Rate the Last Film you Watched 2: Electric Boogaloo

[djw180 7,178]

Spiderhead (2022) dir Joseph Kosinksi

 

 

A fairly lame, not-very thrilling, sci-fi thriller set in the present day / near future, in a special prison, called Spiderhead. All the inmates have volunteered to be transferred here from various other prisons, on the condition that they agree to be test subjects for drugs developed by scientist / warder Steve Abnesti (Chris Hemsworth). The main character is Jeff (Miles Teller), jailed for a drunk driving offence that killed his passenger. The prison is very low security with only a a few guards. Although they are in an isolated island location (I think a small Hawaiian Island) and unable to leave, within the prison they have a lot of freedom. There's no actual cells but rooms more like a basic hotel and they are free to go wherever they like within the prison, cook their own food, play video games etc. Also male and females inmates are free to mingle. Each day a couple of them take part in various tests. These are sort of psychological as the drugs, administered from an implant in their backs controlled by an app on Steve's phone, alter their moods, emotions and behaviour. One, for example, is meant to make people fall in love, another makes them find everything funny. Clearly, being a so called thriller, there is more to the drugs than the prisoners have been told, and something obviously goes wrong. I found the script to be quite poor. The thing that goes wrong was very predictable. Although you have allow for artistic license and recognise this is a work of fiction not real life, it's quite ridiculous to believe that Steve and his assistant did not foresee this might happen and take measures to prevent it. Jeff figures out some of what is really going on and it ends with him and fellow inmate Lizzy (Jurnee Smollett) making an escape bid. Here they are pursued by guards and other inmates in quite a comical fashion, I assume unintentionally. The acting is OK but it didn't call for anything special. It does have a good set (I'm guessing a real-life building rather than purpose built) which with the island landscape does allow for some decent cinematography. The soundtrack is nice too, a few songs that can be heard in various versions of GTA! But overall this is one I would say not to bother with, unless you really cannot find anything else on Netflix.

4 / 10

 

Infinity Pool (2023) dir Brandon Cronenburg

 

 

A psychological / sci-fi horror that I nearly didn't watch giving it's warning for extreme, graphic violence and gore. But I'm glad I did because although there are a couple of scenes that certainly warrant such a warning, most of the film is not like that. It stars Alexander Skarsgard and Mia Goth as somewhat spoilt, wealthy westerners on holiday in a fictitious tropical, island nation (I'm guessing meant to be somewhere like the Seychelles, Bali, etc.) with their respective partners. Although their resort seems great, it's fenced off from the rest of the island and outside the locals, obviously not at all wealthy, have some strange customs. James (Skarsgard) is a struggling author there with his very rich wife. Actress Gabi (Goth) and her architect husband have been here before and are part of a community of other such couples who spend some time each year on this island. Gabi gets to know to James telling him she is a fan of his one-and-only published novel. The two couples go on an unauthorised day-trip out of their resort and on their way back, at night, there's a car accident which they choose not to report, but that clearly leaves a local man injured or worse. Next day the police turn up and arrest James. I can't say too much more on what happens next without spoiling what is a very good, original plot. Lets just say their justice system has some strange and eerie aspects. But the authorities want the tourist dollars to keep flowing, so they allow wealthy visitors to buy their way out of a punishment, taking advantage of a macabre local tradition. This aspect is what makes the film a bit sci-fi / fantasy, and ultimately leads to the horror. James does take advantage of this but then find himself kind of trapped on the island whilst his wife leaves. Like I say, I found this a very interesting and original story. The two main actors are good; as I would expect from Mia Goth. It builds up the tension and horror gradually and has some good special effects. There's a very scary detective Thresh, a very sinister figure who comes across as being very friendly and sympathetic before he then turns on you. Don't be put off by the warnings for the graphic violence and s*x if that's not your sort of thing. There are just a couple of each. But be aware they will happen and be ready to look away / fast forward. This is the only film I have seen by Brandon Cronenburg, who also wrote the script, but based on this I would say he is clearly following in his father (David's) footsteps as talented sci-fi horror film maker.

 

8 / 10

 

 

Edited June 29 by djw180

[LimeGreenLegend 4,359]

@djw180 I've had Infinity Pool on my watchlist for a while now, your review just shot it up the running order.  Possessor is the only Brandon Cronenberg I've seen and I thought it was very good.  

What I Watched This Week #180 (June 9-15)

Predator: Killer of Killers

dir. Dan Trachtenberg/2025/1h25m 

The latest film in the Predator series is arguably, in my opinion, the best.  It is an animated anthology film made up of three stories set in distinct time periods - 9th century Scandinavia, 17th century Japan, and the skies of WWII - with a final act that ties them all together.  This is from the same director as the very good Prey, which saw a Native American hunter take on the alien, so he clearly likes these historical settings, and it works.  I can't think of many things more badass than a samurai taking on one of the unique Predators presented here.  But it's more than just cool action and gore - just because it's animated don't think there isn't plenty of that - each of the three protagonists is given emotional depth and a reason to fight and survive, they're not just opponents.  The animation style did take a while for me to get used to, but once I did there are some gorgeous shots to appreciate.  9/10 Lime's Film of the Week!

But I'm a Cheerleader

dir. Jamie Babbit/1999/1h25m 

Megan (Natasha Lyonne), a high school cheerleader, seems to be the only person who doesn't realise that she's a l*sbian, so her parents (indie film legends Bud Cort and Mink Stole) send her off to a "s*xual redirection" camp.  Though it plays hard with obvious stereotypes, this is still a rather nuanced and progressive film that has aged better than I was expecting.  I enjoyed Lyonne's performance, and found her obliviousness about her sexuality always funny, with her at the start assuming she's straight because that's "normal", she even has a boyfriend even though she hates kissing him.  This also stars RuPaul as one of the camp counsellors, Mike, who at one point utters the line "I myself was once a gay" with total seriousness.  If this isn't worth watching just for that then I don't know what to say.  7/10

100,000 Acres of Pine

dir. Jennifer Alice Wright/2020/8m 

This short animated horror stars Sarah Airriess as forest ranger Megan, whose brother Daniel disappeared in the forest years earlier.  As she sets out to understand what happened to him, the forest seems to turn against her.  I like the style here, with the characters being very expressive and the settings evocative, but it feels like it's trying to be Lynchian a bit too hard.  There are moments where it really nails that creeping sense of dread when you're deep in the woods, but not enough of them.  What is really impressive is that this is a student film, the first and only work from Alice Wright, and I hope she's working on something new right now because while this isn't brilliant there is a lot of promise.  6.5/10

