Film Reviews by PV

This is a slight, short Israeli film about soldiers doing national service (I think 3 years for boys, 2 years for girls there).

Not sure where they are based, but there is snow so...GOLAN HEIGHTS maybe as that is by the Syria border.

Tragic really, about friendship and families, touching film.

I was amused one soldier was nicknamed JAGGER as he behaves like a rock star.

Worth watching esp as it is so timely with the Gaza war now.

3 stars.

This is not bad and worth a watch but is a slight film, Israeli-made, a bit confusing sometimes.

It is based on the life of a Jewish Cellist who managed to escape the Nazis and rebuild a life in Canada - she revisits Poland in early 70s. WHAT confuses here is the switching back and forth with NO on-screen titles to show the date or year. Some films do that now. I dislike it. DO NOT CONFUSE THE VIEWER. Just put the year on screen eh?

No subtitles available, they do speak in English but none for hard of hearing either.

All a bit overblown and very tragic. Set in LODZ (central Poland) which was one third Jewish before WWII, often called the Manchester of Poland, as cotton mills there. Now there are about 1-3000 Jews living in LODZ.

A slight film, a biopic, all about marriage, adultery and rather tragic. Though i could never really warm to any of the characters.

One issue is things which should be SHOWN are TOLD by characters to others. I am sure the budget could have been found to show the awful scenes of 1941 when Nazis were in Poland targeting Jews. Quick flashbacks and voiceover of characters would have worked. SO as these tragic events are TOLD more than SHOWN, they lack emotional heft.

But not bad, but not great. 3 stars.

This film surprised me. I thought it would be a silly vehicle for Cliff Richard, here making his screen debut - his character is important but rather tacked on - where he sings some great LIONAL BART (Oliver!) songs incl LIVING DOLL.

Anthony Quayle does brilliantly here in conveying how a man falsely accused by a someone (both female and male here) can be ostracised & bullied by the mob. People are like that - they believe weaponised lies, esp when told by women or children/teens. I know of 3 cases where men were falsely accused. Police responsible for hounding many innocent men including ironically Cliff Richard, as well as Paul Gambaccini etc.

The mob ASSUMES guilt by accusation and STILL DO. See #metoo feminists assuming an accusation of rape proves it. Shameful mob mentality. No different now.

That is the story, the main plot; the subplot is with the Cliff Richard character as an unlikely tearaway (with that 19/20 year old cherub face!) defended by the vicar to save him from going to borstal. Hints of ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES as his older brother Larry (a name of the time) is an out and out rotter and then some. YES it is a tad dated, the belief in marriage, esp when a girl is 'in trouble'; the trust in vicars. The acceptance of a father beating his kids etc. But the issue is the same now, much worse actually.

Child start Andrew Ray successfully grows up here - he was on many TV shows after this.

Alfred Bramble, the dirty old men on Steptoe, also pops up briefly.

The ending is rather simple, quick and limp - why this gets 4 and not 5 stars.

But really, a partner piece to the classic film of a year or 2 later, VICTIM, with Dirk Bogarde.

4 stars

I was surprised I'd never seen this film - I knew the David Bowie theme tune though. With Pat Metheny jazz guitarist guy. It is based on a 1979 book about a true story.

This features Sea Penn playing a deeply arrogant & irritating character - so not much acting needed then LOL.

Timothy Hutton, the youngest winner of a best acting Oscar, for Ordinary People 1980, aged 20, stars - and is excellent. He was a massive star around late 70s and 80s, though seems one of those unrecognisable character actors now, not a film star.

The wonderful David Suchet stars as a sinister foreigner as he used to in his pre-Poirot days. He often played Russians, KGB spies, terrorists (as in The Professionals). And he does it so well.

Based on a true story of 2 posh American boys who sold secrets to USSR in 1970s for cash. The character Hutton plays, Christopher Boyce was released from prison on parole on 16 September 2002 after serving a little more than 25 years. The adopted son of a posh doctor Andrew Daulton Lee, a drug dealer who got at Boyce who worked for the government, also went to prison for life. But After 21 years of incarceration, Lee was released on parole in 1998.

Directed by posh, privileged, Jewish, openly-gay English film director John Schlesinger CBE who'd been a frontline cameraman in the forces in the Second World War, and who directed so many classic 1960s British films. A Kind of Loving (1962), Billy Liar (1963) and, in Hollywood, Midnight Cowboy (1969, Oscar winner), the brilliant Marathon Man (1976). One can see the gay and Jewish themes there.

He also returned to acting a bit, seen in a few TV films, The Lost Language of Cranes (1991). he directed John Major's Tory Party Political Broadcast in 1992, back in Brixton. Also the wonderful 1983 TV drama An Englishman Abroad.

4 stars

I was not sure what to expect from this - most such films are slushy, schmaltzy, overly sentimental and I expected that here.

HOW WRONG I WAS! This was a revelation, no slush of schmaltz here at all, instead a warm, emotional, bittersweet film with a wonderful ending (no spoilers) which even tugged my heart strings (some may cry). I did not expect that.

Superb script, not overlong at 90 minutes, brilliant acting all round - I have no idea if the actor playing the son is actually autistic.

The father was a well-written complex character, capable of doing good and bad things, and I felt for him watching this - the script is superb. Israeli-Italian coproduction, which maybe helped.

