Film Reviews by TB

The best thing I can say about this film is that is has a very large number of genuinely inspired visual flourishes. The cinematography and colour palette, alongside other zany moments, really give the film a shot in the arm and keep the momentum going.

As much as I wanted this film to be more, sadly the rest of it is extremely schlocky. The world the film creates is very uneven, with random and not always good choices. It also, for all its good points, does sometimes get lost and stretch the patience. But this is a solid 3 star film.

Finally, this film contains another memorable Cage performance, part freak-out, part profound, part crazy. But again, he is never anything less than committed, never winking at the audience or coasting through. We are very lucky to have Cage as an actor working today, and I'll always be grateful that he takes the chances that he does, even if not all of his attempts pay off

A flat-out masterpiece.

As with my review for Silence of the Lambs, there is so much I could say, but quite simply, this is one of the best films ever made. Even today its effects are still being felt and influencing film.

The cast are uniformly perfect, the atmosphere nerve-shredding, the music outstanding.

And on 4K, which I rented to see the remaster, this is elevated in every way.

See it on the largest, highest-quality TV you can, in the darkest room you can.

The Last Duel was extremely well-hyped and for understandable reasons: this was the first film co-written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck since their Oscar-winning screenplay for Good Will Hunting many years ago, as well as starring in it; it marked another return to the swashbuckling movie that has before served Ridley Scott extremely well and finally had a killer cast.

As mentioned, Damon, Affleck, Adam Driver and finally Jodie Comer all star; many of Scott's repeated collaborators behind the camera as well as in front are back and there is a large budget. But unfortunately, the promise is not particularly fulfilled.

Far and away the best thing about this film is Jodie Comer. Red-hot after the success around the world of Killing Eve, Comer was the natural choice for this role. In fact I'd go so far as to say that it's almost impossible to imagine anyone else in it. The film's subject means that this character is by far the most crucial part to get right, and make no mistake: this film really would have not worked/tanked were it not for Comer.

Frustratingly, for me the worst performance was Damon's, which gives me absolutely no pleasure in saying that, as he has always before been good and sometimes even elevated mediocre films. But he was totally miscast in this film and at times seemed to be struggling to carry it, which when you consider the meaty scenes within it, really sticks out. For me, the actor who this film was practically written for and has also been a recent collaborator of Scott's (in Exodus: Gods and Kings) is Christian Bale. He would really have made this character extraordinary.

Adam Driver fares a bit better and also manages to add some genuine menace to the film. In particular, the rape scene, shown from three different perspectives, is highly distressing and deeply unpleasant. This in part is due to the repugnance and evil Driver is able to portray. It is also quite astonishing in another sense: Driver's previous role before this was in another Ridley Scott film, House of Gucci. To go from luxury designer to Middle Ages warrior/rapist was certainly impressive.

Another negative of this film, as well as a frustration, is just how long it is. As much as I am a fan of letting characters breathe and actors act scenes out fully, you really feel the nearly 2 and a half hours runtime. By the time we finally arrive at the much-hyped duel, so much of the momentum has been lost that for me, it never managed to get this pace back. The duel itself, as well as the fight scenes, are absolutely well shot, but don't fit well in the narrative of the film.

This film, with some story changes, stronger editing and recasting, could have been so much more. Unfortunately, it has some flourishes of greatness which are never really capitalised on. Alongside this, it absolutely tanked at the box office, significantly reducing the likelihood of other films like this being made.

A genuine feel-good film. Great care is taken not to mock Maurice Flitcroft and all of the laughs are genuine and good-humoured. The basic message throughout is never let anyone stop you going for and trying to achieve your dreams. This is delivered in a wonderful and warm way.

The true life story of Flitcroft, nicknamed the world's worst golfer, is in parts so outrageous, you feel it is being embellished, until it is confirmed in the credits.

Mark Rylance is extraordinary, fully inhabiting the role and elevated it from what could so easily have been a one-sided performance. Sally Hawkins as his devoted wife is also wonderful, being able to make a real impact and not just relegated to the clichéd and schlocky wife role.

