Film Reviews by GI

Another fantastic drama from director Pedro Almodóvar and emotional tour de force that hints at comedy but delivers tragedy and ultimately happiness. With his trademark flamboyant colours and a moving performance from Penélope Cruz this is a wonderful film. She plays Janis, a professional photographer who after a brief relationship with married man Arturo (Israel Elejalde) falls pregnant. In the maternity hospital she shares a room with teenager, Ana (Milena Smit) and they bond. Ana is scared and fearful of motherhood as her pregnancy is unwanted, and later she reveals the circumstances behind it, whereas the more mature Janis is looking forward to this new phase of her life. Events bring them closer together and drive the narrative. Intermixed in this story of the two women are thematic links to Spain's continued pain from the Civil War as Janis is determined to find her great grandfather's remains after he was murdered by Francoists, indeed Arturo is the expert who is searching for the mass grave where it is believed he is buried. Almodóvar delivers a plot full of conviction even though it feels a little contrived at times. It has such an emotional punch backed by fantastic performances that the whole film works perfectly. This is a little marvel of a film and a must see.

An epic, historical drama that is now hailed a classic of American Cinema since being newly restored with director Michael Cimino's definitive cut. The film's infamous release history and its bankrupting of United Artists followed by a poorly structured edit gave the film a poor reputation and indeed in that version it's a mess. But when viewed in all its full length this is a stunning achievement and it's a really beautifully shot film. Loosely based on real events of a range war in 1890 it hosts a brilliant cast that includes a moody Kris Kristofferson, a gaunt Christopher Walken along with John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabella Huppert and Jeff Bridges and a young Mickey Rourke. It's a very self indulgent piece of film mostly because of the sheer spectacle yet the detail is unbelievably fantastic in every scene. Kristofferson is Jim Averill, a Wyoming lawman, with a community made up mostly of European immigrants. He's in love with a local prostitute (Huppert) who he discovers is on a 'death list' made up by a stockbrokers association who view the influx of immigrants as a threat to their use of the range. This is a long film that delves into the roots of modern America attacking corporate greed that puts itself above ordinary people and it attempts to emphasise that America is a diaspora of peoples, a mix that makes it unique and wonderful but sadly riddled with racism and bigotry. The film also highlights that America was formed from violence and the misuse of law to attain personal wealth a trademark. The prologue set in Harvard University twenty years before the main narrative is where Cimino shows that youth, hope, love and joy are the drivers for human relationships but these are lost when greed overcomes those passions in later life. Averill becomes more and more disillusioned with the state of things culminating in the epilogue where he finally succumbs to utter despair and sadness. There's a spectacular climactic battle as the homesteaders turn and fight to protect their families and land although there are no heroics here. A clever film, a superb narrative and richly filmed and a movie to savour time and time again.

A science fiction/horror film that is not for the faint hearted. It's graphic and bloody and does not shy away from the start at getting you gasping. This is clearly intentional to highlight the main narrative of being trapped in someone else's head. In the nearish future a secret corporation carries out assassinations by transferring the mind of their killer to a subject close to the victim. Tasya (Andrea Riseborough) is a top class assassin and is being groomed by her boss (Jennifer Jason Leigh) for bigger and better things but she's beginning to have a mental breakdown. When she is transferred into the mind of hapless Colin (Christopher Abbott) in order to kill his fiancée and her father she begins to lose control and finds it increasingly difficult to identify who she/he is at any one time. The story is certainly ingenious with possibly the influence of Total Recall (1990) at play and there's the body horror influence of director Brandon Cronenberg's father, David. At its heart the theme is about the use of technology to influence people's needs and thinking such as in marketing and in this story Colin works as a person who covertly monitors peoples laptop cameras to observe the decor of their homes and their desires, it's all about the coercive control of the modern consumer pushed to extremes. The film is sleek, strange, violent and engrossing, well worth checking out.

An interesting mood piece with a tour de force central performance by Ben Whishaw who really gets deep inside the role. He plays Joseph, a lonely airport security officer who suffers from insomnia and has unrequited feelings for work colleague, Lily (Jasmine Jobson). After a visit to his cold and overly critical parents Joseph begins to have a mental breakdown which culminates at work and sets him off on a surreal odyssey through the streets of London where his behaviour becomes more and more erratic. Whishaw gives Joseph a disturbing physical transformation of ticks and twitches, gurning and bizarre behaviour as he encounters strangers until he visits Lily to help her with a TV connection problem. Needing a new cable for her TV Joseph moves into a series of robberies when he finds he has no money. In a lot of ways this is a gripping psychodrama with violence forever expected to spill out but each time Joseph seems to move onwards on his journey to emotional breakdown. An interesting film which does feel as if it's been dragged out into feature length but it does have some very interesting ideas and visuals of a man on the edge of collapse.

