The Lonely Guy (1984)

Very sweet, very funny Steve Martin comedy that’s fairly similar in tone to The Jerk. He plays Larry Hubbard, a New Yorker ditched by his girlfriend only to find that single life in the city is no fun. He uncovers what’s almost a secret society of “lonely guys” – single men jumping off bridges, talking to houseplants and desperately hoping their lost loves will return.

It’s a mark of Steve Martin’s skill that such a potentially taboo subject makes for such a hilarious film. There are many laugh-out-loud moments and it’s genuinely heartwarming. The silliness does not stop it from achieving genuine profundity. And Charles Grodin and Judith Ivey are endearing as his friend and new sweetheart.

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Third in the series. As always with J.J. Abrams films (he produced rather than directed this one), the focus is on breathlessly speeding from one thrilling scene to the next with little room for light and shade or character development. The general absence of quieter moments means that the film rarely touches you. It just looks spectacular and feels exciting.

On the plus side, this has a stronger plot than Star Trek Into Darkness, even if it still steals from existing Star Trek mythology rather than inventing its own. I was curious why the pointless Spock/Uhura relationship was suddenly ended when it never rang true in the first place.

I wondered why there were relatively few ideas, too. The 1960s series was packed with thought-provoking concepts and complex ethical issues. These films are just hasty action romps. One of the key scenes has Captain Kirk riding around on a motorbike, presumably because it worked visually. The film also manages to include records by Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys as part of the storyline.

It was good to see the Enterprise being destroyed, even if they did rebuild it at the end. Maybe Rise of Skywalker would have been improved by the Millennium Falcon being trashed or some other equally audacious move.

Simon Pegg has a more prominent role (as Scotty), perhaps because he wrote the script. Idris Elba is underused and underdeveloped as the villain Krall.

And as with the previous film, the title makes no sense.

Mystic Pizza (1988)

Two sisters (Julia Roberts and Annabeth Gish) plus their best friend (Lili Taylor) work in a pizza restaurant in a small Connecticut fishing town named Mystic. Each of them experiences a relationship that challenges and changes them in some way.

It’s a funny and emotional coming-of-age drama. The script is absolutely spot-on. The characters are extremely well drawn and so entirely believable that you laugh when they laugh and weep when they weep.

The three stories are so expertly woven together that it feels like one plot. And in fact there’s a fourth story, which is about the way of life in the town, and this too is handled brilliantly. There’s a strong sense of place, and you really feel drawn into this small community.

There’s nothing you could cut or add to make Mystic Pizza work any better. It’s a mini-masterpiece.

Clear and Present Danger (1994)

Harrison Ford stars in this adaptation of a Tom Clancy thriller about a CIA man who gets involved in both a Colombian drug war and the murky secrets of the White House. Maybe it worked as a novel, but as a film it’s too long and too slow. Buried in there somewhere are two interesting stories – a guns ’n’ copters action plot and a political saga built around protocols that sadly seem almost quaint in the debased Trump era. Instead, you get a rather drab and convoluted mess that cannot satisfy. That said, Harrison Ford is as riveting as ever, Willem Dafoe isn’t bad as field agent John Clark and James Earl Jones is convincing as the dying Vice Admiral James Greer.

Before Midnight (2013)

The third in Richard Linklater’s masterful trilogy, following Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Celine and Jesse are nine years older and wiser: now a couple with twins, they are on holiday at a Greek villa. Jesse has just reluctantly sent the child from his previous marriage back to his mother in the USA and this – plus the looming end of the holiday – brings on contemplation of life, family, love and mortality.

Unlike in the first two films, we get to see the couple in a group setting: for one extended scene – an evening meal with friends at the villa – we witness their “public” behaviour. It’s a clever way to reveal a different side to the couple.

But the real emotional centre of the film comes when the couple share one night alone at a local hotel. The anticipated night of passion and freedom soon takes a less romantic turn as they are forced to face up to the fact that the passing years have allowed resentments to build up while life decisions were being made. It’s to the great credit of Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke that they make it as real as possible and it’s remarkable how convincing their chemistry has become, whether it’s during their moments of intimacy or the argument that follows.

It’s fascinating being able to revisit this couple every nine years, but I am left hoping that there won't be further instalments. This trilogy is so perfectly judged and it now feels complete.

Mildred Pierce (1945)

Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott) is shot dead in a beach house. His wife, Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford), is the prime suspect. But as she tells her story – shown in flashback – we learn what really happened.

This is both a noirish thriller and a family melodrama, examining Mildred’s intense relationship with her daughters – in particular the selfish social-climbing Veda (Ann Blyth).

Although the drama is expertly unwound and beautifully filmed, Mildred’s relationship with Veda didn’t quite ring true for this viewer. Yes, she was a doting mother, but she also seemed far too rational and well-adjusted to be so obsessive about her daughter.

Perhaps more compelling is the sad saga of a woman who is only ever manipulated or used by men, and who falls victim to a class prejudice that we are often told doesn’t exist in the USA.

Baby Driver (2017)

A highly stylised, unusual blend of violence and music.

“Baby” is a decent young man (Ansel Elgort), who has got mixed up with criminals, working as a getaway driver for a criminal boss (Kevin Spacey). When he meets a waitress named Debora (Lily James), he vows to go straight and plans his escape with her. Of course it’s not that simple and his last job goes horribly wrong...

