Film Reviews by GI

Thematically this harks back to the westerns of the 40s and 50s and to the revised westerns directed by the likes of Clint Eastwood and Sam Peckinpah. There's no pretensions here this is simply a tale of frontier justice, right & wrong and with a lovely romance thrown in for good measure. It's arguably one of the finest westerns from the last 20 years and director Kevin Costner keeps the film rattling along and when it bursts into action it's gritty, brutal and exciting without falling in gratuitousness. Robert Duvall stars as Boss Spearman, a small time cattle owner moving his small herd across country with his crew of Charlie (Costner), Mose (Abraham Benrubi) and Button (Diego Luna). Their fortunes take a turn for the worst when when they come up against cattle baron Baxter (Michael Gambon) who runs the local town and covets Boss's cows. Outnumbered Boss is forced to fight for what is right and Charlie happens to have a gunfighting past. This is just a great, almost humble film that deliberately sets out to be a classic western and succeeds. Annette Bening co stars and Duvall and Costner are a perfect pair. If you've not seen this then it's well worth checking out.

A Christmas romcom that goes all out to pull your heartstrings and mostly succeeds even though the ending is entirely predictable. A much loved favourite that sits alongside Love Actually (2003) as one of those films that is always worth a watch on a cold winter evening in front of the fire around Christmas time. What I particularly like about this is the contrast set up in the story between the quintessential chocolate box cottage in the English countryside and the palatial, tech heavy mansion in sunny Los Angeles. The four key stars play this just right and the casting is spot on for this story. Kate Winslet (an English rose) plays Iris, a journalist who is lovesick over her former boyfriend (Rufus Sewell) getting engaged to someone else and Cameron Diaz is Amanda, a glamorous business woman who discovers her boyfriend (Edward Burns) has been unfaithful. In their despair at their respective love lives they decide to escape and find each other through a house swap website. So each sets off to spend time in the house of the other. This begins the clash of cultures theme built into the film. Amanda especially struggles with the simplicity of rustic life in England while Iris is overwhelmed by the opulence of LA. Into the rather obvious comedy of their situations comes the men in the form of Jude Law as Iris's brother who quickly falls for Amanda but has some baggage he doesn't know how to reveal and Jack Black as Miles, a colleague of Amanda's who meets Iris and they soon bond but he too has some emotional baggage to deal with. It's fairly obvious what these two couples will end up like but interestingly their respective stories are different from one another and the film neatly cuts between the two at just the right moments. Law and Black are excellent here too and Black especially holds back on his more manic screen persona. There's a touching side story involving Eli Wallach as an aging Hollywood screenwriter and a cameo from Dustin Hoffmann that if you blink you might miss but will make you smile. This is a gentle, heartwarming romcom that has no pretensions it just aims to make you feel good and it does just that.

This is a broody conspiracy thriller full of intrigue even though the setting borders on the laughable. The plot centres on the selection of a new Pope by the Cardinals who gather at the Vatican and are hidden away busily voting on and on until a new Pope is selected. This procedure is apparently a secretive and traditional almost ceremonial procedure so who would believe that out of it this story of jealousies, dark secrets and devious plots has been woven. It really sucks you in and the performances are first rate especially Ralph Fiennes as an English Cardinal who has been charged with running the process known as a 'conclave'. There are some early favourites including Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), a very right wing bigot and Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow, deliciously conniving) who harbours some troublesome secrets and Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), who claims to be reluctant candidate but is he? All this plays out in a rather well written and superbly directed film that keeps you hooked. A near, compelling drama that is well worth checking out.

A tender hearted social realistic drama set on an East London estate where 12 year old Georgie (an impressive Lola Campbell) lives alone after her mother has suddenly died. Georgie is fiercely independent and has managed (perhaps somewhat incredulously) to hide from the authorities that she is alone having conned them that an Uncle is looking after her. Emotionally she has created a small fantasy world in the spare room but she's thrown by the unexpected arrival of her errant father, Jason (Harris Dickinson) who she has never before met and who threatens to report her to Social Services unless she lets him stay in the house. The theme of the narrative here is the bittersweet relationship between father and daughter that is explored throughout the film. There is humour and some interesting surrealistic aspects melded into the drama making it very watchable. There's no doubt this arguably should have been a more complex take on the fate of such children as Georgie and the almost ineptitude and cartoonish authority figures shown weakens the film but overall it's fun, well acted and a pleasant surprise.

