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.

Year: 2019 Director: Dexter Fletcher

Director Dexter Fletcher (aka Baby Face from Bugsy Malone aka Spike from Press Gang) infamously came in to complete the Queen biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ after Bryan Singer was shown the door. Its hard to tell how much impact he had on the films tone etc but in ‘Rocketman’ he’s only made the film that Bohemian Rhapsody could have been.

The biggest problem I had with “Bo Rhap” is that it was dull. Not the factual innacuracies, not Rami Maliks prosthetics not the lumpen script that ticked every cliche. The last thing, like them or loathe them, that Queen were was humdrum and ordinary – ok maybe John Deacon – but that film made their extravagant, outrageous, ego bomb of a frontman into a most ordinary man.

The main advantage that this Elton biopic has is that it isn’t one. The subtitle is ‘based on a true fantasy’ and if anything it is a musical based on Elton Johns life. You could easily see this leading to a show in the West end. It has characters singing at each other, expressing thier feelings through lyrics that are anachronistic to the events portrayed – 2001’s » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Russo Brothers

Much excitement Chez Twang as we head for the lovely art deco Broadway Cinema in Letchworth to see the opening night of “Avengers: Endgame”. We’re big fans of the Avengers films (though shamefully we missed “Captain Marvel”) and were keen to see how the labyrinth story which runs through 22 films resolves itself.

Staying spolier free means we can’t go into detail, but as you might expect it’s loud, massive in scope, LOL funny and genuinely tear jerking in places. Characters as positioned against type, our preconceptions are challenged and then resolved in clever ways, the dialogue is snappy as ever and heros do heroic stuff when you need them to. There is humour and a fine strain of in jokes and back references for the devotee. The final scenes caught me completely by surprise and were a perfect conclusion. And “Captain Marvel” has now become a must as she is terrific.

So far so good. It’s fair to say if you’re not a fan you won’t be convinced by this film any more that its antecedents, and if it’s your first Avengers film it won’t make much sense, mainly because it has so many » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Steve Sullivan

I hate funerals.

Well I guess no one looks forward to funerals but they are an event where people are remembered and talked about with warmth, honesty and love by those who thought the world of them. Often feel that it would be good for that to happen while the person is still alive. I hope that Chris Sievey felt the great love, respect and gratitude expressed in this excellent documentary by Steve Sullivan before his death in 2010 aged just 54 – still with plenty of fun and nonsense planned.

I first encountered Frank Sidebottom on the British version of MTVs ‘Remote Control’ quiz presented by Tony “Mr Manchester” Wilson where he was one of the channels that contestants could pick a question from. This was also at a time when Jonathan Ross’ chatshow would feature early appearances by Vic & Bob, Higson & Whitehouse plus Jools Holland Hootenany stalwart, Roland Riveron. Despite being given minimal airtime Chris / Frank made an instant strong impression on me with his surreal, childlike wit and imaginative props. His outsized papier mache head cocked to one side he skilfully built up this world for Frank to inhabit » Continue Reading.

Year: 2046 Director: Hans Petter Moland

Every family has a film thing yes? Some shared collection of actors, genres and in-jokes that bind you all together in front of the screen out of all proportion to the quality of the actual films involved. I’m not talking Bergman or Roma, but an unaccountable affinity for the Police Academies, Eddie Murphy films, all the Die Hards or in our case perplexingly the Liam Limp Revengers. The Commuter, Non-Stop,Taken 1 and 2 (even younger moles will agree 3 is unwatchable), Unknown (slightly out of genre), Run All Night. These by no stretch of the imagination are good movies. But they bind the two siblings together and I’m happy to ride along, Ms Moles slightly less so and in fact they form a sub-category of ‘When she’s away’ watches along with Battlestar Galactica, the Die Hards etc.

So we all trooped along to the multiplex to watch the latest entrant, Hard Powder, sorry Cold Pursuit, sorry the Film that Liam was Meant To Be Talking About when he went Wierdly Racist on Us. Perhaps the furore has overshadowed this, as we saw it in the company of about 20 people in a cinema » Continue Reading.

