High Society (1956)

Woeful musical that has dated very badly. 

Grace Kelly plays Tracy, a wealthy divorcee who is about to remarry a new sweetheart. Bing Crosby plays her ex. When a journalist (Frank Sinatra) comes to her home, she is torn between the three men. 

It’s extremely wooden. The songs aren’t very memorable and there aren’t even very many of them. They seem like last-minute hackwork. Likewise, the script appears to have been written on the day they shot it. 

Louis Armstrong plays himself as a band leader and – despite the half-baked material – his singing, along with Crosby’s and Sinatra’s, is probably the best thing about the film. Otherwise, it completely lacks artistry. 

It’s erratic and uneven. Early on, there’s the suggestion that it could become a farce or a comedy of manners when a father and uncle have to switch places. But this thread is quickly abandoned and no comedy ensues. Likewise, Tracy’s young sister is active for the first third and then drops out of the film, perhaps because the writers didn’t know what to do with her. It’s not funny or romantic and it doesn’t even really work as a musical. What a mess.

Marvin's Room (1996)

Touching family drama. 

Two estranged sisters (Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep) get to know each other in the context of an elderly, unwell father and a troubled teenage son (Leonardo di Caprio). 

It’s based on a play by Scott McPherson, and you can tell because the writing is so strong. Each of the characters is extremely well drawn and the relationships between them are explored with depth and empathy. Keaton is particularly strong as a woman with leukemia.

Donnie Brasco (1997)

Crime drama directed by Mike Newell. 

It’s loosely based on the true story of Joseph D. Pistone (played by Johnny Depp), an FBI agent who infiltrates the New York mafia of the 1970. He befriends Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino) but finds himself torn between doing his job as an agent and becoming part of the shady world he is attracted by. 

It’s engaging, but somehow not quite as good as it should have been. You wonder if in the hands of Martin Scorsese the same material could have been more skilfully handled. Depp and Pacino are both excellent. 

My favourite scene is when the various meanings of “Forget about it” are discussed. If only there had been more of this subtle, nuanced character-based comedy.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

Biopic directed by George Clooney. That fact alone sets alarm bells ringing – I couldn’t finish his film Leatherheads (2008) and I barely got through The Monuments Men (2014), as they were simply too self-conscious and annoying. He’s fine at surface-level tricksiness, but there’s little emotional depth and his “funny” scenes fall flat. 

This film is marginally better. Chuck Barris (played by Sam Rockwell) is a successful TV producer who also kills people for the CIA. He’s recruited by George Clooney, works alongside Julia Roberts and is in a relationship with Drew Barrymore. 

The story is interesting, and Rockwell and Barrymore have real chemistry together, but Clooney’s direction is awkward and gimmicky. He regularly changes filters and keeps reminding you that you’re watching a film, rather than simply letting you become immersed in it. 

The film dodges perhaps the most interesting aspect of Rockwell’s life – the possibility that all of his CIA deeds were completely invented and never took place. That would have made for a whole extra dimension to the story, but it seems that Clooney is a hamfisted director who just couldn’t quite handle the material.

Little Voice (1998)

Drama starring Jane Horrocks as “Little Voice”, a talented singer who – following the death of her father – hides away in her room owing to her intimidating mother Mari (Brenda Blethyn). But when Mari takes up with shifty promoter Ray Say (Michael Caine), the latter sees a fortune to be made by exploiting the reclusive young vocalist. 

Horrocks and Blethyn are both excellent. Jim Broadbent is suitably seedy as club owner Mr. Boo. And Ewan McGregor is more likeable than usual as the telephone engineer Billy. It's appealing and gritty, like Brassed Off, but I found the styling of LV's father (a sort of ghost or imagined visitor) oddly naff. I can see why he was portrayed in black and white – it was how he was shown in LV's treasured photo – but as a visual treatment it looked silly.

That point aside, it's engrossing and Horrocks' vocal impersonations of Marilyn Monroe, Shirley Bassey, and so on are compelling. Likewise, it's fascinating to hear Michael Caine's desperate, deranged version of "It's Over" by Roy Orbison when he realises that his various problems have all caught up with him.