Recently restored to 4K UHD BluRay this is a rather mediocre Australian thriller that is very dated and was bizarrely retitled The Day After Halloween on its original release it having absolutely nothing to do with halloween nor even being set at that time of year! The film is marked as the debut of the now celebrated Aussie actor Sigrid Thornton, who plays Angela, a young down-on-her-luck hairdresser who is recruited by the glamorous Madeleine (Chantal Contouri) to be an advertising model. Her first gig is so successful she attracts the attention of various individuals and being naïve fails to grasp the exploitative behaviour of those around her. She also has to deal with a creepy ex boyfriend who keeps stalking her in his ice cream van. The film boasts a small twist at the end. But it's all fairly routine and anti-climactic with an overbearing soundtrack and possibly a theme around middle aged men's cravings for nubile and innocent young women! Who knows? It's a film quickly forgotten. The one bonus is Hugh Keays-Byrne as a fashion photographer.

A belated sequel to the ever popular Gladiator (2000) and one could argue it's almost a remake. Ridley Scott delivers a customary epically structured, visually spectacular and exciting sword and sandal action film with more bloody violence and some borderline ridiculous set pieces. There is definitely a need to resist stopping and thinking about aspects of this film and just go with it where it'll constantly entertain you and at times make you gasp with the shock of it. The storyline is roughly the same as the original but here we follow Lucius (Paul Mescal), who was the son of Connie Neilsen's Lucilla in the original and was apparently sent away after the events of first film and has grown up a happy chappy in Africa. That is until the Romans come along and invade, kill his wife, sell him into slavery where he becomes a gladiator under Macrinus (Denzel Washington). Once in Rome he becomes the star of the show all the time vowing vengeance on the General who killed his wife. But this General (Pedro Pascal) is the lover of Lucius' mother and happens not to be a total bad guy after all. Anyway this cues various plots and conspiracies to overthrow the weird and depraved twin emperors. Into this mix there's gladiatorial battles with rabid baboons that resemble the space monkeys in Ad Astra (2019), an enormous rhino and even a sea battle with sharks that is recreated in the arena! This last being one sequence it's best not to overly think about! Mescal handles the action adeptly although some of the heroic speeches lack the gravitas that Russell Crowe brought to Gladiator. Washington is marvellous and arguably the best thing about the film and it's his character that sort of drives the main plot. This is a high energy, colourful and typical Scott extravaganza. It's always tempting to compare to the original and this isn't near as interesting as that film but it's still a cinematic experience that's worth the price of a ticket to see on the biggest screen you can.

This Australian drama must be a little too subtle for me because I found it a disappointing affair and the enigmatic narrative far too underwhelming. It's set in an ignoble period of Australian history when the Government had a policy of taking indigenous children from their families and placing them in strict orphanages to be re-educated and have christianity forced upon them. Yet here we have such an orphanage run by Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett) who has hidden the death of the priest who ran the place and whilst enforcing christian ceremony and ideas on her charges runs the place in a benevolent way. Little of the impact of the trauma is evident here. The arrival of a young boy (Aswan Reid) and his strange manner affects Eileen especially as he appears to have some sort of strange power and he becomes obsessed with the statue of the crucified Christ much to her concern. Is he Christ reborn? Or is it all hallucinations? Who knows. The drama is far too light and easy and needed a more dark edge to grip what seems to be going on here. It's a difficult film to unravel but appeared to me to be a condemnation of organised religion over the native spiritualism that the boy possibly possesses. I found the ending anti-climactic and overall the film lacks the weight and force that the narrative needed.

This crime drama cum thriller is based on a true story and it's a fairly routine affair telling the story of US cop Tim Ballard and his mission to rescue kidnapped children who are sex trafficked. He works on a special anti paedophile unit that is highly successful at catching US based offenders but he realises that the actual victims are held in South American countries where he can't help them. Quitting his job he sets out with the help of some locals to find and rescue sex trafficked children in Columbia. This takes him into highly dangerous jungle areas. The narrative focuses on two children in particular who are kidnapped from Honduras and who Tim pledges to find and return to their distraught father. Jim Caviezel plays Ballard as a rather one dimensional character and the plot as such meanders along with very little real buzz although the obvious plight of the children leaves a horrifically bad taste. This is a film that rests on its message and fails to really grip as a thriller. It's ok but lacks the bite and harrowing intensity needed to make it work as a crime film and indeed to really sell its story. Bill Camp costars and is the best thing about the film playing a former cartel member who helps Ballard in his mission.

