In Bruges (2008)

Directed and written by Martin McDonagh, this is a drama that also functions as a black comedy and a tense thriller. 

Two hitmen (Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell) travel to Bruges to await instructions for their next job from their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes). While passing the time as would-be tourists, they try to come to terms with who they are and what they do for a living – until a call from Harry changes everything. 

It’s brilliantly written – a superb character study with some very funny lines. It’s also extremely sad, as we see the pair wrestling with their consciences and questioning whether they are entitled to strive for a better kind of life.

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)

A quirky comedy. 

Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow star as two friends who travel from Los Angeles to Tucson, Arizona, to attend their school reunion, anxious to impress the peers who snubbed them 10 years previously.

As with so many American films, there’s a lot about status anxiety. It’s a story about aspiration and class. It’s also about the importance of friendship. While some of the jokes miss the mark completely, and the writing could be sharper, there’s enough charm in the two leads’ performances that it works. 

I’m still not sure if it’s forgettable fluff or a satire of forgettable fluff. It certainly doesn’t have the edge of Clueless, but it’s in the same general universe.

The World's End (2013)

Directed by Edgar Wright, this is the third in a loose trilogy that began with Shaun of the Dead and continued with Hot Fuzz. 

The story concerns five friends, who – encouraged by Gary King (Simon Pegg) – return to their hometown to take part in a nostalgic pub crawl. Unfortunately, Newton Haven has been taken over by blue-blooded aliens. 

Once again, there’s an obsession with small English towns and the way people behave in them. 

The usual team of Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Julia Deakin, Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy all appear, alongside Rosamund Pike and Pierce Brosnan.

It’s not quite as strong as the first two films, perhaps because you know what to expect already. But the performances are all first-rate and there are many funny lines.

Nightcrawler (2013)

Grimly funny and deeply unsettling, this is a masterful crime drama that dabbles with the blackest comedy imaginable. 

Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) goes into business selling video footage of crime scenes to a TV network. He also has designs on their news editor, Nina (Rene Russo). But his work takes him into some extreme situations that reveal his amoral ruthlessness. 

The film expertly juggles various themes. There are the ethics of journalism’s involvement in personal tragedies, and questions about voyeurism. There’s also a brilliant strand of corporate satire, as Louis tutors and controls his assistant Rick (Riz Ahmed), lecturing him on business strategy and career advancement. It amuses and appals at the same time, because Louis seems simultaneously so utterly deranged and yet brilliant. 

It’s such an intelligent and well-paced film that you are immediately swept up into the protagonist’s murky world. Nothing you could add or remove would make it any better.

Made in Italy (2020)

An artist (Liam Neeson) and his son (Neeson’s real-life son Micheál Richardson) struggle to deal with the loss of their wife/mother while attempting to sell their run-down old house in Italy. 

The film tries to be poignant but isn’t well-written enough to inspire much of an emotional response – despite the tragic parallels with the actors’ own lives. Instead, it ends up being a sort of fifth-rate Richard Curtis homage – a rather tepid light drama with only one genuinely funny line.

Lindsay Duncan adds a little grit as a stern estate agent. Valeria Bilello seems rather idealised and one-dimensional as the son’s love interest. Neeson has his usual rugged appeal but sleepwalks through the role. 

It’s easy-to-watch, and of course the Italian landscapes are seductive, but ultimately it’s all rather mediocre.

The Life of David Gale (2003)

Thriller/drama directed by Alan Parker. 

David Gale (Kevin Spacey) plays a university professor and anti-capital punishment campaigner who finds himself on death row. A journalist improbably called Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) is sent to meet him and conduct his final interviews. Through their conversations, she begins to unravel what really happened in the crime he is accused of. We see those events unfold in flashback. 

It’s a tense and exciting story that’s slightly spoiled by the last five minutes, which offers one unlikely twist too many. As soon as you start asking questions about the plot logic, it collapses. 

Spacey and Winslet are both excellent, as is Laura Linney as Gale’s friend and colleague. 

The film makes some good points about the evils of capital punishment, although you can’t help thinking that those points would be stronger still without the final twist. A simpler, more believable plot would have worked so much better.

Blood Diamond (2006)

An engrossing drama directed by Edward Zwick. 

A diamond smuggler working in Sierra Leone (Leonardo DiCaprio) begins to examine his motives after meeting an American investigative journalist and a local man who has been separated from his wife and son. 

DiCaprio is compelling but not quite at his best. Maybe it’s his South African accent that makes him a little less convincing than usual. That said, his character development as the film progresses is extremely well done. I liked Jennifer Connelly as the journalist, too. 

