Wild (2014)

Harrowing true-life account of Cheryl Strayed’s 1,000-mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, adapted from her successful book. It’s fairly disturbing stuff, as the film chronicles her attempts to come to terms with bereavement, heroin addiction, abusive relationships and years of emotional pain. There’s a pessimistic message about men being predatory monsters. But then in Donald Trump’s America, maybe that’s the reality (see: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45958023). The scenery is stunning. Music plays a big part, too, and I like the way Reese Witherspoon in the lead role often sings the songs on the soundtrack so that you seem to hear them on multiple levels. Simon & Garfunkel’s “El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)” acts as a recurring theme. There’s inevitably a sense of catharsis as Strayed survives multiple threats, completes the trail and looks forward to the rest of her life. Laura Dern is especially likeable as her positive-but-doomed mother and the flashback sections detailing various stages of their relationship make up the most powerful parts of the film. Somehow it wasn’t as moving as it might have been, although it’s difficult to pinpoint why. Perhaps it’s because Strayed doesn’t emerge as a particularly sympathetic character. But then why should she? It’s to the film’s credit that she’s not portrayed as some kind of saint.

Supergirl (1984)

A ludicrous mess. Kara Zor-El, the cousin of Superman, comes to Earth in pursuit of the Omegahedron – an orb with remarkable powers. This mystical ball falls into the hands of an evil witch called Selena who, for some reason, lives in a disused fairground with her annoying friend Bianca. It’s difficult to say whose acting is worse: Peter O’Toole, Peter Cook or Faye Dunaway all ham it up like mad, wrestling with a fundamentally flawed script. Unsure whether to play it for laughs or kitsch kicks, they flail around like pantomime actors who failed their am-dram audition. Helen Slater is actually quite appealing as Supergirl/Linda Lee. There’s a vulnerability and naivety that is endearing. And the sections in which she starts at school and befriends a girl called Lucy Lane – Lois Lane’s sister, amazingly enough – hint at another, more charming film with human-interest elements you can relate to. More of this would have been welcome. But it’s wildly uneven in tone and there are colossal holes in the plot logic. For example, when Selena first acquires her sinister powers she inexplicably puts aside the thoughts of world domination she has already shared with Peter Cook. Instead, she decides to kidnap a gardener, drug him with a love potion and then – when he wanders off – uses telekinesis to steer a construction vehicle through the streets to return him to her. Why? This is one of the few action sequences, but it’s still a small-scale affair involving a few cars, some burning tyres, a water tower and some hay blowing around the street. It certainly doesn’t have the epic scale of the first two Superman films, which seemed to use the whole Earth as their set. In fact, Supergirl seems relatively low-budget despite being made for $35 million by the same production team. Despite all the woeful elements, it was just about entertaining enough for me to make it through to the end. The flying sequences are a thrill, just as they always were with Christopher Reeve, and the rare moments in which Supergirl displays her powers are enjoyable. But the film could have been so much better.

The Imposter (2012)

Documentary about a 13-year-old Texan boy, Nicholas Barclay, who goes missing in 1994. More than three years later in 1997 he is “found” living in Spain and returns to the USA to live with his family. In fact, the family has taken in Frédéric Bourdin, a serial con-artist who is French, has a different eye colour and is several years older than the vanished child. His ears look totally different, too, as is noted by the private detective who begins looking into the case. Despite the additional involvement of the FBI, it takes almost five months for Bourdin to be found out. How the family could have believed this was Nicholas – or whether indeed they did believe it – is the subject of this riveting film. It expertly weaves together interviews with the family and the imposter himself and places these in context with subtle and clever reconstructions. Barclay’s sister made a big impression on me. Her account of travelling to Spain to retrieve her “brother” – and the countdown to the moment of their meeting – is horrifically compelling. And Bourdin himself – seemingly remorseless and even smug about his deceptions – is disturbingly charismatic. The most gripping and mind-boggling documentary I’ve ever seen.

Pete’s Dragon (2016)

I loved this Disney film when I saw it at the cinema and I loved it just as much two years later on a £1 charity-shop DVD. Pete, aged four, is orphaned when his parents crash their car on a remote forest road. He meets a green (sometimes invisible) dragon, who he befriends and lives with for six years before they are discovered by the outside world and everything changes... Not very promising on paper, but this simple film is surprisingly powerful and emotional. Robert Redford is endearing as the wise old man who believes in magic. His park ranger daughter (Bryce Dallas Howard) is convincingly sensitive as Pete’s new “mother”. Pete himself is played by Oakes Fegley, who delivers one of the strongest child-actor performances I’ve ever seen. There’s an ecology message (deforestation is not good) and the CGI effects are so sophisticated that you never once doubt what you are seeing. The soundtrack is brilliantly unDisney, with Bonnie “Prince” Billy, St. Vincent and Leonard Cohen all suiting the tender tone of the film perfectly. It’s difficult to say why this simple story of love and friendship ends up being so moving, but both times I have watched it I have been left feeling profoundly touched.

Chocolat (2000)

Romantic comedy-drama. Restless spirit Juliette Binoche and her young daughter arrive in a small and small-minded French town in 1959. She opens a chocolate shop and slowly begins to transform the lives of the locals with the exotic, seductive treats she prepares. The ever-reliable Judi Dench is her cranky old landlady, who suffers from diabetes and family discord. Johnny Depp is a river gypsy, fellow outsider and, inevitably, becomes her love interest. Alfred Molina plays Comte de Reynaud, the repressive mayor who regards everything Binoche does as a threat to his control of the town. Best of all is Lena Olin as the abused wife and pretty thief Josephine, who becomes her friend.

The film is slow to get going and I was close to giving up with it in the first 20 minutes. It eventually draws you in, despite being far from “my kind of thing”. There’s some silly semi-mystical fluff about the north wind, and at times it’s all a bit too polite and simplistic. Binoche uses chocolate like a benevolent drug dealer – part sorcerer, part Nigella Lawson. Plus, it wasn’t very imaginatively shot. There are weighty themes (prejudice vs. tolerance, imprisonment vs. freedom, religious oppression vs. true enlightenment) that might make you think a bit – but only a bit. Binoche is charming and easy to like, ultimately eroding any lingering cynicism.

La Bamba (1987)

Fairly straightforward biopic of Ritchie Valens, who famously died at the age of 17 in the same 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. Lou Diamond Phillips is convincing and charming in the main role. Esai Morales is less credible and somewhat overwrought as his troubled ex-con brother Bob. Rosanna DeSoto plays their devoted mother, who helps Ritchie make it big, while Danielle von Zerneck is Ritchie’s sweet girlfriend Donna Ludwig (subject of his hit single “Donna”).

The film balances the story of two brothers with the brief, swift rise to fame of Valens. It tackles issues of race, class and poverty. The sub-plot about Donna’s father forbidding her to date Valens is not satisfactorily resolved, and there’s rather too much about the troubles of Bob, his girlfriend and their baby. That said, the story is a good one and our prior knowledge of how it will end adds tragic significance to each scene as the film unfolds.