This is a highly enjoyable and watchable wartime drama made more so for its traditional styling as a British film that you'd see made in the 1950s. Director Steve McQueen delves into the culture of London in 1940 often with quite big broad strokes but manages a film that is rich and well structured. The narrative is centred around the story of George, a young schoolboy who is mixed race living with his mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) and his Grandad (Paul Weller) in Stepney. He's never known his father who was deported after an incident before George was born. Being of mixed race George faces the casual everyday racist slurs from other children but is much loved by his family. Rita, who works in a munitions factory, takes the heart wrenching decision to evacuate George away from the city as the German bombing increases. George is far from happy and decides to jump the train and make his way home. The film is essentially his journey where he encounters people good and downright bad in trying to get back. In these encounters McQueen has drawn in big slices of the cultural life of London involving class, black/white, criminal and the traditional held view of the working class Londoner sucking up the horrors of the blitz including the initial refusal of the authorities to allow shelter in the Underground stations. Ronan is as good as always although her character is a little one dimensional; Weller is calm and assured as the Grandad who loves his grandson. Especially interesting is Stephen Graham and Kathy Burke as nasty criminals who rob from the damaged properties and the dead themselves. The images of the burning city are fantastic and the story grabs you really well throughout. A thoughtful, traditional British wartime drama that is all the better for being exactly in that vein.

A film recently restored under the supervision of Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg and one with a troubled yet interesting history. Adapted from a celebrated novel originally by Sam Peckinpah it was due to be directed by Stanley Kubrick who then fell out with star Marlon Brando who then directed the film himself, his only directorial effort. The story is a loose retelling of the Billy The Kid tale and you can see Peckinpah's influence all over the film. Brando plays Rio, mostly referred to as 'Kid', he and his partner Dad Longworth (Karl Malden in the Pat Garrett type role)) rob a Mexican bank but Rio gets caught having been betrayed by Dad. After five years in jail Rio escapes and goes in search of Dad for his revenge. Rio finds he is now the sheriff of a small Californian coastal town, with a family and it's here that the majority the narrative plays out. This is an unusual western, made before the revisionist westerns came along, and because of this it's a film of real appeal and interest. Westerns usually bring a genre defining masculine honour to the stories, but not here. All the characters are without any honour or sense of belonging. They lie, cheat and torture and only in love does Rio find a way towards redemption although the film ends without us knowing if he'll stay the course he promises. Brando is superb and the film showcases his genius. Set mostly on the coast, an unusual setting for a western, he used the raging sea to contrast and illuminate the emotions of the characters. It really is a remarkable achievement for its time. This is definitely a film to get ahold of if you've never seen it, a flawed masterpiece and a film that gets you thinking.

This is a melancholy and at times painfully sad film with an incredible central performance from Cillian Murphy. Set in the early 1980s in Ireland where Murphy plays Bill, a coal merchant who has a moderately successful business. He's a quiet, introspective family man with a wife and several daughters who are all educated courtesy of the local church. Bill is haunted by some childhood memories which are built up through flashbacks and chiefly concern his mother. Bill is constantly moved by the visions of severe poverty he sees around him. Things come to a head one Christmas when he's delivering fuel to the town convent and inadvertently he witnesses the abuse inflicted on the young women who are forced to live there because they had a child out of wedlock. The tyrannical mother superior (Icily portrayed by Emily Watson) realises that he now has possession of a secret that could harm her and makes moves to ensure he stays silent but good hearted Bill makes a decision that could threaten his family. There's a Dickensian feel to this film that is thoroughly absorbing, so much so that when the film ends it takes you by surprise. This is a story of the infamous Magdalene Laundries scandal that was a well kept secret in Ireland for many decades where young women were subjected to a life of relative slavery all because they violated the strict rules of the Catholic Church. A slow burning, powerful film and highly recommended.