The film makes some strong moral points about trading in "conflict diamonds", but because DiCaprio’s character is presented as amoral it’s not as heavy-handed or judgemental as it might have been.

Fly Away Home (1996)

Heartwarming drama.

A girl (Anna Paquin) loses her mother in a car crash and goes to live with her inventor father (Jeff Daniels) in rural Canada. After some of his land is bulldozed by developers, Amy rescues several abandoned goose eggs and nurtures the geese to adulthood. Ultimately, she uses a microlight plane to teach the birds to migrate south. 

Remarkably, this is based on true events. 

It’s an ecological drama that could have ended up cutesy and trite but for the fact that it also addresses bereavement and family relationships.

The flying scenes are stunning and you can’t see how they were filmed.

A Simple Plan (1998)

Superb drama. 

Brothers Hank (Bill Paxton) and Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton), plus Jacob’s friend Lou (Brent Briscoe), find a crashed aircraft buried in snow in remote, rural Wright County, Minnesota. There’s $4 million inside it, which – after some debate – they decide to keep. That decision changes everything in their lives. 

This is a devastating story. It works as an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but really it’s a profound morality tale. 

Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton are excellent as the conflicted brothers with little in common. Bridget Fonda is great, too, as Hank’s wife who becomes increasingly pulled into the drama of their own making. The escalating situation is perfectly handled by director Sam Raimi. 

The novel, by Scott Smith, is even better.

The Road (2009)

Brilliantly bleak disaster/survival story adapted from the novel by Cormac McCarthy. 

An unnamed man and his son (Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee) travel across the wasteland of a post-apocalyptic America following an unnamed disaster. 

It’s horrifying in places (there’s a recurring thread about vigilante bands of cannibals roaming the land), but it’s also a tender drama about the love between a boy and his father. 

The film asks you to consider what value life has after everything else has been lost. I like the way it doesn’t try to explain the event that led to this chaos. Instead, it just puts you straight into the situation and lets you stare it in the face.

My Fair Lady (1964)

The “classic” musical turns out to be a huge disappointment. 

A conceited professor of phonetics (Rex Harrison) tasks himself with taking a working-class girl named Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) and educating her sufficiently so that she can pose as a member of high society. 

Hepburn and Harrison have plenty of charisma and charm, but pretty much everything else falls flat. Elisa’s dustman father (Stanley Holloway) is an embarrassing disaster. The “chorus” scenes don’t really work, either, and the rather abusive treatment of Elisa is played for laughs in a way that you can’t imagine happening in a modern film. In narrative terms, the two transformative moments – Elisa learning to enunciate and the pair realising they are in love – are both completely thrown away, buried in pointless filler set pieces and side plots that drag out the running time. 

I liked Harrison’s talk-sing delivery of his song lyrics. The style almost approaches rap. But beyond a couple of memorable songs, all you’re left with is two talented actors struggling to rise above a drab and tiresome mess.

The Remains of the Day (1993)

Masterful slow-burning drama based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker Prize-winning novel. It was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. 

The story focuses on a butler (Anthony Hopkins) and a housekeeper (Emma Thompson), who develop a deep love for one another but are unable to declare it. We see their story in two time periods – when they work at Darlington Hall in the late 1930s at a point when Lord Darlington (James Fox) begins entertaining fascist-sympathising aristocrats, and their attempt to meet up again in 1958.

The two lead performances are astonishing and perfectly nuanced. There’s so much feeling and power in what they don’t say. There’s passion and tenderness, too, even though it’s all held back behind the mask of duty. 

It’s a superbly shot film, too, becoming hypnotic where a lesser director would have made it merely dull.

Hugh Grant is excellent as Lord Darlington’s godson and Christopher Reeve adds gravitas as US Congressman Jack Lewis.

One Fine Day (1996)

Rom-com about two single-parent New Yorkers. 

Journalist Jack (George Clooney) meets architect Melanie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and – across a hectic day involving career and childcare challenges – the pair have to put aside their differences and help each other. 

It’s nearly brilliant, but the script just isn’t sharp or funny enough. The two leads are both excellent, and there’s plenty of chemistry, but even with their considerable talents the dialogue cannot sparkle and the humour cannot hit home. For example, a thread about the couple accidentally switching mobile phones isn’t sufficiently mined for comic effect. A more skilled writer (such as Nora Ephron) would have done so much more with it. 

It’s a shame because Clooney and Pfeiffer exude charm and their performances are worthy of a better film than this.

Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)

Very sharp, very funny mockumentary about a beauty pageant in the small town of Mount Rose, Minnesota. 

