Grand Theft Auto Creator

What I Watched This Week #177 (May 19-25) Meek's Cutoff dir. Kelly Reichardt/2010/1h44m This minimalist western stars Michelle Williams as one of a small group of settlers heading west through Oregon in 1845. Having split from their main party, they have hired the grizzled outsider Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) to guide them through the harsh and unforgiving terrain. This film plays out like some ethereal , dreamy nightmare, reminding me in tone of Picnic at Hanging Rock. The empty landscapes are shot in a way that emphasises both their beauty and their danger, with the human figures at times seeming insignificant as they pass through them. This is one of those rare westerns that is shot from a female perspective, here not just Williams's character of Emily, but also the two other women in the party, Millie and Glory (Zoe Kazan, Shirley Henderson), but it is done in a detached, observant way, with the interactions between characters being brief and often tense. Williams is excellent in the lead, her face saying more than words, something which Reichardt makes great use of. Greenwood is a fantastic antagonist, if that's what he even is. Meek feels like someone who has to prove something to the world, that he has worth, and he's getting desperate about it. You either go his way, or you'll die, and you don't know if that's a threat, a warning, or both. This is real edge of your seat stuff, even though hardly anything seems to happen. 9/10 The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island dir. James Griffiths/2007/26m This comedy short stars and is co-written by Tim Key - known to people in the UK as a stand up poet - as awkwardly eccentric millionaire Charles, who hires his favourite folk singer, Herb McGwyer (other co-writer Tom Basden), to come and give a private performance just for him. This is a fun if very one dimensional film that is charming enough. There's plenty of purposefully bad puns and protracted silences, and the chemistry between Key and Basden works well in that it hardly works at all. The characters don't really have much depth, Key is basically playing himself, and McGwyer is reluctant, thinking he's above it all, doing it just for the money. There is a very sweet twist at the end that gives the film a little more emotional heft, but this could have honestly been ten minutes shorter and still been the same. 6/10 The Ballad of Wallis Island dir. James Griffiths/2025/1h40m Nearly twenty years later the same director and writers/stars have returned to Wallis Island for a feature length adaptation of their short. This retains the same basic plot, and most of the same jokes beat for beat, as the earlier film, but expands on the characters and their motivations greatly. This has turned a slight, if enjoyable, comedic premise into something with real emotional depth and heart. The plot has been slightly altered in that Key's character Charles isn't just an awkwardly bumbling millionaire, but someone coping with real grief, and his love of the folk duo Mortimer and McGwyer is part of that. And this time, instead of just inviting Herb, he has also invited, unbeknownst to Herb, his former musical and romantic partner Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan). These additions really make the film much better, with this main trio having great chemistry together, in whatever combination you choose. The direction is much improved, with some gorgeous establishing shots of the coast and surrounding countryside really making this feel like somewhere you'd go to get away from the world. Also, if you like folk music, the original songs here are really good. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Negative Space dir. Ru Kuwahata, Max Porter/2017/6m This stop-motion animated short tells how Sam (Albert Birney, narration only) bonded with his dad, who travelled for work a lot, over the perfect way to pack a suitcase. This seemingly trivial thing is given massive gravitas in the wake of his father's death. This film packs a lot into its brief runtime, with a really imaginative use of the medium to make the act of packing a suitcase into something visually stimulating and unique. The animation is nicely done, with it being very fluid but still retaining the qualities of stop-motion, and everything looks so lovingly handcrafted. A surprisingly moving little film that's well worth the six minutes it takes to watch. 8/10 Crossfire dir. Edward Dmytryk/1947/1h26m This film noir stars Robert Young as a detective investigating the murder of a Jewish man, with the motive thought to be antisemitism. His prime suspect is Mitchell (George Cooper), one of a group of soldiers just arrived in the area. But one of the other soldiers, Keeley (Robert Mitchum), isn't buying it and decides to investigate for himself, with all signs seeming to point toward another soldier, Montgomery (Robert Ryan). This is a fairly standard hardboiled noir with most of what you'd expect to find from the genre, including Gloria Grahame as a mysterious femme fatale, but there are a few moments of almost Lynchian surrealism that really standout. My favourite scene in the film involves Mitchell meeting a character named only The Man (Paul Kelly) who seems to melt out of the shadows, speaks enigmatically, almost threateningly, then leaves. The lead performances from the three Roberts are all great, especially Ryan who seems reasonable at the start of the film, but is twisted and deformed by hate by the end. 8/10 The Cat Came Back dir. Cordell Barker/1988/7m Mr. Johnson doesn't like cats, so is obviously annoyed when a yellow stray keeps getting into his home. This animated short details the more and more extreme measures he takes to get rid of it forever. The whole story is delivered as a song sung by Richard Condie and animated with rough, wavering lines that reminded me of Roobarb and Custard and early nineties Nickelodeon cartoons like Doug. It's a one gag film that does go on a bit too long in my opinion, and the song is also repetitive, but I did enjoy the pretty dark punchline. 