Film Reviews by PV

I enjoyed this, despite the groan-inducing punny title. I liked it was just 4 episodes long - some dramas like this add padding and flab to make it 6 or even 8 parts. 4 is enough.

This is a WHODUNNIT basically - all the suspects united by living in the same London Victorian house made into flats. A tad unrealistic in many ways, the entire plot actually, and I have never known flat-owners all give keys to someone in a flat, esp someone they all dislike,. But hey...

The biracial couple thing was just SO unrealistic - I cannot believe a middle class Asian would - unmarried - have a baby with a uneducated white Londoner who works in a shop flogging trainers. Just would not happen. So rare as to be non existent. Reminds me of so many unrealistic mixed race couples on TV adverts, just eyerollingly absurd. The archery plant as a tad absurd too.

I did like the lesbian couple, they dominated the screen when on. Some other characters less interesting BUT enough red herrings and the reveal not until the very end, with plenty of action. Just forget the lack of realism - like who paid the bills etc for the empty top flat, for 2 wholes years, council tax etc. And the way the retired cop keeps on with the case and finds out stuff is not plausible.

New star of BABY REINDEER appears here, Jessica Gunning.

I surprised myself by enjoying this so 4 stars.

I have never watched THE CROWN and do not want to either, as I know how it fabricates history (as in showing a young Prince Philip callous after being informed at school his sister was killed in a plane crash, just not true at all). I dislike soapy tosh.

I did, however, like this film. Written by STEVEN KNIGHT of Peaky Blinders fame; directed by the director of Jackie, another famous woman with issues; with a top notch cast esp Timothy Spall and the actor who plays the chef Darren, Sean Harris.

Some issues. This is set at Christmas 1991, pre the split with Charles, divorce and the Queen's Annus Horribilis. That means William should be 9 and Harry 7. They look more like 12 and 8 here, actors are too old, really.

I liked the freewheeling jazz score by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, and the fantasy scenes with Ann Boleyn too. Some may not. This COULD have been all Vivaldi and Purcell and Handel music, so the score was refreshing.

I note this is made by a German studio and I know from my experience teaching Germans years ago how they all think Diana was murdered by MI5 etc so that is hinted at here. Me, I think just a car accident caused by a drunk French speeding driver. BUT it solved a lot of problems for the royals and Diana did seemed doomed one way or another.

Probably Diana fans and loyalists hate this, because it shows a rather deranged and loopy spoilt upper class twit from a broken home who married into 'the firm' and would not conform which was her duty as a royal bride. Christmas 1991 I was unemployed in a slum bedsit just down the road from Kensington Palace - maybe Diana should have tried living like that for a while...

It shows her eating disorder, self-harm, mercurial erratic nature, rather 'spoilt little madam' at times, and understandably infuriating for all around her. She was hard work. Her own blood mother had mental issues too - spent her last years alone as a hermit on a Scottish island, praying.

I was surprised I liked this, but the freewheeling jazz score and fine acting, and fantasy bits won me over.

Annoyingly it does not say where it was filmed. I found out ALL locations were in Germany, German castles, though the beach is pure flat sandy Norfolk.

Locations include Schlosshotel Kronberg, Germany, Schloss Marquardt in Marquardt, north of the city of Potsdam, and Nordkirchen Castle.

Sometimes it is hard to understand what Diana is saying - she mumbles and eats her words as she did in real life. All breathy girly speech.

Beautiful but not very bright, like a pheasant, as this Diana says of herself.

4 stars

This is superb. The whole thing. Great Mervyn Johns also in CAVACANTI'S Went the Day Well (from a Graham Greene short story). Charles Crichton went on to direct A FISH CALLED WANDA many decades later.

I love Portmanteau films, TORTURE GARDEN my favourite, but Hammer made loads (incl one which nicks the mirror story from here) and there are some in 1950s of more gentle stories by Somerset Maugham.

I liked all the stories and am not going to criticise a film nearly 80 years old of being sexist and not pc. The funny golfing story is perfectly placed before the horrific end story with the ventriloquist, Basil Radford scar is from the trenches in WWI. These days, woke metoo movies would think the equal and opposite of this just fine of course, and the gender hypocrisy is stark. I have no time for it.