For its time this is a very gritty Second World War combat film with none of the usual 'Boys Own' adventure storylines but a story of battle hardened soldiers facing insurmountable odds. It's clearly a star vehicle for Steve McQueen although his character of Reese is a deeply flawed and unlikeable one probably matching McQueen's renowned difficult personality. Set in France in 1944 is follows a battle weary American squad, hoping for a well earned leave, but sent back on the line where they are expected to hold a large section with only a few men. A new squad member, Reese, is a sullen, unfriendly soldier who is obviously highly experienced and ultimately leads the attack on a German pillbox. There's a great support cast of Harry Guardino, Fess Parker, James Coburn and the singer Bobby Darin although the addition of comedian Bob Newhart is a misfire. A good solid war film, B movie in structure but now a film from director Don Siegel that has attained cult status. Well worth seeking out if you've not seen it.

This is intriguing, baffling and confusing film where half the time you'll be wondering what the hell us going on. I certainly think that's director Jordan Peele's intention the end result of which will divide audiences. I'm left uncertain as to what I really feel about this film a hybrid of horror and science fiction with influences of Close Encounters of The Third Kind (1977), Alien (1979) and Jaws (1975) and the story telling style of John Carpenter. OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and his sister, Emerald (Keke Palmer) run a horse ranch specialising in training horses for the movie industry. When objects such as coins and keys begin mysteriously falling from the sky, one of which kills their father (Keith David), strange events begin including sightings of a cloud that never moves and glimpses of a UFO. This is definitely a film to watch with little advanced warning of the story so I'll refrain from elaborating further suffice to say that there are frustratingly unexplained scenes including the prologue which, to me, seems to be laying the ground for a theme about the nature of mans relationship with other creatures. I think Peele has made a film full of his self indulgences and it may become a firm cult favourite in time but it doesn't have the unique feel that Get Out (2017) had as it's just a little too quirky and unsatisfying.

This intertwining romantic drama is actually quite a compelling portrayal of modern day relationships and emphasises the digital age control over them. Set in the predominantly Chinese populated 13th district of Paris the story follows four people who have various romantic encounters with one another in search of love and fulfilment. Émilie (Lucie Zhang) is a young Chinese/French science graduate stuck in menial jobs and living in her grandmothers flat as she's now in a nearby care home suffering from Alzheimers. She accepts teacher, Camille (Makita Samba) as a flatmate and the two soon start a sexual relationship which Camille ends when Émilie gets too serious for him. Nora (Noémie Merlant) is a mature student studying law who is the victim of a sex shaming campaign by her fellow students who mistake her for an online sex chat woman named Amber Sweet. Leaving university as a consequence she goes to work for Camille who has recently begun managing a real estate agency to get extra cash. They begin a relationship which Nora finds increasingly unsatisfying. Nora contacts Amber Sweet for advice and they soon bond. There's a lot of tenderness to be found in this interplay of hook ups and sexual play with love, for the most part, remaining elusive. In this age of technology that allows people to interconnect remotely without ever having to actually meet this film shows how various aspects of the digital world help that to happen too. So there's a delve into the sex cam world, an exploration of the dating for sex app world and even a declaration of love over an intercom, which is very sweet. This is an ensemble piece and the cast are excellent, it's a film that looks at sex and love in a quite routine way and in that it works really well and deserved it's accolades. Worth checking out.

