Film Reviews by GI

This is part biopic about the famous Victorian palaeontologist Mary Anning and part period drama that adds a fictional romance between Mary and her friend Charlotte. The pairing of Kate Winslet as Mary and Saorise Ronan as Charlotte undeniably makes this a film well worth seeing. They are both superb here and bring a passion to this story written by director Francis Lee, who admits his poetic licence in making these two friends into lovers. Mary Anning is a renowned scientist who discovered many famous fossils but was spurned by the male dominated scientific community from which she was largely excluded. The film begins where Mary, her biggest discoveries behind her, lives with her placid mother (Gemma Jones) and runs a small shop in Lyme Regis selling small fossils and seashells. They live hand to mouth and so are unable to turn down the offer of payment from a fellow scientist to look after his depressed wife Charlotte. Curmudgeonly Mary shows Charlotte her passion in finding fossils on the windswept beach and gradually a passionate love affair blossoms between them. As a story of Victorian sexual attitudes this excels as it does as a love story about two women trapped within male dominated worlds. You could argue that the fossil discoveries depicted represent the finding of their passion as the two women excite over their shared passion of searching the beach and uncovering the past. Fiona Shaw supports here as a former friend/lover of Mary in an especially warm role that contrasts Mary's withdrawn emotions. This is a really delightful story, well told and well performed. Recommended.

The combat film par excellence. Based on real events that took place in Mogadishu in October 1993 when US forces attempted to snatch two lieutenants of a warlord and were nearly overrun by the local militia resulting in the loss of nineteen soldiers, two helicopters and many wounded. They also killed over a 1000 somalis. Director Ridley Scott brings his usual visual detail and fast paced, adrenaline driven editing in what is essentially one long battle narrative. The film captures the confusion of modern combat and at times it's an effort to keep track of who is who as various groups of soldiers are dispersed and move through the city. There's no real character studies here, no romance, no attempt at political ideology or the rights and wrongs of the incident, this is a film that attempts to show the visceral, brutal effects of war and in that it succeeds very well indeed. There is attempts to highlight that many of those taking part are barely adults and it has sadness as friends are lost. It's quite an experience to watch this and a real cinematic achievement, epic in structure and design and wonderfully directed even though at times it's quite gruesome. It has a significant cast that includes Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Sam Shepard, Ewan Bremner, Jason Isaacs, Orlando Bloom and it's the first film of Tom Hardy. An exhilarating experience to watch and a film to seek out if you've never seen it.

A noir styled suspense thriller that has a rather nifty plot and does keep you hooked. Just as you think it might all be a bit clichéd the film surprises you. The story centres around a large cache of missing drug money coveted by the gangsters who consider it theirs, a beautiful girl and some corrupt cops. One of these Cristi (Vlad Ivanov) works for the gangsters but is suspected by his boss Magda (Rodica Lazar) who has him under surveillance. She also has plans to steal the money for herself but the key to finding it is one of the gang who is in jail. Cristi is recruited by Gilda (Catrinel Marlon) to plan a jailbreak and the gang use a whistling language to communicate and throw off the police. But Gilda has her own plans. It's all a story of corruption, disloyalty, greed and lust. Gilda is not named as such for nothing!! There's some good set pieces and at least one very shocking act of violence. This is actually an entertaining film that keeps you watching so it's well worth checking out.

This bittersweet comedy drama is a rather eye opening film that looks at modern female life in a wry, tender and intelligent way. It follows Bridget (Kelly O'Sullivan - who also wrote the screenplay), a 34 year old single woman who feels she's a bit of a failure. An unwanted pregnancy after a casual fling comes at the same time she finds a new job as nanny to six year old Frances (Ramona Edith Williams), the daughter of gay couple Maya (Charin Alvarez) and Annie (Lily Mojekwu). Bridget has an avowed phobia of children and initially finds the job taxing as she also decides to have an abortion. But Frances begins to have a liberating affect on Bridget and the way she sees life and her future. The film takes the issue of women's rights of control over their own bodies very seriously and the narrative looks at the everyday issues of menstruation, sex, relationship, breast feeding and post natal depression, and these are dealt with in a witty script that is taboo busting and intimate. It shows the absurdities of life for modern women and how navigating societies intolerance can be a tough call. A really quite warm and exhilarating film that manages to bring women's lives to the fore.

