Young Man with a Horn (1950)

Kirk Douglas stars as a gifted trumpet player in search of the mysterious “high note” of life that eludes him. It’s based on a novel by Dorothy Baker, which was inspired by the life of Bix Beiderbecke.

Hoagy Carmichael (who was real-life friends with Beiderbecke) and Doris Day play a pianist and singer who befriend him and also perform with him. And Lauren Bacall plays the trumpeter’s restless, troubled wife who cannot decide what she wants and envies his focus and sense of purpose.

It’s engaging and moving. On the down side, some important moments are glossed over: Douglas meets and marries Bacall so quickly that their mismatch seems inevitable from the beginning and it’s never clear what they saw in each other.

The ending feels particularly rushed and superficially resolved, but there’s still much that’s good about this drama. Harry James’ music is a delight. Doris Day may be as squeaky-clean as ever, but there’s a noir-ish element to the film that gives it an edgier dimension.

For a Few Dollars More (1965)

In Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western sequel to A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Clint Eastwood is once again the “man with no name” – although confusingly he’s also now called Manco. This is a more sophisticated attempt to do something similar to that first film, with several of the same actors appearing in different roles.

This time, there’s a rival bounty hunter played by Lee Van Cleef. My favourite scene involves the two men shooting each other’s hats in a macho display of one-upmanship. But then they team up to defeat a ruthless band of bank robbers (led by the unconvincing Gian Maria Volonté and also including a hunchback played by Klaus Kinski), and we eventually learn that they have very different motivations...

The music is again brilliantly scored by Ennio Morricone.

On the down side, there are some “comedy” moments that don’t work at all. These add a surreal weirdness to a story that is actually fairly brutal.

The commentary by film historian Christopher Frayling is insightful and well worth watching.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman are both superb in this adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play. As you’d expect, there’s real dynamism in the script and these exceptional lead actors make the most of it.

Burl Ives plays “Big Daddy”, the father who never showed Brick enough love.

It’s moving and ultimately uplifting, with a strong thread of comedy and satire running through it as the various family relationships are examined and explored.

Thin Red Line (1998)

Ensemble film about WWII adapted from the 1962 James Jones novel. It presents multiple narrative perspectives. Unlike The Longest Day, it actually works. The all-star cast includes John Cusack, George Clooney, Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, John Travolta and Woody Harrelson, although Clooney and Travolta are barely there beyond brief cameos. Jim Caviezel and Ben Chaplin are especially strong.

It can be confusing at times, as the interior monologue switches between characters depending on who’s being shown on screen. Plus, the signposting of the wheres and whens of certain scenes can seem muddled.

It’s epic and expansive, also demonstrating a strong love of nature: there are long, lingering shots of wildlife and the long grass blowing in the wind. The action sequences are harrowing. And it builds up a philosophical depth as it goes along.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

After five films of Sean Connery as James Bond, George Lazenby steps in as 007 – smugly confident but not especially sparkly – for one time only.

The story gets off to a slow start with a fair bit of pottering around before the action kicks off. What is great in this film, however, is the girl Bond ends up falling for and even marrying. Unlike most of the females cast in these films, Diana Rigg is given a properly written role and a developed personality.

There are ludicrous moments, as always. The most absurd of these must be Bond walking around Blofeld’s secret base wearing a kilt and carrying a book on heraldry.

Telly Savalas is excellent as the villain: creepy but also oddly likeable. He brainwashes a bunch of young women wearing psychedelic clothes. And the action scenes – ski chase with machine guns, bobsleigh  chase, car chase in stock car race track – are exciting.

The tragic ending is so un-Bond-like that it seemed genuinely shocking.

Platoon (1986)

Oliver Stone’s first Vietnam war film seems trashy in places (the script could have been stronger), but it does a good job of storytelling. There are three main threads: the young soldier who loses his innocence (Charlie Sheen), two feuding sergeants (Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger), and a wider narrative about the US forces being out of their depth in a conflict that made no sense to them. It’s gory and harrowing at times. Watching it so soon after Apocalypse Now meant it was difficult not to compare them, and Platoon has none of that masterpiece’s poetry or visual flair. It’s rather surreal that the star of this film is the son of the star of that film, almost as if Platoon is the sequel.

If you believe Full Metal Jacket, all new soldiers had their heads shaved. Why, then, did Charlie Sheen have long, 1980s-style hair?

Despite its flaws, Platoon builds to a satisfying resolution, and as an anti-war film it very effectively shows you how desperate and horrible it was for these young men.

The Hurt Locker (2008)

Jeremy Renner stars in an extremely suspenseful tale of bomb disposal set during the Iraq War in 2004. Unlike his predecessor, he recklessly ignores the protocols of his role and puts his colleagues in even greater danger. But he appears to be a genius at his work, functioning under the most intense pressures imaginable.

I like the way the film features a couple of big-name stars (Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes), only for them to be quickly done away with. I certainly wasn’t expecting that.

Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty are both excellent as the other parts of the bomb-disposal unit. Seeing their fear and panic close-up adds to the hair-raising spectacle.

As the film unfolds it increasingly takes on deeper, more profound questions about life and death. Perhaps wisely, director Kathryn Bigelow refrains from passing moral judgements and lets the actions speak for themselves. That said, there’s an inevitable US bias to the storytelling.

An incredibly gripping film that won’t easily be forgotten.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

The sequel to Elizabeth is both trashier and more entertaining than that first film. Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush successfully reprise their roles as the queen and her spymaster. And again Shekhar Kapur directs, shooting several scenes from overhead for no apparent reason.

It’s very “loose” with the facts. Why make up events when the real story is so interesting? And if you do invent a new plot, make sure it works. You see an assassination attempt on the queen that was foiled because Anthony Babington (Eddie Redmayne) didn’t have bullets in his gun, but this failure is never explained. Had Walsingham removed the bullets? Was Babington just careless? In reality, he was just one of the plotters and he never pointed a gun at her. So they invented this plot strand only to leave it unresolved.

The other big flaw is Clive Owen as Sir Walter Rayleigh. His motivations are unclear. Is he there to impregnate the queen’s handmaiden (Bess Throckmorton, played by Abbie Cornish) or does he have some deep connection with the queen herself? Or, given his made-up importance in defeating the Spanish Armada, was it all “for England”? Again, bearing in mind that the truth has been embellished, the least they could have done is to make his character work. There’s a “Sunday night TV” quality about him, and I kept thinking of David Essex in some old programme or other.

These points aside, it’s an enjoyable romp. And Cate Blanchett is always worth watching.

Elizabeth (1998)

Biopic of Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603) detailing her ascendance to the throne and the various challenges to it that she overcame. It also details the workings of her inner circle and her private life alongside the progression of her public face as she fends off an endless stream of potential suitors and ultimately becomes the “virgin queen” of legend.

Cate Blanchett has a commanding presence in the title role, while Geoffrey Rush has menacing charisma as her adviser and spymaster Francis Walsingham. The all-star cast also includes Lily Allen, Richard Attenborough, Kathy Burke, Eric Cantona, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes and John Gielgud. And Daniel Craig shows up as a murdering monk.

It’s enjoyable, even if it does sometimes lack context. You will get more out of it if you know your history.

Shekhar Kapur’s direction was sometimes conspicuous. He has a thing for overhead shots and these were used too often.

Apocalypse Now Redux (2001)

Francis Ford Coppola’s astonishing film deserves all the acclaim it has received. Set during the Vietnam War, but not really about the conflict as such, it details a mission by Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Martin Sheen) to locate and kill a rogue officer named Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando). Kurtz has built an entire religion around himself and is seen as a threat to US forces. The story picks up on Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

It’s a stunning piece of cinema. The visuals are remarkable – again and again I was left wondering how something was filmed and how it could look so realistic.

The acting is terrific. Sheen is great as the troubled captain becoming obsessed with tracking down Kurtz. Robert Duvall is fascinatingly bonkers as the lieutenant colonel who just wants to go surfing, despite the explosions going off around him that he doesn’t even seem to notice. His scenes have rightly become iconic, from “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” to the moments when his men blast out Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” from their helicopters as they invade the Viet Cong.

The soundtrack is also remarkable: I love the spooky electronic sounds that so perfectly set the ominous tone of the trip upriver.

You get to see a young Harrison Ford as Colonel G. Lucas – a nod to George Lucas, who nearly ended up directing the film. Thank goodness he didn’t. And Dennis Hopper plays a photojournalist who has been inducted into Kurtz’s cult.

I haven’t seen the original 1979 edit of the film so I can’t tell how different the Redux version is. But you can see that certain scenes – such as meeting the French colonials – weren’t needed for narrative purposes. That said, I do like the way they further enrich the experience of the film. It’s so rich and compelling that there’s space for additional material.

Certainly the best war film I have seen. It hammers home the point that no one is left undamaged by conflict.

Sylvia (2003)

Engaging biopic of Sylvia Plath, mainly focusing on her relationship with Ted Hughes and the decline of her mental health. Gwyneth Paltrow is fairly strong as the American writer in the lead role. Daniel Craig is pretty good as her famous husband except that the Yorkshire accent tends to come and go and it’s difficult to see “James Bond” as a poet. Also, both film-stars are too good-looking to seem like struggling writers.

It’s appropriately grim and grimy in its depiction of England in the early 1960s. Everything seems dimly lit and rather grubby.

I like the way the film presents poetry as such a powerful force. The scenes in which they read out their work and are urged by their friends to do it even faster help to position it as a raw and vital pursuit that’s full of life and energy.

Hughes emerges as a major contributing factor in the depression that led to Plath’s suicide. I don’t know how fair or accurate that is, but the film certainly took Sylvia’s side.

As the story leads to its inevitable conclusion you are left feeling sorry for this young woman who simply needed help (the kindly neighbour played by Michael Gambon wasn’t enough) and for the two children she left behind.