Exceptionally well done and really interesting rock documentary charting the life of an almost legendary figure in the history of rock music mainly due to his sacking from Pink Floyd and subsequent drop into obscurity. This is the story of Roger 'Syd' Barrett, arguably the genius behind Pink Floyd and its first creative mind. The story of his descent into an LSD fuelled mental breakdown is told here and unravelled in detail bringing in interviews with all the key players. Like all documentaries of this kind there is an element where being a fan helps but this is well worth checking out. It follows Sydney Barrett's life from his early days in Cambridge through to the heady days of Pink Floyd in London to his casual dismissal from the band and onto his rather sad and early death years later. Directed by Storm Thorgerson, a childhood friend and later collaborator as the founder of Hipgnosis who designed the band's album covers.

A stark, violent and rather unpleasant telling of the massacres of the indigenous Indians by a wealthy landowner in Chile in the early days of the Twentieth Century. This is brutal film that is mixed with some eerie yet beautiful images of the vast empty landscape and follows three mercenaries, a former British soldier (Mark Stanley), an American cowboy (Benjamin Westfall) and a quiet Chilean ranch hand (Camilo Arancibio) as they roam the vast lands searching for and murdering the local tribes people. There's a political drama element to the film as well as the story of the quite nasty men involved in the killing and raping. This is a story of corrupt power and evil men and ultimately a powerful film that is a difficult watch.

Tremendously influential it is a surprise that this was basically a box office failure and yet it has had volumes of study applied to it and it's style, vision and ideas continue to be seen in films today. Richly detailed and with a unique vision of a future world (although it's actually set in 2019) this is a film that continues to reveal more details and is open to ever more interesting critical analysis on each viewing. Having seen it many, many times I still find something new every time. Set in a dystopian mega sized Los Angeles with a heady mix of cultures, fashions and styles and where the Earth has become so polluted that the rich and healthy have fled to 'off-world colonies'. All animal life is more or less extinct but advances in genetic construction have allowed very expensive artificial animals to be designed and made including humanoid type ones called replicants, they have become so advanced they are virtually indistinguishable from humans. These are used as slave labour in the colonisation of other worlds and are illegal on Earth and any found are killed by special police units. When a group of replicants find their way to Earth Deckard (Harrison Ford) is assigned to hunt them down. The philosophical concept of 'I think therefore I am' is a key theme here as the film looks at what makes us human. Ford's character struggles with the role of executioner in a world where his boss, in a form of post-modern racism refers to the replicants as 'skin jobs'. As such it poses the question of who is morally stronger, humans or the artificial replicants. Scott creates a world here that takes a few viewings to really grasp it's complexities and the trespassing replicants are wonderful constructions exhibiting high intelligence and yet are emotionally child like. It really is a film of such intellect and creativity it's a modern day masterpiece and is unsurpassed in the science fiction genre. Rutger Hauer as the leader of the replicants is an iconic movie character and has the best lines ("All those moments will be lost...in time...like tears in rain"). There are various versions of this film out there from the initial Theatrical Cut, which has a narration voiceover (added later by the producers) and a tacked on ending, a so called International Cut (essentially a version released in Europe), a Director's Cut (which isn't really as Scott had nothing to do with it) and in 2007 came a Final Cut. This last is the one to watch, Scott was given the opportunity to tidy up some effects and to cut the film as he intended. It is this version that is the more fulfilling film and it helps to answer the vexing questions that the film asks and huge debates still linger around the stars of the Dockyard character. A key dream sequence links neatly with the final moments of the film to reveal a key plot point. A significant and important film, a masterpiece and a film to savour over and over. If by some slim chance you've not seen this then it's a must.

This is an intelligent, powerful and very funny drama and in my opinion Jack Nicholson's best performance. Set in a US mental hospital in the 1960s where the highly charismatic petty criminal Randal McMurphy arrives having agreed to be mentally assessed to avoid work in prison. He brings a change to the mundane lives of the various male patients and challenges the authority of the tyrannical Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher in a frighteningly cold and award winning performance). The comedy whilst dark is absolutely hilarious mainly through Nicholson's wonderful reactionary performance. But the comedy is tinged with the terrifying portrayal of the conditions which are used to shine a very bright light on society and it's treatment of difference. If you go by this film's message then everyone should be incarcerated!. There's a really disturbing scene of electro-shock treatment being applied and even after many viewings it's scary stuff. The film has uplifting moments but ultimately it's a sad tale and it's one of those films that even though you know how it ends you secretly wish that just this one time it maybe different; a bit like wishing Steve McQueen makes that jump in The Great Escape (1963). This is one of those films that everyone should make sure they see, it's simply a masterpiece of modern cinema and deserves the many accolades and awards it has received.