Film Reviews by CM

An almost unknown British film, undeservedly so, with influences from European Realism, film noir, & a foretaste of kitchen sink drama; no heroes & villains, but an atmospheric slice of working-class life in the East End of London, with many of its inhabitants longing to escape somewhere else, given a sudden dash of drama as a housewife's former lover turns up suddenly, having escaped Dartmoor Prison.

Funny & at times touching, though not as clever as expected, & in need of editing - it could have had 20 minutes cut without much loss - the script touches on philosophical questions in a similar way to good sci-fi, eg, Red Dwarf.

A gripping story & some excellent performances, particularly from the lead, Dayo Okeniyi, but the intro needs to make it clear that a great deal of it is invention (mostly of necessity, since little is known of Green outside of his participation in John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry) & its ending is what ought to have happened to Shields Green a la Tarantino, & not factual.

I give this horrible farrago one star because the dog was good & it had some great cars. Vulgar, witless, unleavened by any hint of cleverness or intelligent humour. Now I like 'Blazing Saddles', but Mel Brooks manages to put some commentary & smarts into the general vulgarity; this is just dross.

The story was engrossing, well-acted, the scenes all well-presented, but continuity a bit jumpy, & the sound was very poor; lacking subtitles for the English speech, a lot was missed.

Smartly written, funny & witty, but still easy to watch; the two leads, Mays & Graham, as a pair of London detectives keep the story taut by having hidden secrets from each other which affect their partnership & investigations. Someone also has a great eye for architecture, & the action takes place around some impressive London buildings.

Excellent actors, costumes, & sets, intriguing plot, but absolutely ruined by annoying superfluous loud dramatic sound effects, constant thunder, slamming doors, hissing apropos of nothing for effect . One scene is wrecked when a couple step down from their carriage to walk, & a sound like a jet airliner is applied to 'dramatise' it.

This could have made a decent thriller or comedy, or both, but slow pacing stretches it too thin before the action starts. The comic moments are there, but buried under heavy-handed direction.

Forman's pruned cine-version of EL Doctorow's excellent book is well-played, brilliant, & sensitively executed, but we missed a lot, since the poor video & audio quality ruin it. Time for a digital re-master if there isn't one yet.

Gripping drama, excellently played, the contrasts of wealth & poverty, economic & social security vs lack of any haven, & the vagaries of fortune affecting the residents of a small corner of London & their wider families kept us engrossed almost to the end. Unfortunately, the underlying concept hadn't the strength to carry the burden of the various stories, & needed at least tweaking for more credibility.

There was a good deal of info that was new to me, but at 90 mins, a good deal more facts could have been presented, & fewer/shorter reconstructions included. A huge fault lay in the barrage of criticisms of Monika Dänemann, Hendrix's German girlfriend at the time of his death, who is now dead herself, & unable to comment. There was no friend or quote to put any case for her, leaving former girlfriend Kathy Etchingham, who tbf, put in a lot of research, to have the last word. I'd have given 2.5 stars, but at present CP only offers the cruder system of 2 for Didn't Like & 3 for Liked It.

Above average - David Mamet screenplay - thriller which leaves the viewer to puzzle out a few things for themself, with stunning scenery, great action takes, & a near-fatal oversight by the survivors of a plane crash in the frozen North of Canada which wastes precious time & leaves them vulnerable to attack by a hungry Kodiak bear. There's one tedious & unfortunate film cliché that a lot of viewers are likely to anticipate. Brain vs brawn, expediency vs thrift, solidarity against danger vs personal desire while time is running out to get back to safety.

Based on historical events (more closely than many films), this story of US pioneers in the first half of the 19th century guided by a leader initially too confident of his own knowledge & abilities is beautiful & gripping. As with many 'based on a true story', it was worth looking up the persons & events depicted. Character-driven, with the scenery of the Oregon Trail always a harsh background that threatens to take the pioneers' bones to itself. Excellent actors; another winner from Kelly Reichardt (First Cow, Certain Women).

Jojo Rabbit: A bit hit-&-miss, misses esp. on the 'funny Hitler' schtick, & the failure to show how Germany was struggling for food, etc., by the end of WW2, but effective at reminding us that Germany had its martyrs of resistance to Nazism, heroes who saved Jews & other 'enemies' of the fash state. The kids are good, too.

...but limp direction, poor camera-work, lack of characterisation, sluggish pace, & stretching out a plot like an episode of Tales Of The (not so) Unexpected do no-one any good.