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.

Year: 2018 Director: Brad Bird and Christopher McQuarrie

Two old franchises in a surprisingly healthy state. I’ve watched both this weekend.

There’s some weird parallels between the set-pieces in these two films… A motorcycle chase, helicopter crashes, people passing out at high altitude… were they both swapping notes, or are action tropes just becoming less unique in general now?

One other parallel is that both films mine some interestingly murky moral depth before abandoning such pretensions for more conventional action climaxes. The Incredibles 2 questions the fairness of an unequal world where superheroes are put on pedestals. Fallout casts doubt on whether the current world order is actually one worth saving. A shame these strong themes are glossed over in the end, but then again this is mainstream entertainment, not Watchmen. Even when a villain has something interesting to say, they still gotta get punched in the mouth.

Such criticisms are largely irrelevant, however, when the quality bar is set this high on the action front. Fallout probably contains the highest concentration of heart-pumping stunts since that last Mad Max film. Wince-inducing, boisterous brawling with a good dose of free-running, climbing, driving, kung fu, ticking timebombs…. everything is thrown into » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: Lili Fini Zanuck

This seems to be the season for guitar greats to release documentaries of their life stories. Following on from the recent Jeff Beck release, it’s now the turn of Eric Clapton to step into the confessional. This film covers the numerous highs and lows of his personal and professional life, and as we all know, the highs were very high (Cream, Derek and The Dominoes) and the lows were very low (drink, drugs, loss of his young son). Clapton is nothing if not resilient though, and he unfailingly gets himself up off the canvas, admittedly sometimes quicker than others, and picks up the pieces of his career. This is a far more personal film than the Beck effort, as Clapton speaks frankly and sometimes movingly about his life, augmented with recollections and anecdotes from friends and family, aspects that were sadly missing from the Beck film. Of course, everything that you’d expect from his musical career is covered too, from his early days on the British blues scene into the Cream and Derek eras and on to his long solo career, illustrated with interviews and performance footage with colleagues and collaborators. These stories though » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: Jasenko Pasic & Tarik Hodzic

If you’ve read Bruce Dickinson’s autobiography, published last year, you may well recall a lengthy piece on the concert he played in Sarajevo in 1994 with his band Skunkworks during his period of exile from Iron Maiden.

This DVD documents the background to and organisation of that event, although it strangely doesn’t include much in the way of performance footage from the show itself. The real story is that of the attendees at the gig, the UN aid workers and the British army major who initially put the idea forward. Their reminiscences, combined with those of Dickinson and his band, give some insight into the situation in that war torn city. It is a harrowing tale of their stories, combined with more humorous aspects as, for example, the band are forced to hitch a ride in a van belonging to aid workers, after the promised armoured helicopter fails to materialise due to the threat level being too high. This a a story where the perceived ‘stars’ take a back seat in the light of the daily struggles and efforts of the people on the ground in this brutal conflict.

A serious film » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: Sophie Fiennes

Let’s face it nobody wants a Grace Jones film to be a ‘standard’ rock biography, much in the same way that nobody wants a ‘standard’ rock biography of Laurie Anderson or Patti Smith. You expect some degree of artiness or avant gardism, or it just wouldn’t be ‘them’.

But at the same time what you don’t really want — trust me on this — is what you get here: a cinema verité approach where you spend the first twenty minutes waiting in vain for some kind of context, backstory, explanation — anything — and the next hour-and-a-half (it’s a long old film) resigned to the fact that you’re not going to get any, just enjoying the great moments the film does occasionally throw up, and thinking, ‘God, what a lost opportunity this is.’ And, ‘How can anybody make a film about Grace Jones — Grace Jones! — that is so BORING?’

Honestly, I wanted to throw things at the screen. Fifteen minutes of Grace and family sitting around a dinner table having an impenetrable conversation? You got it? Context? Fuck you. I know a fair bit about her, so at least I knew that » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: Ron Howard

Checking the reviews and box office receipts, and considering that I thought The Last Jedi was PANTS, I’m supposed to hate this. But with the benefit of lowered expectations and a quarter-full cinema, I actually had a blast. True, there was a huge amount of box-ticking at work. Has there ever been a film whose remit is to explain a single, throwaway line in another film, made over forty years ago? Probably not. And there’s a shitload of ‘this is how X happened!’ — from the Falcon’s distinctive shape to the way that Lando pronounces ‘Han’ — which is no doubt intended to be ‘fan pleasing’, but is in fact a little bit icky, oh, and it’s way, way too long.

But actually, if you can ignore all that — and you can, dead easily — then what you have here is a fairly cookie-cutter action movie, but one that’s done done really, really well.

