The Town (2010)

Ben Affleck (who also directs) stars as Doug, a member of a gang of mask-wearing robbers in Charlestown, Boston. While doing a bank job they briefly take a female hostage, Claire (Rebecca Hall), but their situation is complicated when Doug forms a romantic attachment with her. It’s also messy because Doug’s intense gang partner Jem (Jeremy Renner) won’t let him leave the group to start a new life, and nor will Irish mobster Fergie (Pete Postlethwaite). 

It’s a tense and exciting thriller that keeps you guessing. Can Doug escape his past and his criminal associations to run off with the woman he loves? Or is he destined never to leave Charlestown except by following his father into prison?

Cleverly, it gets you to empathise with Doug rather than with the FBI agent investigating him (Jon Hamm). And the romantic story is all the more affecting because you know it’s doomed. The only criticism is that Affleck looks too healthy and well-presented to be as desperate as his character is supposed to be.

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

Directed by Mike Nichols, this is based on a true story. 

A US congressman takes it upon himself to assist the Afghan troops suffering at the hands of Soviet invaders by raising the funds to equip them with weapons.

Tom Hanks is ideally cast as the charming, heavy-drinking Wilson. Julia Roberts is good as an influential socialite Joanne Herring, but doesn’t have enough scenes to really shine. Better is Amy Adams as Wilson's personal assistant Bonnie Bach. Philip Seymour Hoffman is charismatic as CIA operative Gust Avrakotos. Emily Blunt is weirdly underused in a role that gets very little screen time.

Hanks is deliberately ambiguous and the film steers clear of passing judgement on his character. The story is excellently told, so I’m not quite sure why I didn’t enjoy it more. Perhaps it's because it aims at comedy in places but could have been much funnier.

Shadowlands (1993)

Biographical drama about the relationship between author C.S. Lewis and an American divorcee who is dying of bone cancer. Directed by Richard Attenborough, it’s adapted from the stage play (which was itself adapted from a TV drama). 

Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger are absolutely superb as the two leads. Their unusual love story is more believable because of the restraint with which it’s demonstrated. The film picks up on every nuance of their speech and behaviour. 

It’s extremely moving, firstly when Lewis surprises himself by discovering that he’s in love and secondly when he finds out how much he now has to lose. 

The film tackles big questions about the meaning of life, too. How can we love when the end of love causes such pain? And what value do spiritual beliefs have in the face of seemingly godless events that lead to overwhelming grief?

There’s gentle humour too, such as in Joy and her son’s observations of English life in the 1950s.

The Five-Year Engagement (2012)

A fairly intelligent rom-com – a silly but charming on-off love story boosted by a strong soundtrack and some funny lines. 

Violet (Emily Blunt) and Tom (Jason Segel) are a happy couple living in San Francisco. They get engaged and hope to marry. But when Violet begins a post-doctorate psychology course at the University of Michigan, the couple move away from their friends and family. Tom’s career as a chef suffers as Violet’s academic prospects improve. This puts strain on their relationship and their wedding is repeatedly delayed.

Emily and – in particular – Alison Brie, who plays her sister Suzie, are pretty good. Segel is less convincing, but then again it may just be that his character’s persistent unease makes him a little uncomfortable to watch.

The Five-Year Engagement starts with Dexys Midnight Runners singing Van Morrison’s “Jackie Wilson Said”, which puts you in a good mood from the beginning. In fact, most of the soundtrack is made up of Van Morrison songs – a smart choice. I was especially pleased to hear his “Sweet Thing”, as it’s not every day an Astral Weeks track gets used in a film.

One continuity point: Violet’s character’s childhood bedroom wall is covered in Wham! posters, but she would have been a baby when Wham! were popular. Did someone overlook this? 

Another oddity is a thread of violent humour running through the story. Tom’s boss at the restaurant slices part of her finger off. Violet is shot in the leg by a crossbow. And Tom jumps on a fire hydrant obscured by a snowdrift. I’m not sure why this was introduced, although it does add a sense of “real life”.

While it’s all fairly flimsy and forgettable, it does make you feel better about life for a couple of hours – which is presumably what rom-coms are for.

Brooklyn (2015)

Romantic drama adapted from a novel by Colm Tóibín. 

Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) lives in a small town in southeast Ireland until a priest (Jim Broadbent) arranges for her to travel to New York and begin a new life. There, she falls in love and begins to thrive  – until family matters bring her back to Enniscorthy in County Wexford, where she’s faced with various ethical and personal conflicts.

It’s a sweet and touching story. Ronan is highly engaging in the lead role. Julie Walters is superb as the owner of a Brooklyn boarding house. 

Ireland looks too sunny and dry to be entirely convincing. Possibly those were the scenes filmed in Canada. 

