Film Reviews by PV

I liked this and the EXTRA film with Hugh Grant etc nattering about the film. They point out that New York is a character in the film - well, kind of, but it's hardly Dickens' London.

The first disc is by far superior, esp episode 1 and 2 which kept me guessing. As it went on, the story and my interest sagged badly, especially the legal scenes, though the full amorality of the law is on display here from the savvy but cynical black female lawyer (British actor like Noah Jupe, child/teen star des nose jours).

Donald Sutherland gives his last performance aged 80-ish with the most impressive pair of old man eyebrows I have ever seen, I think...

Many people are fascinated by the super-rich (see the popularity of Succession and, indeed, Dallas back in the day). I am not. Maybe because I am not female? Certainly the family and marriage melodrama bits bored me as they might not those of a female persuasion.

Danish female director Susanne Bier makes it all very Scandi Noir, which is on trend, I have no idea what the source novel is like. But if they cut out the soapy melodrama it could have been 4 episodes only, maybe 3. Focus on the whodunnit bit and dump the family dynamics and soap opera. But hey...

The plot is utterly unbelievable, of course, especially as it plods on in later episodes, but then it is fiction, not fact, and MELODRAMA, so one must expect it.

Worth a watch, 3 stars

What to say about this? Well, it is 'of its time' for sure, reminds me of TOMMY and also some late 60s and early 70s 'hippy' films, again 'of their time'. A bit like horror films too though nothing horrific here, apart from the fashions and flares.

This draws from DR FAUSTUS and the Faust legend about a man who sells his soul to the devil (from Goethe and also Christopher Marlowe's 16th c play), and also Phantom of the Opera, before the mediocre opera.

I'd never heard of Paul Williams (who stars as Swan the devil maestro here) BUT he wrote a lot of songs, Bugsy Malone musical, and lyrics for Streisand's Evergreen. Not short of royalties then! Still going in his 80s. He cowrote the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" and "Rainy Days and Mondays" so kudos for that! He cowrote 'Fill Your Heart' one of the weakest songs on David Bowie's 4th and possibly best album Hunky Dory (1971) or joint 1st with Scary Monsters.

There are better music industry movies - KILLING BONO (2011), KILL YOUR FRIENDS (2015), VELVERT GOLDMINE (1998), THAT'LL BE THE DAY (1973) and more. AND there are better rock musicals with way more catchy tunes, such as TOMMY (1975) of course, QUADROPHENIA (1979) and THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975).

But this is an interesting watch, a curio, by a director whose star rose later, Brian De Palma.

3 stars

First, this is about the USA. The UK has NEVER EVER had race laws. Slavery was banned in England in 11th Century AD and died out by mid 13th century. Then the UK banned slavery and spread and enforced that ban around the world, freeing over 100,000 African slaves from ships, and founding Sierra Leone for freed slaves from Canada. African states and kings and Arabs all opposed the end of slavery which was and is still now (with 40 million slaves in the world in 2024) a huge soruce of income and part of their culture. I am SO SICK of people assuming the UK is the USA, and hate the way BLM and US race politics has seeped into the UK, causing division.

Second, this is sadly a film which attempts to link events of 1960s and 50s and before with the 21st century and Black Lives Matter, and deaths of black people now (mostly killed/shot by black people it has to be said). Full facts of each case need to be examined, the assumption any shooting of a black person is a racist killing is wrong and yes, racist. There was and is huge racism FROM people of colour in the USA who wanted and want segregation, black only areas, radio stations, films, businesses, media, TV, schools universities (Browns is black and female only! How diverse - not!)

SO a mixed bag - the way the odious racist Malcolm X is eulogised is silly. WHY is it that the black converts to Islam like him and Mo Ali never seem to know about the Arab slave trade which was slaving in Africa 1000 years before white Europeans? Why no knowledge of African on African slave trading, or Asian trade, or the 2.5 million white European slaves stolen by Arabs and traded on. There were white slaves in the southern African kingdom of Mali in the 14th century.

