had its moments but lacked the first film’s charm, as well as its uplifting final scene.

Now Bill and Ted are back, as middle aged losers, still married to the medieval princesses from the first film and with a daughter apiece. Bill S Preston’s daughter is called Theodora, and Ted Theodore Logan’s daughter is called Billie. Age has not been kind to Wyld Stallyns. They start the film playing the latest wedding of Missie, Bill’s step mother in the first film, Ted’s in the » Continue Reading.

Year: 2020 Director: Christopher Nolan

* Mild Spoilers *

If you are like me and you like to see a new Christopher Nolan film totally cold without knowing anything about it, then please don’t read on if you haven’t seen this yet! I won’t spoil the plot as such but I will go into a bit of detail about the overall themes and some of the action.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The first thing to say is that anyone who watches this and says they understand it all the first time is just lying. I don’t care who you are. This film just isn’t made to be understood on first viewing.

That might annoy you, and if it does then you might want to avoid this. But there’s actually plenty to enjoy even if you can’t get your head round it.

I heard that Christopher Nolan didn’t want to make a Bond film, but wanted to make a film that makes you feel like you felt watching the Bond films for the first time. Crucial difference. I think in that he has succeeded. I remember at the age of 10, » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Mariel Weller

I was thinking about seeing the film 1917 then I read a tweet where the poster said they felt like they had had the shit kicked out of them by Connor McGregor after seeing it.Hmmm.Then I read an interview with Tom Hanks about this film. He explained it as largely being about men, their feelings and their in/ability to express them. The vehicle for this theme is interview by a cynical,invrstigative journalist for Esquire magazine and Fred Rogers – Mr Rogers. I had never heard of him but I understand him to be an iconic figure in the proper sense of the world, for American children who had been brought up on his TV programme, A beautiful day in the neighbourhood.

So I watched some videos of him. Gentle, soft, twee, naive, hokey, lame. A range of reactions were felt and yes even a bit of distate in this sick paedophilic world. In looks he reminded me of Pee Wee Herman sans makeup and avec cardigan. If you decide to see the movie and are unfamiliar with the man and the show then having a look at some YouTube clips before you go. That’s » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: The Safdie Brothers

This is latest film from the Safdie Brothers about whom I have to say I knew nothing before this. It’s in the cinemas but also available on Netflix which is how we watched it last night. There’s been generally really top reviews but having seen the trailer in the cinema the other week I was unsure as to whether it was going to my cup of tea (to quote Spike Lee). So we strapped ourselves in and it was an absolute thrill ride.

The basic premise is that Howard Ratner (must be a pun) is both a jeweler and compulsive gambler – possibly not a good combination you would think and so it proves. Without giving the plot away, the basic premise is that he procures a rare uncut opal from Africa which he is hoping to auction for a mighty profit but at the same time he is being hounded by several low lifes to whom he owes money.

The dialogue is basically people shouting and swearing at each other (the ‘fuck’ count was off the scale) with Howard generally having at least two conversations going on at the same time » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Sam Mendes

“From the director of Skyfall” yells the poster and the trailer, which is true but not the point.

The story is simple enough, though I won’t go into much detail because it’s hard to avoid spoilers (steer clear of Wikipedia and the trailer, come to that). Two lance-corporals are given the job of slogging their way over nine miles of what may or may not be no man’s land to deliver a message to a Colonel who is due to lead his men over the top in the morning to chase what he thinks is the Germans in retreat. In fact, it’s a cunning German tactical withdrawal and he’s leading his men to certain death.

The much noted “one continuous take” is a bit of a misnomer. What it actually means is that there are no cutaways back to base, or back to Blighty – the story starts at A and continues uninterrupted to Z, where it ends. The action of the film takes, at a guess, 12 hours, so QED. No matter, it’s a brilliant, continually absorbing and gruelling two hours. There were times I just wanted it all to stop, thoroughly gruelled, not » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Martin Scorsese

Am I the first to have found the necessary 3 plus hours to devour this prime piece of gorgonzola? Scorsese rounding up his dream team of de Niro, Pacino and Pesci, along with Harvey Keitel and numerous other ‘was that so and so’ cameos. Of course, as much the hype has been the cost of the computer electrickery to de-age the cast into an approximation of how they may have looked in their prime, which requires remembering the prime of mobsters tends to be a burly high waisted trouser middle age. Tackling that first, I thought it OK, the images sometimes akin to the fake colouring of a B&W film. It didn’t bother me but Mrs Path found their eyebrows annoying. In truth, and it is no dealbreaker to say the film follows de Niro, ‘the’ Irishman, from these high waists to bathchair aged reflection, the make-up to age him was less successful. The clamour and clatter of the press suggests this is a work of genius. Well, that depends. If you like this sort of thing, sure, it is a fabulous ride and seldom falters. If these guys and gangsters are your bag, you’ll » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: James Gray

Brad Pitt’s interstellar epic has received mostly laudatory reviews, I’m more in two minds about it. Let’s start with the positive shall we, as in these dark times we need all the cheer we can get. The whole thing looks fantastic. The opening sequence, where Pitt is knocked off a space elevator stretching from the earth’s surface into space, is one any Bond movie would be proud of. From there we get a series of sharply-realised environments – a moonbase which looks and sounds like Luton Airport; a grimly functional government facility on Mars; and spaceship interiors which look credible and claustrophobic. Pitt’s face, on which much of the movie rests, is entering its craggy hard-bitten phase like some planetary surface after one too many orbits. Space is quiet, mysterious and empty – with humans and craft small fragile particles of light and warmth.