Every member of the cast is outstanding. Kirsten Dunst is the sweet Amber Arkins, who wants to follow in the footsteps of her hero Diane Sawyer. Ellen Barkin plays Amber's mother, and Allison Janney is her mother’s friend. Kirsty Alley plays the head of the pageant’s organising committee and a former winner of the same competition. Meanwhile, her daughter (Denise Richards) may or may not be killing off her rival contestants.  

Surprisingly, the film wasn't a success. It’s in the style of This Is Spinal Tap and Best in Show, but it has a savage black humour and intelligence of its own.

The Butcher of Prague (2011)

Also known as Lidice and Fall of the Innocent, this drama tells the story of the Nazi massacre in the Czech village of Lidice. 

Karel Roden plays a man who returns to his village after a spell in prison, only to find that it no longer exists. 

Beyond the history lesson, I didn’t get a great deal out of the film. Not entirely sure why, as the performances were mostly strong. Perhaps I was just in the wrong frame of mind to witness more senseless killing and cruelty.

Dream House (2011)

Psychological thriller starring Daniel Craig as an editor who moves into a new suburban home with his wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) and two daughters. But all in the house is not as it seems and only his neighbour (Naomi Watts) seems to really know what’s going on. 

There are a couple of major plot twists, so it’s difficult to reveal any more about the story without ruining it. Craig and Weisz are OK (and it’s quite interesting to watch this real-life couple play a pretend couple), but Watts is oddly underused. The creepy premise isn’t quite followed through, so it slightly runs out of steam. 

Shutter Island is a better treatment of similar themes. Also, the main part of the film works as a psychological study, so it’s a shame that a genuine supernatural element is confirmed near the end. All that said, it’s a fairly entertaining romp.

Face/Off (1997)

Absurd body-swap action-thriller directed by John Woo and incorporating elements of sci-fi and horror. 

A criminal (Nic Cage) and an FBI agent (John Travolta) have their faces switched with the use of pioneering technology. Meanwhile, the criminal has planted a bomb somewhere in Los Angeles. 

Cartoonish and unbelievable, Face/Off ends up being possibly the strangest film I’ve ever seen. Cage plays it like a pantomime villain, hamming it up so much that you realise the film is nearly a comedy – and would perhaps have worked better that way. On the plus side, the action sequence involving speedboats is one of the best I’ve ever seen. 

The film doesn't really bother to explore the complex identity questions it hints at: are we "ourselves" (with a consistent being at the core) or are we merely what we look like? It's so ridiculous that it takes cinema to a different level where different rules apply. Forget logic. It’s a thrilling, farcical mess that somehow works – despite Travolta’s creepy tic of touching the face of anyone he meets.

Chariots of Fire (1981)

A drama based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics. Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) is a devout Scottish Christian running to honour God, while Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) runs to overcome prejudice about his Judaism. Their stories are told in parallel, until they converge.  

Nigel Havers, Ian Holm, John Gielgud also star.

The film hasn’t dated especially well, but the synth soundtrack by Vangelis is excellent and I like the fact that the sci-fi synth tones jar with the 1920s visuals. 

Overall, I was disappointed. I'd expected something much more stirring and inspirational. Instead, the drama seems flat and the middle of the film really sags. The slow-motion effect is wildly over-used, becoming clichéd and almost almost comical. And, unfortunately, when Harold wins his all-important race it’s filmed and directed in a way that seems oddly anticlimactic.

Crazy Heart (2009)

A moving drama about a country singer "Bad" Blake (Jeff Bridges) whose career is on the way down and who is struggling with addiction. But when Bad meets a divorced young journalist named Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), things start to change. 

It’s a touching romance that never gives in to mere sentimentality. The two leads are remarkable, with a very real chemistry. The music is excellent, too. Bridges seems every bit the grizzled country singer. You can truly believe him, whether he’s at his public best on stage or at his private nadir, passing out drunk in his hotel room. 

There are parallels with A Star Is Born, and particularly the Streisand/Kristofferson version from 1976, but Crazy Heart seems like a more credible attempt to present a fading performer in a desperate situation.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Cold War spy thriller adapted from the 1974 novel by John Le Carre. 

Gary Oldman is George Smiley, leading an all-star cast that also includes Kathy Burke, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones and Mark Strong. 

The plot follows Smiley’s efforts to track down a double agent within the British secret service. I found it often too complicated to follow. I also got annoyed with the unrelenting greys and the deliberately grim visuals. Most of the “drama” comes from flashbacks or reported speech, making it less than compelling. I could appreciate that it was an expertly made film but it was too focused on mood and style to ever pull me in.

Water for Elephants (2011)

Romantic drama directed by Francis Lawrence. 

Robert Pattinson stars as a young veterinary medicine student, Jacob Jankowski, who joins a travelling circus in 1931. He meets the sadistic ringmaster (Christoph Waltz) and falls in love with his wife (Reese Witherspoon). 