5.5/10 Nightb*tch dir. Marielle Heller/2024/1h38m Nightb*tch stars Amy Adams as a woman who, despite loving her son, hates being a stay at home mother while her husband (Scoot McNairy) spends time away for work. To make matters worse she's pretty sure she turns into a dog at night. This feels like an attempt at a modern fable, taking the idea that the societal pressure on all women to enjoy being a mother makes those who don't feel like a monster, but for me it doesn't quite go all the way. The moments where it really commits are where the film shines, scenes where Mother embraces her animalistic side and decides to raise her Son (twins Arleigh and Emmett Snowden) in a likewise manner. Despite every other character having names, the main family are only called Mother, Husband and Son, adding to the idea that this is an allegory rather than a story about a specific person. I also find it telling that McNairy's character is called Husband and not Father, telling us in simple terms how Mother views him. Adams is a really good lead here, again particularly in the scenes that commit to the films premise, and the scenes between her and Son are genuinely sweet. If this leant more into the weirdness then it would be right up my alley, as it is it's still a very good film. 7.5/10 Armour of God dir. Jackie Chan, Eric Tsang Chi-Wai/1986/1h37m Jackie Chan co-directs and stars as Jackie, also known as Asian Hawk, former popstar turned Indiana Jones style treasure hunter in his usual blend of martial arts action and comedy, usually at the same time. The plot sees his former bandmate and love interest Lorelei (Rosamund Kwan Chi-Lam) kidnapped by a religious cult who want him to track down all the pieces of the legendary titular armour. There's something about this film that just doesn't work for me as much as other films of his from the time like Police Story. It feels a little disjointed in places, the whole former popstar turned treasure hunter thing feels like a joke I don't get and kind of sums up the whole film. Chan's character is also not very likeable, which is weird when you're talking about Jackie Chan. It feels like he's trying to come off as cool at points, which doesn't suit him. There's also an attempt to make this a buddy comedy, with Jackie's idiotic friend Alan (Alan Tam) coming along for the ride. There are some standout moments like the climactic base jump onto the top of a hot air balloon, but they're few and far between. 6/10

Another Earth (2011) dir Mike Cahill A nice, low budget film about two people who meet accidentally, in circumstances related to the discovery of a new Earth-like planet, and the relationship that eventually unfolds between them. Disney Plus classed this a sci-fi, and I can see why. But really it has not got much sci-fi in it at all. Everything is set on Earth, in the early 2010s. There's no space ships, no aliens, no technology beyond what we had 10 year ago and no futuristic special effects. But in the background we have the evolving story of this new planet, dubbed “Earth II”, and eventually a character we get to know does go on the mission to explore it. However we don't see any of that happen, we just know that is has occurred. It's mainly about one of the characters, Rhoda, and another, John, to a slightly lesser extent. Rhoda, an astrophysics student at the start, is played by Brit Marling (from Netflix's The O.A), who also co-wrote this. John, a composer, is played by William Mapother who fans of Lost would recognise as Ethan, one of the “Others”. They put in good performances, which they have to since so much of the film is just them. It's got quite a gentle pace, no great tension, although given the circumstances in which they first meet and then later meet again there could have been. I do have to take issue with some of the actual science aspects of this, but I can forgive that since Earth II is sort of secondary importance to the plot. It does feature some almost documentary style lines spoken by, I think, actual astrophysicists, about what they think about Earth II, which I liked. But then you have to see it more like a fantasy than sci-fi since there are number of things that are completely impossible as portrayed in the film and some things not addressed at all. Where has Earth II come from and why was it only spotted in 2011? How come when it gets close to Earth it does not disrupt the tides and Earth's own orbit? If you can put those things aside, which I found I could, it's a decent film. If you want to see a film about what might actually happen if another planet did come into our system or was already there but hidden, then there's films like Melancholia (also 2011) or Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969) 7 / 10