Film Reviews by CM

Technical problem: far too quiet, even on maximum volume, to catch all the words, so we may have lost vital parts of the plot.

It all looks lovely, not badly acted, but fails to show any engaging (not necessarily sympathetic) or credible characters, the plot is flimsy as can be, & the baby which should be the lynch-pin of the plot is reduced to a prop in this shallow story.

No redeeming features to this dreadful 'comedy' - rubbish plot, leaden script, its good locations barely seen. Even Michael Sheen couldn't save it from its rightful trajectory into movie oblivion.

We hired this film because it was compared to 'Hannah Arendt' (a different sort of film entirely), & has a couple of excellent actors. From the opening music, I smelled schmaltz, & there's plenty of that here. On the positive side, it's visually outstanding in its recreation of a small German town during the Nazi years (what are those two smoking chimneys?), interiors, & clothing, & the portrayal of captured Jews, book-burning, & Germans taking refuge in the air-raid shelter is chilling, but the horribly chummy Omniscient Narrator, & frightful cod-German accents undermine all its virtues.

Disc 1 was very good, with a quick overview of the historic roots of punk in garage rock & outsider/Beat literature, & comments from participants & observers, but Disc 2 was poorly edited, & we don't really need to hear Henry Rollins' & others' comments three times over in different sections.

This is certainly a masterpiece, assured, unsparing, & heart-scalding, definitely one we'd watch again later. Black & white film, which gives the feel of the times, but also highlights forms & passing brightness.

Beautifully made, funny & brilliantly tailored, if predictable, & with a nod to a lot of old films & stock characters. Jennifer Jason Leigh is brilliant as usual, though the Tim Robbins character needed a bit more character & fibre to be credible as her boyfriend.

The sleeve called it 'comedy' - barely 'comedy', but tragedy with a few laughs, as a good, intelligent priest faces a death threat & the temptation to save himself, highlighted against grotesque characters (no-one really needed to enter the confessional, as the parishioners waved their deeds & mideeds out in public), & the horrible history of Ireland & of the Catholic Church. Well-made, sound performances, played against the heartbreaking beauty of the West of Ireland.

We watched 'Nashville' again this week (2014), which I saw when it was new in 1977. I think it's Altman's masterpiece, a powerful & affecting tribute to country music, a sideswipe at the music & media industry, & an atmospheric elegy to an innocence that was departing post-Watergate & post-Vietnam, dancing, as so often with Altman, on the verge of chaos. Excellent performances, & Ronee Blakley is luminous as a fragile, gifted country singer. One to watch again.

No schmaltz, but plenty of wit & heartscalding dark humour in this one. The old fella pursuing his dream is far from cute, but unfolds & becomes more understandable as the story goes on. Great acting all round, & the mother is monstrously funny. The wide open landscape is almost a character in itself.

Truly dreadful, a plot that might have flown if done as an indy is a leaden Hollywood fairy tale. We got it on the good reviews, but were appalled at its utter lack of any real feeling. Don Cheadle struggles, Adam Sandler whines, Liv Tyler twitters soothingly; the best part is the dental receptionist.

We like a lot of the old, clumsy, slapstick British comedies, but this version of 'The Goose' had been edited, with many of the best bits missing (teaching the German lads English pronunciation & idiom), so lacked flow & many gags.

The plot relies on coincidence piled on coincidence, & even great actors can't make it float, but it held our attention for the duration.