Flightplan (2005)

Taut thriller directed by Robert Schwentke and later seemingly echoed by Non-Stop (2014). 

The oddly named Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is a recently widowed aviation engineer. She is transporting her husband’s body from Germany back to the USA, with her six-year-old daughter Julia, travelling on a plane she herself helped to design. When Kyle wakes from a sleep, her daughter has gone missing. Has she been kidnapped? Or is Kyle delusional? Was Julia ever actually on the flight? And if she was, how can anyone go missing on a plane anyway?

The film is stylishly filmed, with some refreshingly unusual angles and visual treatments. The luxurious-but-claustrophobic environment is expertly rendered in the set design. It avoids cliché, and – unusually – even the slow-motion sequences work. Always watchable, Foster is good in “anxious mother” and “tech expert” modes. 

The ageless Sean Bean plays the pilot. Peter Sarsgaard plays a somewhat creepy air marshall. Greta Scacchi has a brief and slightly odd role as a therapist. 

Unfortunately, there are at least three major plot holes, which could have been avoided with slightly more sophisticated writing. But if you try not to think about them, it’s a hugely enjoyable film that keeps you hooked until the end.

Love Me or Leave Me (1955)

Doris Day and James Cagney star in this unusual musical drama loosely based on the career of 1920s songstress Ruth Etting. 

The singer’s success is based on the patronage of Martin Snyder, who simultaneously nurtures and hinders her. Unfortunately, Cagney seems ridiculous in most of his scenes. It’s unclear how you’re meant to feel about him, but he comes across as so ludicrous that he’s neither the scary gangster initially hinted at, nor the likeably vulnerable character a more charitable viewer might perceive. Cameron Mitchell is weedy and unimpressive as the pianist/arranger Johnny Alderman – a bland character whose appeal to Etting is never explored. Doris Day is much better, and her singing is at least enjoyable. 

It’s a “proper” musical in the sense that the songs are performed by a singer within the storyline rather than merely bolted on. But with such thin characterisation and an usually unsatisfying ending, you do wonder if any of the actors come out of this very well.

Geostorm (2017)

Disaster film. 

The world has been saved from environmental disaster by a hi-tech space station (the actual science isn’t explained), but when it malfunctions extreme weather takes a deadly hit on Earth. It turns out that the tech has been sabotaged – with suspicion going all the way up to the US President – and it takes the station’s creator Jake (Gerard Butler) to save the world from total climate meltdown. 

The film is utterly ludicrous but quite entertaining if you don’t ask any questions. Jim Sturgess is laughable as Jake’s sweaty, anxious brother Max, who has family “issues” (and looks a bit like Chris de Burgh). Abbie Cornish plays his tough, secret-service girlfriend. Alexandra Maria Lara is the sensitive and appealing space station commander who becomes Jake’s love interest. Ed Harris is the U.S. Secretary of State serving the president, who is played by Andy Garcia. 

The script is wooden and the plotting is entirely predictable. But the CGI scenes of extreme weather are exciting and the action rattles along so quickly that you don’t have time to assess whether any of it makes sense.

The Panic in Needle Park (1971)

Grim drama set in New York, adapted from a 1966 novel by James Mills and with a screenplay by Joan Didion. 

A very young Al Pacino (in his first role) plays a heroin addict, Bobby, who introduces his girlfriend Helen (Kitty Winn) to his world of dealing and using drugs. Plot-wise, that’s pretty much it. 

We see horrible, lingering shots of the couple injecting, and we see how the drugs ruin the lives of the addicts. It’s sad and disturbing, and it’s clearly intended to be. I’m not sure why you’d want to watch the film – I certainly don’t need to see it again – but it’s expertly filmed, acted and edited.

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Adapted by David Mamet from his own 1984 play, this is a remarkable film that transfers amazingly well to the screen. 

The plot deals with four real estate salesmen engaged in conning their clients. Although the details of the con are never fully explained, the real point is the relationships between the characters and the way they talk to each other as their situation intensifies across two days. These dynamics are explored with unusual intelligence. 