It’s compelling. The circus crew live and travel on a train, and their micro-world is conveyed well. Waltz is convincingly multi-faceted and menacing. The love story is touching without being schmaltzy. And the CGI animals seem completely real. 

The one flaw – and it’s a big one – is the slightly cheesy framing device in which we see Jankowski as an old man (Hal Holbrook), looking back on his life and narrating the story. Why was this considered necessary?

Also, the title makes no sense. Maybe it works in the novel (by Sara Gruen), but it jars a little for this adaptation.

Shutter Island (2010)

US marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is sent to a Boston Harbour island. With his companion (Mark Ruffalo), he is looking into the disappearance of a patient from the Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane. But he’s quickly swept into a deeper mystery about what’s really going on at the asylum. 

Directed by Martin Scorsese, this is a genuinely terrifying psychological thriller. Leonardo DiCaprio is superb as a complicated character making a horrible discovery. 

It’s closer in tone to Cape Fear than anything else I’ve seen by Scorsese. What seems to be a noirish thriller acquires extra depths as it becomes stranger and even more disturbing. It’s difficult to say any more without giving away the big twist. 

The superb cast also includes Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams and Max von Sydow.

Cast a Giant Shadow (1966)

Google: “In this fact-based film, distinguished U.S. Army Col. David Marcus (Kirk Douglas) is enlisted by the Israelis to perform the difficult task of preparing their fledgling nation for battle against the Arabs. Before long, he feuds with the local leaders, quits his post and goes back home to his pregnant wife (Angie Dickinson) in the United States. However, Marcus, who is Jewish himself, soon has a crisis of faith and decides to return to duty to help the untrained Israelis form an army.”

The film is slow and laboured. The sound quality is poor and the dialogue isn’t synchronised quite right. There’s a disjointed, awkward feel. 

John Wayne, Topol, Frank Sinatra and Yul Brynner all appear, but no amount of star charisma can make the script work. I do like Senta Berger as Magda Simon. She has a certain warmth and charm that is lacking elsewhere. Kirk Douglas is watchable, too, but seems much too chirpy most of the time, adding to a feeling that the whole affair is rather shallow.

On the plus side, there are a few good lines. For example, when David asks his wife why she’s up so late, she replies: “I worry better when I’m awake.”

Rain Man (1988)

Excellent drama directed by Barry Levinson. 

Charlie Babbit (Tom Cruise) is a car dealer having business problems. He’s selfish and brash. After his father dies, Charlie learns that he has been denied an inheritance but also finds out that he has a brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), who lives in a mental institution and who is described as an “autistic savant”. Charlie essentially kidnaps him, hoping to get his share of the will. But then his relationship with his brother begins to develop. 

Tom Cruise delivers his best ever performance because the script and direction are so strong that even he can’t mess them up. Hoffman is extremely compelling, too. You wonder, however, what autism organisations make of his portrayal. Is it accurate or does it simplify and mislead? 

The film works as a “road movie”, with the car trip being a central motif. Ultimately, it’s a touching character study.

3-Iron (2004)

An extremely unusual romantic drama.

Jae Hee plays a young drifter who breaks into people's homes while they are away. But rather than steal from them, he cleans their clothes and fixes their appliances. While living this strange existence he encounters a housewife (Lee Seung-yeon), who is being mistreated by her husband, and they fall in love. 

You think you know where things are going, but the realist style of the first half then gives way to something magical and completely unexpected. It becomes a story with no single interpretation. Instead, you are left debating what really happens and how.

It's different and charming. There's a thread of very black humour running through it as well – particularly in the use of the golf clubs that give the film its title.

Wonder Boys (2000)

Google: “A college professor tries to overcome his writer's block and finish his novel while dealing with divorce, his affair with the chancellor's wife, a thieving student and his expectant publisher.”

The disheveled Michael Douglas is excellent in the main part, and his mid-life crisis is highly watchable. I wasn’t too keen on the queasy blend of comedy and drama, which sometimes feels awkward. The presence of a dank Tobey Maguire doesn't help.

The soundtrack is for men of “a certain age”: Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison all feature. 

Directed by Curtis Hanson and adapted from the 1995 novel by Michael Chabon, this is a celebrated film that doesn't quite live up to expectations.

The Beach (2000)

An adaptation of the popular novel by Alex Garland. 

A young American traveller called Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes in search of a mythical island – and finds it. There, he joins an idealistic community led by Sal (a believable Tilda Swinton). But he soon discovers that this is far from the paradise he dreamed of.

DiCaprio is superb in the main role. His mixture of arrogance and vulnerability seems very real. 