The soundtrack, both the instrumental score as well as the classic hits, works perfectly. Similarly, the cinematography is spot on.

I watched this with my best friend and within 5 minutes, we both absolutely loved it. Essential viewing for a great afternoon with genuine laughs

Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth have been close friends for over 20 years and had really wanted to work together for some time. In many ways, they couldn’t have picked a more perfect film. This two-hander is enhanced in so many ways by the clear love, respect and friendship they both have for each other. You totally believe the deep, heartfelt love the characters have, as well as the personal agony that both of them are suffering from, with one of them losing their memory and the other trying not to have the wonderful experiences they had together being destroyed by this new demon that cannot be reasoned with entering their lives.

One thing which has been noted by other reviewers, but which I would have mentioned anyways, is the total lack of any attention/focus on the fact that it is a gay couple. If you are looking for a film which bangs a drum and shouts about the difficulties and challenges of being part of the LGBTQIA+ community, along with the associated baggage, you won’t find it here. This is very welcome. To add that into what is deliberately a small-scale film which is tackling heavy subject matter anyway would totally overload and ruin the world that this film beautifully creates.

The cinematography, sound and quiet moments are all perfect. There are several great cameos, including James Dreyfus, who in 5 minutes manages to give a devastating look back to how things were before Tucci’s character started suffering from dementia.

Whilst the 2 performances were great, it was for me Stanley Tucci who made the greater impact. Interestingly enough, originally the roles were switched, with Firth taking the role of Tusker. But Tucci himself asked to swap and it was so good that he did. Tusker embodies the traits that so many suffers have: fear, acceptance and a refusal to be beaten. But in no way is Firth relegated to the background. His pain and love for his partner is so profound and moving. When I put myself in his place, I saw myself having the exact same difficulties that he did, but probably in no way being able to cope with them like he does.

Finally, Harry Macqueen is shaping up to be an incredible director. His way with actors as well as the handling of scenes makes me very excited to see what is in his future. If Supernova is this good on only his second film, it will be a bright future.

After Call Me By Your Name, the re-pairing of Luca Guadagnino, Timothée Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg in a film was always going to generate a lot of interest. And even though there is a significantly larger budget this time around, strangely enough in many ways it feels much smaller and more intimate, which is absolutely to it’s credit.

The main thrust of the story is about cannibals (eaters) and how they navigate through the world. In a funny way, it’s like a less action-oriented, road-movie Blade. But even though it has this provocative story, in many ways the narrative is actually not that important. Far more time is given to building the characters and the world that they live in. To me, this is emphatically a good thing. A film like this could so easily have become a turgid, lumpy mess with the wrong storyline, but the lightness of touch is welcome.

Obviously, being a Luca Guadagnino film, it looks and sounds incredible. As with CMBYN, the whole film is shot on 35mm film, with a soft focus and muted colour palette. Arseni Khachaturan’s work is masterful, perfectly creating the Mise-en-scène as well as the beautiful sweeping landscapes and vistas of the different US states. The soundtrack most strongly reminded me of Stanley Myers’s Cavatina from The Deer Hunter, which is the highest praise I can give: simple but powerful guitar pieces which perfectly go with the images.

Alongside the actors mentioned at the beginning, there is some great supporting actors. As is a running theme with some of my other reviews, this is another film where a supporting actor steals every scene they are in and in this instance it is Mark Rylance as Sully. He makes your skin crawl, but has a childlike innocence which makes his actions even more warped. His chemistry with the lead actors is also excellent.

For some viewers, this film will be too weird, too idiosyncratic or too slow. But for me, it was a really interesting and trippy ride. Really enjoyable and beautiful on the eye.

I had never seen any cut of Apocalypse Now, although I had heard it spoken of in reverence as one of the best films ever made. As so many older films are being remastered for 4K and the results are usually stunning, I decided to hold out for Apocalypse Now as well.