I am actually surprised it was not nominated for an Oscar or other awards. It is WAY better than RAINMAN tbh. I disliked that movie for some reason.

I give this a clear 5 stars. Probably the best Israeli film I have ever seen.

This is an old film BUT really very modern in its dealing with the morality of war - on both the British and Japanese side.

Based on a true story; a memorial shown at the end. I do not know much about it or how accurate it is. The war in Burma was hell, to be sure.

Burt Kwouk in here with great actors like Stanley Baker (who fought for years to make ZULU 5 years later); Leo McKern, so many more.

It does not matter that it is clearly shot in studios and well done to the sound guy - the constant buzzing tropical insect humming makes it so authentic.

Watch with MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE maybe. And IT AIN'T HALF HOT MUM!

5 stars. Brilliant war film

I loved this. 6 parts - rather than flabbed out to more episodes as so many drama series do now.

Really original with the story of two teenage boys and their emerging gay attraction - handled very well, I thought. Actors are superb. The two young male leads have not done much else though. Nor has the director/writer.

yes the story may be OTT and unrealistic BUT it is fiction and most crime drama is. Most police work is tedious, boring, ordinary, not serial killers or stuff like this.

Deeply sinister at times and the last episode is a masterclass is creating tension.

A great shame there is no sequel or same police force and another case. I'd have liked to see more series.

The best Scandi crime drama I have seen to some time. Norway somehow manages to make great films and TV drama despite a small population (though oodles of oil money esp as they are not in the EU).

5 stars. I could watch it all again now.

I have never been squeamish at all, would happily attend a post-mortem/autopsy. The body is just a shall, after all, the person has gone. Those who ARE squeamish may do well to avoid this film which shows an autopsy.

I liked the twisty plot here, even the OTT stuff and the eventual plot points re the occult (no spoilers).

Edge of your seat stuff, a great Friday Night horror. Creepy, Scary and some Jumps and Surprises here.

People have mentioned the weak ending BUT how else could it have ended?

4.5 stars

OK so this film MUST have been inspired at least by the Roald Dahl 1952 short story called SKIN which was made into a quality early episode of TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED in 1980. Basically the same story, tattoo on back. Ends differently (NO SPOILERS).

What I liked about this film was the satire on the odious pretentious status-fixated money-obsessed modern art market which has little to do with art. Also the relevance of the Syrian backstory, which was not as overbearing as it could have been. Of course Europe cannot take all Syrian refugees - and they could go east or south to fellow Muslim and Arab states for asylum, of course...

A gimmicky CHANNEL-5-style shock title to get the target audience - teen girls - to watch.

Unless you are an easily-impressed sex-curious teenage girl, do not bother.

Trash

This is an important film - the Second World War has countless stories of individuals to tell, and this German film ensures the small number of open lesbians in Nazi Germany get their story told. Watch to the end to see what happens to the characters - this is apparently based on a true story, but is symbolic of all gay stories in the Reich really.

However, as a film it does drag on, and is rather overlong and perhaps lacks focus at times.

To be honest what I found most interesting was not all the love/sex interest and the lesbian theme. What fascinated me was this was set in Berlin during the war when the RAF were bombing - the scenes in 1944 are great, report of the Fuhrer's death after the suitcase bomb at the Wolf's Lair in Poland, and Hitler's speech on the radio are his actual words and voice, I think. I found all that fascinating, as a bit of a WWII buff.

Others will be more interested in the Sapphic stories. Fair enough.

4 stars

This was remade in 2002 with Al Pacino in a more Hollywood-style version, so less explicit sex, no animal cruelty, more shoot-outs. A good film too though. Pacino really plays the insomniac well - I relate to his red tired eyes with my insomnia too.

This is the original Norwegian version, more arty, with the extreme mental effects on the detective front and forward - he is made a sometimes unpleasant character here who does morally questionable things, including with young women. The Hollywood film cut that out.

It is slower, which is fine, with lots of silences and a man touched by the wings of madness due to the 24 hour daylight in northern Norway stopping him sleeping. I found it effective, troubling and original.

Watch both films! 4 stars

This is so-so - a very by the book, by-numbers crime thriller, with unlikely plot, unrealistic almost-superhero Cage taking on the mob, cartoon characters galore.

BUT it is watchable. So long as you go along for the ride and do not expect art, it is fine as a cartoon character goodie versus baddie thriller - though I must admit I laughed at times at the absurdity of some scenes.

Watch SEXY BEAST or BREAKING BAD for real quality; watch this to pass the time.

Watch DREAM SCENARIO with Cage - he is great in that.

2.5 stars rounded up

OK so I made the mistake of watching this film stone cold sober by myself on a weekday evening - why I turned off after half an hour.

This German film is very much in the manner of John Waters movies which starred the late Divine - so very low budget, very brash, trashy, crude and gay, and bonkers.

Watch with a group of others, preferably when rather drunk, and it would be fun. Watch with HAIRSPRAY.

2 stars

This is a political intrigue thriller all about corruption, so do not expect any murders etc as it is not a crime drama that way.

I found it a tad dry and slow. But then, that is what this is. Not a murder mystery in the manner of those Scandi Danish dramas.

Just too many suits and meetings and office blocks for me to take! And one has to concentrate a lot, esp on names of characters, so ensure all is clear in the end.

Watch with the original HOUSE OF CARDS maybe or other political corruption dramas.

3 stars