I’m less keen on some of the stylings from director Danny Boyle, such as when Richard imagines he’s within a video game and the film becomes one. But the story and acting are so strong that you are swept along by the plot anyway.

Taken 2 (2012)

The baddies who kidnapped Liam Neeson’s daughter in the first film want their revenge for the people Liam Neeson killed. So Liam Neeson goes off again, fighting brutal killers. But this time they have his wife... 

It’s formulaic, racist and trashy, but nevertheless extremely well-paced and fairly exciting. As the rather OCD, over-possessive Bryan, Neeson has a presence that holds your interest – even when the plot is unbelievable. And it is often unbelievable, such as his daughter’s incredible driving ability (even though she hasn’t yet passed her driving test). 

In terms of the title, they could have tried harder. How about these alternatives?
• Taken to the Cleaners (Bryan’s daughter is kidnapped at a launderette)
• Taken for Granted (Bryan’s “very particular set of skills” are overlooked)
• Taken Out (Bryan kills even more people)
• Taken Seriously (fewer car chases and shoot-outs; more soul-searching drama)
• Taken Over (the final instalment)

Never Let Me Go (2010)

Based on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, this is possibly the most depressing film I’ve ever seen. 

1978. Three young friends, Kathy, Tommy and Ruth, are at a mysterious boarding school called Hailsham. One day, a teacher tells them that they only exist to be organ donors. They will “complete” (i.e., die) in early adulthood when they are no longer strong enough to donate further organs. The film is split between their childhood at Hailsham and their adulthood – in 1985, and then in 1994 – once the donor process begins. Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield star. 

What makes it work is that the plot functions as a romantic love triangle, but it’s set against an extremely subtle dystopian backdrop. There’s a lot that isn’t explained – such as why they barely seem to resist or even question their destiny. Is that because of brainwashing or did the film just avoid the most obvious issues? As it stands, their resigned behaviour just adds to the sense of grim fatalism, which is probably intentional. 

The bleakness comes from the way it’s shot as well as the overall message. It leaves you almost no glimmer of hope. In its own it's way quite brilliant, but ultimately I regretted watching it.

Mamma Mia! (2008)

Deeply strange film of the stage musical that’s built around songs by Abba. But whereas in the stage show the songs are all performed by the cast, the film mixes cast vocals with “pop video” sequences to jarring effect. 

It’s possibly the weirdest film I’ve ever seen. 

The flimsy “plot” is simple: a girl called Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is getting married and wants to invite her father. But she’s unsure which of three possible contenders he is. So she invites them all to the Greek island hotel owned by her mother in order to find out.

Meryl Streep is surprisingly good in the main role, and sings pretty well. Pierce Brosnan comes across oddly and sings badly. Colin Firth is likeable but given little to go on in terms of the script. 

Most notable are the visuals. The lighting doesn’t look real and I don’t think it’s even meant to. It creates a kind of multi-coloured hyper-reality of its own. Some of the casting is peculiar, too. Julie Walters seems an odd choice for one of Streep’s best friends, and her “fun-loving” character is coarse and difficult to endure. Even worse is Sky (Dominic Cooper), Sophie’s unappealing fiancé.

I spent most of the film in shock, unsure what I was meant to be thinking or feeling. The Abba songs are great, of course, but did they need to be used to soundtrack a fairly banal romantic comedy?

Amy (2015)

Brilliant documentary directed by Asif Kapadia, piecing together the life and death of Amy Winehouse. As with his film Senna, there are no “talking heads” to provide a master narrative. Instead, it’s a mixture of home videos, archive footage and songs in performance. 

It’s fairly harrowing, as you might expect, to see this talented young singer so quickly spiral into the hell of fame and addiction. The saddest aspect is that she simply didn’t appear to have the support around her that she  so desperately needed. Her husband (Blake Fielder) was imprisoned for assaulting a pub landlord. Her father (Mitchell Winehouse) had abandoned her family when Amy was a child, then returned in the role of manager/Svengali after Amy’s success took off. You are encouraged to wonder how much these two individuals were steering her down the wrong path for their own gains. 

Does it teach you anything new about Amy Winehouse? Not really. But I’d never really considered the strangeness of her songwriting before. Seeing the lyrics spelled out on screen as she sings them reveals just how odd they are.

All the President’s Men (1976)

Adapted from the 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, this tells the story of how two Washington Post journalists broke news of the Watergate scandal that ultimately brought down US president Richard Nixon. 

Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford are both at their very best playing the journalists. It’s a fascinating glimpse into another era. In this pre-internet world, they spend most of their time talking to people, phoning people, typing, scrawling in notebooks, chain-smoking and drinking coffee. In our current period of misinformation politics and double-think social media, the 1970s seem relatively straightforward and innocent. 