I’ve never known so much swearing in a film. Also, there is a huge amount of dialogue with machine-gun-fire speech between the characters as they interact. Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris and Alan Arkin are all superb, in their own ways, reflecting the tension that goes with their illegal work. And Alec Baldwin is more powerful than usual, playing a motivational salesman sent to inspire the others.

J. Edgar (2011)

Directed by Clint Eastwood, this is a surprisingly dull biopic given the rich source material. 

J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) looks back on his life and work as the head of the FBI. Along the way we learn about his repressed homosexuality and a series of world events as presidents come and go. 

Naomi Watts is wasted as a secretary with little to go on in terms of a fleshed-out character. Judi Dench is much better as Edgar’s domineering mother. Much of the story is told in flashback and the worst aspect is the prosthetics used to age the character. DiCaprio and Watts look OK, but Armie Hammer as Clyde Tolson looks comically awful in his rubbery “older” face, and it’s a major distraction. 

In a very brief appearance only, Adam Driver makes his film debut.

Sister (2012)

Swiss drama directed by Ursula Meier.

A boy named Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein) lives in poverty with his self-destructive older sister Louise (Léa Seydoux). Every day he steals equipment from the local ski resort and sells it to support the two of them. But this increasingly leads him into danger, and we learn that there’s more to their relationship than we first think. 

It’s a brilliant slice of social realism. There are some funny moments amid the bleak and heartbreaking ones. 

It’s beautifully shot, too. The film makes a point of the contrast between Simon and Louise’s poverty and the wealth of the resort visitors. The latter are represented by Kristin (Gillian Anderson), who Simon forms a desperate attachment to.

Lord of War (2005)

Written, produced, and directed by Andrew Niccol, this is a superb crime drama with flashes of black comedy. 

Nicolas Cage plays Yuri Orlov, an arms dealer who becomes hugely successful while turning a blind eye to the damage caused by the weapons he sells. He has a cocaine-addicted brother (Jared Leto) and a fashion-model wife (Bridget Moynahan). Meanwhile, he is being pursued by Interpol agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke).

The deadpan, almost satirical quality gives the subject matter even greater gravitas. 

There’s a remarkable opening sequence filmed from the perspective of a bullet.

The Wolfman (2010)

1891. A mysterious attack takes place in the woods...

This is a less-than-inspired retelling of the standard werewolf myth starring Anthony Hopkins, Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving. It’s a remake that didn’t need to be remade. 

There’s a lot of gore but very little dramatic tension, partly because you see way too much of the werewolf. No mystery or suspense can survive close-up scenes of a monster that looks slightly ridiculous.

A far better film is American Werewolf in London (1981), in which director John Landis addresses similar subject matter with wit and imagination.

Black Rain (1989)

Directed by Ridley Scott, this has something of that director's classic Blade Runner about it – in terms of the visuals, at least. But whereas that was a hugely imaginative sci-fi crime masterpiece, this is merely a reasonably OK thriller.

Michael Douglas plays a New York cop assigned to escort a Japanese assassin back to Japan. When that ruthless killer outwits him, he’s plunged into the criminal underworld.

Andy Garcia has a certain charm as his colleague, and he should have been featured more prominently. Douglas himself looks unwell and it’s unclear whether he’s just being “method” about the character or whether the actor himself is going through a difficult patch. The charisma is unchanged, however – Douglas always has a certain presence, whatever the film. 

The film is arguably quite racist, peddling quite a few clichés about Japanese culture.

Heartbreak Ridge (1986)

Unusual war film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood. 

Eastwood plays a US Marine who served in Korea and Vietnam. It’s now 1984 and he’s reaching the end of his career. He’s tasked with training a platoon of seemingly useless young marines who he will eventually end up leading into battle in Grenada. 

It’s quite uneven but there’s lots to enjoy. There’s a wry sense of humour. And the thread dealing with Eastwood and his estranged wife (Marsha Mason) adds a welcome dose of human drama. I like the way the tough-as-nails exterior slowly reveals the vulnerability within, even if his croaky voice is difficult to hear. 

Mario Van Peebles is good as the cocky young singer who eventually develops a begrudging respect for his leader.