Despite my mixed views about the film itself, the remastering is far and away the best thing about it. It is perfect and flawless. Whereas on the blurb it usually says something along the lines of "Every shot has been expertly restored," with the 4K remaster, it genuinely looks it. The colours are amazing, and the sound crystal clear. The 4K disk also contains "The Final Cut," which Francis Ford Coppola says during the introduction was a completely new cut and his preferred one, a bit shorter than the Redux, but longer than the theatrical. To me though, even this Final Cut is too long. After the incredible action-packed scenes as Martin Sheen's character is transported into Vietnam, the film then loses a lot of momentum which it never really recovers.

It was still enjoyable and absolutely is a classic, but for me, as much as usually extended/director's cuts are often better than the originals, in this case even the Final Cut pushed my viewing patience. But still a recommend watch.

A very interesting and well-acted series. The murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman was nothing short of absolute evil, combined with a shocking abuse of trust, and this programme absolutely shows the panic and the horror when the girls went missing.

Commendably, what this drama does do exceptionally well is give Maxine Carr a voice which was lost in the enormous media and hysteria machine surrounding the murders. Many people have said, in my opinion quite rightly, about how she was in many ways the subject of far more vilification and hatred than Ian Huntley, who actually committed the murders. This is absolutely unfair and wrong, and something which I had thought for years, and I was pleased that it is shown clearly that as much as what she did in lying to provide an alibi was heinous and wrong, that should not remove one iota of the condemnation and disgust anyone needs to feel towards Huntley.

It is also shown very clearly how she is manipulated and controlled by Huntley, with repeated assaults, threatening and coercion. Whilst some people will say that this is no excuse, to simply ignore how domestic abusers control and destroy lives ends up giving the abusers themselves more power.

The performances are exceptional, although for me, as much as Jemma Carlton absolutely gives it her all and provides a very compelling anti-hero, it is Scott Reid who made the bigger impact. Reid’s performance as Huntley is so disturbingly accurate, toe-curling and compelling that once the credits rolled, that was the lasting impact for me. Huntley was an absolute verminous monster, controlling everyone by either threats, intimidation or when that failed, suicide attempts to try and get his way.

There was also a sub-plot around composite characters of members of the press, which tried to paint them in a slightly more sympathetic light. Unfortunately, as has been the case multiple times recently with these sorts of high-profile murder investigations, the press has repeatedly behaved absolutely despicably towards family members, going so far over the lines of decency and morals that they had forgotten what they looked like when they passed them.

Definitely a good watch, but not an easy one.

Much has been said and written about House of Gucci. There was the predictable backlash from the Gucci family, which is understable in many ways, seeing as the film is VERY liberal with the sequence of events; (Tom Ford was quoted as feeling not only very uncomfortable but also pointing out that, unlike in the film, he hadn't even been brought into the Gucci empire when the events depicted happened,) and none of the Gucci's themselves come out of the film particularly well.

But what this film does have in spades is also what makes it so enjoyable: it is totally, off-the-wall, bats**t crazy. For a film like this to come out of the studio system of today is a marvel, in the best way possible. It looks amazing, the actors are all committed totally to their roles and what a cast there is to perform. I especially liked that the big-name actors who quite easily could have been brought in for cameos actually have decent, meaty scenes together. A particular highlight is Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino, and also Pacino with Jared Leto.

Leto himself is also a joy to watch. Whilst it has been said that he is overacting and for some people his performance is too much, to me they simply have not bought into the film's world and styling. The overacting is what contributes to the film's craziness. His rant at the main characters after a particularly brutal turn of events is by turns tragic but also hysterical.

But this film belongs to Lady Gaga. She is genuinely perfect, totally committed and her performance is in no way a caricature, which it so easily could become. The accent is perfect and she completely commits to her role. When the end credits roll and there is the footage of the real Patrizia, you see just how accurate Gaga's performance was.

Finally to Ridley Scott, please keep making these incredible films. We are so lucky to have you still cranking out film after film after film and long may it continue.