BUT I enjoyed bits of it, and like Baldwin as a writer MORE than as a speaker. I'd have liked to know more about his time in Paris really and his gay identity. This is based on the notes Baldwin made in the late 1970s but he abandoned the book - he did not die until 1987 in France where he lived from 1970 and before that from 1948 to 1957. Many black artists and musicians like Nina Simone too were attracted to France, a romanticism maybe, as certainly the racism there is stronger than in Britain, esp in rural areas.

My favourite parts were clips of old films from 1930s and 40s, some of which our perpetually triggered woke media would NEVER broadcast now.

So more relevant to the USA and NOTHING to do with the UK (which in 1939 had just 6000 black people out of a population of 44 million).

3 stars. Could have been SO much better.

Seeing the Spanish writer and director for this, I successfully guessed the themes and plot that would emerge and the twist (no spoilers).

Similar movies like The Orphanage and The Others make it so. This is sort of GOTHIC SUPERNATURAL too.

The first half is excellent, some real edge of your seat stuff, and genuine mystery - which keeps you wondering.

Then in act three it all going a bit OTT splat, and the until-then credible plot challenges our suspension of belief.

Having said that, it';s a decent watch esp with George McKay in it - here aged 25, a film actor since age 13 in JOHNNY AND THE BOMB, and hit big with PRIDE and 1917. defo a future Oscar winner imho.

This is an OK watch, squarely aimed at a teen market,.

Somewhat crude and even now just 3 or 4 years after its release, VERY dated by the party political references.

I am no prude but find the need for gross references and leery language unnecessary - it doe snot make the main character a strong and independent young woman at all but quite the reverse, it makes her appear childish.

A bonkers plot which I suppose is magic realism in a way.

reminded me a bit of the way superior late 1950s THE BLOB. or the fun 2014 film COOTIES.

This is a real full-on Friday night teen film, probably best watched in a noisy crowded cinema, and possibly when as drunk as the character gets...

3 stars.

Many thanks for all the reviews - the one star ones dominate. On the basis of that I shall not record this on BBC1 later tonight (though Radio Times bafflingly gives it 3 stars of 5, maybe coz it is female-directed with a female lead? I have noticed that bias before in reviews and scores).

I shall therefore not watch 85 minutes of my time.

Instead I shall record Spontaneous (2020) on another channel, on at the same time.

I think GREMLINS the film or the original TWILIGHT ZONE episode are worth a watch more than this.

Nonsense and hokum yes, but enjoyable for what it is.

Lots of CGI animals and gore.

Cartoon characters, 2-D and wafer-thin, with a flimsy absurd plot, but what else would one expect?

It's a fag packet movie - the whole thing can easily be written down on the back of one.

Apeing Jurassic Park and Silence of the Lambs.

2.5 stars

I was not sure what to expect here - I tend to dislike misery memoir pity party biopics written by people about their childhoods. But this is more complex than that.

The acting is great and moving, and the script is authentic - Shia LaBeouf is not an actor I know much but he here plays his own felon druggie boozer hippy dad, and plays it well. Noah Jupe is great as the 12 year old Shia and Lucas Hedges as the lost 22 year old.

I liked the trippy dreamy aspects too, which made it more interesting. The director has only done documentaries before, so must be a mate of Shia I suppose to get the gig!

A bit like a MILLION LITTEL PIECES in the rehab anger stuff, and MAP TO THE STARS re the child actor trajectory - Hollywood is a monster that eats people alive it seems!

A surprisingly interesting watch, with some fun lines. 4 stars

This is a so-so horror beating a well-trodden path of hokum to nowhere.

The main actress has that permanently lost little puppy innocent face so you can see why she was cast. At first that worked -but it got irritating.

It all gets silly in the end though (no spoilers; nun here!). It passes the time, and has some shocks and gruesome scenes for those who like that sort of thing.

Make no mistake, this has B-movie or STRAIGHT TO VIDEO/DVD written all over it.