There’s lots to say about our obsession with wellbeing, Pitt is constantly being checked for his psychological stability and someone proudly proclaims that his heart-rate has never risen over 80 (calling to mind ‘Jerome, Jerome the metronome’ from one of our favourite movies Gattaca. Criminally passed over.). Those who fail are » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Olivia Lichtenstein

The story of a black singer with a beautiful soulful voice, who rose to fame in the Philly soul scene in the mid seventies, had a terrible car crash which left him in a wheelchair but still able to sing.

That’s the short version. The long detailed version is in this doco, which is brilliant. Utilising the now familiar documentary techniques of interviewing everyone still alive who remembers the artist, getting the original band back together, and doing accurate and respectful reconstructions of key events – this is a great film.

I have to say I’m not a huge fan of Philly soul, a few great classic hits notwithstanding. It often seems to me like the showbiz end of black music. But seeing Teddy’s life laid out here and what he went through, it gave me a bit more appreciation of what was going on. And you see Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff reminiscing like the old gentlemen they are.

Might appeal to people who enjoyed:

Philly soul, Sigma Sound Studios, Young Americans

Year: 2019 Director: Quentin Tarantino

This seems to have gathered quite a buzz around it, which I find strange. I feel that all these people drawn to the irresistible bromance pairing of Leo and Brad are going to be ever-so-slightly disappointed. In fact there were a few walkouts in Cineworld tonight.

Just be warned that this is a meandering, languid film with little sense of forward momentum for the majority of its two-and-a-half hour running time. At times it (seriously) resembles a game of Grand Theft Auto. (Is there a GTA 1969 edition?) Brad driving around Los Angeles on a dreamy sunny afternoon, listening to cool music, carrying out odd jobs and picking up hippy chick hitchhikers.

I’d also compare the overall feel to Robert Altman’s Shortcuts or PT Anderson’s Inherent Vice. Good films, but both the kinds of films where you can doze off in the middle for half an hour and not miss much. There’s very little of Tarantino’s trademark snappy dialogue and pop philosophising.

I won’t spoil the plot, but it’s no secret that it’s set against the shadow of the Manson murders. A firm awareness of that grisly moment in history will be most helpful when » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Ari Astor

Well that’s some fucked up shit right there

I’ve half a mind to leave it there cos this may be a film that will have you giggling at its ridiculousness or loving its hutzpah and willingness to go full man gone mind mental.

Basic story is Dani (Florence Pugh) and her boyfriend Christian are having problems but a sudden tragedy prevents them splitting as Dani grieves. In an attempt to keep things together they agree to go to Sweden with some friends (including Chidi from The Good Place and Will Poulter) to an unusual commune full of white clothed smiling young and bearded old people playing panpipes and dancing. If that doesn’t set your “dangerous weirdo alert” alarm bells ringing then you haven’t watched enough movies.

What follows is a descent into bizarre rituals, horror film tropes of people going along with unlikely events until it just gets more and more trippy. Sex, violence, primal screaming, group orgasms and choral singing – one man’s delightfully odd dreamworld can be another’s pretentious twaddle.

Approach with caution as calling it a “horror film” doesn’t really cover it. I enjoyed it and really like » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Todd Douglas Miller

You are probably going to get pretty ‘mooned out’ over the next week or so as the 50th Anniversary of the day that man first set foot on another world arrives. So before that happens I urge you to go and catch ‘Apollo 11’ at you closest IMAX type screen. Like myself, you may have already seen and or owned previous documentaries on the Apollo 11 missions like ‘For All Mankind’ or ‘Moonwalk One’ but this is pure adrenaline in cinematic form.

The brilliance is in its minimalism – there are no talking heads, recent interviews, dumbing down commentary by Morgan Freeman or, god forbid, conspiracy theorists. Eggsy and Maggot from Goldie Lookin Chain don’t pop up to say what they think about space. The director, Todd Douglas Miller, said they had a rule that if it didn’t happen live on that particular day, at that particular time then it wasn’t going in the film. Only a couple of audio interview snippets with Aldrin, Armstrong & Collins during the pre flight footage help with a bit of scene setting. Otherwise there is wonderful images of the crowds gathering by and miles away from » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Erik Nelson

The film takes footage captured in 1943 by esteemed director William Wyler as part of the war effort which was then made into an allied morale booster called “The Memphis Belle”, named after the B17 bomber and crew on which the film focussed. Director Erik Nelson took the original 5 reels of film and completed an astonishing work of restoration to bring them back to life, adding authentic sound recorded from one of the 9 remaining airworthy B17s. The musical soundtrack was written and partly performed by one Richard Thompson.