The great thing about the James Bond films is that it doesn't matter how far fetched, even absurd, they are it still feels like they're taking place in the real world. This, Daniel Craig's fifth and reportedly last, outing is an action packed, funny, full of complicated plot mechanisms (you need to be well up on the first four films), exciting and confident movie. If you love Bond you'll love this. It's been well worth the wait to be honest because it delivers, with the usual panache, a real barnstormer of an action film. James Bond has left MI6 and, his love life in tatters, has retired. But when a British secret biological weapon is stolen the CIA's Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) seeks out his old friend to help. Reluctantly Bond agrees but has to deal with old enemies, new enemies, some surprising allies and some who bring old emotions back to haunt our hero. There's lots of big 007 tropes not least a creepy baddie and his lair that Bond must penetrate to save the day. Here we see James Bond at his most vulnerable, emotional even, something Craig has inserted into the character (although George Lazenby had set the course back in 1969) and I admired the links to some of the books, in particular You Only Live Twice, which is totally a different story to the film version. (If you know this book it will give you hints as to where the story goes) The film has a fantastic prelude sequence before jumping five years to the main story. The action set pieces are fast and exciting, there's loads of gunplay and some big surprises along the way. Great support cast of Ralph Fiennes as M, Ben Whishaw as Q, Christoph Woltz as Blofeld, Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, Léa Seydoux, Ana de Armas and Rami Malek. It's not the best of Craig's Bond series but it's certainly a big, brash and very worthy addition to the franchise.

A gripping Second World War thriller and one of the best about resistance fighters. Set in Holland as the war is nearing its end it tells the story of Rachel (Carice van Houten) who as a Jew has been in hiding since the German occupation. She is offered a chance, with her family, to escape west towards the advancing allies but they are betrayed. Rachel manages to escape and joins the resistance where she is tasked with getting close to the head of the German Security Police, Müntze (Sebastian Koch) to find out information. But she soon finds that there is double cross, betrayal and not everyone can be trusted. This is a fantastic war film that has espionage, action and twist and turns in the plot so you never know who is on who's side. Like all of director Paul Verhoeven's films it pushes the boundaries at times in particular in it's sex scenes and some of the violence is graphic. But it's a great story, fast paced and a plot that hooks you in. If you like a good war film this is worth your time.

A rather quirky film in Alfred Hitchcock's canon but probably one of his most famous. It has all his usual build up of tension and dread although it does veer into romantic melodrama for much of the first third of the film. However once it gears up into the main story it is impactive, exciting and at times quite scary. Former model Tippi Hedren, one of Hitchcock's famous blonde 'discoveries', plays rich San Francisco socialite Melanie who, on a whim, heads out to the remote seaside town of Bodega Bay searching for Mitch (Rod Taylor), a man she fancies and hopes to seduce. As they begin a romance of sorts, the town is struck by strange, at first isolated, attacks by birds. These grow in intensity forcing Mitch, Melanie, his mother (Jessica Tandy) and young sister (Veronica Cartwright) to retreat to their house where they face an onslaught from the murderous birds. There's some shocking scenes but the film excels in its ability to create a contrast of calm with a sense of dread throughout, aided by there being no musical score. Hitchcock's well known hatred for location shooting means that the edits to studio shots occasionally are a little too obvious and there's too much use of back projection but that said there's equally some highly memorable stuff on display here, an overhead shot of the town from the viewpoint of the circling seagulls for example. The story offers little, if any, explanation for the sudden bird attacks unless you choose to interpret the film's constant reminder that humans keep caged birds as a possible cause of the birds behaviour, or put simply are the birds taking revenge on humans? It's open to debate in any case. This an iconic horror film and one every film fan should make sure they see, it's a film that stays in the memory for sure.