There’s so much more to this than a typical car-chase thriller. Baby is obsessed by music, which he plays on an iPod constantly to drown out both his tinnitus and memories of his mother’s death in a car crash. There’s also the fact that he records snippets of conversation and builds remixes out of them. And he has a deaf, disabled foster father to care for.

The film starts out like a pop video – fast, flashy and loud – but develops unexpected depths. The other criminals initially seem like two-dimensional caricatures, but thankfully they are developed too.

There’s a brilliantly executed scene near the beginning in which Baby brings a song to life, lip-syncing to it, and illustrating its lyrics with visual elements as he walks through the streets of Atlanta to the coffee shop.

I loved the soundtrack (The Damned, Bob & Earl, Sam & Dave, T.Rex, Jonathan Richman, Martha and The Vandellas, etc), and the choice of music is vital to the action. In places, the gunshots are synchronised to the rhythms of the tracks Baby listens to.

It escalates into a fast, thrilling and surprisingly intense climax.

Air Force One (1997)

Edge-of-the-seat thriller in which Harrison Ford plays the US president. His plane is hijacked by a Russian baddie (Gary Oldman). Ford appears to make a break for safety in an escape pod. But of course he chooses to stay on board to save his family, his crew and democracy itself.

Meanwhile the vice president (a reasonably convincing Glenn Close) leads the operation from the White House and there are some interesting discussions of protocol, i.e., are the president’s instructions legally binding if he is incapacitated? What if you don’t know whether he’s incapacitated?

The film maintains the tension expertly and Ford is as watchable as ever. There are only two corny lines (“Get off my plane” being one of them) and it’s to the film’s credit that the villain is well developed as a character.

There’s lots of shooting, and the violence seems real and painful rather than cartoonish. You know the good guys will win, of course, but it’s exciting to find out how they go about it.

Before Sunset (2004)

Every bit as charming as Before Sunrise, if not more so, this sequel picks up the story of Jesse and Céline nine years later. They meet in Paris and discuss their personal situations and what’s happened to them since that life-changing encounter in Vienna. And they slowly reveal how they feel about each other as they grapple with how their past may inform their future.

I loved the long, single-take scenes as they wander in Paris, and also the fact that the film appears to take place in real time.

Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke both seem to give richer performances than in the first film. They are so natural in the roles that you wonder if they are even acting.

The romantic and touching ending, with Céline singing one of her songs and offering an extended Nina Simone impression, is an absolute delight.

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

The last of the sequel trilogy had a lot to deliver, resolving not only the new sequence of films but also the entire saga. Did it achieve that? Well, sort of. Mostly.

It offers such a rich visual feast and a fairly full-on narrative. So much happens so quickly and there's a lot to take in. Unlike with Episode VIII, there’s no filler. The characters are stronger – there’s a warm feeling of “the old gang back together” – and the weaker ones from the last film (such as Rose) had been minimised.

Although the overall story worked, the plot was flawed in many ways:
• It's ludicrous to think of Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) having a wife and children, not to mention how he cheated death and came back to life (an increasingly common trick in Star Wars).
• General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) being the spy was too convenient and unlikely. Couldn’t Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) sense who was betraying him? He had pretty much every other power imaginable.
• Fin (John Boyega) suddenly developing Force sensitivity somewhat cheapens that power. Can anyone have it now? Perhaps it was just to give him more of a reason to exist, but I still think his character could have been combined with that of Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac).
• There’s a conspicuous lesbian kiss (seen among the celebrating Resistance fighters) for no apparent reason. This seems like a right-on gesture with no grounding in the plot logic.
• Even given the ending, in which Rey decides to consider Luke and Leia her true parents, the title made little sense.

Those points aside, there was a vast amount to enjoy. Daisy Ridley was compelling as Rey and the complicated love story between her and Kylo Ren makes for a strong central theme.

I was surprised how much Carrie Fisher was in it, given that she died before filming – presumably a “deep fake” scenario rather than a repurposing of unused footage. Wasn’t expecting to see Harrison Ford, either.

It was lovely to see a couple of Ewoks and a relief that there were no Gungans.

There were a few laughs – mainly banter from Poe.

The big “surprise” (unless you’d seen the trailer) return of Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian was superfluous, but presumably they felt they needed everyone they could get from the old films.

It goes without saying that the effects were incredible. I loved it when Palp sent force lightning up into space.

All in all, a hugely entertaining romp.

Before Sunrise (1995)

Young American man (Ethan Hawke) meets young French woman (Julie Delpy) on a train while they are both travelling in Europe. Mutually attracted, they spontaneously agree to leave the train at Vienna and spend a day together. The film details what happens next, mainly via their touchingly earnest conversations as they wander around the city, getting to know each other, encountering various walk-on characters and beginning to fall in love.

I really like Richard Linklater’s long takes, which feel semi-improvised – particularly the one in which the couple take turns playing pinball while talking, switching places each time they lose a game. This scene would have been different every time the actors ran through it, so you get a feeling that it’s special.

There’s something refreshingly different about the pacing and the convincingly “real” dialogue. And it’s very romantic. It’s enchanting to see how young and idealistic they are.

Two sequels would follow: Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013).