City of Angels (1998)

A remarkable romantic drama. Nicolas Cage is an angel, who guides the dying to heaven. In a Los Angeles hospital, he meets a human doctor (Meg Ryan) and they fall in love. He then has to decide whether to give up eternal life and become human in order to be with her.

It’s loosely based on Wings of Desire (1987), but the theme of interspecies love reminds me a little of the mermaid saga Splash.

It’s subtle and nuanced. There’s something very pure and focused about the way it primarily deals with two characters and excludes sub-plots and other distractions.

Cage is perfect as an angel discovering what it is to love, possessing all the calm intensity you would expect of a supernatural being. Ryan is well-cast, too, so you can really believe in their romance.

The film excels in exploring the sensual qualities of pleasure and pain that angels are denied. The ending is satisfyingly not what you expect, and it’s moving without turning into sentimental slosh.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Meryl Streep is the editor of the highly influential New York fashion magazine Runway. Anne Hathaway plays the young assistant who risks becomes corrupted by the glitz and superficiality of that world.

It’s a sort of morality story (with a slight flavour of Working Girl) – will she remain true to herself or will she be seduced by the dark side?

The direction by David Frankel is fresh and fast, and the film zings along at a decent pace.

Streep is excellent as the intimidating, hard-nosed boss, and Hathaway is believable as the wide-eyed youngling. Emily Blunt is also pretty good as the bratty other assistant.

District 9 (2009)

Astonishing alien film that brings huge intelligence and empathy to its subject.

A vast alien spaceship arrives and hovers over Johannesburg. The aliens on board (given the derogatory name “prawns” by humans) are herded up and forced to live in a fortified slum.

When, years later, Multinational United (MNU) begin aggressively relocating the aliens outside the city, the foolish Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley) becomes infected by a fluid that begins to turn him into one of them. But rather than care for him, the authorities realise his huge value because his altered DNA means that he can now activate the aliens’ superior weapons. He therefore has the potential to unlock a huge leap forwards in military technology...

The film is presented in fake-documentary style that makes it seem incredibly real.

It’s pretty clear that the treatment of aliens as inferior beings is an allegory of South Africa’s Apartheid.

A lesser treatment could have quickly dissolved into a tacky aliens vs. humans shoot-’em-up, but while this is indeed violent it never takes the obvious or gratuitous path. And it’s a clever twist that the only kindness on display is interspecies as the fugitive human and persecuted aliens start to help each other.

Dumb and Dumber (1994)

The title says it all. An absolutely stupid film that ends up being very funny. Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels play two of the most infantile people imaginable. But they are well-meaning, too, and care about each other. They become accidentally involved in a crime involving the kidnap of the husband of an heiress (Lauren Holly) and leave a trail of destruction in their wake while attempting to travel to Aspen (it’s a sort of road movie) in order to return a suitcase full of money.

It works because the humour is kind. You laugh at their absurdity and vulnerability. I’ve never been a fan of crass jokes about toilets, but these characters are so well drawn that even the “laxative overdose” scene is compelling.

Stupid as they are, you root for them because you recognise a little of yourself in their daftness and because it’s difficult to resist the warmth of their friendship.

American Sniper (2014)

Powerful and disturbing Iraq War drama that tells the story of “the most lethal sniper in US military history”. Bradley Cooper plays Chris Kyle, who becomes more and more damaged by each of his four tours of duty. Sienna Miller plays his wife (and mother of his children), seeing the man she loves ruined by post-traumatic stress disorder.

It’s violent and bloody as you’d expect from a film with this title and subject matter. I was surprised it was only a “15” given that you see children being shot and some other very harrowing images.

Director/producer Clint Eastwood has it both ways in the sense that he shows the evils of war and senseless brutality of violence but simultaneously documents a culture that fails to learn from its mistakes and continues to celebrate the use and ownership of guns. In Trump’s America it seems more relevant than ever.

Star Trek (2009)

J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the iconic franchise injects new vitality into the tired space saga. It deals briefly with the early life of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), introduces the other key characters and effectively ends where Gene Roddenberry’s 1960s TV series begins.

Kirk is established as a super-confident, highly talented liability who ends up captaining the Enterprise. In parallel the film explores his relationship with – and the character of – the young Spock (Zachary Quinto). In particular, it probes the psychological complexity of his half-Vulcan, half-human origins. Does he have emotions or doesn’t he? Leonard Nimoy also appears as the older Spock, explained via a complicated time-travel narrative.

The character of Uhura (Zoe Saldana) is better developed than it was in the TV show, and Simon Pegg adds extra quirkiness to Scotty.

The effects are remarkable and the large-scale space scenes look impressive.

The only real flaw is that the villains – the tattooed Romulans – aren’t especially convincing. For baddies to be scary they need to seem real.

That aside, it’s a highly entertaining romp.

Joy (2015)

Highly intelligent drama – with welcome flashes of subtle comedy – directed by David O. Russell, who also made the excellent Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle with the same actors.

Joy (Jennifer Lawrence) invents a “miracle mop” that seems destined to transform her fortunes, but she has to deal with complex family matters and business sharks out to rip her off. Lawrence is as compelling as ever, while Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper and Isabella Rossellini are all impressive in supporting roles.

It’s a testament to how well the film was made that a demonstration of mop functionality can work as the dramatic and emotional high point. It’s also to be applauded that the obvious Lawrence/Cooper romance option was not pursued, and a more nuanced relationship between the pair was explored instead.

Like Russell’s other films, music is hugely important and the late 1960s/early 1970s soundtrack selections (Stones, Buffalo Springfield, etc) were expertly chosen.

I also like the way the film offered a very unexpected twist to its narration about two thirds of the way through...

Speed (1994)

Terrific action thriller. The concept is simple: a Los Angeles city bus is armed with a bomb that will detonate if the vehicle’s speed dips below 50 mph. Cute, funny Sandra Bullock is the passenger who becomes the heroic driver. Keanu Reeves is the cop jumping aboard the bus to save her and the other passengers while trying to defeat the crazed villain (Dennis Hopper). He’s helped by fellow cop Jeff Daniels, who is as reliably watchable as ever.

With exceptional pacing, the film ramps up the tension from the start and somehow sustains it for 111 minutes.

Some of the dialogue is weak, with a silly Bond-like quip about death that could have been skipped, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s so full-on in terms of excitement that you are swept away by the rush of energy. And the blossoming romance story is developed just enough to make you engage with the characters. It’s telling, though, that only Reeves is shown on the DVD cover, despite Bullock being every bit as integral to the film.