Simple, lucid storytelling makes it powerful and affecting. I was put off by learning that Nick Hornby was involved in the screenplay, but thankfully he doesn’t manage to mess it up.

Windtalkers (2002)

Nicolas Cage stars as a battle-damaged US Marine tasked with protecting a Navajo code talker (Adam Beach) during the conflict between the Americans and Japanese at Saipan during World War II. John Woo directs, and Christian Slater, Mark Ruffalo and Roger Willie boost a strong cast. 

It’s a violent and bloody drama that occasionally seems trashy (I would have ditched the slow-motion shots and intrusive music), but gains depth from focusing on strong characters and introducing some philosophical and ethical questions. 

Cage is highly watchable, as always. He just “has it” – whatever “it” is. 

Surprisingly, the film lost $38 million and received mixed reviews.

Atonement (2007)

Adaptation of Ian McEwan’s popular Booker-shortlisted novel. 

England, 1935. A precocious girl named Briony blames her sister’s lover (the housekeeper’s son) for a crime he didn’t commit. This simple act of immature cruelty has vast implications for the rest of their lives.

Briony is played by three actors – at the ages of 13 (Saoirse Ronan), 18 (Romola Garai) and as an elderly lady (Vanessa Redgrave). Keira Knightley plays her wronged sister and James McAvoy plays Knightley’s lover, sent first to prison and then off to war. Benedict Cummerbatch and Brenda Blethyn also feature. I’m not especially keen on the aesthetic, but the soundtrack – with rhythms built around the pounding of a typewriter – perfectly suits the mood and builds tension when needed. 

A lengthy, unedited shot showing the soldiers on the beaches at Dunkirk is incredibly panoramic and impressive.

The film cleverly jumps around in time and perspective, but the storytelling is so lucid that this never becomes tricksy or confusing. It tackles issues of class and social inequality, along with deeper questions about morality. It’s to the credit of McEwan and director Joe Wright that no easy answers are given and religion doesn’t even get a look in. There’s no easy “forgiveness” to be had here. The bleaker message is that you can spend a lifetime atoning for a moment’s misjudgement and never erase the damage you have done.

Battle of the Sexes (2017)

Semi-biopic of Billie Jean King (played by Emma Stone), who campaigns for equal rights for women in tennis while juggling her own messy love life involving her husband Larry (Austin Stowell) and new lover Marilyn (Andrea Riseborough). Matters get even more complicated when King is challenged to a “battle of the sexes” tennis match by Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell), who is eager to drum up money and publicity with a male-vs-female publicity stunt. 

The leads are all superb and the world of 1973 is convincingly evoked. With the focus on personal matters and the politics of the game, there’s surprisingly little actual tennis until the last quarter of the film. But when you do get to see the pivotal game, it’s dramatic and excitingly shot.

I was slightly disappointed to learn afterwards that the role of Marilyn was changed from secretary (real life) to hairdresser (the film). Surely the truth is interesting enough that a biopic should reflect it rather than mess with the facts.

The Kids Are All Right (2010)

Directed by Lisa Cholodenko, this is an absolutely superb family drama full of smart comic observation. 

Julianne Moore and Annette Bening star as a lesbian couple whose lives are turned upside down when their children get in touch with the sperm donor who fathered them. 

It’s like a play in that almost everything relates to conversations between the main five characters. 

Moore and Benning are brilliant at playing absolutely insufferable know-it-alls. It’s quite painful to watch their self-importance, expertly rendered through gestures, phrasing and body language. 

Also brilliant are Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson playing the children who seem wiser than their mothers, and Mark Ruffalo who plays their newly discovered father. 

It’s a fascinating exploration of how relationships and family units work – and don't work.

The Maze Runner (2014)

Dystopian drama for teens. 

A bunch of boys find themselves in a grassy glade surrounded by an ever-shifting maze that’s populated by killer alien robot monsters. A new child arrives every month with no memory of their prior life. When Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and then Theresa (Kaya Scodelario) appear, everything changes. 

It’s a fascinating premise but the wider story arc – explored across two further films (adapted from the novels by James Dashner) – is too silly to be believed. 

The characters are strong, though, and the interplay between them makes for the most engaging elements. It’s heavily influenced by Lord of the Flies and there’s a fair bit of interesting stuff about how the boys live together and the society they’ve evolved, with all its rules and rivalries. 

Genuinely impressive sound design and visuals also lift the film into something you can watch and enjoy more than once. The maze itself looks terrific and its physical presence and psychological influence are expertly conveyed.

A Walk in the Woods (2015)

Film version of Bill Bryson’s travel book about walking the Appalachian Trail. 

The author is played by Robert Redford and his friend (a wheezing former alcoholic) is played by Nick Nolte. Meanwhile, Emma Thompson plays Bryson’s wife left at home. 