Yesterday

dir. Danny Boyle/2019/1h56m 

I like The Beatles.  I like Danny Boyle.  I f*cking hated this.  Himesh Patel plays Jack Malik, a failed musician who's on the verge of giving it all up when something strange happens.  He is hit by a bus, and when he comes round he's the only person on the planet who can remember The Beatles, who now suddenly never existed.  Armed now with a back catalogue of the best songs ever written he becomes a global superstar but fame isn't all it's cracked up to blah blah blah blah.  The one bit of this I even remotely enjoyed was Ed Sheeran getting humiliated in an improvised song writing contest which he smugly thought he'd win.  He comes up with the usual Sheeran crap, then Malik casually busts out The Long and Winding Road.  This is the blandest film you could make with that premise, it does nothing, the characters are all characterless, Patel has absolutely no charisma as a lead, let alone the world's biggest superstar - he never would have made it even with The Beatles songs, he's just a wet flannel of a human being - and the John Lennon appearance at the end was just mawkish sh*t.  1/10

Rebel d*ykes 

dir. Harri Shanahan, Sian Williams/2021/1h22m 

This documentary focuses on the 1980s London culture of the in-your-face, unapologetic, radically political, sexually frank, loud, proud and self proclaimed rebel d*ykes.  That is an LGBTQ rights movement that didn't care about offending anyone, wasn't going to tone anything down, and lived life like they meant it.  While the format here is pretty standard, with talking-heads interviews with people who were there cut with archive footage, there are some things that give it flavour.  That mostly comes in the form of the animated segments, put together like an old school magazine which fits the aesthetic perfectly.  Even though this deals with things like the governments discriminatory laws of the time, the infighting from other groups like the anti-trans l*sbians and the moderate l*sbians who think that you can get equal rights by asking nicely for them, and the AIDS crisis, the overall tone and mood is one of celebration and community and joy in the face of oppression, often just to spite that oppression.  But despite being about such a radical subject, this film often plays it too safe.  If it took a few more risks, both in the structure of the film and in exploring some of the more contentious issues in more depth, this would be a little better.  It is still great though, with engaging subjects and a banger punk soundtrack.  8.5/10

Two short documentaries by Nic Wassell:

Agnes Varda: Filmmaker, Photographer, Instagrammer

2018/12m 

Visions, Dreams and Magic: The Unmade Films of Michael Powell

2024/41m

(no trailer for this so here's a montage celebrating some of the films that Powell did make) 

These two documentaries from Nic Wassell both look at legendary filmmakers in rather unique ways - one as a social media influencer, and one at the films they didn't make.  The first is an interview with the nearly ninety year old Varda as she explains how social media is the natural progression for her storytelling journey.  Her playfulness, which is always evident in her films, is on full display here.  The way she celebrates the way social media democratises art, making anyone able to create and tell stories, fills her with more energy than I've ever had.  The second documentary is longer and more scholarly in tone.  It looks at the films that Michael Powell, one of Britain's greatest ever filmmakers, couldn't make for one reason or another.  Although this is again made up of talking-heads interviews and archive footage, what makes this special is just who they're interviewing.  The main subject is Thelma Schoonmaker, Oscar winning editor who has cut every Scorsese film since Raging Bull.  She was also married to Powell from 1984 (after being introduced by Scorsese, who calls Powell's The Red Shoes his favourite film) until his death in 1990.  This means we get real, personal insight into Powell's process for choosing a project, how he developed it, and his reactions when they failed.  The length and depth of the interviews in the second film make it slightly better than the Varda interview, but not by much because she's so wonderful to listen to.  I'll give these both a 7/10

Edited July 1 by LimeGreenLegend

[djw180 7,178]

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) dir Peter Hunt

 

 

George Lazenby makes his one and only appearance as James Bond, in between Connery and Moore. I have seen most Bond films at least once, some multiple times, and they are always entertaining, but I'm not someone who you would call a big fan, not someone who wants to see them at the cinema as soon as they are released etc. This one has always been one of my favourites. I think Lazenby makes a very good Bond. I don't really know the Connery films so well, but I certainly prefer Lazenby to Moore who's films could be bit far fetched and almost comical at times. But of course with only 1 film for Lazenby it's not really a fair comparison. What I like in this is he seems a more approachable and likeable, less reliant on fancy gadgets and special vehicles (there are none in this), and a little less chauvinistic. For someone who was not a professional actor I think he does a good job, and there is excellent support from Diana Rigg (the best Bond girl IMHO), Telly Savalas as Blofeld and Gabriele Ferzetti as the dodgy millionaire business man who becomes Bond's unlikely ally, and eventually father-in-law.

Bond is trying to track down his old adversary Ersnt Stavro Blofeld and in the course of this meets, and becomes quite attached to Tracy (Rigg), the daughter of Ferzetti's character. Posing as a genealogy expert he travels to Blofeld's Swiss mountain HQ, under the cover of helping him establish his supposed aristocratic family credentials. Naturally, the HQ houses a secret laboratory manufacturing a bacteria to help Blofeld further his plans for world domination. It poses as a clinic treating allergies. Strangely, all its patients are very attractive young women from all around the world, a couple of whom Bond becomes intimately acquainted with. Later on there is a great chase scene in which Bond, pursued by Blofeld, attempts to escape via bobsleigh. As far as I can recall this is the one and only time Bond uses this mode of transport. The music is very good, composed by John Barry and featuring Louis Armstrong singing We Have All The Time In the World. That song accompanies the tragic ending which I think is one of the main reasons I like this so much. You don't usually get that from a Bond film. It is a bit dated in a couple of places, and I half expected it to have a trigger warning. One scene plays on racial stereotypes in a completely ridiculous and disgraceful way that adds nothing to the plot. Film makers in 1969 clearly did not see anything wrong in that, but they should have done. I can't hold that too much against the rest of the film though.

 

7 / 10

[djw180 7,178]

Emily (2022) dir Frances O'Connor

 

Emma Mackey stars as the Victorian, Yorkshire, author Emily Bronte in a partly fictional story of her short adult life. She only wrote one novel, Wuthering Heights, before she died aged 30 from something like tuberculosis. Her sisters Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling) and Anne (Amelia Gething) were also published novelists. They live with their father (Adrian Dunbar), who was the village priest, brother Branwell (Fion Whitehead), and Aunt (Gemma Jones), their mother having died some years earlier. This story portrays Emily as being a trailblazer, a woman author in a very male dominated world, who led the way for her sisters to follow (which is not quite the order things actually happened in). But that is fine, it does not claim to be history. It's historical fiction. Mackey is very good in the lead role. The only other thing I have seen her in is Netflix's s*x Education and I wouldn't have pictured her as Emily Bronte based on that, but she is perfect in this. She really does a great job of portraying a very intelligent but troubled woman, who refuses to confirm to what society expects her to be, writing a novel that was controversial, depicting domestic abuse and challenging the traditional ideas of Victorian morals. She is portrayed as very uncomfortable around strangers, preferring her own company and escaping into a fantasy world. She has an affair with the church curate, William Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). Those aspects of the plot are also fictional, as far as I am aware. William actually married her sister Anne. But who is to say what else might have happened before that? It's a very good story, quite bleak at times, just like Wuthering Heights, and there are some similarities between the Emily-William relationship and that of Kathy-Heathcliffe in the novel, though without the violence.