The final story is superb and the shooting is great throughout, German expressionist shadows abound.

The ventriloquist section is the most famous, strongest track at the end - that bite always sends a shiver down the spine!

Interestingly, a ventriloquist famous in early 60s, DENNIS SPICER, had a puppet called Jimmy Green rather like this one, and had a trick at the end - he was on US Ed Sullivan show 5 times then Royal Variety Performance 2 weeks before his death ina car crack age 31. Available on Youtube and other platforms. Watch until the very end to see what I mean.

Really believable. Brilliant acting and writing. TEB Clarke was script doctor, it seems, added material - he is always a class act writer for Ealing.

Elizabeth Welch the mixed race singer died age 99 in 2003, forgotten now but in loads of films, must have influence Shirley Bassey. She was born in USA, moved to Paris then lived and died in London where she moved before WWII. Stormy Weather he signature tune. Lovely to see her here.

MAGIC a 1970s movie with Tony Hopkins very influenced by the classic last section here, with the ventriloquist doll.

5 stars all day long.

This is a so-so film based on a novel by a woman with a screenplay by a woman and directed by a woman - so really is a #MeToo project and THAT is its weakness.

It constantly manblames, claims somehow the rich privileged character played by Glen Close (who I never like in films I dunno why). VERy professional victim, first world problems galore.

Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce does brilliantly - I have no idea why the Radio Times review disses him.

And I JUST DO NOT believe the central reveal of this pity party story. Yes, wives edit their writer husbands' work, ANY author bounces ideas and drafts off partners and family. Dan Brown did and Dick Francis & SO do female authors. But NOT THIS.

I laughed out loud at some old female author claiming women faced discrimination in publishing, WHAT ROT. It is white men who suffer massive discrimination these days. Publishing (and TV) are VERy female-dominated industries; 80% fiction readers are women (who have now taken over science fiction too which some of my male friends hate. I do not read SF so do not know or care). Thrillers only have more male readers. Men tend to read history & biography, no fiction, way more.

So the claim of misogyny and sexism against women authors is the OPPOSITE of the truth.

Anyway, I liked the odd Swedish scenes.

The ending was way too pat for me - I could see it came from a book, all planned out by the author.

2.5 stars rounded up

This Norwegian film is appealing but confusing - its uneven tone lets it down. The music is great and the 1989 setting believable - the film starts SO well, the first act is the best by far.

At times it is a fun film of youth set in 1989, rock n roll band included, a reminded me of a Children's Film Foundation film of 1970s, or Grange Hill or Tucker's Luck. Though actors look 18/19+ rather than 16/17.

Then it is also a love story, rather soapy romantic, borderline sexy (no full frontal nudity). Some soapy familial subplots grate, however.

But then the ending, act 3, (NO SPOILERS) needlessly takes a melodramatic turn and a plot and character development which was just not credible, no foreshadowing at all for events that unfold. A sham really.

So not bad but the uneven tone lets it down. It is a film which is trying to be three things at once so does not fully succeed in any. But an interesting watch.

3 stars

OK so in English and Norwegian with subtitles for the latter only, no subs option otherwise.

All a bit clunky really, bookended by scenes in early 70s in USA, seems very amateurish.

First time writer and director, maybe that shows.

A bit confusing esp with 2 characters short and fat with moustaches who look near identical.

All a bit derring do at the end (no spoilers) - rather comic strip.

Not bad but not great, 3 stars

This is a very silly 1964 spy romp from the man who directed the brilliant Zulu in the same year!

It is a caper, unbelievable, starts in the real world then jumps the shark with absurd plot points and character arcs - pure fantasy and very dated, even for its day.

Only for fans of the actors really. 2 stars

This is very authentic, filmed in the actual prison and the cell where the Resistance fighter Andre Devigny was imprisoned in and sentenced to death.

the way he escapes (not a spoiler) is truly inspirational,. as in Papillon or The Shawshank Redemption (a flop on release, but now a fave of many).

That makes this fascinating rather than entertaining fiction though. A solid prison drama based closely on fact.

It is like a real Mission Impossible!

3 stars

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.