You wonder if this film could even have been made now: there are no tech giants, no billionaires dictating how people communicate, no car chases, no shootings and no “love interest” – just two writers trying to uncover the truth.

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

Trashy historical drama. 

Scarlett Johansson plays Mary Boleyn. Natalie Portman is her more famous sister Anne, the second wife of Henry VIII. The story details the two sisters and their ill-fated relationships with the king, who desperately craves a male heir. 

It’s a work of fiction, adapted from a novel by Philippa Gregory, rather than a slice of history. This allows it to explore what might have happened rather than what probably happened.

There are some entertaining moments. Portman is unusually strong in her role, while Johansson is typically weak. There are also solid performances by Kristin Scott Thomas and Eddie Redmayne. What lets it down is Eric Bana as Henry VIII. For the plot to work, he needs to be charismatic and magnetic. Bana is none of these things. You cannot believe that this rather weedy figure has so much influence because he completely lacks gravitas.

Their Finest (2016)

Comedy drama.

A writer named Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is hired by the Ministry of Information in 1940 to help create propaganda films during World War II. She faces sexism and other setbacks, has to deal with the ego of star actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy), and develops an up-and-down creative relationship with her co-writer Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin). 

It’s subtle and witty, with the film-within-a-film aspect working extremely well. Initially it has the feel of a “Sunday night TV drama”, but it acquires depth as it develops. Arterton is excellent, conveying an emotional range that you might not expect after seeing her brief appearance as MI6 agent Strawberry Fields in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace.

21 Grams (2003)

Powerful and disturbing drama directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Danny Huston.

The plot interweaves the lives of several characters, told with extensive flashbacks. The mixed-up chronology can be challenging – it might have worked better in linear sequence – but the material is harrowing in any order. The relentlessly dark subject matter includes alcoholism, drug addiction, bereavement, born-again religion, relationship separation and terrible psychological anguish. 

Del Toro, Penn and Watts are all excellent, tackling extremely difficult scenes. It’s searing, gut-wrenching storytelling that is quite painful to watch. 

It’s visually striking, too. The colour and graininess of the film changes with the mood and tone of the events, but overall there’s very little lightness or hope offered.

Deliverance (1972)

A masterpiece. This is a survival thriller directed by John Boorman, and adapted by James Dickey from his 1970 novel. 

It stars Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox as four friends who take a disastrous canoe trip in the northern Georgia wilderness before the river is dammed and an entire community is erased. 

It works on multiple levels, like all great art. There’s a theme about poverty and the dispossessed – an entire band of society with no voice and no rights is abandoned and eradicated. Plus, there’s an ecological theme: we can never truly master the environment. There are also various moral questions that arise from their encounters with crazed locals. 

There’s a wonderful and poignant soundtrack. The film is beautifully shot. The characters are extremely well drawn. The dialogue is believable. The acting is uniformly strong. The storytelling is lucid. It’s moving, gripping and profound.

Ronin (1998)

Woeful action thriller directed by John Frankenheimer and written by John David Zeik and David Mamet. 

Robert De Niro stars as one of a team of special operatives working in France, hoping to seize a special suitcase from a super-criminal. But, inevitably, there are double-crossings and other complications... 

It’s deeply odd. The directing is off, somehow, with strangely framed shots and stilted camerawork lingering on the wrong details. Whenever someone is portrayed as waiting, they are forced to sit and sip coffee. That soon stands out as a conspicuous, awkward directorial tic. People just can’t stop drinking coffee in this film. There’s a kind of flatness that comes from a below-average script and actors who don’t believe in the lines they’re speaking. Jean Reno and Sean Bean have a degree of presence, but unfortunately they don’t have fleshed-out characters. Even De Niro is clearly struggling to rise above the shoddy material. 

The “Ronin” concept falls flat, with forced references to Japanese warrior culture not really working at all. It looks cheap, and it’s amazingly dull for a film with so many high-speed car chases. Parts of it are so ridiculous that it becomes laugh-out-loud funny. 

The music is intrusive and ill-judged – for example, when a “romantic” theme is matched to a dramatic scene. 

All in all, a total mess that should be regarded as a set text for film students wanting to learn how not to make a thriller.

Magnum Force (1973)

Vigilante action thriller, with Clint Eastwood reprising the role of Harry Callahan from the original Dirty Harry film. This time he’s investigating a series of murders of criminals in San Francisco by a traffic cop (played by David Soul). 

Directed by Ted Post, it looks great, with imaginatively and intelligently framed shots. There are gorgeous old American cars and luxurious open spaces. 