8 / 10

 

 

 

Before I Go To Sleep (2014) dir Rowan Joffe

 

 

A somewhat lacklustre psychological thriller with a very good, and I would say wasted cast. It stars Nicole Kidman as Christine, and 40 yr old English woman who wakes every day with no recollection of what happened the day before nor anything from the last 14 years or so. This is due to a traumatic event coupled with a serious head injury that happened 10 years earlier. Colin Firth plays her husband, Ben, who every morning has to explain this to her, helped by various sticky notes and photos left around their house. Mark Strong plays the neurologist treating her and Anne-Marie Duff here best friend. The neurologist is trying a new treatment, that over the course of the couple of weeks the film spans seems to make an improvement and Christine starts to remember things from her past as well as holding on to some recent memories. What she starts to remember does not exactly match she is being told by Ben. He is able to explain why; that some memories have come back before and caused more trauma and stress, and that he too finds this all very difficult, naturally, so for his own sanity he has to be economical with the truth sometimes. But then as the story unfolds there are clear contradictions between what the various others characters are telling or not telling Christine, especially with respect to the incident that triggered all this; why did it happen? was it an accident or was she attacked? This is all exactly what you expect from a thriller film of course. It's not that original a premise, think of Memento for example. That does not matter, if its done well, but this just seems not that good a script. Some of the lines sound a bit banal and I was left wondering why it had such high-profile cast members. In fact at the end there is a scene with unknown (to me) actor, and he actually seems better than all the rest of them, because it just has the feel of a low budget film that you would expect a cast of unknowns to be in. And if it had been that I would probably have liked it more. When the inevitable big twist came, it was something I had seen coming from early on. The music is fairly lame too and felt like the sort of thing you would get in a made-for-daytime-TV movie. There's nothing really wrong with it, just nothing noteworthy for me.

 

5 / 10

 

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Munich – The Edge of War (2021) dir Christian Schwochow.

 

 

 

Film of Robert Harris' historical fiction novel about the Munich conference in 1938 where Britain, France, Italy and Germany did a deal, sacrificing parts of Czechoslavakia (not represented at the conference) to Germany, in exchange for a peace deal. Depending on which view of history you take, this was either a failed attempt to avert the Second World War and merely delayed it by a year, bought France and Britain the time they needed to re-arm and ensure when war inevitably came they had a chance of winning, bought Germany the time it needed to re-arm and ensure when war inevitably came they had a chance of winning, or a combination of those. The cast is generally good. The main characters are two fictitious junior civil servants, one British, Hugh Legat (George MacKay) and one German, Paul von Hartman (Jannis Niewohner), who were friends at university. Jeremy Irons is great as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin, the man who infamously returned from Munich assuring the public he had achieved “peace in our time”, Liv Lisa Fries plays Lenya, mainly in flashback scenes as another former university friend of Hugh and Paul, and August Diehl plays another friend of Pauls, now a member of Hitler's bodyguard. Hugh is assigned to the British delegation because he speaks fluent German and knows someone on the German side, after British intelligence receive a message from anti-n*zi sources in Germany that they want to pass on crucial, top secret information. This gives the film a bit of spy-thriller feel at times. I have read the book and the film is fairly faithful to it, changing some things to fit the whole story into a manageable 2 hours or so. I think that was right, this would not have made a good 3 hour+ epic. The one difference I did notice is with respect to what the various parties at the conference really wanted to get out of it. As I recall the book seemed to show the motivations where mixed. There were some politicians on both sides who thought their country was not prepared for war so wanted to buy time, others who thought they were prepared but the other side wasn't so they wanted to start the war now, and then others who just wanted to avoid the war at any cost. This film is less ambiguous, but I won't spoil it by saying which interpretation it strongly leads towards. Given we all know what happened in reality it does not have as much tension as it might otherwise of had. There are some typical thriller plot elements that if this were pure fiction you have been wondering what might or might not happen. It's a good film though, about an important historical event I have not seen a film about before.

 

7 / 10

 

[djw180 7,178]

Django Unchained (2012) dir Quentin Tarantino

https://youtu.be/0fUCuvNlOCg

Jamie Foxx stars as the title character along with Christopher Walz as Dr. Shultz. Set in 1858 and starting in Texas. Shultz is a bounty hunter who needs the help of Django, a sl*ve, to identify three brothers wanted for various crimes. So he frees Django who assists in catching these, and other, bounties. In return Shultz promises to help Django free his wife who has been sold to someone far away. This is a Tarantino film, so although it does have things to say about slavery and race in the deep south in the mid 19^th century, that is not really the main point. It's an action / drama / western, clearly inspired by, and something of a tribute to, Sergio Leone, who Tarantino is a huge admirer of. Some of the gun fights in the second half of the film do seem to me very like those from Leone's films, but whereas Clint Eastwood never seemed to run out of bullets and there was not much in the way of blood and gore in those, this one seems much more realistic. Django's skills with a revolver are still as implausibly impressive as Eastwood's various character's were. It also contains multiple compositions by Ennio Morriocone, again someone Tarantino admired, all from other films he wrote for rather than an original score for this film, along with music by many other artists. It has a great ensemble cast that features Don Johnson, Ato Essondoh, and for most of the final third, Leonardo Di Caprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington and Walton Goggins. Di Caprio is very good in a bad guy role. It is a little long at 2 3/4 hours, but it is worth it.

 

9 / 10

[LimeGreenLegend 4,359]

Speed round incoming just to get caught up.  I'll include trailers for the best ones only.