A big budget comedy caper film that 'steals' from most of the Indiana Jones films presumably intentionally as there's a direct homage if you are not bored enough to spot it by the time it shows up. Allegedly this was Netflix's biggest film to date and sadly it's a bit of a patchwork of clichés offering nothing that hasn't been seen before even from the two stars. Dwayne Johnson plays an FBI agent who globetrots around hunting for a notorious art thief played by Ryan Reynolds. The plot forces them to team up after another even more proficient thief (Gil Gadot) frames our FBI hero and he's now on a mission to catch her and clear his name. The 'macguffin' of the film is a sacred jewelled egg once owned by Cleopatra and coveted by the two thieves and a nasty gangster wants it too. It's all chases and stunts and wisecracking, mostly from Reynolds. There is the odd laugh to be had here but it's all so hackneyed and once the film moves into a full on 'Raiders' treasure hunt story it just gets silly. Reynolds needs to look beyond the same character he now seems to play all of the time and Johnson, with his bulk and obvious limitations, perhaps needs to relook at his career as these whimsical action comedies are being to test the patience now

A modern masterpiece and one of the defining American crime films of modern times. Director Michael Mann, a cinematic auteur if there has ever been one, has here made his greatest film and it bears all of his narrative and visual style, involves an intricate character study of two protagonists at opposite sides of the moral divide and is edited cleverly and uniquely opening up several small storylines that all seem to add to the mix of this fantastic film. Set in Los Angeles where a small yet highly professional criminal crew led by Neil (Robert De Niro) carry out a daring daylight armoured car heist. Their decision to use an untested and unreliable addition to their team who acts bloodthirstily during the robbery starts a chain of events that forms the basis of the film's plot. The robbery is investigated by the equally professional and dedicated police unit led by Vincent (Al Pacino). The two main characters of Neil and Vincent are the centre of Mann's story with Neil planning a big robbery and Vincent prowling around on the hunt for him and his team. The film has two famous scenes, the fast, realistic bank robbery that results in a street gun battle and a meeting in a coffee shop between Neil and Vincent who form a respect for each other. With Mann's typical but beautiful cityscape visuals especially at night and his eye for the close up juxtapositioned with sharp, quick violence makes this a compiling almost hypnotic film. There's also a great soundtrack that compliments the film perfectly. The support cast including Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Ashley Judd and others are all excellent. This is modern American cinema at its very, very best and you'll be hard pressed to find a better film.

Robert Wise' fantastic haunted house film based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (a real treat if you haven't read it). What sets this apart is that it's a film about atmosphere and character with no reliance on special effects or 'cattle-prod' style jump scares. The result is a very spooky and interesting film that centres on Eleanor, played wonderfully by Julie Harris, as a woman arguably suffering from delusion. The end result is the film opens up the opportunity for a variety of readings, all of which make it a classic of the ghost/haunted house sub-genre. If you are only familiar with the inferior 1999 remake or the recent TV series then I highly recommend you seek this little gem of a film out, it's worth the effort. Oh and watch it late at night it'll unsettle you too!

Certainly unconventional and very bewildering this mystical film will either enthralled you or leave you totally baffled. It pushes the slow burn narrative to the extreme so be prepared. It pushed to the limits my endurance for such films and ultimately I found it quite impenetrable but I'm a genre cinema lover and so this was always going to be a challenge. Tilda Swinton, an actor always worth watching, is Jessica a Scottish woman living in Columbia where she runs a flower business. She travels to Bogota to visit her ill sister and begins to hear sudden boom sounds that no one else appears to hear. Trying to discover the source of this sound sends her on a surreal journey that may or may not be a spiritual change in the world. I'm sort of guessing here and the surprising and quite extraordinary science fiction scene near the end will divide viewers I'm sure. This isn't s film I enjoyed, it's too deep and strange to be enjoyable especially combined with its snail pace. But some will revel in it I'm sure.

Tarantino's epic and visually spectacular western that mixes whodunnit mystery and revenge themes all into one and with Tarantino's brash influences from spaghetti westerns to Hong Kong action films all rolled into one. Like Django Unchained (2012) there is an element of self-indulgence here because here's a director who is allowed to do exactly what he wants without restraint. Both these two westerns needed a bit more sharp editing and could have done with losing 15 to 20 minutes off the running time and there are times when this one seems to drag on just a little bit to its detriment. However that aside The Hateful Eight is sheer enjoyment and improves with each viewing. The exterior winter scenes are wonderful and sometimes it's feels a shame that more of the film doesn't utilise the outside and the wonderful Wyoming vistas. The majority of the film is set inside a large cabin where the plot is formulated and unravelled. The harsh winter serving to concentrate the characters in the shelter where the twists and turns come to the fore. In short a group of travellers including a two ruthless bounty hunters (Kurt Russell and Samuel L. Jackson), one prisoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and a stranded lawman (Walter Coggins) reach the waystation of Minnie's Haberdashery as a blizzard sets in. They are forced to sit out the storm with a strange mix of characters already there until someone poisons the coffee and all hell breaks loose! Into the mix there some horror genre influences and great performances all round including from Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dean and Demián Bichir. It's full of QT's usual over-the-top comic book bloody violence and a great soundtrack from Ennis Morricone. In short it's a film that grows on you so if you weren't convinced the first time around give this another try.