There’s an excellent soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin.

French Kiss (1995)

Lame, tepid rom-com that’s neither romantic nor funny. 

Meg Ryan plays Kate, an extremely annoying American living in Canada. She flies to France after her oddly charmless fiancée ditches her for a French “goddess”. Kevin Kline plays Luc, a small-time French crook who offers to assist Kate in getting back her fiancée, but who – inevitably – falls in love with her. 

There’s a good idea for a film in there somewhere, but the characters’ actions simply don’t ring true. Also, the convoluted “crime” sub-plot fizzles out somewhat. You see a few French locations, but it doesn’t even work as a “tourist brochure” kind of film. It’s a teeny bit racist, too. 

It’s badly in need of a sharper, wittier script to make more of Ryan and Kline’s considerable talents.

The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017)

When Warsaw Zoo is attacked by the Nazis at the start of World War II, zookeeper Jan Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh) and his wife Antonina (Jessica Chastain) are unable to save the animals, but manage to rescue and protect hundreds of Polish Jews from the Germans. 

It’s a powerful and moving story – especially given that it’s based on real events. Chastain is superb, as is Daniel Brühl as Lutz Heck, Hitler's chief zoologist, who develops an uneasy connection with Antonina. 

It’s unbearably tense in places and harrowing in others.

Sweet Charity (1969)

Musical directed by Bob Fosse and written by Neil Simon, adapted from the stage musical. 

Shirley MacLaine plays Charity, a dancer who dreams of falling in love. She’s unlucky with a thief and a film star, but then she gets trapped in a lift with the nervous Oscar Lindquist (John McMartin), who she eventually comes to believe really loves her. 

It’s extremely unusual. It's big on colour, with the bright pinks and purples of the Batman TV series. There's a bizarre, bolted-on psychedelic interlude featuring Sammy Davis Jr. And there's an intriguing use of stills amid the action. 

I was disappointed with the ending, and it was interesting to find an alternative – and superior – conclusion as one of the DVD extras.

The Queen (2006)

Drama directed by Stephen Frears about the Queen’s reaction to the death of Princess Diana in 1997, and the new Prime Minister’s role in her subsequent actions. 

Helen Mirren plays the monarch. Martin Sheen plays Tony Blair, brilliantly capturing something of his personality. 

It’s subtle and surprisingly funny, working as social history, gentle satire and an insightful character study.

Of course we’ll never know how accurate it is in terms of the private conversations within the palace, but the general trend of events is backed up by actual news footage (as well as our memories of living through that remarkable period).

Milk (2008)

Biopic of Harvey Milk, who campaigned for gay rights in California until his assassination in 1978. 

Sean Penn is superb in the main role, with a fascinating twitchy energy and a set of mannerisms that make him incredibly watchable. Josh Brolin is excellent as Dan White, a San Francisco city supervisor and political rival. 

The assassination is referenced right at the start, so you know what’s going to happen. As such it’s painful to watch the film proceed to its inevitable conclusion.

Philadelphia (1993)

Directed by Jonathan Demme, this is an emotional drama starring Tom Hanks as Andy Beckett, a lawyer who is dismissed from his firm for being a gay man with AIDS. Denzel Washington plays Joe Miller, the lawyer who represents him in court. 

The drama comes from two parallel threads. The first details Andy’s swift decline in health. The second deals with Joe having to work through his homophobia and put aside his prejudices to do what he knows is right. Washington is excellent at portraying that conflict. You can see his mixed feelings in every scene, as he slowly comes round to what his conscience is telling him. 

Parts of the film are unusually shot, and especially a section in which Andy enters a heightened state while listening to opera. Later, in the courtroom, unusual camera angles are employed to show his faltering consciousness.

It’s to Demme’s credit that he doesn’t opt for a tragic feel to the inevitable ending. Instead, he introduces a celebratory quality based on the sense of community and family love that the film has successfully established around Andy. 

There’s a strong soundtrack, mixing classical music with new songs written for the film by Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young.

Freaky Friday (1976)

Excellent body-swap comedy from Disney. 

A mother and daughter switch roles, with comedic results. Jodie Foster plays the daughter, while Barbara Harris plays the mother. There’s plenty of silly slapstick, as pretty much everything goes wrong for both of them, but the film also makes some interesting points about gender roles (Annabel realises that her idealised father is actually a chauvinist pig) and the expectations of US society in the 1970s. 

Foster is fine enough at playing her own mother, but Harris is superb as her own daughter – really making you believe she's a teenager trapped in an adult's body.

There’s a superb theme song, too – "I’d Like to Be You for a Day" – although there's some confusion about whether or not it's sung by the two female leads.