What I Watched This Week #181-183 (June 16- July 6)

Slade in Flame

dir. Richard Loncraine1975/1h31m

Legendary British glam rockers Slade play a fictionalised version of themselves - Flame - in this rags to not quite riches tale.  Rather than a celebration of their rise to fame this is a story of a band who are abused and used as a product before being discarded by a machine that doesn't care about art.  The band's frontman, Noddy Holder, dominates with his sheer force of personality and the soundtrack is great even without their most recognisable songs.  8/10

When the Wind Blows

dir. Jimmy T. Murakami/1986/1h24m 

This animated film, adapted from a story by the same author as The Snowman, tells the tale of a sweet old couple in the north of England and how they slowly die in the aftermath of nuclear war.  Don't let the art style fool you, this is as brutal a film as Threads, with the worst thing being their naïve optimism.  They constantly reference WWII with a warm childhood nostalgia and think that nuclear war will be the same, and things will return to normal after a couple of days.  Spoilers:  they don't.  9/10

The War Game

dir. Peter Watkins/1966/48m

The War Game is a documentary style drama showing what life in Britain would be like in the aftermath of nuclear war and was commissioned by the BBC, but not broadcast at the time because "the effect of the film has been judged to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting".  That's an understatement if anything.  Along with Threads and When the Wind Blows, this makes up an unholy trinity of wholly depressing British films about an entire country slowly dying in agonising pain.  In other words, fun for all the family.  9/10

Barbarian

dir. Zach Cregger/2022/1h42m

Barbarian stars Georgina Campbell as a woman staying in an Airbnb in a new town, but when she arrives there's already someone there.  A decent premise for a horror film with a really solid setup just kind of falls flat for me.  Justin Long is great as an *sshole, but the film feels like it doesn't trust itself with building atmosphere for too long and is too eager to get to the bloody stuff in case anyone gets bored.  5/10

Man of La Mancha

dir. Arthur Hiller/1972/2h12m 

Peter O'Toole stars as author Miguel de Cervantes, imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition he gains the favour of his fellow prisoners by performing his greatest work, Don Quixote de la Mancha (my favourite book).  Just like his famous knight, his flights of fancy come to colourful life and he constantly espouses the lesson that you shouldn't see the world as it is, but as it should be.  Based on a Broadway musical this has some amazing musical numbers, but the most powerful one sees O'Toole as Quixote stood stock still while singing the incredible The Impossible Dream, a song about what it means to be a knight errant.  O'Toole is amazing in the dual role of Cervantes/Quixote, with his Quixote perfectly capturing the essence of being both a pathetic figure of ridicule and a gloriously noble and honourable gentleman.  He also has an excellent sidekick in James Coco as Sancho Panza, and Sophia Loren is fantastic as his muse Dulcinea.  Watch this film and read Don Quixote, they're both amazing.  10/10 Lime's Film of the Week!

The Player

dir. Robert Altman/1992/2h4m

Robert Altman's satire of Hollywood stars Tim Robbins as a sleazy studio executive who is getting death threats from a writer he pissed off, which narrows it down to about a thousand suspects.  The film perhaps peaks right at the start with an epic 6 minute long oner that roams the studio lot introducing all of the main players, including a conversation between two of them about the best oners in film history.  That's just showing off.  The rest of the film is a well crafted blend of satire and noir thriller.  The constant cameos gets a little distracting, but I have to say I laughed out loud at the final scene and not just because of the cameos, but also how it sums up the Hollywood system in a neat couple of minutes.  Traffic was a b*tch indeed.  8.5/10

The Haunted Castle

dir. Georges Melies/1897/1m

A truncated version of a film he made just the previous year, this sees Melies use his usual wonderful tricks to cause all sorts of spooky apparitions appear.  Feels rushed compared to the other version, though technically it's more impressive.  This is still a lesser work that I've seen of his.  

Zazie dans le Metro

dir. Louis Malle/1960/1h33m 

Catherine Demongeot stars as 10 year old Zazie, a foul mouthed force of nature who is visiting Paris for the first time, staying with her uncle (Philippe Noiret) while her parents enjoy a romantic weekend, and she wants to do it all, but most of all she wants to ride the Metro.  This is a wild, madcap film that feels like a live action cartoon at times.  It has the experimentation of Godard mixed with the playfulness of Tati.  I had a smile on my face the entire time.  9/10

Cars 3

dir. Brian Fee/2017/1h42m

The third and seemingly final film in the Cars franchise sees Lightning McQueen facing a mid life crisis as a whole new generation of cars are leaving him in the dust.  Honestly, I actually quite liked this one.  The animation is gorgeous, with some of the landscapes looking photo realistic, and the character of Mater, who I hate with a passion, is hardly in it.  In fact, this seems to ignore the godawful second film entirely, instead evoking the first film quite heavily in its use of the character of Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), whose spirit seems to watch over the entire thing.  7/10

Piper

dir. Alan Barillaro/2016/6m

This charming dialogue free Pixar short sees a mother bird trying to teach its baby how to fend for itself, a process that is expedited thanks to a rough experience she must overcome or die.  Some incredible animation here, particularly in the motion of the ocean, really elevates this beyond the sweet yet simple life lesson that it is.  8/10

Crimewave

dir. Sam Raimi/1985/1h23m

Directed by Sam Raimi and co-written by the Coen Brothers, this is a bizarre, disjointed film about a man wrongly convicted of murder and about to suffer the death penalty.  We are told the story in flashback while he sits in the chair.  There are hints of both Raimi's trademark visual style, and the Coen's darkly cynical sense of humour, but not enough to make this any more than a curiosity.  6/10

New York, New York

dir. Martin Scorsese/1977/2h43m 

 

Scorsese's epic post war set musical stars Liza Minelli as a singer and Robert De Niro as a sax player who fall in love on VJ Day then proceed to have a tumultuous, years long relationship with more downs than ups.  Like Cabaret this is a musical where people don't just break out into song and dance, all of the numbers happen on stage naturally as part of the plot, which helps ground the film in some sort of realism, which is then juxtaposed against some gorgeous sets that are made to obviously look like soundstages, evoking the classic Hollywood musicals of the 40's.  In the middle of this is a pair of excellent performances that perfectly compliment each other, with De Niro playing one of his most controlling, manipulative, jealously paranoid characters.  Minelli always comes across as a star, particularly the grand ending where she belts out the iconic theme song, made iconic a few years later by Sinatra.  Like a lot of Scorsese's non-crime or mob related films this is criminally overlooked, so please check this out, as well as The Age of Innocence and Silence.  10/10 Lime's Film of the Week!