Year: 2019 Director: Matthew Heineman

I can’t imagine this film will be seen by many people unaware of Marie Colvin’s story – (spoiler alert) sometimes described as a “rock star” reporter she was a prominent writer for the Sunday Times until her murder by the Assad regime in 2012.

The New Yorker recently described Colvin as someone with “a chronic willingness to throw herself into danger”; all the more remarkable given the PTSD she suffered as a consequence. It’s a gritty at times visceral film depicting war with an immediacy that startles possibly because Colvin’s only weapon were her words. Her interest was in the people, not who lost and who won.

Although very much a film about war, it sidesteps glamourising it. There are many harrowing scenes – starving children, mass graves, – but Director Matthew Heineman keeps Colvin’s character, and the way she deals with devastation it wrecks on the civilians the focal point, rather than the gunfire and explosions.

Scenes in war zones dominate the film, but it’s balanced by seeing Colvin away from the battle front – a technophobe who has contempt for her paper’s management and but accepts the accolades and awards, drinking » Continue Reading.

Year: 1900 Director: Alfonso Cuaron

It’s weird how films can happen now. Time was when your local cinema got Star Wars six months after you read the reviews, and three months after the city centre Odeon. Then in the eighties films started to be in every single cinema in the world the day after the reviews came out, or the day before in the case of Steven Seagal movies. Now we’re back to the throttling of supply once more, only instead of your local fleapit being at the back of the queue, it’s anyone who doesn’t have Netflix. Roma, one of the foreign language releases of the year, by A-lister Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Children of Men, some Harry Potters) was in a few cinemas for a couple of week to get it into the Oscar listings. Then – bang- straight back behind the Netflix paywall to be a footsoldier in the streaming wars. Take that Prime.

Which is how I watched this film, on a friend’s reasonably large telly this Sunday. And if there’s a film I would go straight to the cinema to see it on a proper film screen it’s this. To the film’s overall tone of nostalgia » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Despite having a pretty similar relationship with historical fact as some of the recent Dr Who episodes, this is a great piece of cinema – atmospherically lit, superbly soundtracked, beautifully shot and wonderfully acted by its three leads. What Olivia Colman can’t convey with the merest flicker of a facial muscle isn’t worth knowing about. I’ve seen it described as a ‘comedy drama’, but laughs are hard-earned, and the overall mood is of quiet desperation on the parts of all of the protagonists. The odd modern affectation in the language aside, this is a thoroughly absorbing work which I’m sure will be handed a bucket load of awards before the season’s out, as well as upping the traffic on Queen Anne’s Wikipedia page to hitherto unseen levels.

Might appeal to people who enjoyed:

Ridicule (1997).

Year: 2018 Director: David Soutar

I don’t suppose that many of the Massive were Brosettes in their youth, which is a shame. Not because of the music, mercifully little of which appears in this jaw-dropping programme, but because it might mean that you have missed out on one of the TV highlights of the year. Fear not, it’s on iPlayer, which is where I saw it during the dire Christmas Day TV schedules after seeing what a stir it was creating on Twitter.

For those of you who have managed to suppress the memory, twin brothers Luke (drums) and Matt (vocals) were the heart of one of the biggest boy bands of the 80s. They went their separate ways, and although they have adapted to the ageing process in very different styles they are of course still twins. To help you tell which is which it might be useful to remember that Matt is the one with the rug. Now they are to reunite for a show at the O2 and the cameras are in tow, presenting documentary footage without narration nor captions, leaving the brothers’ words and actions to tell the story.

These days both live in California. » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: Bryan Singer/Dexter Fletcher

Remember the line in Wayne’s World that goes “Everybody in the world has Frampton Comes Alive. If you lived in the suburbs you were issued it. It came in the mail with samples of Tide.” My Frampton Comes Alive was Queen’s Greatest Hits – you were seemed to be issued with it at ten years old.

Most of the civilised world is probably aware of the difficult birth Bohemian Rhapsody has had, including the hiring and firing of its director (once) and lead actor (twice), never a good sign. But after seeing the pretty impressive trailer and as a fan of Queen’s imperial phase (see above), I booked a few tickets for two of my oldest friends who are more Queen obsessive than me, plus the GLW – very much a floating voter.