This review is, as mentioned above, for the extended version (Only available on Blu-Ray.) I have seen both versions and by far the extended is the better of the two. Whilst the theatrical is still excellent, to me the extended is the one to watch.

I loved this film. Loved, loved, loved, loved it. It is the first script written by Cormac McCarthy, based on an original idea. It totally ignores the usual tropes of cinema. Characters speak in no way like in the real world. There are many scenes of heavy dialogue/discussions, some of which go to completely unexpected places. The scenery and cinematography is perfect. And the best part is when things start to go wrong, they really go badly, horribly wrong. No punches are pulled in this film, and believe me, it earns it's 18 rating.

In many ways, it's like a weird flip of the plot of Sexy Beast and they do share some of the same DNA. But unlike films where it is always "I just want to do one deal then get out" and then get further into that world, The Counsellor (his name is never given) genuinely wants only to do one deal. Which makes it all the more tragic when everything goes wrong.

The roll call of actors is also incredible, even in bit parts. Bruno Ganz, Toby Kebbell and John Leguizamo turn up for memorable moments and especially Kebbell is great with what is basically a 5 minute interlude. Fassbender continued his streak of great lead roles. His Counsellor is many things, but also I loved how he still thought even at the end he could bargain, negotiate and smooth his way out of the total horror of what he was involved in. Brad Pitt as the middle man was also a great role, knowing exactly what he was in, but also amusingly feeling he could escape the fate that he was predicting for others. Cameron Diaz plays against type and this provides dividends. It was also great to see Javier Bardem and Penelopé Cruz on screen together again.

But everything was totally overshadowed by the flawless scene between Rubén Blades's character and The Counsellor. Again, with around 10 minutes of screen time, Blades gives a masterclass in film acting. To me, this was the same level as Michael Stuhlbarg's speech at the end of Call Me By Your Name or Ewan McGregor's phone call in The Impossible. It was, to me, a scene so good it could almost stand alone as it's own separate short film. I don't want to say any more, as to not ruin the moment, but it is perfection.

For some, The Counsellor will be too violent, too talky, too long, too boring ect ect. To me, this totally misses the point. This is a world where "The normal rules of exchange do not apply." This is McCarthy's world, where the calvary do not come, where the paybacks are horrific and nothing can stop the onslaught.

A masterpiece

After the blatant and almost embarrassing attempt by Tom Hiddleston in The Night Manager to audition for James Bond, now it's Sam Heughan's turn. But whereas The Night Manager was a no expenses spared, beautifully shot and acted drama, this is a Sky movies produced, almost run-of-the-mill action film, designed to be a crowd pleasing, Friday night film (which of course there is nothing wrong with.)

But, even though it was based on a series of successful novels by Andy McNab, there is very little that sets it apart from many other spy novels/stories. You can see what is going to happen a mile off and clichés are thrown about with abandon. There are also some very unintentionally funny moments. My two favourites was that the main character's country estate is the same one used for Bruce Wayne's in the Nolan Dark Knight films and there is even an identical shot (framing/composition) in this film as there was in Batman Begins. The other is that despite this being filled with Sky/associated branding and products, the producers refused to pay Eurostar for using their trains, resulting in terrible CGI trying to paint out the branding.

I also appreciate that the budget will not have been massive, but the sets still look very cheap. I did like the colour pallet and some of the early shots of Georgia/London were pretty.

Another amusing similarity between The Night Manager and this film is how the main character/lead actor is completely overshadowed by a member of the supporting cast. Whilst in Night Manager it was Hugh Laurie and Tom Hollander, in Red Notice it is Ruby Rose. She is absolutely fantastic and far & away the best bit of the film. Every time she was on screen, the tension was ratcheted up and the film came alive. Heughan tries his best, as do the other supporting players, but Rose wipes the floor with them.

See it for her and not much else.

Frances McDormand is on a real roll at the moment. The excellent Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is now followed by this gentle, delicate film about trying to deal with the way life can change in an instant. And this is no companion piece to Three Billboards. Mildred Hayes is the polar opposite of Fern, a steely but also emotionally broken woman who had everything planned out but then lost it all through no fault of her own.