A rich, beguiling and quite fascinating fantasy film set in the Dark Ages and the mythical time of King Arthur. Based on an ancient poem this is story of false courage, nature and life as a young cousin of the King, Gawain (Dev Patel) grabs an opportunity to impress the court by accepting to play in a 'Christmas game' with the strange Green Knight (Ralph Ineson). But there are conditions to the game and Gawain is forced, a year later, to travel to a distant forest to seek out the Green Knight and allow him to inflict the same wounds on Gawain that he caused dealt to the Knight. Gawain is reluctant as this would involve his death but the King forces him on the quest to find the Knight and fulfil his promise. The journey is perilous, across a bleak and unforgiving landscape where he encounters dangers and magic. This is an enthralling, enigmatic film with the same, if condensed, imagery and feel that Peter Jackson brought to his Lord Of The Rings trilogy. It's a seriously told fantasy film that looks at the absurdity of masculine honour and the support cast of Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton makes for an interesting experience. Sean Harris and Kate Dickie as a moody, almost cadaverous King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in a dark, brooding castle are an interesting vision of the legend. This is a quite mesmerising film with a stand out performance from Patel, who captures a combination of bravado, fear and cowardice in the 'hero' figure. This is worth checking out even if it might seem a little baffling to begin with.

Because of the subsequent stage musical and it's huge popularity its often easy to forget this original film is much more than a story about a working class boy becoming a ballet dancer against the odds. Billy Elliot is really a serious social drama and one of the few films that really gets to grips with the social upheaval of the Miner's Strike which thrust apart communities, families and created huge political divides throughout the UK and which still resonate to this day. There are no outside scenes in this film where the police are not in evidence like an occupying army although the film carefully manages to avoid making any gestures about the rights and wrongs of the strike or the law enforcement actions. It does look very closely at the impact on the small Elliot family where widowed father Jackie (Gary Lewis) and older son Tony (Jamie Draven) are striking miners, struggling to make ends meet but determined to see the strike through even risking conflict with former friends who have been forced back to work by hardship. We see much of this through the child's viewpoint of Jackie's younger son Billy. Without his mother and with only a grandmother with dementia as a female role model he looks destined to have a life with little hope. Until that is he meets Mrs Wilkinson (Julie Walters) and secretly joins her ballet class. From this simple story you get a really heart warming story of growing up, of parental and familial love, of friendship and of success through defying the odds. Occasionally Billy is painted as a little too rough and ready to create a contrast with the world he wants to join and the final coda of the film never lets us into how he has overcome this. But this remains a great British film about a troubled time and it deserves continued recognition.

A rather disappointing documentary about this iconic actress. It sort of skimps over her impressive film work, missing out completely some of her films and becomes a sort of magazine style work that emphasises her quasi royal type persona. Impressive as Hepburn's Unicef work was it is however the least interesting part of her life and this film doesn't focus enough on her complex background, marriages and relationships. For example it is well documented that Alfred Hitchcock despised her but this is not mentioned at all. There is interest here but it's a superficial telling of Hepburn's life.

This is another box office bomb that has since gained a massive fan following. Admittedly it's not one of director John Carpenter's top films but it certainly is very original and very zany. It's a comedy but difficult to define as it's also a sort of action/adventure/fantasy and for first time viewers it will be quite a surprise especially as it gets dafter and more zany as it goes on. Kurt Russell plays trucker Jack Burton who delivers goods into San Francisco's Chinatown. When his friend, Wang Chi (Dennis Dun), has his fiancée kidnapped by a street gang Jack agrees to help him get her back. But Jack is not prepared as they search the backstreets of Chinatown because they get caught up in a centuries old battle between an ancient, evil wizard and a local mystic, which leads them to an eerie denizen below the streets of the city. And Jack's reluctant girlfriend, Gracie (Kim Cattrall) falls into the bad guys clutches too adding to his problems. Burton is a sort of useless hero here, incompetent and clumsy beside the more skilled Chinese with their martial arts and fancy weapons. The film has some weird things going on but if you just go with it it is a joy and very funny. This is something different to try, it'll certainly have you smiling and occasionally scratching your head.

