Film Reviews by TE

'Riders of Justice' is a bit of a mixed bag: there is an appealing originality in the gang of nerds who gather around Mads Mikkelsen's angry, revenge-driven commando (Markus) but there is also a dull predictability about the violence (a series of set pieces in which we are expected to believe that Mikkelsen's misfits kill over 30 members of a biker gang).

Everything to do with the computer nerds is funny and lively, but everything to do with Markus is heavy and wooden. It's the sort of role that Liam Neeson specialises in. Mikkelsen is really good in many roles but here he just looks as if he wants the whole thing to be wrapped up before anyone notices that he's in it.

Somewhere in between the geeks and the Rambo-figure are Markus's daughter and her boyfriend, and a young Ukrainian male sex worker.

Nobody does weird quite like the Scandi movie makers and there is plenty of scope for productive weirdness here. I just wish that they had backed themselves to mine that seam instead of loading up the gun play.

This is an important blu-ray release of an arthouse classic. The director, Miklos Jancso, is partly famous for his use of long, unbroken tracking shots, a technique that is currently very much in fashion (aided by today's superior equipment).

The film is set in 1919 at the time of the suppression of a revolution in Hungary. A fundamentalist Christian priest organises violence against the progressive movement. In the end both extremes are presented as equally repressive of the local peasantry. Everything is filmed in the open countryside, but it still has too much of a theatrical feel to it.

The main interest for most contemporary viewers lies in the many striking images. It is one of those 1960s-70s European films where single frames can be isolated as stand-alone artworks in their own right.

This is a fine entry in the field of low budget American indie films of the late 1980s and early 1990s, a vintage period. The story is flaky and ramshackle but the enjoyment is in the characters and in the comic details.

Steve Buscemi is one of those actors who is always great value, and it is good to see him hitting his stride at this early stage in his career. The disc extras include an interesting interview with him. His sheer love of the medium of film comes across well and it's easy to see how this powers his performances.

The other star turn is the great Seymour Cassel, veteran of many John Cassavetes movies, along with many other credits. Here he just seems to be having a ball, an infectious performance that lights up the whole film.

Jennifer Beals (then partner of the director, Alexandre Rockwell) also gives an assured, relaxed performance as Buscemi's beautiful muse.

The black-and-white cinematography is a delight, with stark contrasts and a pleasingly grainy feel.

This is just the sort of European film that might well be taken up by Hollywood and re-made in an inferior version with a big name star (maybe that has already happened). It would be hard to better the intensity and the crisp, spare writing that makes 'The Guilty' such a riveting watch.

The lead character, Asger, is on screen throughout and the story unfolds within the claustrophobic confines of an impersonal police emergency call unit. Jakob Cedergren is excellent as the committed cop with a disciplinary sword hanging over his head.

A word of praise too for the voice actors on the other end of Asger's line, they help ensure the credibility of a nicely twisty plot.

'Zola' is such a slick, glossily crafted film that it almost makes you forget that you are watching a tale about the violent degradation of women. Zola herself refuses to allow her own body to be used for paid sex, but she does pimp out her friend. Money rules everything and everyone in Zola's world.

However, if you can live with the subject matter, the film has a wonderfully compelling energy. The soundtrack is excellent, and the dialogue is a comical treasure trove of black American speech, a poetic verbal rhythm that is made all the more obvious by the way that Stefani, the young white woman joint lead, uses nothing but African-American twang and slang.

The cinematography is often stunning as well, with clever, pacey edits and bright, beautifully balanced frames.

The screenplay is apparently based on a viral Twitter feed and state-of-the-art phones play an appropriately big part in the narrative. Potentially serious scenes are played for laughs. It's a strategy that succeeds in make 'Zola' a fun, very watchable movie, but one that has an after taste of disquiet.

'The Flood' contains a good story, and there is plenty of justified anger at the treatment of aboriginal Australians by the relentlessly violent white colonisers.

It's just a shame that the story is broken up by repetitive sequences, unnecessary flashbacks and bizarre fantasy scenes. This self-indulgent padding makes the film too long and in dire need of some careful editing.

The nature of the violence, and the high body count, is reminiscent of a spaghetti western. However, it is clear that the film has loftier aims, only some of which are achieved. The emphasis is on pure cathartic revenge and the nods to redemption at the end are unconvincing token gestures.

Viewers should be warned that there is one particular gang-rape scene that is very disturbing.

I watched this after enjoying Quentin Dupieux's recent 'Deerskin Jacket'. Sadly, 'Rubber' is not in the same league, but there is plenty of Dupieux's trademark playfulness and surrealism on display.

He appears to be making some comment on the Hollywood film machine, but it's all too incoherent and whimsical for any real message to get across.

This is a film that could have been much better as a short, maybe 15 minutes long maximum. The central idea (a vengeful, sociopathic rubber car tyre) is fine for a comedy sketch but not for a whole movie.

At least the California desert landscapes are good.

I like Sparks and I enjoyed this documentary, but it is too long and it comes across as two films sandwiched together.

The first half is brilliant, full of wit and creativity in the presentation and the editing. The second half is more of a conventional music documentary, with more talking heads and less inventiveness.