Bohemian Rhapsody is a very inconsistent film, with some great set pieces let down by some clunky dialogue and a ridiculous disregard for the band’s history. In this universe, the success of the band in the early 80s is ignored and Freddie leaves the band to do solo material and live hedonistically, then is talked back in to rejoining the » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: James Russell, Andy Derbyshire

To the Everyman in Kings Cross for the premiere of Steven Wilson’s film “Home Invasion”, filmed at the Albert Hall earlier this year. I went to the gig but on a different night, but I can report that the film absolutely captures what’s great about SW. Often pigeonholed as “prog”, which is not unfair, this shows off his other pretty dominant influences of acoustic harmony, pop and more experimental electronica through to Bollywood. Dipping right back into the Porcupine Tree catalogue as well as the hit albums of “The raven who refused to sing”, “Hand. Cannot. Erase” and “To the bone” the film is an excellent record of Steven summarising his career with his superb band. They are all terrific players but particular mention should be made of Ninet Tayeb, whose second vocals bring the house down every time she opens her mouth, and the awesome Nick Beggs on bass who represents several metric tonnes of concrete in the foundations of the sound, one minute slapping and popping like an 80s bass player (who was that band…?), sitting in the pocket for pure pop mobility or getting all King Crimson on us on » Continue Reading.

Year: 2001 Director: Bradley Cooper

I can’t believe that a significant proportion of our membership has not been or thought about going to see this blockbuster, even if prodded to by others. Family Moles saw it at the new Hummingbird cinema in the Custard Factory on Sat night, and a great 2.5 hours entertainment was had by all. So, be prepared to put your scene-based rockistry away for once and bow down before the altar of Big Entertainment. Everything is Big in this amped-up version of the evergreen showbiz tale of woe.

Gaga is immense, literally so, as the camera cannot get enough of her otherworldly robostar persona which fills the screen in close-up countless times. Her voice is gigantic, whether turning everything up to 11 for La Vie En Rose at the start, or giving it the full tragic diva Big Ballad at the end. This will sound so much better through the cinema sound system than our Samsung at home. There’s even a meta-moment when the face we’ve been staring into for a good hour and a half appears on a billboard the size of a football pitch: now everyone knows what we know, she’s a star.

Bradley » Continue Reading.

Year: 1961 Director: Mia Hanson-Love

Films about clubbing. If great films about making music are in short supply, great films about clubbing are even shorter. John Simm gurning in Human Traffic, Kevin and Perry gurning in ibiza, Paul Kaye…in fact British films about clubbing generally just involve a lot of gurning. There’s no gurning in Eden. As befits a French film about clubbing the whole look of the film is immaculate, from the first scene in an early nineties rave deep in a forest, to the very-well dressed writers group at the end. Eden, a French film by director Mia Hanson-Love, takes an unpromising musical subject: the French garage scene of the 90s that gave birth to Daft Punk, and spins a tale that’s IMHO one of most successful films about music.

It follows Paul, a Parisian dj and producer, over sixteen years from 18ish to 34. He gives up his studies to pursue an initially-successful career as a DJ, fuelled by a love of garage (and drugs, the film is not short on chopping out action). However, and this is much the most interesting part of the film, it’s not structured like a classic success story: the coming together/early » Continue Reading.

Year: 1965 Director: Robert Wise

I had a notion to re-watch this again last night. And I’m glad I did.

It’s not just the tunes that are brilliant. I had forgotten how well staged it all is. Massive, lush, widescreen exteriors make the most of the Austrian scenery. Creamy, rich interiors look like they’ve been painted in oil. The scene where timid Maria arrives at the Captain’s foreboding house, silence echoing around the marble entrance hall, reaches Hitchcock levels of suspense. It feels solid, a proper film you can relax into and feel you are in safe hands.

It also sidesteps the usual off-putting song-and-dance routines that are a key ingredient to most screen musicals. There’s absolutely no professional-looking dancing or synchronisation on show here. It all looks very natural (don’t laugh), maintaining a high-school level of choreography that lets the characters’ charisma and youthful exuberance shine through.

The story is the essence of finding genius in simplicity. A young woman finds her place in the world working as a governess for the children of a retired Captain, while the fingers of Nazi domination slowly tighten their grip in the background. There are no real surprises, but the dramatic arc » Continue Reading.