The Phoenician Scheme

dir. Wes Anderson/2025/1h42m

Wes Anderson's latest is another meticulously crafted, unapologetically idiosyncratic film starring Benicio Del Toro as a businessman seeking funding for an ambitious scheme that will totally transform the fictional nation of Phoenicia.  To do this he needs to sweet talk a succession of quirky investors including Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston as a pair of basketball loving siblings.  Well made but it does feel like Anderson's biggest influence at this point is himself, and it's getting a little overplayed.  7/10

llusions

dir. Georges Melies/1909/5m

Another charmingly magical film from Georges Melies, this is much more refined than the other one I watched, and his playfulness and glee with this new medium is always apparent.  7/10

Flow

dir. Gints Zilbalodis/2024/1h25m 

This Latvian animated film was written, directed, produced, edited, scored, and photographed by one man using free to download  software and is about a near future Earth where all the humans are gone, probably because of a natural disaster, but it's never explained.  We follow a cat who is caught up in a flood and survives by hitching a ride on a boat captained by a capybara.  This sounds like a Disney film, but these aren't talking animals, and the threat, not just from the environment but from predators, is very real.  The animation is gorgeous and unique, the lighting is particularly beautiful.  A film about climate change that isn't preachy or moralising, this is also a fun adventure movie with a collection of wonderfully realised animals who have more personality than the entire Twilight series.  9/10

Ice Cold In Alex

dir. J. Lee Thompson/1958/2h5m 

A couple of British soldiers and nurses must survive taking an ambulance over 600 miles through the North African desert during WWII.  A compelling tale of survival and determination, this also has an iconic ending that anyone growing up in the UK during the 90's will recognise from a famous beer advert.  The one thing that seems to keep the main character, Captain Anson (John Mills), going is the thought of downing an ice cold beer in Alexandria, hence the title, and when he finally gets to raise that pint to his lips the satisfaction radiates out of the screen.  Worth waiting for indeed.  The drama comes not only from trying to survive in the desert, but also the constant threat of the n*zis, and the paranoia that a South African soldier they pick up creates.  A brilliant war film that doesn't even need to have any large scale battles.  9/10

La luna

dir. Enrico Casarosa/2011/7m

This Pixar short sees a young boy being taken to work by his father and grandfather so that he can learn the magical family business.  He also learns that he can't just copy them but find his own unique way of doing things.  Some fantastic animation and a genuinely spellbinding concept doesn't really get fully explored, but the emotional point is there.  7/10

Thunderbolts*

dir. Jake Schreier/2025/2h7m

The latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe takes a rag tag band of third string characters like Black Widow's sister Yelena (Florence Pugh) and the disgraced third Captain America John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and manages to create an actually engaging, well written film that doesn't rely on callbacks or cameos.  I was surprised by how much I liked this considering how much I disliked the previous MCU film, Captain America Brave New World.  The asterisk in the title is explained late in the film and made me actually excited to see where this goes.  This is the best Marvel film since Endgame nearly a decade ago.  8/10

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

dir. John Huston/1948/2h6m 

This classic adventure film stars Humphrey Bogart as one of three desperate men out hunting for gold in a desolate Mexican mountain range.  What starts as a fun romp with dreams of imagined riches turns into a study of greed and paranoia.  Bogart is excellent as a man totally corrupted by the gold he's seeking, with the director's father Walter Huston juxtaposing him as a wise, lively old coot who can see the tragedy coming a mile off but is helpless to do anything about it.  One of the first Hollywood films to shoot entirely on location, you can really feel the threat of the wilderness and the wild men that inhabit it.  9/10 Lime's Film of the Week!

Heads of State

dir. Ilya Naishuller/2025/1h53m

This new action comedy stars Idris Elba and John Cena as the British PM and American President who are left stranded in the middle of Europe after a terrorist attack on Air Force One.  Playing off the typical odd couple dynamic, the chemistry between Elba and Cena, which was fantastic in James Gunn's Suicide Squad, is the only thing that carries this tired, cliché ridden film.  A couple of half decent action scenes sprinkled throughout also help.  4/10

A Man Escaped

dir. Robert Bresson/1956/1h41m 

Based on a true story, A Man Escaped stars Francois Leterrier as Fontaine, a French resistance fighter captured by the n*zis and imprisoned.  Over the course of the film we follow his attempts to escape all shot with a sparse minimalism.  This is the most undramatic prison escape film I've ever seen, with no sentimentality or exaggeration.  This just helps underline the seriousness of Fontaine's situation, this isn't just a story, it's life and death.  The other Bresson films I've seen, Au Hasard Balthazar and Pickpocket, while very well made, just left me feeling cold.  Here, that coldness is in the films benefit.  And the beautifully underplayed ending, "if my mother could see me now", really leaves an impression.  9/10

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edit - double post, site seems a bit unresponsive at the moment

Edited August 2 by djw180

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Asteroid City (2023) dir Wes Anderson.

 

 

@LimeGreenLegend recently reviewed Wes Anderson's latest Film, The Phoenician Scheme and wrote “Well made but it does feel like Anderson's biggest influence at this point is himself, and it's getting a little overplayed.”. I was not so impressed with the last Wes Anderson film I watched (The French Dispatch). So catching up another recent-ish film of his I had yet to see, I watched this one. And I have to concur with Lime's comment.

This was a well crafted film in some respects, fantastic sets and a huge ensemble cast featuring a number of very good actors with some in quite minor roles. But the plot was baffling to me. It was almost like the story was not really supposed to matter and it was just there enable some great actors to act various scenes in some stunning sets, that were sometimes only vaguely connected to each other. The basics, as far as I could tell, were this was about a stage play and we were watching the actors in that play, but most of the time rather than seeing them in the theatre, we saw them as if there were in a real “Asteroid City” that the play was set in. It switched from black & white scenes in the theatre to colour scenes in Asteroid City (somewhere in the desert in the US south west). The theatre scenes were often narrated, so you were not watching the play, you were listening to the narrator tells us about this play and some of the things the writer and actors did outside of the theatre. I found the narration off putting sometimes. In the colour scenes a group of parents and their kids have gathered for an annual science festival in this desert city built next to a prehistoric asteroid crater. The kids are all “braniacs” (their word, not mine) and have invented gadgets, the best of which are going to be awarded prizes at the festival.

Now for the cast. The parents included Jason Schwartzman and Scarlett Johanson; they and their kids (unknowns actors to me) were the main characters. In the main supporting roles there were Tom Hanks (a grandfather), Jeffrey Wright (an army general in charge of the festival), Tilda Swinton (the city's resident scientist), Liev Schreiber (another parent? not sure, already forgetting and I only watched this last night! that's how confusing it was), Matt Dillon (car mechanic) and Steve Carrel (manager of the motel all the visitors are staying at). Then in various other bit parts, with some only appearing breifly, Margot Robbie, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Defoe, Adrien Brody and Edward Norton. Plus, although I did not realise it until I saw him named in the credits, Pulp lead singer and Sheffield-living-legend, Jarvis Cocker, as the washboard player in a band who got stuck in the city when they missed their bus! There were probably other reasonably well established actors that I just don't recognise as well. It's almost like loads of people really, really want to be in a Wes Anderson film and they don't mind how small a part they have or how good the film actually is. I have nothing against that in principle, e.g. when I think of the sort of people that have cropped up in minor roles in some of Kenneth Branagh's Shakespearean adaptations. But this one seemed a bit like a case of quantity (of actors) over quality (of story). It would have been a better film with fewer characters and more time to develop those it had and the story they were trying to tell.

Although I enjoyed it, mainly because of the visuals and some great acting, I can't give this anything more than an average score.