Layer Cake (2004)

Brit crime thriller starring Daniel Craig as a drug dealer who – just as he’s about to retire – becomes wrapped up in a dangerous world of gangsters. 

It’s highly stylised, but oddly unsatisfying. The twists and turns of the plot are difficult to follow. And some parts seem clichéd, such as the Scorsese-lite touch of using “Gimme Shelter” on the soundtrack. It’s violent and nasty, too. 

Michael Gambon is an impressively horrid villain, and Daniel Craig is always watchable, but there’s a shallowness that makes it hard to like. It aims for “gritty” but only achieves “depressing”.

Scent of a Woman (1992)

A masterpiece quite unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. It’s the very blackest comedy, an extremely moving drama and a fascinating character study. 

A New England preparatory school student Charlie Simms (Chris O’Donnell) is in trouble, after witnessing a rule-breaking prank, and also in need of money. He takes on a curious job: looking after a retired lieutenant colonel (Al Pacino) while his niece is away for the weekend. The colonel is not only blind but also volatile and difficult, and he takes Charles to New York with a somewhat different plan in mind.

Al Pacino is at his very best as the seemingly deranged colonel. His various outbursts are funny and terrifying at the same time. There are some superb scenes, including a tango in a restaurant and a high-speed test-drive of a Ferrari. 

The film surprises with its structure, too. After one emotional peak regarding the colonel’s death wish, there’s another one as Charlie’s future is addressed. This could all have been terribly uneven, but it’s so well done that it works perfectly. 

The script is spot on. The soundtrack by Thomas Newman is appropriate and matches the narrative. Pacino’s presence is incredible.

Calamity Jane (1953)

Google: “The boisterous Calamity Jane Canary, the Wild West heroine, who dresses like a man, helps bring a star attraction to Deadwood and finds love.”

Doris Day is compelling and easy to like as the boisterous heroine in this brassy and colourful musical. Howard Keel is less appealing as Bill Hickok – a low, booming voice but not a great deal of charisma. Allyn Ann McLerie is charming as Katie Brown, the would-be singer and actress whose visit to Deadwood changes their lives. 

It’s lively and energetic. What makes it fascinating is the approach to gender politics. Calamity has to make herself “acceptable” to men by wearing a pretty dress and getting away from “female thinking”. It’s possibly the most sexist film I’ve ever seen.

The Ghost (2010)

Political thriller directed by Roman Polanski and adapted from a novel by Robert Harris. Ewan McGregor stars as a ghostwriter employed to help an ex-prime minister (Pierce Brosnan) complete his memoirs. That’s because the previous ghostwriter died in mysterious circumstances that soon threaten McGregor as well. 

It’s extremely odd. Parts of it are unintentionally funny. McGregor has a cockney accent and at times sounds like a young Michael Caine, but beyond that isn’t given any personality at all. Brosnan also speaks oddly, and his usual natural quality is absent. The two women in the ex-PM’s life (Kim Cattrall as Olivia Williams) are both played in a hammy, overwrought fashion. Cattrall has few lines and little to do. The set is also strange: a peculiar designer house on an island just off the US mainland. The Martha's Vineyard area is meant to be attractive – sought after by a wealthy elite – but it looks like a remote, unloved stretch of the Suffolk coastline. You think the fancy "Bond villain" house is going to have a significance, but that never arrives, so the flashy location ends up being a distraction that has nothing whatsoever to do with the story.

The Ghost isn’t very exciting, either. Even the mugging and car chase scenes are lacklustre and strangely flat. Badly mocked up photos shown countless times. Important parts of the story don’t add up.

Eat Pray Love (2010)

Extremely annoying adaptation of the popular memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert. 

Julia Roberts stars as an American who leaves her husband, finds a boyfriend, leaves her boyfriend and then travels to Italy, India and Indonesia to “discover” herself. There’s no explanation of why she was unhappy in either relationship, nor of how she can afford these open-ended wanderings. 

She comes across as a pampered, fairly self-obsessed individual. That would probably be fine – the film isn’t obliged to create a character you like or identify with – but for the shallow presentation of her journey to enlightenment. There are long, lingering shots that dwell on the foods she eats and the landscapes she passes through. The film fetishes food in a way that’s genuinely intrusive on the narrative. Italians are beautiful people eating beautiful food and speaking a beautiful language, the film suggests – in a woefully simplistic and two-dimensional manner. But if the character loves Italy so much, why does she move on to India? 

Most annoyingly of all, she’s forced to make a big decision at the end of the film and she makes the wrong one. It takes a man with no teeth to point out what she should stick with another man (Javier Bardem). So the film shows us that she still lacks wisdom and appears to need men to guide her. So much for being enlightened.