Film Reviews by GI

Director Gaspar Noé, usually a filmmaker who pushes boundaries, has here made a restrained film about dementia although there is something pitiless in his depiction of an old couple struggling to cope. Coé uses a split screen technique throughout the film to highlight the separation that the two protagonists experience as the wife (Françoise Lebrun) becomes more affected by her growing dementia. The struggles her husband (Dario Argento) has in coping as she wanders off or leaves the gas on and at one point destroys his notes for a book on which he is working highlight the frustration that close loved ones often face. There's a grimness to the presentation of the overly cluttered apartment that the two seem to aimlessly drift through in their day to day existence and Noé creates, at times, some striking imagery especially in the juxtaposition of the two screen images. Similarities with Amour (2012) and The Father (2020) are inevitable and, for me at least, those are better films that deal with the issue of dementia as this film seems at times to be unsympathetic or almost cruel in the way it is treated. This was exemplified in the depiction of the couple's inept drug addict son (Alex Lutz). But the film is not without its merits and although I found it a little too long it's worth checking out.

Every so often it's good to sit down and watch a good, solid thriller. This is thoroughly entertaining with an interesting and warm performance from Clint Eastwood who subverts his tough guy persona with jokes about his age and a heartfelt speech about a huge regret involving the JFK assassination. He's a Secret Service agent who works undercover in the the world of counterfeit currency and becomes involved in a threat to kill the President. The killer is beautifully played by John Malkovich who turns on his psychopath act to great effect here. There's humour, suspense, plenty of restrained action and it's a good story. Worth a rewatch if you haven't seen this in awhile and one to check out if it's passed you by before now.

Based on the BBC TV series The Thick of It this is an absolutely hilarious political satire and no doubt very close to reality. Tom Hollander, a wonderfully versatile actor and a brilliant comedy one, plays Simon Foster, a hapless British Minister of State, who being incompetent at press interviews inadvertently offers a view on a brewing International conflict which brings the wrath of the Government Communications head Malcolm Tucker down upon him. Tucker is the bullying and very abusive creation of Peter Capaldi and he's really funny even while you are cringing at the highly imaginative insults he delivers to all who get in his way. Even if you are unfamiliar with the TV series on which it's based this film stands alone and it will have you in hysterics. It's all very adult humour and has aspects that resonate with today's political problems. Fantastic support cast includes Gina McKee and James Gandolfini. This is one of the finest modern comedies of recent years and if you loved director Armando Iannucci's The Death of Stalin (2007) then check this out too.

This is one of the most celebrated of Britain's wartime propaganda films written and part directed by Noël Coward (he sort of gave up during the film finding directing too hard and handed the reins to his co-director, David Lean). It's a story of the HMS Torrin and it's crew, who include John Mills, Bernard Miles and a young Richard Attenborough, whose stories are told in a series of flashbacks. What's fascinating about this film is that it's a war film, with some really good naval combat scenes but also a story of family, love and it provides a nostalgic vision of Britain in the war years including the striking class differences. It's a real classic of British cinema and one of the great war films and deserves a modern audience.

An enjoyable science fiction romp that mixes a space crash landing scenario and survivalist narrative throwing in dinosaurs for the tension and adventure. Yes it's essentially Jurassic park in space but it's all done with a nice panache and Adam Driver as the tough astronaut gives it his all. He plays Mills, the captain of a spacecraft on a two year mission having left behind his seriously ill daughter on their home planet. The passengers are all in cryosleep when the ship strays into an uncharted asteroid field and crashes on an uncharted planet of primeval forests and very dangerous wildlife. We, the viewer, are informed this is actually Earth but 65 million years ago. From there we have a simple survival narrative with the usual jump scares and the dinosaurs are all well presented. Mills does find one survivor, a young girl (Ariana Greenblatt) to give him someone to protect. Overall the film at times feels all a bit rushed and it's all totally predictable stuff. There has been reported some release issues for a few years and I have little doubt that the film was expected to be more epic than it actually is. This is a shame because with some thought and a more focused and perhaps slower narrative this could have been really very good. As it is it's a well presented B movie that has some neat set pieces yet leaves you feeling just a little bit disappointed.