It’s gently funny and wise, with some poignancy and melancholy. It’s probably intended for the older viewer. 

Redford is always easy to like, although his character doesn’t really develop. Nolte steals the show, with a performance that grows in depth as the film progresses. 

The scenery looks good and it makes you want to go walking, even if their bags never seemed to be heavy enough.

Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

A ludicrous mess. Part four of the popular series stars Mark Wahlberg as an inventor, Nicola Peltz as his daughter and Jack Reynor as her boyfriend. The baddies are played by Stanley Tucci and Kelsey Grammer. 

The plot (borrowed from the internet): “The Autobots, a faction of robots from the planet Cybertron, are hunted down by an elite CIA black ops unit and a ruthless bounty hunter. They turn to a struggling inventor and his daughter for help.”

It turns out that it was the Transformers, and not a meteorite, that caused the death of the dinosaurs. 

The robots have been given silly voices and accents, which makes them a lot less scary. One of them even seems to have a beard and a cigar. Why? It’s nice to see them transform out of cars and lorries, but it’s utterly exhausting to see so much “impossible” CGI so quickly unfolding for such a long time. The running time of 165 minutes is wildly excessive. 

Everything is so big, loud, fast and explosive that the film quickly finds it has nowhere left to go. In dramatic terms, it’s a disaster: you are left completely numb by the relentlessness of it. But on the plus side, it’s unintentionally funny and some of the daft dialogue is absolutely priceless. For example: “Autobots, we’re going to prove who we are! That’s why we’re here!”

Duplicity (2009)

Former CIA and MI6 secret agents Claire (Julia Roberts) and Ray (Clive Owen) work as corporate spies. They become romantically involved and decide to pair up as a team. The stakes are raised when they have the chance to earn themselves $35 million, but the problem is that they simply cannot trust each other. There are hints of The Thomas Crown Affair, but it’s less skilfully handled. 

It’s nearly an engaging comedy thriller, but the “funny” bits really aren’t funny enough. Also, there are so many bluffs and double-bluffs that it can be tricky to follow. Ultimately, the whole scam scenario is so unlikely that it’s difficult to believe. 

Owen and Roberts always appeal but they can’t really shine in such a self-consciously tricksy, disjointed narrative. In fact, the film’s flaws are built in from the very beginning: the characters have a deliberate coldness to indicate their professionalism and mutual distrust. But that coldness makes them – and their story – a lot harder to like. One solution would have been to spice up their encounters with a little more passion (which worked in The Thomas Crown Affair), but Duplicity, which has a “12” certificate, opts not to take that route. 

On the plus side, it’s refreshing to see a thriller that doesn’t include any guns or killing.

The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004)

Based on a true story, this is a gripping and desperately sad drama starring Sean Penn. He plays Samuel Bicke, a furniture salesman who is suffering at work and in his personal life and who – amid a mental breakdown – decides to kill the president. 

Penn is absolutely superb, making you feel his utter isolation and his heartbreaking descent through a series of personal tragedies. He is estranged from his wife (Naomi Watts) and children, is bullied by professional colleagues and sees his plans to set up his own business rejected. 

Nixon himself is cleverly woven into the story through the use of archive footage shown on news broadcasts. 

When Bicke finally undertakes his assassination attempt we really feel for him. It’s not that you’re rooting for him to succeed – history already tells us that he will fail – but you yearn for him to be happier and to find peace.

Election (1999)

Excellent comedy set in a high school in Omaha, Nebraska. 

Matthew Broderick plays a popular school teacher whose life unravels when he gets involved with running the election for the student body president. Reese Witherspoon plays the ambitious Tracy Flick, who is determined to win it – whoever the cost. And Chris Klein and Jessica Campbell are the siblings who run against Flick. 

It’s fresh and funny, and you can easily relate to the characters and their predicaments.

Black Book (2007)

Towards the end of World War II, a singer named Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) attempts to flee the Nazis in the Netherlands. She is tricked by a traitor who has set a trap for those escaping, and her family are killed. Joining the Dutch resistance movement and adopting a new identity, she becomes a spy, tasked with getting close to SS commander Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch) to gain access to strategic information. But matters are complicated when she develops real feelings for Müntze.

This is a brilliant thriller, with so many twists and turns – as various betrayals and double crossings abound – that it makes your head spin. 

Carice van Houten is superb in the lead role and by making her relationships with both sides believable the film does a good job of blurring the good/evil divide and building in shades of grey.

Director Paul Verhoeven moves away from the gleefully violent style of RoboCop and Starship Troopers, but his accomplished storytelling is still evident. 

The only criticism is that the final scene (set on a kibbutz in 1956) doesn’t make much sense without any historical context.