 

5 / 10

Edited August 2 by djw180

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Oppenheimer (2023) dir Christopher Nolan

 

 

 

The multi-award winning biopic of Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who led the Los Alamos Laboratory which, as part of the Manhattan project, developed the atom bomb in the Second World War. I had been meaning to watch this for a while, but with a 3 hour runtime it did not easily fit into my usual film-watching routine. But this week it did, and also it was an appropriate time, given it was the 80^th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6^th August.

 

I have to say I was a little disappointed for a film that won best picture. It was technically very good and deserved it's awards for things like sound and editing. Also Cillian Murphy lead a fantastic cast that included Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer' wife, Matt Damon as General Groves (in charge of the Manhattan project) and Robert Downey Jnr as retired Admiral Strauss (the post-war head of the US Atomic Energy Commission, who Oppenheimer worked for). But I found the way the story was presented hard to follow, especially in the first half of the film. It is told in a very non-linear way, which I don't have any issue with in principal, but I just found this too confusing as it switched between 3 main different time-lines and a couple of minor ones. One of these was shot in black and white for reasons I did not follow, unless it was supposed to make things less confusing, if so it failed to do that for me. When it focussed on the main story later in the film, that of the Manhattan project, the scientists and science and technology behind it, it was very good. But early on this was intercut with scenes from the early 1950s when Oppenheimer was facing losing his security clearance and therefore his job and another one a couple of years later (I presume) when Strauss was picked to be a member of President Eisenhower's cabinet and facing his Senate confirmation hearings. There's also other scenes from Oppenheimer's student days and early career and some of his conversations two fellow theoretical physicists, Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, played in fantastic cameo roles by Tom Conti and Kenneth Branagh – these scenes were the highlight of the film for me. I liked that it showed the views of various scientists about the morals of developing such a dreadful weapon. At first, when n*zi Germany was trying to develop their own atom bomb there were no qualms. But after Germany had been defeated and the prospective target became Japan, who did not have an atom bomb program, some began to raise more questions about what they were doing. It shows how after the war Oppenheimer himself was troubled by what he had been a part of, but genuinely believed the bomb not just ended the Second World War but had the potential to prevent any future such war. The film is not judgemental, does not say who was right or wrong, just portrays the various questions and misgivings some of those involved inevitably had.

 

8 / 10

Edited August 10 by djw180

[LimeGreenLegend 4,359]

Another quickfire round as I attempt to catch up, I'll only put trailers for the best ones.

What I Watched This Week #184-185 (July 7-20)

Insomnia

dir. Christopher Nolan/2002/1h58m

Al Pacino and Robin Williams are cop and killer in this Alaskan set cat and mouse thriller from Christopher Nolan.  His most conventional work with the narrative unfolding linearly, this really doesn't feel like a Nolan film.  But it is still gripping with two excellent lead performances.  You can see Pacino unravel before your eyes as his lack of sleep really starts to get to him, and Williams is chilling as a cold hearted killer, a side of him that we rarely got to see (One Hour Photo from the same year is another example of this).  8/10

God's Creatures

dir. Saela Davis, Anna Rose Holmer/2022/1h41m 

This Irish drama stars Emily Watson as a mother who gives a false alibi to her son, played by Paul Mescal, who has just returned home, and splits apart her family and community in the process.  Beautifully bleak landscapes set the scene perfectly, and a powerful performance from Watson is the heart of the film.  Mescal is great as he always is, slowly revealing more of his true self, but he never quite reaches the heights he does in Aftersun and All of us Strangers (both must watch films).  An insidious score that gets under your skin puts the cherry on top of this fantastic slow burn drama.  8.5/10 Lime's Film of the Week!

Mission: Impossible 1-6

dir. Brian de Palma, John Woo, J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird, Christopher McQuarrie/1996-2018/12h50m

Tom Cruise takes on the defining role of his career in this reboot of a sixties spy series.  It all starts off quite grounded in the first one, but film by film the spectacle escalates and now the franchise is known pretty much solely for the incredible stunts that Cruise insists on performing himself.  And they are spectacular and easily the highlights of each film.  What I wish the series leaned more into is the team aspect of each film.  Once Simon Pegg is introduced he and Ving Rhames became two of my favourite characters.  I would have loved to see more of them working with Cruise.  The quality is pretty consistent throughout these films, with the outlier being M:I2, though that does have the best intro scene of Cruise free climbing up a rock face.  I'll give these films a combined score of 7.5/10

Two Pixar shorts:

One Man Band

dir. Mark Andrews, Andrew Jimenez/2005/4m

Lifted

dir. Gary Rydstrom/2006/5m

In these two short films from Pixar we first see two one man bands vying for the attention, and money, of a young girl.  In Lifted we watch a teenage alien taking his human abduction test, with bruising results for the farmer chosen as the subject.  Both these films showcase the animators at Pixar's skill with movement and physical comedy, as they are both dialogue free.  I slightly prefer Lifted as the final gag made me do an actual spit take.  Combined I'll give them 7/10

Mikey and Nicky

dir. Elaine May/1976/1h46m 

John Cassavetes is Nicky, a small time crook and paranoid mess, who has barricaded himself in a sleazy hotel room.  Peter Falk is Mikey, his childhood friend, who must get him through what turns out to be a long night.  Cassavetes is incredible here as a totally selfish *sshole who's so pathetic that you can't help but sympathise with him.  Falk has the trickier role of the straight man, but you can feel a real warmth in their relationship that mostly comes from him.  The direction and overall tone is a perfect example of the New Hollywood of the 70's, and it's a crime that Elaine May didn't really get a chance to make many other films because she was a woman.  One of the best films about male friendship I've seen.  9/10 Lime's Film of the Week!

Straight to Hell

dir. Alex Cox/1987/1h26m 

A bizarre post-modern deconstructed western, this is about a gang of bank robbers who hide out in a small desert town after their latest job.  Two of the gang are played by Joe Strummer of The Clash, and Courtney Love.  The eclectic cast also includes many other musicians like Elvis Costello and the entire band The Pogues, as well as Grace Jones, Dennis Hopper, and indie filmmaking legend Jim Jarmusch, whose style heavily influenced this.  Totally unhinged and thoroughly entertaining, you'll enjoy this if you like westerns and you'll love it if you don't.  9/10

Coco

dir. Lee Unkrich/2017/1h45m 

After ignoring his families wishes to give up music, young Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) finds himself lost in the Land of the Dead, and needs the help of Hector (Gael Garcia Bernal) to get home.  This is one of, if not Pixar's best looking film, with a truly breath taking use of colour both in the worlds of the living and the dead.  It hits all the right notes narratively, it's funny and sweet, and the scenes involving Miguel's great grandmother Coco are beautifully tender.  It also has fantastic music.  After a rough patch full of sequels it's nice to see Pixar back at the top of their game.  9/10

Edited August 18 by LimeGreenLegend

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Having watched a couple of Quentin Tarantino films in the last few months and with a week's holiday (sort of) just at home, I decided to catch up and review those I have not seen in a while and the one I had not seen at all.