If you want to watch the classic of the same genre then watch THE OMEN (1976) which is a superb film with no flab on its 90 minutes, or I suppose the earlier THE EXORCIST.

Want priests and nuns? The found footage Irish horror film DEVIL'S DOORWAY (2018 ) is great.

2 stars; the first half maybe 3.

This is one of those publicly-funded arty films made from a novel which has been praised to the skies and won literary prizes, partly at least for ticking a lot of boxes, as most hit novels in that literary scene.

The story is entirely female-focused, which is almost a cliche now, so many movies like that since #metoo. ALL male characters are 2-D cartoons, baddies, drunks, abusers - almost a feminist fantasy there. Seen that a lot lately too. BUT the female characters are also flimsy 2-dimenional not well-rounded at all - they seem so unrealistic and I do not believe their character arcs or the entire story arc.

The author of the novel, Ottessa Moshfegh, bafflingly claimed to be a major author by the literati, with a bestseller hit (no doubt with a certain kind of female reader), had a reputation for gruesome scenes from her first novella and that continues here. Not a book of film for me.

The most interesting character is the boy in prison and we never hear a word from him! Honestly, watch a decent prison drama instead if you want a good story. This is just a long drawn-out manblaming feminist pity party. And it is boring. With a totally unbelievable ending (no spoilers).

Predictable plot points and the usual backstory of characters which could be from any soap or melodrama. It is basically a soap pretending to be a literary novel film.

1 star for the film; 1 star for the excellent soundtrack which has some wonderful rarely-heard blues songs from the 60s.

So-so soapy teen melodrama film with an uneven tone - comic coming-to-terms coming-of-age drama, with the usual teenage themes. But it is flimsy stuff.

Some darkness here but the ending (no spoilers) I felt did not fit with the character, I felt, or his story. It seems calculated. The gay themes in such a Catholic country also lacked credibility, especially the sportsman theme. Again, it feels calculated BUT then a writer needs a plot and obstacles and jeopardy in his story.

And remember this focused on Argentina's upper class really, not those in the slums, and not black Argentinians at all (for them, watch football).

Based on a book as the cover of the DVD says - no doubt a hit in Argentina. True story? Hmmm. There were a lot of books like this a few years back - I read two, 1 from an Italian writer and 1 French. Each looked back on teenage years. Each was written by a privileged son of someone who worked in publishing in their countries.

Maybe this will resonate more with a teen audience, 15+?

3 stars

This is a brilliant political satire, 1949 and won Oscars in 1950 and no wonder.

The writing is sharp as is the characterisation.

I am sure this influenced the later Warren Beatty satire BULWORTH.

Broderick Crawford won the best actor Oscar for his barnstorming portrayal of an honest well-meaning working class man corrupted by power and money - as so often happens. Revolutions happen for good reasons then are corrupted French, Russian, Iranian and in Britain under Cromwell in 1650s too.

Amazingly, based on a true story, of Huey Long in 1930s.

4 stars - a must-watch political film, though some parts are romanticised a tad too much.

I thought this film was 1950s so surprised find it is from 1946. It has dated well really. It's a romantic melodrama with a thriller plots too, so ticks a lot of boxes.

It's really a vehicle for Rita Hayworth who does not sing her or ever, she was dubbed. The song PUT THE BLAME ON MAME was written for this film. Hayworth is forgotten now, but it is easy to see why she was a pin-up for many GIs!

Filmed in Hollywood no doubt, standing in for Argentina. Snappy dialogue of the time, 'wise guy' lines and some funny characters too. Well-written by some of the best screenwriters of the time. Some great dialogue, romantic, love-hate lines, very sultry sex symbol Rita Hayworth lines in this!

The casino owner is placed by George Macready, American actor doing an accent; his facial scar acquired in a car crash meant he played a lot of these sorts of roles in his career.