A tough, brutal and in very gritty British social crime drama and thriller that has its roots in the vigilante sub-genre. On the surface the film follows the normal narrative structure of films of this type, e.g. ex military expert, inadequate justice system, animalistic criminals, but with Michael Caine, the very British urban housing estate setting and some fantastic characters this is a really sharp and interesting film. It has it's flaws not least that Emily Mortimer's police detective character is somewhat underused and incomplete, but this is balanced by Sean Harris' fantastic performance as a zombie-like drug dealing criminal and Liam Cunningham as the bored pub landlord with a secret. Caine is the titular Harry, a lonely, recently widowed pensioner who lives on a London council estate riven with gang crime. Harry avoids any confrontations until his only friend, Len (David Bradley) is murdered and he decides that the only avenue open to him is to take the law into his own hands as he finds the police to be ineffective. For the most part this is a sad indictment of modern Britain but it does dip into cliché in some of the characterisations such as Iain Glen's arrogant police commander and the riot scenes don't quite hit the mark and serve only to conveniently allow a plot point. But that aside this is a strong Michael Caine film and Harry Brown is clearly written for him. A very British take on the 'Death Wish' scenario and a film that really hits the spot.

A belated sequel to 2009s Avatar, which if you can recall was lauded for its immersive effects creating a planet, Pandora, and a story that was effectively the Pocahontas story or even Dances With Wolves in space. Admittedly on first viewing I was unimpressed although over the years I've found myself enjoying it on the TV as a reasonably entertaining science fiction drama. The difficulty with this sequel is that director James Cameron seems to believe his own hype thus producing a self indulgent rehash of the original movie with large doses of his other films chucked in and squashed together for good measure. The end result is a 3 hour + runtime that tests the boredom levels to almost breaking point. The main problem being that Cameron seems to think that we are so totally in love with the world he has created that we want to watch what's going on there for ever and ever. In short the story picks up from the first film with Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), now permanently a N'avi tribesman, having successfully led a war to rid the planet of humans, has raised a family but shock horror the humans come back, they've cloned his old nemesis Quaritch (Stephen Lang) who is determined to hunt Jake down. Jake and family decide to flee and join another tribe that lives by the sea and he and his children have to learn the 'way of water'. This is where the film becomes ponderous with teenage angst and in fighting, befriending of intelligent whale like creatures until eventually Quaritch shows up for the shooting to begin. All this 'learning new ways' bit is some similar to the first film it has no wow affect at all. In fact none of this is particularly exciting and the film feels and looks like a computer game rather than a film accepting that some of the set pieces are well executed. But Cameron can't seem to finish the film and some of the storylines are left unfinished probably to be concluded in the 50 sequels he's threatening! This is a lavish, over produced and at times lazy story that has come too late. The addition of the likes of Kate Winslet fail to offer anything memorable. A disappointment.

This remake of the 1947 film and an adaptation of a popular novel is a typical Guillermo del Toro surreal, noir and 'Grand Guignol' style thriller/melodrama. Fortunately here he avoids the flourishes of supernatural themes that occasionally make his films lose their way. Set in the late 1930s it follows Stan (Bradley Cooper), a drifter, who following a violent past that we see in haunting dream flashbacks and needing to disappear, stumbles into a travelling carnival where he is intrigued by the freak shows and attracted to the quiet Molly (Rooney Mara). Offered a job he takes up with a fortune teller (Toni Collette) and her aging husband (David Strathairn) who teaches him the tricks of mind reading. Years later Stan and Molly become a celebrated couple doing a mind reading and spiritual act in posh clubs and occasionally private sessions for the rich wanting to 'speak' to their departed loved ones. When Stan agrees a scam with femme fatale psychologist Lilith (Cate Blanchett) his world starts to unravel. The film has a visual intensity creating a sort of nightmarish world while at the same time being authentic for the 30s and 40s and the story arc is a really cleverly constructed one. It is a long film but it doesn't really feel like it is and watching Stan's decline and downfall is compelling. The great cast is rounded out with Richard Jenkins, Willem Dafoe, Ron Perlman and others. An enjoyable drama that Cooper carries very well.