One of the landmarks of American cinema. A mystery thriller with a central theme of racial prejudice set in the Deep South USA in the early 60s. If you are a film fan and have never seen this then it needs to be on your list. The narrative is a fairly basic murder story with the finding of a body in the street in a small Mississippi town. When the police find a smartly dressed black man with money in his pocket waiting at the local train station they are convinced they have their man. But when this turns out to be a Philadelphia homicide detective they find they need his help to solve the crime. Indeed his help is crucial to the future of the town itself. The film caused quite a controversy on its initial release with a scene of a black man striking a white man. But Sidney Poitier insisted the scene was included and as Virgil Tibbs Poitier gave the film world one of the iconic black characters in cinema history. Aided by Rod Steiger as the bigoted town sheriff this is a superb film which holds up very well today. A true classic and based on a great novel, which is well worth checking out too. A film to have in your collection. It's simply marvellous.

A very very black comedy full of Hieronymus Bosch symbolism this is a brilliantly original film from director Martin McDonagh. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are the two Irish hitmen who are sent to Bruges after botching a job in the most horrendous way. Their charisma together sets the narrative as a bizarre buddy movie with them having completely different reactions to being in the city. However it's Ralph Fiennes as their criminal boss, Harry who is the character you will remember long after the film is over. He's funny, evil, psychopathic and principled all in one very original performance. A great script, very violent and with disturbing scenes that are mixed into a very funny adult comedy. Absolutely superb.

One of the great British war films not only of the 1950s but arguably ever made. Less a combat film and more a survival adventure film set in 1942 with John Mills as the PTSD suffering Captain Anson who along with Harry Andrews as a Sergeant Major, Sylvia Syms as a military nurse are left behind enemy lines and forced to try to make it to safety in a ramshackle ambulance across the North African desert . On the way they pick up a South African officer played by Anthony Quayle. The film is full of intrigue and tension and captures the harshness of the desert (the real enemy as Quayle's character calls it) and the struggles of the characters in crossing it. The war setting simply adds to the sense of ever present danger and risk of failure. This is one of many great performances from Mills arguably his best here and a true British classic film that every film fan should see, and see again. The final bar scene is now iconic. This is one of those films that makes you stay in love with cinema.

The great British counterculture and anti establishment film from director Lindsay Anderson. It remains today an enigmatic, often surreal critique of the British private education system that is mired in privilege from wealth rather than academic ability. There's been much discussion over the years around scenes from this film which for the most part remain mysterious and invite all sorts of textual analysis much of it contradictory. The story focuses on a prestigious all boys boarding school in England where the pupils are all from aristocracy or wealthy families and where the school actively promotes archaic traditions and rituals that result in sadistic punishment if abused. As a new term starts three older boys led by Travis (Malcolm McDowell) begin to challenge the ridiculousness of the system which is overseen by prefects who have the power to punish dissent including vicious canings. Eventually Travis and his band decide to act violently and begin a massacre of staff, parents and other pupils. This has become a cult film with many plaudits and stylistically it opens up lots to discuss including the various changes from colour to black & white and some Pythonesque scenes which will baffle, amuse and may even frustrate. This is a satire that challenges the viewer, a film that defies a description. It certainly caused a furore on release with its nudity and attack on a system much loved in the UK. It's certainly a film to check out if you've never seen it and one to watch a few times to absorb it's unusual narrative, style and structure.

This wartime thriller based on the life and role of Alan Turing is a melancholy yet engrossing and poignant film with a brilliant central performance by Benedict Cumberbatch who gives Turing the level of complexity the film needed. Based on true events the narrative of course takes liberties but does so in the interests of the cinematic and sets up a rollicking good film. Apart from the obvious war drama there's a real human story here too and the narrative weaves the issues of social and establishment upheaval in the role of women, the fact that women can be intelligent, the unrecognised autism condition and attitudes to 'difference' including the criminalising of homosexuality and all without overpowering the main story. Keira Knightley lends her character a sense of warmth and the great Charles Dance and Mark Strong give top support as the bosses. A film about code-breaking, difference and intolerance. It's remarkably good and one that deserves a few viewings to get the full benefits. Absolutely marvellous.

An absorbing romantic drama with a stunning central performance and arguably a very adept, modern take on relationships. Renate Reinsve plays Julia, a gifted, highly intelligent young woman living in Oslo. We join her training to be a doctor but she soon gives this up and in a very short space of time we get to understand that Julia is struggling to find her role and place in life as she flits from one plan to another. Told in 12 chapters with a prologue and epilogue this follows Julia's life through her two main relationships, one with a slight older man and later one her own age. She leaves the first for the second and is continually struggling with her life goals including the thorny issue of whether to have children. I can't exactly point to which character the title refers to as Julia is not by nature a bad person indeed her emotions are pure and often control her actions, but it could be read that the title refers to how she sees herself. The film has some great ideas and two enthralling set pieces one where time stands still as she runs through the city to meet her new lover and the second when she takes a hallucinogenic drug and during the 'trip' confronts her dysfunctional and selfish father. This film has been described by its director, Joachim Trier, as a romcom for those that hate romcoms. There is humour here but it's not a film easily categorised as a romcom and is much more a tragic relationship drama that opens up debate around modern ambition, love and life. An interesting and lovely film well worth checking out.