Good points? A train heist set-piece that’s worthy of anything in the Mission: Impossible franchise; a really good performance by whatsisname in the title role, properly ‘doing’ Harrison; a funny turn from Fleabag lady; a fantastic Paul Bettany, being » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: Matthew Longfellow

One of, if not the, most talented, inventive and yet reclusive guitarists Britain has ever produced is the subject of this in depth documentary. Beck is interviewed at length in his home and while tinkering in his garage as he talks through his fifty-year career, picking out the highs and lows along the way. Although he covers everything you’d expect, he’s sometimes frustratingly elusive and vague with his answers, for example his last minute pull out from Woodstock still remains something of a mystery. Nevertheless, he seems an engaging, friendly, articulate guy, if one who prefers to keep his private life just that – there are no appearances by family members or close personal friends to be found here. What you do get is a good selection of archive footage from over the years, plus a series of tributes from luminaries such as Dave Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Ron Wood, and from former colleagues such as Rod Stewart and Jan Hammer. Highlights of the vintage performances include playing with Clapton at Ronnie Scott’s, jamming with Jimmy Page at The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, and, tagged on to the end, five previously » Continue Reading.

Year: 2017 Director: Michael Gracey

A lot of critics had a lot of very bad things to say about The Greatest Showman, but mainly they criticised what it’s not. What it’s not is a serious biography of PT Barnum. It’s not subtle. It’s not at all fleshed-out or characterful.

While these are all points that certainly apply, they’re hardly valid criticism when the film itself shows not the slightest interest in hitting those particular markers. This is a movie where at one point plot exposition is relegated to a sign propped up in the background of a song. Almost all of the important storytelling beats, in fact, turn up during songs, a cinematic sleight of hand that leaves a contemporary musical like La La Land looking positively leaden by comparison. During an early sequence we see the young Barnum grow up fall in love, get married and have kids of his own – all during the course of one song. Meanwhile, a reprise (we’re big on reprises in The Greatest Showman) is sung by his daughter, closing the circle.

In the absence of all that stuff that isn’t there, The Greatest Showman gambles hard on its songs, and on » Continue Reading.

Year: 2017 Director: Tan Bing

DISCLAIMER: THIS REVIEW IS ONLY OF THE TRAILER.

See first Comment for the review.

Might appeal to people who enjoyed:

The China Syndrome. Simply because China Salesman is probably a sequel.

Year: 2018 Director: Ray Argall

I have argued previously, on the blog, that Midnight Oil is a remarkable band in the history of politico rock and if not for the fact that they are Australian would’ve /should’ve been massive globally.

That view didn’t change when I saw one of their final shows in the recent world tour – absolutely stunning, and it remains after seeing the movie Midnight Oil 1984 which, in the main, chronicles the performances and political activism that culminated in front man Peter Garrett running for the Australian senate for the NDP while still on tour.

My view of the lack of recognition of “The Oils” was shaken a bit when we had dinner recently with neighbours who had moved from Madrid. “Have you seen any bands since coming to Melbourne” ….” Yes, Midnight Oil, they were fantastic, we love them. And the footage of overseas shows that there is indeed a rusted on global fan base.

There are 3 phases of Midnight Oil and possibly a fourth to come with talk of new music to be recorded. The first is the hard-edged band from the northern beaches of Sydney. Then came the big success of 10, » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: Garth Davis

I enjoyed this film released just in time for Easter.

It is a British Australian co-production directed by Garth Davis who made a name for himself with his first movie the highly successful Lion. It stars the elegant and beautiful Rooney Mara as Mary, a dusty dishevelled intense Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus, a strapping Chiwetel Ejiofor as a strapping general like Peter and Algerian actor Tahar Rahim , as a baby faced somewhat naive Judas. Everyone else is fairly peripheral.

MM’s place in life of Jesus has been subject to debate for centuries. From a reformed prostitute as characterised by Pope Gregory in the 16th century and characterised as such from that time on the the alternative view as the 13 th disciple.

This movie focus seeing events through MM’s eyes and clearly positions here as one for whom Jesus holds most affection and she is clearly devoted/ besotted with Jesus. Mary encourages Jesus to talk more to women and address their oppressed situation and at times she interprets his words and actions differently to the 12 disciples. This, of course, rankles especially as they were reluctant to have them join them in » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: Steven Spielberg

At relatives over Easter so instead of our usual Cineword or Odeon we saw Spielberg’s latest at the brilliantly straightforward Kavanagh cinema in Herne Bay. Tickets £4.00! A ‘4 sense’ ticket at Odeon is now heading towards £14 in Brum. Also the joy of local graphics done with Windows movie maker announcing ‘ The feature presentation’. But I digress…what was the film like? There’s spotters badges for Digbeth’s arches (standing in for post-slow-apocalypse USA) and a building in the City I used to walk past on my way to the Barbican centre. But I digress…what was the actual film thing like. It’s one of Spielberg’s family adventures like ET or Jurassic Park, rather than those aimed at a more grown up audience. So we get plucky teen protagonists versus the man, and a good deal less sense of jeopardy than being chewed by a T-Rex.