 

Kill Bill (2003 – 04) dir Quentin Tarantino

 

 

This is a revenge film starring Uma Thurman as Beatrix Kiddo, taking her revenge on former boss and lover Bill (David Carradine) and his gang of assassins (Vivicia Fox, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen and Julie Dreyfus) that she was once part of. It's a film made in two parts, released separately, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2. It should be seen as one film. The second is not a sequel, it simply carries on the same story started in the first and ends with pre-credits acknowledgements of the main characters that appeared in either part. If I had to split them up then I do have a slight preference for Vol. 1. I love the final part in that where Kiddo goes to Tokyo to take out O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) now the head of organised crime there, and fights her way with a samurai sword through O-Ren's army of bodyguards in a brilliantly choreographed scene (see trailer). Also I find Vol 2. can be a little slowly paced in places. But these are minor points. The whole thing is great. Obviously, it is very violent. Normally I am not that keen on really violent films, but Tarantino does them very well and the violence is almost integral to the plot rather than there for it's own sake. For example as the afore mentioned samurai scene in Vol. 1. and the fight with the same weapon with Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) in Vol. 2. It has some fantastic music, including various Ennio Moricone pieces from Sergio Leone Westerns. The acting is good, particularly when Thurman and Carradine are in the same scene.

9 / 10

 

Reservoir Dogs (1992) dir dir Quentin Tarantino

 

Tarintino's first feature film about the aftermath of a jewellery heist gone wrong, and a film I have seen at least twice before. Watching it this time I found myself appreciating it far more than in the past. The main characters are four of a gang of six thieves, all known only by code names, who survived the shoot out with the cops; Mr White (Harvey Keitel), Mr Orange(Tim Roth), Mr Pink (Steve Buscemi) and the psychopathic Mr Blonde (Michael Madsen). Some called it the most violent film ever made when it was released, they had clearly not seen the film and / or not seen many other violent films. Of course it is violent, it's about armed robbers! But I would not like it if it was too violent. There is a part of one scene where when I first watched it I had to look away (I'm sure people who have seen the film know which bit I mean), but when I watched if again I realised it wasn't that bad. Although there is a lot of blood, with one character essentially spending the entire film slowly bleeding to death from a gun shot to the guts, it's not over-the-top and this is actually a very dialogue heavy film. It could easily be done as a stage play (and I think it has), since most of it takes place in one location, the gang's safe house where the survivors gather. Others scenes are done in flash back giving us a bit more insight into how White, Blonde and Orange came to be on this heist. So there is some great actor between the people playing those four characters. And the opening scene is brilliant. Set when the gang first meet, in a diner, discussing two topics in great depth. One is the lyrics of Madonna songs, particularly “Like a v*rgin” with Mr Brown (Tarantino) giving a speech that could have been straight from an academic music-studies essay, followed by Mr Pink explaining in great detail why he does not generally tip waitresses. The relationship between Mr White and Mr Orange is also great, somewhat father-son-like, with a tragic ending. It's set to some great music too.

9 / 10

 

Pulp Fiction (1994) dir Quentin Tarintino

 

 

Tarintino's second film, the only one I have ever seen at the cinema, and for me his best. It has a brilliant script (also written by Tarintino and Roger Avery) that weaves together 5 separate stories, some featuring the same characters, presented in a non-linear order that ends where it began. It has an impressive ensemble cast. The main characters are two hit men, Vincent (John Travolta in a role that resurrected his career) and Jules (Samuel L Jackson), working for a Mr Wallace. It also features Uma Thurman as Mrs Mia Wallace, Harvey Keitel as “The Wolf” who cleans up the messes that hit men sometimes leave behind, Bruce Willis as a boxer, Butch, paid to throw a fight for Mr Wallace and in the opening and closing scenes Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer robbing a restaurant. Each of the 5 stories could work on their own, but how they connect to each other is great. Like all Tarantino films it is violent at times, but never over the top in that respect. Some of those are actually quite funny, e.g. the situation that leads to Vince and Jules requiring The Wolf's assistance and the Samurai-sword scene that concludes business between Butch and Mr Wallace.. It has fantastic dialogue, delivered by great actors, that sometimes takes a mundane topic (e.g. what a Big Mac is called in France or is 5$ milk shake really worth 5$?) and elevates it to something almost deep and meaningful and has a great soundtrack. Travolta, Jackson and Thurman all got well deserved Oscar nominations (and I remember at that year's Bafta's when Hugh Grant won best actor for 4 Weddings and a Funeral he actually apologised to John Travolta who we thought deserved it better). It was also nominated for best Picture, Director and Editing and won Original Screenplay.

One of my all-time favourite films.

10 / 10

 

Death Proof (2007) dir Quentin Tarintino

 

This is the one I had not seen before. In fact I was not even aware of it for quite some time. I don't know for sure why that is, maybe because originally it was released as a double bill “Grindhouse” alongside Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror. It's his tribute to slasher / exploitation movies and is quite different to his other films. It has the usual violent elements and prominent soundtrack, but to me it lacks the great story telling, character development and dialogue of his other films. If it were not for that fact that Tarantino himself plays one of the minor roles early on, I would not have recognised it as his. Descriptions of this will tend say it stars Kurt Russel, but although he is the character that binds it all together, he isn't in enough of it to be the “star” in the usual sense. Then again neither is anyone else, so if a film has to have a star then it's him. Anyway he plays Stuntman Mike, a serial killer who used to be a stuntman specialising in car crashes. He uses a stunt car to kill his victims by crashing into their cars. They die or are horribly injured whilst he survives due to all the “Deathproof” modifications made to his. We don't know why he does this nor anything else of his back story. Also we do not know why he chooses the victims he does, other than they are all young women; but I guess that tended to be the usual case in slasher films (I don't know for sure, they are not my sort of thing) so it's the same in this one. It's made almost as two separate stories, a year or so apart and certainly each would work as a relatively short film on their own. The first is mainly set in the Texas bar the victims gather in, with friends and boyfriends. Mike is also there, having followed them. I won't say more to avoid spoilers, but we know at least what he is going to try to do, even if not when and exactly how. The next one is in Tennessee and this time his victims, who all have various film-related jobs, put up quite a fight. One of them is in fact played by real-life stunt woman Zoe Bell, as herself, and another is also a stunt woman. So although they don't have a Deathproof car, they certainly know how to drive as if they did. And the ending is pure Tarintino. But the highlight of whole film, in this section, is one of the greatest car chases ever. In fact, for me, someone who is not usually a fan of such things when they dominate a film, I would say this is the best car chase I have ever seen. There's a bit of it in the trailer, Zoe Bell is the one strapped to the front of the car.

