Flashdance (1983)

Ludicrous. Alexandra lives in Pittsburgh. By day she works as a welder. By night she is an erotic dancer. But she has aspirations to be a ballet dancer. And her boss at the steel mill fancies her. Plot-wise, that’s about it. This is one of the most extreme examples of “film as extended pop video”. There’s minimal dialogue. One scene combines three different musical segments without any speaking at all. 

Being a true 1980s film, it’s full of references to social mobility. Jennifer Beals is OK as the pretty 18-year-old who dreams big and still looks immaculate after a long day of welding. The Giorgio Moroder soundtrack is a perfect window into the time. Irene Cara sings the main theme (“What a Feeling”), further linking this film to Fame, which it partly emulates (Irene Cara sang that theme too). 

But there’s something not quite right about Flashdance: the ethics are all over the place and the male lead (Michael Nouri) is merely adequate in an underdeveloped part. The sub-plot about the failed comedian goes nowhere. And the pivotal dance-academy audition scene at the end falls flat because you can tell it’s a body double – and not Beals – doing the dancing. It’s a bit of a turkey, really, and it makes Dirty Dancing look like a masterpiece. It grossed $201 million.

The Eagle (2011)

Historical drama set in AD 140 based on Rosemary Sutcliff's novel The Eagle of the Ninth (1954). After being discharged for injury in battle, a Roman officer (Channing Tatum) travels north with his slave (Jamie Bell) to the wilds of Scotland to seek the lost Roman eagle standard of his father's legion.

The film explores powerful themes of honour and freedom. It’s incredibly violent and bloody for a “12”, and the barbarian “seal people” are terrifying. One criticism is that after an impressive lack of cliché the film’s ending somehow doesn’t ring true, hinting at “bromance” action-hero tropes. The DVD has an alternative ending included as a bonus element that initially seemed far more satisfying as it allows for character development and a more multifaceted moral outlook. On reflection, I was unsure whether enough time has passed for that perspective to have shifted. So either way, the ending isn't quite right.

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

In the safe hands of director J.J. Abrams, this cleverly continues the Star Wars saga while simultaneously acting as a sort of franchise reboot. There are so many elements repeated from previous films – important message carried in droid, seedy bar with exotic species from across the galaxy, deadly battle station with deadly super-weapon, evil regime battled by small resistance group, person falling into deep shaft, having to blow up something huge to save the galaxy – that it seems like a homage to the original trilogy. But there are exciting new elements, too – a welcome greying of the simplistic good vs. evil extremes of yore, some charming, unexpected character-based wit emerging from the dialogue and a believably “real” visual quality we haven’t seen before. Harrison Ford plays the now-elderly Han Solo and surprisingly seems one of the weaker elements in the film – a slightly ridiculous figure. Encouragingly, however, Episode VII ushers in a credible new generation of characters and actors – Daisy Ridley as the plucky Force-sensitive Rey, Oscar Isaac as the handsome resistance pilot Poe and Adam Driver as the “new Darth Vader” Kylo Ren. The latter is especially watchable, with his temper tantrums and visibly conflicted feelings. 

All in all, it’s a rich and rewarding step forwards – and sideways – for a series that (after the prequels) badly needed this kind of care and attention.

Enigma (2001)

Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of a Robert Harris World War II thriller set at Bletchley Park in 1943. Dougray Scott plays Tom Jericho, troubled code-breaking “genius”. Kate Winslet plays Hester Wallace, best friend of Tom’s ex-girlfriend who has gone missing. The pair team up to look for the missing girl and also to crack the code that could prevent Nazi U boats attacking an Allied shipping convoy. It’s an intriguing, mostly low-key story with moments of suspense, but it’s less captivating and emotionally involving than the Alan Turing cryptography-themed biopic The Imitation Game (2014). Kate Windswept is endearing, but Jeremy Northam out-acts everyone else as the sinister Secret Service operative Mr. Wigram. Surprisingly, the film was co-produced by Mick Jagger, who has a brief cameo as an officer sat at a table during a dance. What’s unfortunate is that Alan Turing’s role in inventing the Enigma machine is completely overlooked. In fact, its creation is here attributed to a fictional character – another sad example of the glossing over of Turing’s remarkable achievements.

Moonstruck (1987)

Quirky romantic comedy starring Cher as an Italian-American widow who falls for her fiancé’s troubled, opera-loving brother (Nicolas Cage). It works like a play, with elements of farce and drama as a family finds itself tangled up in various relationship complications. Cher is fantastic as a disillusioned woman in her late thirties who suddenly remembers how to live and love. Olympia Dukakis is perfectly cast as her wise and weary mother, who finds herself on an unexpected date with Frasier actor John Mahoney. Cage is intense and charismatic. There’s gentle wit and some laugh-out-loud moments, plus a great soundtrack featuring Dean Martin, Vikki Carr and Puccini. The film avoids the clichés and pitfalls of less sophisticated rom-coms and instead offers something eccentric and distinctive.

Moon (2009)

Absolutely mind-blowing. Written and directed by Duncan Jones, David Bowie’s son, this is a clever, thought-provoking and heart-rending sci-fi masterpiece. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) works alone on the Moon as a mining engineer with only a computer (voiced by Kevin Spacey) for company. But events take a surreal, hallucinatory turn and he discovers that all is not as it seems (I don’t want to give away the plot twists, but what Sam learns about his situation changes everything).

The film asks deep questions about who we are, what it is to be human and how we live. It’s unbearably tense, partly thanks to the compelling music by Clint Mansell (by contrast, there’s a memorable scene that uses Katrina and the Waves’ “Walking on Sunshine” to comic effect). The lunar scenery is incredibly believable (models rather than CGI), as is the somewhat scruffy interior of the base. There are thematic connections with 2001, Blade Runner and Passengers. After seeing the film I felt moved and wanted to watch it again immediately.

Life Is Beautiful (1997)

A masterpiece, pretty much. Guido (Roberto Benigni) uses his extraordinary imagination to protect his young son from the reality of living in a Nazi concentration camp by presenting the whole thing as an elaborate game in which he has to score 1,000 points to win. The film begins as a gentle romantic comedy (Benigni’s real-life wife Nicoletta Braschi plays Dora, the woman he woos and marries) that’s full of frothy slapstick, and ingenious connections between threads of the story enhanced by Guido’s quick thinking. The hilarious opening section means that the sudden switch to the deeply serious second half is all the more powerful. The astonishing performance by the couple’s young son Giosuè (Giorgio Cantarini) makes the sense of innocence under threat absolutely gut-wrenching. It’s a dazzling film about the power of love, hope and the human imagination.