After an exhilarating but narratively pointless opening we are thrown into Reagan's 1980s America to follow the fantastically glamorous Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman as she catwalks her way around much to the envy of dull ol' Barbara (Kristen Wiig). Into the mix comes a magic stone which grants anyone a single wish, coveted by loopy Maxwell (Pedro Pascal). Barbara gets to be like Diana with additional and surprising powers, Diana gets to resurrect a bewildered boyfriend (Chris Pine), who was a First World War pilot but manages to quickly pick up how to fly modern jet fighters! Meanwhile Maxwell gets his hands on the magic stone and creates worldwide mayhem which Diana needs to sort out with trouble from Barbara who quite likes being super powerful. It's all punch ups and massive damage type scenarios that all superhero films sort of come down to. This film fails to light up the genre even with the attempt by DC to make it a more MCU style bright and colourful film. Batman, Superman etc must have been on holiday while all the world goes crazy. Kristen Wiig is clearly having fun here but doesn't have enough witty and funny lines to make her contribution memorable and the rest is simply genre cliché. Unimpressive.

Like a lot of the Coen Brothers films this plays havoc with genre convention in this case the classical detective thriller and makes absurd the figure of the American screen hero. This hilarious, very clever comedy was released to some bafflement but has since become a much revered cult film and it's one of those films that actually gets richer and funnier each time you watch it. It's littered with film homages many of them playful and subversive but even if that doesn't interest you this remains a great comedy film with a career best performance from Jeff Bridges and a riotous one from John Goodman. Bridges plays a dope smoking drop out affectionally known as 'The Dude' who, along with his friends Walter (Goodman) and Donnie (Steve Buscemi) loves bowling. A case of mistaken identity sees the Dude caught in a chain of hilarious events involving a rich millionaire and his kidnapped trophy wife and weird daughter (Julianne Moore) and a whole cast of strange characters. In part this is an irreverent pastiche of Raymond Chandler's classic crime novel The Big Sleep, it's liberally addled with quotable lines and despite threats, assault and trying to control the Vietnam obsessed Walter The Dude just wants to bowl. This is a film to just go along with, it has a convoluted plot, or so it seems, but it all unravels very clearly and with some laugh out loud comedy. A great film and definitely one you should check out if you haven't seen it.

Apparently a reboot of a long running film franchise (I admit to not having seen any of the others). This is a pagan horror film that takes a well worn generic path of young people venturing into the woods and having to face a 'hillbilly' cult. Consequently there's not a lot of originality here and any number of other horror films are brought to mind as you watch it. In this one we have Jen (Charlotte Vega), along with a group of friends, are exploring the Appalachian Trail and stupidly venture off the marked path (having been warned by the moody locals not to do so!) and are set upon by a creepy bunch of woods people who have been living there since the 1800s. Later Jen's father (Matthew Modine) comes looking for them. A film of a rough two halves with some queasy deaths, skull crushings, a small dose of cannabilism and general torture type stuff. It's all a bit silly and has some daft plot holes although it's not without some energy. Overall it's routine horror fare.

A huge box office hit and a vehicle for the comic talents of Eddie Murphy who in the 80s was a major star. This comedy cop thriller was originally devised as an action film for Sylvester Stallone but thankfully with Murphy on board and his fast talking comedy style this turned into a fun, hilarious and at times gritty comedy. He plays Axel Foley, a wise cracking Detroit detective constantly in trouble with his boss. When Axel's old childhood friend is murdered he heads off to Beverly Hills to try and find out who killed him. Unfortunately he soon comes up against the very strait laced local cops in the form of Judge Reinhold, John Ashton and Ronny Cox, who plays things strictly by the book! With an English bad guy played by stage actor Steven Berkoff (Hollywood loves a British baddie!) the actual investigation is fairly routine and clichéd because this is a film to highlight the talents of Murphy who ad-libs his way hilariously throughout and if you watch carefully you'll often see the other actors trying not to laugh (apparently many, many takes were ruined through corpsing). It's got a great 80s soundtrack, some actually shocking violence on a couple of occasions and some fantastically fun set pieces from an opening chase sequence involving an HGV to the final shoot out. Everyone's seen this but it's worth checking it out again as it's such fun.