Boyhood (2014)

Dazzling drama written and directed by Richard Linklater (who also made the excellent Before... films). It was filmed across 12 years, so you see a family literally growing and growing older before your eyes. It’s uncanny and very powerful.

Ellar Coltrane plays the boy, who we get to know at various points from ages six to 18. Lorelei Linklater (the director’s daughter) is his smart, pushy sister. Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke play their divorced parents, trying their best in life and love and finding that just as difficult as we all do. All four of them turn in stunningly believable performances.

It’s very touching indeed – heartbreaking, funny and enthralling. There are so many threads and it’s an incredibly rich narrative, although never complicated. Each time-snapshot segment works like a short story in its own right, but then we leap forward a few weeks, months or years and see how each episode feeds into the next.

I can’t imagine how a project this ambitious could have been planned and executed so skilfully, but Linklater pulls it off.

Gilda (1946)

Rita Hayworth is hugely charismatic in the title role of this noir-ish melodrama. Glenn Ford is the small-time gambler she shares a love/hate past with, while George Macready plays the sinister new husband who tells her “Hate is the only thing that has ever warmed me”. (His best “friend” is a dagger-tipped cane.) It’s an intense love triangle set against a backdrop of the wealthy Argentinean underworld.

The script is perfect, with characters often cleverly conveying double meanings in their lines.

Hayworth singing “Put the Blame on Mame” in a slinky black dress is seductive and almost disturbingly magnetic.

Carol (2015)

Compelling drama set in the 1950s and adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel The Price of Salt.

Carol is going through a divorce and becomes besotted with a young female shop assistant. The two become friends and then more than friends. After Carol is denied custody of her daughter over Christmas, the pair take off on a road trip. But Carol’s estranged husband has other ideas...

Cate Blanchett is mesmerising in the lead role, making every glance or smile or gesture count. Rooney Mara is perfectly cast as the slightly awkward object of her desires. It’s both romantic and uneasy.

Todd Haynes’ film is beautifully shot, with several moments filmed through glass or given a dreamy, luxurious quality. Despite that, it functions as a gritty drama.

Diana (2013)

Unfairly savaged biopic of the Princess of Wales, dealing with the last two years of her life. During this time she gave the famous BBC interview that spilled the beans on the royal family and how unhappy she’d been. This was also the period in which she had an intense relationship with heart surgeon Hasrat Khan, and their love story forms the main narrative thread.

Naomi Watts is believable as Diana, expertly replicating mannerisms such as the eyelash flutter and tilt of the head. She successfully depicts a ludicrously famous icon who is both insecure and cocky, willing to play with her position of power. Naveen Andrews is charismatic as her lover. And as a love story it works well. On the down side, the character of Dodi Fayed (her new boyfriend, who died with her in the Paris underpass on 31st August 1997) is entirely undeveloped. He barely gets a line of dialogue.

Critics were right to point out that there's a “Sunday night TV drama” aspect to it – mainly visually. It lacks “cinematic” qualities and doesn’t give off the lavish feel you would expect from a story about a princess. But it certainly doesn’t deserve the trashing it received.

Diana was directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. I realise I’m in a tiny minority by far preferring this film to his more celebrated Downfall.

Frantic (1988)

Tense, constantly gripping thriller directed by Roman Polanski. Harrison Ford plays an American doctor in Paris whose wife is kidnapped from their hotel. In the absence of any help from the police or the US embassy he sets out to find her himself, aided only by a pretty young drug smuggler called Michelle (Emmanuelle Seigner).

It’s a taut and exciting narrative, with the mystery steadily deepening as Ford's character begins to learn what’s happening. There are moments of black humour, too, as his situation becomes more and more dire. The scene in which he scrabbles around on a slippery rooftop is a highlight.

Music is by Ennio Morricone, excellently judged as ever, with additional tracks by Grace Jones.

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

Spaghetti western directed by Sergio Leone and with music by Ennio Morricone. Clint Eastwood, the “man with no name”, rolls into town and discovers two warring family factions. He cleverly plays them off against each other, initiating a cycle of escalating violence.

The film is entertaining and enjoyable, despite the major distraction of all the dialogue (including Clint’s) being dubbed on afterwards. It’s visually striking and surprisingly gory for the time. Eastwood is effortlessly stylish as the poncho-wearing gunslinger, even after being badly beaten up.

Bullitt (1968)

Steve McQueen is detective Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, tasked with protecting a witness for US Senator Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn). But of course things don’t go to plan. McQueen, as usual in his films, looks good and is a powerfully brooding presence without having to say much. He rarely seems to spark off other characters, and he never gets much dialogue.

I liked Jacqueline Bisset as his girlfriend Cathy and wished she had been in it more.

It’s a nice drama with a spectacular car chase in the streets of San Francisco, but the ending is oddly flat and disappointing with nothing really resolved. I understand that they wanted to keep it downbeat, but it felt very unsatisfactory.