This is a really wasted opportunity, a drama that makes such little sense and tries to be clever that it fails totally. Such a pity too as Daisy Edgar-Jones is such a talent and deserved better. She is the best thing about the film and she is perfect as the doe-eyed loner who becomes a murder suspect. Unfortunately the narrative opens much and explores little with a final twist that is utterly ridiculous and destroys everything that was any good and came before it. This is the story of Kya (JoJo Regina as the child Kya and Edgar-Jones as the adult) who is deserted by her mother and siblings leaving her with a violent and abusive father (Garret Dillahunt) in their small shack in the North Carolina marshlands. Here we have the first glaring flaw in the tale, why would this small child be left in this situation? Anyway eventually Kya ends up alone but survives by collecting mussels and selling them to a local friendly shopkeeping couple. As an adult she is illiterate but a talented wildlife artist, shunned by the suspicious locals who call her Marsh Girl but also being beautiful, shy and sexy she attracts the attention of two boys, one a decent soon-off-to-college lad and the other the stereotypical sports jock who eventually turns out to be a cad. He's found dead in the marsh and Kya is No.1 suspect. This cues a boring courtroom drama section with David Strathairn as a kindly, old lawyer defending her. The evidence against her is so weak that the trial has no drama and the venom from some of the witnesses is inexplicable. And here we have another key issue in that the animosity towards this girl is just not fitting her depiction. Kya is portrayed as a shy, polite, above all clean young woman who causes no problems to anyone so the suspicion in which she is held and drives the push to call her a murderer is not explored properly. The film looks great and the central performance is good but everything is so predictable and clichéd and as I say the finale does not fit in anyway the film's direction. A failure and one that could have been excellent.

Apparently inspired by a real medieval warrior and set in Central Europe in the 15th century this is a Game Of Thrones and/or The Vikings influenced sword and blood film with the usual bone crunching fights and plenty of gory wounds and corpses to satisfy a fan of this stuff. The scenery is all grimy, mud caked forests and castles and there's plenty of confusing intrigue. Indeed the story becomes all a bit muddled but that is really irrelevant after a certain point because it becomes just a basic revenge narrative. In fact the story is essentially a Robin Hood one with all the stock characters in place but lacking the sense of romance and adventure. Ben Foster stars as Jan, a warlord for hire who becomes involved in the kidnap of a princess and fiancée to the bad guy, although there are at least two other bad guys. There's hangings, impalings, limb chop offs etc etc none of which is that exciting or new and even the presence of Michael Caine fails to life the film beyond a standard slash 'em and kill 'em film. They've stuck a bit of female nudity in there and all the men has a big bushy beard for good measure. It's ok but once seen you'll not want to watch it ever again.

A classic British comedy and one of the finest social satires that focuses on post-war industrial relations, class politics, family dynamics and casual racism. With the lovely, endearing Ian Carmichael as the hapless and naïve aristocrat who has to get a job as a normal factory worker and who inadvertently sparks off a General Strike. Peter Sellers won a BAFTA for his definitive take on the Union Shop Steward Mr Kite, and a great supporting cast of Terry-Thomas, Dennis Price, Richard Attenborough and a host of British actors who will be familiar to all fans of 50s British comedy especially the Carry On series. This is a really funny film and one that deserves a modern audience. All film lovers should make sure they see this at least once.

Whilst this British adult romcom is occasionally a little clichéd and there's at least one over-the-top scene that could have been removed this is a very, very funny British comedy of manners. I laughed out loud more or less throughout even when I saw the joke coming and when cringing was necessary. The trajectory of the narrative is way too predictable but this doesn't lessen the sheer fun of the whole thing. Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne are the couple who, after a whirlwind romance, get married much to the surprise of friends and family who don't think the marriage will last and after nine months the cracks are beginning to show! What follows is all a little predictable but with a great cast including Simon Baker, Anna Faris, Stephen Merchant as the best friend (an obnoxious spin on the dopey aristocrat played by James Fleet in 1994's Four Weddings & A Funeral), Minnie Driver (hilariously brilliant), Jason Flemyng and Olivia Colman (so funny here) this just works. If you want a good laugh then this will do the trick.