As noted in MM's review, it is completely uncritical and uninterested in probing beyond the image and the content that the Mael brothers wish to include. It feels as if they have made the film themselves.

All this is easier to accept because of the sheer joy of much of the music and the snatches of stage and tv performances. Ron and Russ come across as likeable and mischievously knowing. Some of the self-parody is laced with ironic truths, particularly their joke that Sparks have only two tunes, a fast one and a slow one. But they are both great tunes!

The medium of film does not get any better than this. 'Moolaade' is a triumphant cocktail of passion, righteous anger and progressive social commitment.

The director, Ousmane Sembene, deserves all the recognition he has garnered. 'Moolaade' is typical of his films: a great story with political significance is told with a mind-boggling flair for visual poetry, and with moments of humour as well.

Sembene takes on the controversial issue of female genital mutilation, as still practised in the more rural and superstitious areas of many Islamic nations, in this case, Burkina Faso. The powerful male elite within the community try to suppress modern ideas, symbolised by radios and televisions, and the bravery shown by the central female character, Colle, is deeply moving.

The disc extras are also well worth watching for an understanding of what an important figure Sembene is within the history of cinema.

This subtle, stealthily paced film reveals the core issues at the heart of the clash between indigenous peoples and the ruthless capitalism of aggressive corporations. On the one hand, the wildness of the jungle is never far from the industrialised world, and on the other hand, the soulless demands of the city are never far from aboriginal consciousness.

Brazil is at the forefront of this conflict and this film is quietly relevant.

This tension is embodied in the stoic, passive character of Justino, and in the presence of a predatory wild animal on the fringes of the community. Justino's daughter has a foot in both camps and it is her move to university that triggers the final enigmatic scenes.

Maya Da-Rin's direction is very impressive, a great deal is conveyed in satisfyingly minimalist ways.

An oddball 1954 Hollywood entry into the "moral maze" genre. The battle between nasty lawman (Stephen McNally) and nice criminal (Rory Calhoun) is refereed by a naive innocent (Jean Simmons). This set-up prepares the way for the late arrival of Simmons' father, who happens to be a philosophy professor. His ponderous wisdom provides an escape route from the moral questions about violence, guilt and trust.

The farm dog is not given a credit, but it is a dead ringer for Lassie. Anyway, it steals the show.

In an extra bizarre touch, the blu-ray disc includes a short film by the Three Stooges, which has educational value if you are studying sea changes in what makes audiences laugh over the years.

In 'One Man Up' there is little to suggest that Sorrentino would go on to make films of the calibre of 'The Consequences of Love' and 'The Great Beauty', amongst a string of top class movies.

The best thing about 'One Man Up' is the acting of Toni Servillo, Sorrentino's preferred lead actor in most of his films. Here we see Servillo (sporting a full head of hair for once) perfecting the world-weary, cynical, knowing character that he now specialises in.

However, the parallel lines of the story are weak and predictable. It is almost as if Sorrentino is presenting a series of tragi-comic sketches, without putting in the groundwork to make us care about the fates of the two faded celebrities.

I agree with previous reviewer, JD, that this is a fine and very relevant drama for two thirds of the film. In the final third, the previously very realistic narrative spirals off into an unlikely and unsatisfactory romantic fantasy.

The scenes in the care home, and the commentary on the despicable way that care homes were ignored during the first wave of Covid, are all excellent and very much to the point.

The acting is superb. Stephen Graham can do no wrong. His face alone speaks volumes even before he speaks his lines! Jodie Comer is also very good, playing the kind of part that must have been outside her comfort zone.

One point to correct in JD's review: the final credits refer to the average wage of care home workers as £8.50 per hour, not £11.50.

'Help' would have been so much better if the makers had stuck to the social commentary and not tried to manufacture a quirky love story.

Improbable but enjoyable, 'Breakdown' is one of those American films that expresses the fear and suspicion that middle class urbanites feel about rural working class communities (sometimes with justification!).

The emphasis is on action, threat and car chases. The stunt men must have deserved every dollar of their wages. Any acting chops from the likes of the great J.T. Walsh and the ever-reliable Kurt Russell are buried under a a mound of burned rubber and desert dust.

But it's a competent thriller, and the final scene is like the 'Italian Job' on steroids.

This is a problematic film version of Penelope Mortimer's best selling novel. The blu-ray transfer gives an excellent rendering of the black-and-white cinematography and it is worth watching the interview with Mortimer's son in the disc Extras.

Cinema has often struggled to produce successful versions of novels that cover long periods of time in the life of a family. Here the director, Jack Clayton, chose to assemble a collage of scenes from the marriage at the heart of the story. This impressionistic approach makes it too bitty and prevents any real sense of flow to the narrative.

In particular, the final suggestion of a happy ending (I'm not sure where the reviewer TB is coming from on this) is totally opposite to the wishes of the book's author. Mortimer was apparently barred from the set and the script writing was given to Harold Pinter. There are some fine trademark Pinter moments, but it was an odd decision to leave the writing to a male playwright when the story is very much about the inner life experience of a troubled woman.

The acting is excellent throughout (Anne Bancroft and Peter Finch are supported by a fine cast of Brit stalwarts) but that alone does not save the film from being a missed opportunity.