Film Reviews by CM

An engrossing story, well acted, not too long at just under two hours, with tacit criticism of the US youth 'justice' system which puts Stanley, an innocent kid, into Camp Greenlake, a boys' slave labour camp in all but name, isolated in a merciless desert region of Texas. Sounds grim? The kids aren't sickly-cute, & the plot, humour, music, & acting all lift it out of misery, entertaining the viewer with quirky characters, venomous beasts, & a backstory of love, savage racism, riches, & revenge, haunting the land of the long dried-up lake bed.

For an evening of easy viewing, 'Dick' gets a few laughs. The cast - Hedaya excellent, jowly & growly, as scheming Tricky Dicky, Williams & Dunst frothy as the giddy girls - get the most from a mediocre script that works on Nixon's nickname as an ongoing gag, & overall the film plays the 1970s with more affection than scorn.

Mosley's medical documentaries have been compelling & well-presented, but this was a bit too patchy to convey enough information - starting 'science' with the European alchemists, without a mention of Greek or Islamic scientists, was a telling omission. In the modern style, it included a lot of scenes of the narrator travelling & dramatic helicopter shots for small returns. The chapter on the experiments made in hunting the electron was the best part, but I didn't bother to rent Disc 2.

Lou Gossett Jr & Bruce Dern's performances keep the film just above mediocre; what makes it poignant & horrifying is that the judicial murder of the character 'Linus Bragg' is based on what actually happened in South Carolina to George Stinney, Jr, who was exonerated many years later.

The actual documentary was awful, neither a proper natural history look at the mating game, nor a real comedy, but a puerile sort of humour, mainly about genitals of the animal kingdom, that falls flat. Being preceded by c. 15 minutes of dreadful trailers, including 'Climate Change Hoax' was a warning of the sort of demographic aimed at. One we didn't bother to finish.

Really enjoyed this for giving the feel & sound of the spaces portrayed. Some of the buildings are fifty years old, but still look as if they were finished this year. It would be interesting to see more in the same vein from other parts of the world - Africa, Asia, Middle East, S America, Australasia.

An affecting close-up of life for the left-behind of the American Dream, staggering through poor life choices with vision limited by daily struggles to get by with a shred of dignity. The settings are near-surreal in vulgar colours, the performances are superb, especially the kids' delivery as feral brats left to their own devices, & the film runs from showing them as repellent pests to the hotel residents & staff, by way of showing their lack of agency in any aspect of their existence, to leaving a sense of empathy & disquiet at their likely fate.

Interesting content, & relevant insights from Stuart Hall, with film & newsreel from the 1970s & before, but only merits two stars - alas! - because the film maker decided that it would be appropriate to play music over Hall's commentary, making parts of it inaudible.

A few minutes in, I realized that it was a Tarantino, & feared more like Django Unchained, but it had the superb Jennifer Jason Leigh & Bruce Dern, so we stuck with it. It lost a lot when Dern left the action, & went down a gear, but we saw it through. If this rating system were more nuanced, I'd give two & a half stars.

Visually lovely, but overlong, lacking dramatic tension, & with a horribly clunky plot that has more holes than a beigel bakery.

Very well done, & Emily Watson excellent, neither a homage or scandal pic, with credible characters reflecting what's been written on J du Pré, who was a musical prodigy before she had time to start growing up.

A lot of money must have been spent on getting the late 1940s look, but the only way this creaky plot could have worked would have been as a comedy. Laughs are scarce in this waste of time & talent.

Certainly ambitious, cleverly constructed, but ends up as Socrates meets the Dukes of Hazzard. Not funny enough to carry the body count.

Neither comedy nor drama, a crime caper full of clichés & Mockney stereotypes - surprisingly bad. We didn't even finish one episode, it was so dull.

An excellent film, where the landscape is a major player. Obligations, family, brutal racism, moral relativism, in this beautifully made tale of the civilising of Australia, with civilisation giving itself unwarranted airs. Brutal & atmospheric; the viewer can almost taste the dust & smell the blood.