The Intern

Close the curtains. Dim the lights. Fetch me my slippers and could you rustle up some cocoa? If your idea of a good night in involves spending 2 hours watching nice people say nice things about each other in nice places, with the odd chuckle along the way then Nancy Meyers (It’s Complicated. Something’s Got…

Rikki and the Flash

Ah the healing balm of classic pub rock. All it took to fix 30 years of hurt, anger, guilt and jealousy in the Brummel family was a spirited rendition of the Bruce Springsteen favourite “My Love Will Not Let You Down” and kith and kin who have previously looked like they’ve been flown in from…

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Monday. “I just had sex today. Holy shit!”   Tuesday. “Mum’s boyfriend is quite tasty.”  Wednesday. “Can’t seem to stop drawing cocks and balls.” Thursday.  “Think I’ll drop a tab of acid today – after all it is 1970.”  Friday.  “Saw the famous cartoonist Aline Kominski today. After all I do live in San Fransisco.”…

Everest

A bit too flat for me. Baltasar Kormakur (Jar City and Rekyavik 101) recreates the story of the ill fated mass ascent in 1996, when commercial adventure holidaymakers and extreme sport enthusiasts converged on the Himalayas only to be taken by surprise by a terrifying storm with predictably tragic consequences. It’s an unremarkable film about…

This Must Be The Place

Quite an ambitious film this. Not wholly successful it with enough working to keep the audience engaged. Part Road movie, part Art House, part character study, part Peter Pan and part a downbeat detective story the film picked at a smorgasbord of movie genres all to the accompaniment of a terrific soundtrack featuring amongst others…

Blackthorn

What might have happened if Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had survived their fatal shoot out is a surprisingly emotional slow burner. Beautifully shot, the film displays some very spectacular Bolivian landscapes including the weirdly compelling Uyuni salt flats. Partly set in 1927 and partly in 1905 the film segues between Butch/Sundance/Etta’s relationship following…

Pirates

An unexpected treat. Great claymation. Good jokes. Very effective use of 3D and a rollicking soundtrack featuring amongst others, SuperGrass, TenPole Tudor and the Clash. What’s not to like? The story was interesting too. Who would have thought of teaming the pirate oeuvre with Charles Darwin and making the latter the villain? This provided plenty…

Le Havre

I found myself wanting to like this more than I actually did. Aki Kaurismaki’s latest had a kind of timeless quality and a bright, precise feel to it which elevated the rather shambolic cast and the down at heel locations clustered around a dock on a bay. It might have been hilarious to a French…

In Darkness

This stunning movie by Agniszka Holland is a triumph on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to start . Perhaps with the incredible ensemble cast headed by Robert Wiechiewicz (Leopold Socha). Has there ever been a more committed, intense and moving depiction of one man’s reaction to the terrifying minutiae of the…

The Kid with a Bike

A quite unique and gently enjoyable film from the Danish miserabilists the Dardennes brothers. I really liked the chalk and cheese aspects of this project. Using film techniques from social realism (natural lighting and hand held camerawork, ambient sounds, improvised acting and non film set locations) to tell a sort of modern fairy story was…

Carancho (The Vulture).

This grim, grisly, ghoulish, gory and gruesome Argentinian offering was unapologetically dour – which is not exactly what you expect from a love story. The film featured some very impressive camera work and brilliantly choreographed action sequences shot in long complex single takes reminiscent of “Secrets in their Eyes”. The tone was bleak and dark.…

The Woman in the Fifth

An enigmatic if not totally unfathomable film. The action takes place in a seedy, rather desolate part of a barely recognisable modern day Paris. Here Tom (Ethan Hawke) shows up to reconnect with his estranged family. He is a writer who has clearly suffered from some kind of mental breakdown (scitzophrenia?) and this is at…

Headhunters

Blistering, brilliant and totally bonkers. What No Country for Old Men would have been if it had been made in Norweigian and Alfred Hotchcock had helped the Coen Brothers out in a couple of tricky scenes. A sublime treat on just about every level. I will never forget the incredible sequence in which our hero,…

Bel Ami

A not so dangerous liaison! Whilst I appreciated much of what was on offer here, notably the costumes, the period detail and the performances of the three principal female actors, I found that the film itself was badly derailed by a pair of novice directors (Declan Donnelan and Nick Omerod) who somehow managed to foul…

The Muppets

Always enjoyable and occasionally hilarious reprise of everyone’s favourite animal crackers. Highlights included the Oscar winning musical number ‘Am I a Muppet or a Man?’, the singing chickens and my own personal favourite – a Barber’s Shop Quartet, featuring among others Sam the Eagle and Beaker singing ‘Let me Entertain You’. The plot was utterly…

Trishna

Decanting Tess of the D’Urbavilles to Rajistan, condensing the action and conflating characters was certainly a brave concept and here delivered a real curate’s egg of a film. Michael Winterbottom’s third Hardy adaptation finds an interesting parallel between the supercharged energy of the original British Victorian setting and today’s India which is a complex and…