So well worth watching, but don't expect all the usual Tarantino elements.

7 / 10

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So I have reviewed all Quentin Tarantino films somewhere on this thread or its predecessor. This is my own personal ranking, best first. 

• Pulp Fiction

• Jackie Brown

• Kill Bill

• Reservoir Dogs

• Once Upon A Time in Hollywood

• Inglorious Basterds

• Django Unchanged

• The Hateful Eight

• Death Proof

 

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Lucy (2014) dir Luc Besson

 

 

Sci-fi set in the present day, staring Scarlett Johansson in the title role; an American tourist in Taiwan, tricked, then forced, into working for organised crime. She inadvertently gets given a large dose of a new narcotic she was meant to be smuggling into Europe. The effects of this are to expand her brain power giving her super-human abilities, which she use to gain revenge and learn as much as possible about what it is doing to her. It's a mix of action film, similar in many ways to other Luc Besson films like Anna and Nikita, and serious sci-fi about what human brain power might be capable of. The latter comes mainly via neuroscientist Prof. Norman (Morgan Freeman). The first half of the film is basically Lucy's experience in Taiwan intercut with exerts from a lecture Prof. Norman is giving in Paris about how humans only use about 10% of our brain's potential and what we might achieve if we could unlock more of it, which is exactly what the drug is doing to Lucy. It's not my field so I can't say for sure how well founded in real scientific theories and hypotheses this is. But I doubt there is anyone seriously proposing it's possible to do some of the things Lucy gets the power to do, like making objects and other people move or being able to control TV and phone signals. I don't have a problem with the film doing that, I just think it may have been a bit better if it hadn't tried to be two types of film at the same time; i.e. either stuck to being pure action without attempting explanations, or stuck to serious sci-fi based on real theories and toned the action down. None-the-less it's a decent film and I enjoyed it. I do also like that it makes a clear link to another Lucy (I assume the inspiration for the title), the name give to the first fossil found of Australopithecus Afarensis, an ape we humans evolved from that lived about 3 million years ago in Africa and whose intelligence gave it an advantage, thus leading to the evolution of our advanced brains. Johansson is very good, so are Freeman, Choi Min-sik as the crime boss Lucy is forced to work for, and Julian Rhind-Tutt as one of his henchmen. It is very stylishly made with some exquisite visual special effects and other very good cinematography, as you would expect from Luc Besson.

7 / 10

 

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The Northman (2022) dir Robert Eggers

 

 

This is described with terms like action, adventure, historical and epic on Netflix and IMDb, but it's quite different to the usual films with those sort of description. The brief Netflix trailer makes it seem to be something similar to TV series like Vikings or The Last Kingdom, set at same period of time with similar locations and characters. But this is not really like those. It's more in the style of a medieval Norse saga with a lot of elements of fantasy and some supernatural characters, with quite a lot of scenes depicting Viking culture and religion, rather being a more action-packed film with a clear narrative story. It's about a betrayed Viking prince, Amleth, played by Alexander Skarsgård, seeking revenge on the man who killed his father and took his inheritance when he was a boy. The story of Amleth comes from a Danish legend and was William Shakespeare's inspiration for Hamlet (the way Amleth is pronounced almost sounds like Hamlet as well). It has a very good cast who put in good performances. In addition to Skarsgård it features Anya Taylor-Joy as Olga, the sl*ve who helps and forms a romantic relationship with Amleth, Nicole Kidman as his mother and Claes Bang as the target of his revenge. There are also some good cameo roles from Ethan Hawke as Amleth's father, Willem Defoe as the father's fool / shaman, and an almost unrecognisable Bjork as the blind seer who the adult Amleth meets on a raid and reminds him of his oath to avenge his father. It has a lot of very well shot scenes of stunning scenery, especially when the story gets to Iceland, and Viking rites and rituals. Although it does not have as many battle scenes as the trailers might suggest, it still does have plenty of graphic hand-to-hand combat scenes and others that are quite brutal but with some of the more gruesome bits just out of shot in or in quite dark settings. It was not what I expected, but I thought it was very good. I can see why it's got some negative reviews on IMDb though as it seems to have been promoted as something it really is not.

 

9 / 10

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I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017) dir Macon Blair

 

 

 

A dark comedy in which nursing assistant Ruth (Melanie Lynskey), already pissed off with the world in general (junk mail, massive SUVs belching out thick exhausts fumes, dog's sh*tting on her lawn, etc), is even more so after her home is burgled. When the police don't take seriously some evidence she finds, she teams up with odd-ball neighbour Tony (Elijah Wood) to track down the thieves. It's not a revenge film, it's more that Ruth just wants her stuff back, especially the silver cutlery she inherited from her grandmother. There's no jokes as such. It's more a case of a few funny situations, see trailer, particularly some of the ways the incompetent thieves end up hurting themselves, or worse. Some things you can see coming, some take you a little by surprise. Tony is also somewhat of a comedy character as he thinks he is good at martial arts, and has quite a range of weapons he attempts to make use of. I'm guessing this was quite a low budget film. Elijah Wood is the only main cast member I recognise, although I now know where I have see Melanie Lynskey before, many years earlier she was in Heavenly Creatures with Kate Winslet. The director, who starred in Blue Ruin, is also in a bit part. There's no special effects, fancy sets or costumes. It didn't require any stunning performances, but the acting is good. It's just a very good, at times funny, at time a little tense story about ordinary people.

 

8 / 10

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Our Times (2025) dir Chava Cartas

 

A strange sci-fi film that did not seem to know what it really wanted to be. Set in Mexico City, a married couple, both physicists, Nora (Lucero) and Hector (Benny Ilbarra), are researching time travel. They test a machine they have invented, intending a 15 minute trip into the future, but end up going from 1966 to 2025. In the modern day the film tries to explore some effects of time travel both in terms the technological changes Nora and Hector have to adapt to but also social changes. The latter particularly effect Nora who has far more freedom and is taken far more seriously than she was back in the 60s. But the style of the whole film is bit weird. It comes across like a children's or family film. It's a 12 certificate, so no s*x, no violence, no bad language. It has some banal, cheesy music and the time machine looks more old fashioned than the 1960s. But I don't think it could have seriously been aimed at children, as there are no children in it and it's attempts at technical details are a bit too complicated. So I am still confused by why it was in this style. They also attempt to explain how time travel works by throwing in some terms and concepts that do or might exist, but not in a way that could actually make it all possible. As the film was not that serious then, to me, they would have been better not trying to explain something that cannot be explained with any actual science. The acting was just about OK but felt a little amateurish at times. Overall quite disappointing.

 

4 / 10