Film Reviews by GI

This explicit drama about the American porn industry is less an exposé than a study of consent about which it asks complex questions. It's a tough watch and whilst the film steers a middle ground between condemnation and acceptance of the industry it ultimately leaves an unpleasant feeling. In her breakout role Sofia Kappel plays Linnea, a nineteen year old Swedish girl who travels to LA to make it big in porn films. Changing her name to Bella Cherry she dips her toe gingerly into the world but soon makes decisions to push her limits in order to make it to the top. The set pieces look at how the films are arranged with the female participants given failsafe codes and when there's a female director on one shoot Bella is apparently carefully nurtured to ensure she is ok even though the action is extreme sado/masochistic. In comparison Bella later takes part in a male directed film where she soon feels very uncomfortable and despite promises from the men around her she is verbally abused for wanting to stop. This has, in parts, a documentary style to it and as such it is an uncomfortable film to watch but the central performance is excellent and this is an assured first main feature for director, Ninja Thyberg. Interesting but difficult.

As prolific as Nicolas Cage is with the films he churns out you never know when one is going to surprise you. I don't mean surprise by Cage going even more deranged or manic in a character but the opposite. Here's just such a film, a restrained, interesting drama that sets an early tone for a revenge narrative, all very Cage, but then becomes something quite different. Here he plays Rob, a hermit who lives in the dense Oregonian forest above Portland, in a small shack from where he hunts truffles which he sells to a young businessman from town, Amir (Alex Wolff). Rob has a truffle pig to which he is very fond as it's his only companion. Until one day someone breaks in and steals his pig. With no hesitation Rob makes his way out of the wilderness and recruits a reluctant Amir to help him track it down. The course of this hunt is not what you expect as Rob's very interesting past is gradually revealed and a surprising one it is too. So don't expect another 'old man with a special set of skills' story as in violence is the trade. This is a more gentle, subtle and at times heart warming story with some interesting twists. Cage is rather good here showing a tender and seasoned characterisation that marks him for a sensitive and nuanced actor. There's a wonderful scene where he visits a posh restaurant in his pig search, a place where they specialise in 'deconstructed' local dishes and Rob effectively manages to 'deconstruct' the very pompous chef. It's all quite well presented and well worth checking out if just to see Cage as he can be.

Even though this is a conventional comedy it has a sweet nature and is very watchable. Admittedly it could've been a lot funnier with a better script but it has a heart warming feel and an enjoyable vibe. Set in Texas the story follows Willowdean (Danielle Macdonald), a plus size teenager, bullied and ridiculed at school for being overweight but who rises above it and spends her days with her best friend. She has a warm nature but despairs of her former beauty queen mum, Rosie (Jennifer Aniston), who still obsessively organises the local beauty pageant and calls her Dumplin' meant affectionately but doesn't realise that it promotes taunts from Willowdean's fellow students. In protest at the stereotyping of women's body shapes she signs up for the pageant, much to her mum's dismay, and finds other students who don't 'fit' the image also sign up. They of course transform the event. Putting aside the issues with beauty contests as a whole this has a strong message especially for young people about body image and it's all held together by the strong character and performance of Macdonald. The soundtrack is by Dolly Parton as her songs are an inspiration for Willowdean and there's a great set piece at a club where Dolly impersonators perform and help the girls with their style. A film that does what it says on the tin and all perfectly well so well worth checking out.

A fantastic heist movie from Taylor Sheridan who also wrote the brilliant Sicario (2015) and directed by David MacKenzie who brings the vastness of the Texas plains into the narrative of this elegiac crime thriller and modern western. There's something of the Coen Brothers about this film and it's easy to set it alongside No Country For Old Men (2007). Jeff Bridges, excellent as ever is the cynical cop chasing down Chris Pine and Ben Foster as the two bank robbers who you can see are doomed from the start. There's flashes of sudden and gritty action, some family drama and a mournfulness about the film that sets it as a cut above. Two brothers, Tanner (Foster) and Toby (Pine) begin a spree of clumsy robberies of small town banks, they only go for cash drawer money and soon to be retired cop Marcus (Bridges) believes they are raising a specific amount. Trying to guess which town they'll hit next Marcus and his partner take to the roads which climaxes in a dramatic confrontation. A fantastic, punchy thriller that is highly entertaining with a real sense of the classic American crime film.

A poignant drama set against the backdrop of a 1980s Britain nosediving into recession, unemployment and violent racism, the time of inner city race riots. Set in Margate in a seafront cinema called The Empire, which was once a grand four screen picture house with a ballroom but is now fading with only two screens left operating. The selfish manager Ellis (Colin Firth) oversees a small family of staff led by Hilary (Olivia Colman), the duty manager, who is conscientious and dedicated to her job along with the projectionist (Toby Jones) and a team of ticket sellers etc. But Hilary deals daily with her loneliness and depression that all times threatens to spill over into a breakdown. When a young black man, Stephen (Micheal Ward) joins the team his open honesty and kindly nature attracts Hilary and they begin a tentative relationship. But when that ends Hilary's mental state declines drastically. This is an ode to the magic of cinema but that is not the main theme here. This is a film about human connection and bittersweet relationships highlighting that everyone carries private demons that are often never revealed to even those closet to them. The film doesn't shy away from the violence erupted from blind racism either. Colman is nothing short of awesome here delivering a note perfect performance as the emotionally unpredictable Hilary, indeed when she does 'lose it' her set piece rant is a masterclass in great screen acting. A sweet, very heartfelt film from director Sam Mendes who also wrote the screenplay with a real feel for the times and humanity.

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!