At stake is a virtual space world called the Oasis that was set up by Mark Rylance (a film-stealing cameo) and Simon Pegg, and is now the panacea that distracts everyone from the utterly f====d up world of 2040. Evil masterminds the the 101/I O I corporation want to » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: Andreas Neumann, Joshua Homme

‘You risk nothing, you gain nothing.’ That is the mantra of this film documenting the collaboration between Iggy Pop and Josh Homme, culminating in the creation of the Post Pop Depression album in 2016 This is a fly on the wall effort, with lengthy interviews with the two main men backed up with behind the scenes footage from promotional trips and key concerts on the ensuing tour. Sometimes it does score a little high on the pretentious-ometer, as Homme wanders alone in the desert, but it’s redeemed by footage of the pair in the recording studio and on stage, together with Iggy’s candid observations on life, the universe and everything. He also shares some quite illuminating and candid recollections of his old friend David Bowie, who passed away while this was being filmed. There are also some interesting excerpts from the journals Homme and the other band members kept during this period, and some nice still photographs capturing the recording sessions and band rehearsals. Things conclude with footage of a raucous show at the Albert Hall , making you wish the whole thing was a bit longer than the rather meagre eighty minute » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: Alex Garland

Natalie Portman’s Lena is a college biology professor whose soldier husband Kane (played by Oscar Isaac) disappeared, presumed killed, on his last secret mission. She’s stuck in grief and refuses to move on. And then, one day, he mysteriously returns. But he’s different, with no memory of what’s happened to him. His health rapidly deteriorates, and he is rushed to a military compound where Lena discovers that he was a part of a Special Forces-esque team sent to investigate the location of a meteor crash in the Florida swampland. The region has been enveloped in “Shimmer”, a mysterious effect that is changing the land under it, and one that is slowly expanding outwards. Kane is the only person from several expeditions who has returned from this location, now known as Area X.

Desperate to know what has happened to her husband, Lena volunteers to join up, and is assigned the next mission, heading into the unknown with a team of scientists, whereupon Annihilation reveals itself as the psychedelic Alien. This small group of explorers stumbling into something huge, unknown, and lethal has the same sense of nature and biology frighteningly out of kilter, but » Continue Reading.

Year: 2018 Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson is back. And it’s business as usual as he scratches another little odd corner of the twentieth century to see what kind of story he can unravel.

Daniel Day-Lewis is back on the roster as well, more than a decade on from There Will Be Blood. This is apparently his swansong. He’s Reynolds Woodcock, a society dressmaker in ’50s London (see? A little odd corner of the twentieth century) and a strange fish indeed. He’d probably be said to be on the autistic spectrum today. Fussy and petulant, he treats his models and clients (the rich and the royal) like mannequins – his detachment from them, his inability to relate to them, is probably the thing that allows him to craft them and sculpt them like works of art. His ladies, in turn, love him. Love the attention he gives them, objectifying and humiliating it may be. He’s handsome and charming, but quite sexless. He’s also obsessed with his dead mother and dominated by his sister (Lesley Manville – a fantastically fuming hard stare of a performance).

But this isn’t a film about Woodcock alone. The focus is his relationship with » Continue Reading.

Year: 2017 Director: Joe Wright

The opening scene of this historical drama reminded me very much of that from the same era – Downfall. A young niave secretary is shown nervously into the presence of her country’s leader, without any pleasentries he starts dictating a letter. She is so nervous she makes a hash of it but persevered to become an important narrative device with which to view a historical giant. Lily James as Elizabeth Layton is a rare female presence in a world, made clear by her tour of the underground War Rooms, of men deciding the future of Western Europe.

Oldman, under a ton of rubber n glue, may not look much like Churchill in the stark daylight but in the dimly lit corridors, offices and rooms of power he moves and inhabits the man. Only when seen close up you realise it’s Oldman in there but at the dispatch box delivering those speeches or shuffling, slumped and brooding he csptures the essence of the man.

Very much told as one man against the establishment in a struggle to avoid a humiliating defeat and negotiated peace with a man whose name he cannot bring himself to utter » Continue Reading.

Year: 2017 Director: Martin McDonagh

It’s that time of year where every week seems to bring a film with Oscar buzz all over it. After seeing Three Billboards I’d be very interested to see a better performance than Frances McDormand as the desperate mother of a murdered daughter.

The trailer suggests this will be a knockabout black comedy battle of wills between McDormand and Woody Harrison’s Sherrie defamed by the titular advertising hoardings. Which kind of sells the film short which is not to say it isn’t blackly comic, that McDormand curses up a storm and has all the best putdowns. It’s just that it a far more violent, nuanced and thoughtful film than that.

It’s a film where motivation is key and the lines between good and bad are blurred and moveable. No one has the purest of intentions and there is redemption and change but it has a twisted take on morality that some may find troubling.

Sam Rockwell’s Dixon is at first glance a typical buttheaded small town bigoted coward who somehow made it through police academy. We learn perhaps why he is this way but the film doesn’t offer that as an excuse or reason » Continue Reading.