I loved the way that many of the people who appear are real-life nomads. This gives genuine emotional heft to the story. It is also clear that whilst filming, the cast and also the crew lived that life to experience what it really is like.

McDormand is outstanding and it is clear why she won her third Best Actor Oscar, alongside an Oscar for producing. The role is one which needs emotion but also intense vulnerability, without it becoming a caricature. Needless to say, this is met and exceeded. David Strathairn also makes an impact in a light but also significant role within Fern's life.

Three moments which really stuck out for me was the opening scene when you see Fern's reaction to coming into contact with her passed husband's jumper, beautifully underplayed but so powerful. The second was a scene where Fern is so taken and at peace with the beautiful surroundings that she strips off and bathes in a secluded piece of water, illustrating so well the ambience she feels. And thirdly, one of the final scenes where she has in front of her the offer and promise of a new, more stable life within a home and wakes up in the middle of the night unsettled and listless, walking round and knowing that this is not the life she wants.

This is the first film I have seen directed by Chloé Zhao, who also wrote, produced and edited the film. She is a very exciting and dynamic film maker, who also has that beautiful skill of being able to observe and let the characters and atmosphere breathe without it being boring or using it as padding.

A great film and easy watching, but with a powerful message.

Conceived as an off-the-wall comedy and transformed from the script by the genius of Jim Carrey's improvisation, this was one of the films that defined the 90's. Completely crazy & and in no way taking itself seriously, it remains to me one of the definitive comedies ever made.

Carrey plays the titular detective, searching for a stolen dolphin and uncovering a schlocky scheme to extort a ransom. And that's basically the plot.

Without Carrey, this film would be nothing. Ace's tics and traits are all Carrey's creation and being allowed to let loose is what makes this film great.

It is also divisive in many ways, whether because of the humour and just how surreal it can be, or being retrospectively criticised & condemned/compared to today's standards by some people.

To me, if you are genuinely offended, upset or take in any way seriously a film character whose signature move is to pretend to talk out of his backside, then nothing that is written here will change your mind otherwise.

For everyone else, this is a comedy to laugh your head off to and gets better with each viewing. Highly recommended

This is a stunning film, made on a tiny budget, with not an ounce of excess/uneeded exposition or bloat.

Lesley Manville is perfect in the role and Liam Neeson, who is known for his leading man status and powerful prescence, eschews all of this to become in many ways the lost and worried husband, powerless to stop the pain and upset his wife is going through.

There are many tender moments, but the two that really stick in my mind is the meeting of an old school teacher in hospital and reminising about the daughter that has passed (no reason is given as to why, which to me is a very good thing, as there is already so much going on within the narrative;) and a beautifully shot, unbelievably tender love scene where, before she starts the treatment for cancer, the couple "say goodbye" to the body that she has before it changes forever.

I have not had experience of the trauma that is shown in the film, but one thing which did also resonate with me was that there is in these situations, no perfect answer. One scene where everything becomes too much and the characters are having their own seperate breakdowns in different rooms only highlights that whilst they may feel so far from each other, they also are so close.

Thoroughly recommended and wonderfully performed

A deeply unsettling and disturbing film about the way outsiders and loners, especially those with mental health problems, exist in the world today. The very low budget actually really helps the film’s look and atmosphere, whether in the grimy shots of Tony walking around London or the scenes inside his flat.

Where the film also works well is in how the violence is shown and acted. The scenes bristle with menace and the actual violence itself is extremely unpleasant, restrained and emphatically not gratuitous, which only adds to the heft.

Peter Ferdinando, who has an incredible and chameleonic ability to transform completely into these different characters, gives a very good performance and the film would fail without him.

I did feel that at points the film seemed to meander and get lost, and it's just over 90 minutes runtime was stretching the story just that little bit too much. But this is a solid and impactful film and shows how great micro-budget British films can be.