The story is told by the surviving members of the flight crew who are now well into their 90s. As ever you are astonished by the ages of these guys – the “old guy” on one plane was 26, and the tail gunner telling the story was 19 when the war ended… Needless to say they look amazing in the wartime footage – square jawed, resolute and handsome but not, they are all at pains to stress, heroes. The heroes, they tell us, are the ones who didn’t come back.

The film opens with a recently discovered Nazi propaganda short telling the population that » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Richard Lowenstein

I was never much of a fan of INXS. When they were on the way up I was into different stuff, Hutchence was just a bit to Jaggerish and sexy for a pub rocking/prog fan and I’ll say it – they were from Sydney. Come back to Australia and they’re huge, doing Live Aid, Wembley, etc and I’m still not convinced. A band that formed in school always struck me as a bit funk lite, soul-lite, rock lite. But that Hutchence guy, he did Max Q with Ollie Olsen, acted in Dogs In Space directed by Richard Lowenstein also and there was no denying it. He was a ROCK STAR.

I moved to Sydney and was living there when he died. In fact, he died at the Ritz Carlton in Double Bay, not that far away from where I lived and his last meal (supper) was at an Indian restaurant in Edgecliffe up the road from me. The shock and grieving in their home town were palpable. Kylie flew back, Nick Cave performed at the funeral. I saw him the next night, he and Warren Ellis, I think, and he was totally morose. It was » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Martin Scorsese

That subtitle should be a clue.

As well as the sub subtitle that pops up after ancient magic trick footage ‘Conjouring The Rolling Thunder Re-vue’ to tell you this is his Bobness as usual. You think you know whats happening but you don’t really know what it is.

On the face of it this Netflix documentary on Dylan’s 1974 Rolling Thunder Revue Tour following on from, his 1966 tourfilm ‘No Direction Home’ finally delivers us all that great Renaldo & Clara footage without the boring attempt to provide a narrative and purpose. 2019 Dylan appears at the start, seemingly held hostage by Marty to take part and try and explain his motives behind this unique endeavour. ‘I don’t remember anything, It happened so long ago before I was even born’ he growls but with a sheepish grin. Beware the sheep in wolves clothing.

The solid gold here is the live footage – a gentle and pretty straight Mr Tambourine, that lacerating ‘Hard Rains Gonna Fall’, the driving ‘Hurricane’, singing ‘Isis’ with such passion and energy, ‘When I Paint My Masterpiece’, ‘I Shall Be Released’ ‘Simple Twist Of Fate’ is a bar band rumble » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Douglas MacKinnon

(THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE AMAZON PRIME|BBC SERIES BUT THOUGHT IT FITTED BEST HERE)

I hated the Hitchhicker’s Guide To The Galaxy film so very much. It was like having your favourite jokes told to you very slowly in pidgin English. And perhaps some people will feel the same about the long gestated adaptation of Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman’s 1990 novel ‘Good Omens: the Nice & Accurate Prophesies Of Agnes Nutter: Witch’ – what was once quicksilver comedy becomes flat footed farce. I wouldn’t know as I haven’t read either man’s work. Not for any reason other than a vast unwieldy back catalogue that I wouldn’t know where to begin. Guess people feel the same about Van Morrison but I digress

The basic plot isn’t the most original – the devil puts his son, the Antichrist, on earth to be unknowingly bought up by human parents of some influence so he can eventually bring about the apocalypse with the help of the Four Horsemen. Yet the course of true evil never runs smooth. From the garden of Eden to a sort of present day the opposing sides are represented by plummy angel Aziraphale » Continue Reading.

Year: 2045 Director: Chad Stahelski

The action hero movie has become something of an endangered species. In the 80s and 90s it was THE genre as Bruce, Arnie, Sly ruled the box office roost, supported by more niche musclemen like Seagal, Van Damme or Lundgren. These guys could wield a mean M-16, snap skulls with the back of the their hand, and drop-kick an endless parade of goons through the window. But they were just men. For the past decade these films has taken a back seat to all things costumed and be-tighted. Apart from odd spottings in the wild: the Liam Limper, a Jason Statham here and there, the action movie has become something that needs a twist (Bourne – he’s been programmed; MI – he’s a spy; F&F – the cars the star) or takes place in a historic, fantasy or scifi setting) or can’t be taken seriously (the Expendables). Enter John Wick. Something of a sleeper outing to date, the third chapter has seen Keanu’s suit-wearing assassin go seriously huge. As in 2 and 1 we start in fifth gear, and accelerate from there. Now ‘excommunicado’ from the secret league of international crime ruled by the High » Continue Reading.