Surprisingly, despite this being made just after WWII and set in Argentina, with German characters, there is no mention of the war or Nazis, no ratline fleeing SS plot at all, not even any mention that the very hard metal tungsten (wolfram; W on periodic table) is used a lot in missiles, at the pointy end! Tungsten is unique amongst the elements in that it has been the subject of patent proceedings. In 1928, a US court rejected General Electric's attempt to patent it, overturning their U.S. patent.

This stands up well for a movie that is almost 80 years old! Worth a watch.

I am baffled as to why this movie is getting such praise and plaudits; I suspect the reasons are mostly political.

SO there is a Trump-like figure in the Whitehouse; meanwhile. Highly unlikely that Texas and California would secede from the USA and join together though; more likely that the 'flyover' states and the south would, as east/west coast 'liberals' socalled hijack the whitehouse for evermore with minorities of colour support. Actors are fine - I shall watch Wagner Maura in anything after his definitive role as Pablo Escobar in classic TV drama NARCOS.

If you want to watch a great film about the morality of photojournalism in a war then watch THE KILLING FIELDS.

This meandering mess of a movie is a road trip on a quest to get to Washington, and that is it. No real story here, all so woolly and flabby in screenplay terms. Pure SciFi fantasy really, though not quite as bad as Garland's last movie 'MEN' which also had that #metoo agenda. OF COURSE the main character and heroes are female here, or men of colour. Fact is, however, the vast majority of war photographers are male. The odd exception prove the rule, and the few famous ones gets perhaps more attention than they deserve just for being female.

Alex Garland is white male privilege personified - privately educated in poshest London area of all Hampstead, with a famous political cartoonist father, and upper class grandparents, incl a Sir. And, like many privileged liberal white male 'silverbacks' (Jon Snow off Channel 4 News is another), he seems to promote an intense dislike, even hatred, against white males. There is NOT ONE in the main cast, those on the roadtrip, if you count the Maura character as Hispanic - there are 2 east Asians, Hong Kong gets a mention and China - and there is one scene here hammers that point home. All baddies in it and the whole movies are white American males. All of them; all heroes and goodies are female or non-white. It is real tick-box 2-dimensional stuff, a bitter diversity worship which some viewers no doubt adore. I call it out for the racism/sexism against white males it is - very common these days in publishing too, esp kids' books. Depressing BUT we still have the archive, thankfully.

I give it 2 not 1 star as it is watchable, with impressive shooting/war scenes (but if you want that, watch brilliant German TV series GENERATION WAR about a REAL war). BUT make no mistake, this is pure wish fulfilment fantasy film-making for socalled progressives in the USA - no doubt they'll show it at the Democrat convention. Make no mistake - this is political propaganda, a scare story, and anti-Trump, and probably quite deliberately released this US election year.

Nice to see (Viet Nam gay American man) Andy Ngo get a credit at the end - the footage f ANTIFA (socalled) demonstrations and violence intercut with the fiction are taken by him - in real life, he was violently attacked by the fascists who claim they are anti fascist.

And the music is well-chosen. So 2 stars, JUST.

This is an odd little film. German and set in the police force. Hard for many to sympathise with ANY police, so that is one barrier to the audience experience for some.

Many films like this from all over the world, about men in the closet - and often in a macho manly context too. Better films are MOFFIE a 2019 South African film set in the army in 1981, and the Israeli film MOSHIE AND JAGGER from 2002. I am sure there are more,. The classic VICTIM (1961) with Dirk Bogarde.

This film is oddly coy sometimes; and maybe a bit outdated even for 2013 - as police in the UK and western Europe no doubt bend over backwards to promote diversity and equality, sometimes too much if recent dancing round rainbows is anything to go by (when criminals like shoplifters and muggers get ignored). Oh well, and one does have to say, these fields do have a significant % of gay women, police, army, sport etc. Just the way it is BUT no laws against lesbianism ever and not the pressure men are under, arguably, or the threat of violent attacks for being a gay man.

Anyway, despite its flaws, it shows the typical traditional very German modern suburbs, which is accurate.

A minor film, and worth a watch. 3 stars