The Edge (1997)

Extremely flawed disaster/survival thriller written by David Mamet. 

Anthony Hopkins is the only good thing about the film, and thankfully he’s in virtually every frame. He plays a know-it-all billionaire, Charles, who survives a plane crash in Alaska and attempts to walk back to civilisation. His efforts are hindered by the vain photographer, Bob, who he accompanied (Alec Baldwin), who happens to be having an affair with his wife (a miscast Elle MacPherson). 

For some reason, Charles and Bob are continually saying each other's names.

The situation is exciting enough – there are plenty of showdowns with bears – but the execution is third-rate and even comical. In one laugh-out-loud scene, Hopkins and Baldwin don bear-hide costumes that they have apparently rustled up in mere minutes. They look like Ewoks.

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.

The Departed (2006)

Directed by Martin Scorsese, this remarkable crime thriller is as good as any. 

In Boston. Irish Mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) places Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) as a spy within the police force. Sullivan quickly rises up the ranks, becoming a highly respected detective, and protects Costello by feeding him information. Meanwhile, the police assign undercover agent Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) to infiltrate Costello’s criminal gang. And both of them end up dating the same police psychologist (Vera Farmiga as Dr. Madolyn Madden). 

It’s incredibly clever. The plot moves fast enough to make your head spin, but Scorsese’s storytelling gifts are such that it works. 

The all-star cast also includes Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone and Mark Wahlberg. The soundtrack is terrific, although a repeat use of the intro to “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones in the same scene seems like an error. 

As usual with Scorsese, you get everything – a masterclass in film-making. The characters are richly fleshed out. It’s thrilling. It looks visually stunning. And the script is really sharp.

The Aviator (2004)

Biopic of billionaire entrepreneur Howard Hughes, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. 

It’s a sad and engrossing story that expertly details Hughes’ decline into paranoia, social reclusiveness and the crippling discomfort of extreme OCD. 

Scorsese’s usual tricks are all displayed, but it’s refreshing to see them used in a non-crime story. At times it all seems a little too stylised, but then Scorsese handles this visual flamboyance so well that he makes it work. Plus, it’s a film about the veneer of Hollywood success so that lavish styling serves to further underscore the subject matter. 

DiCaprio is absolutely superb as the visibly crumbling Hughes. Cate Blanchett is also at her best, capturing the quick-witted energy of Katharine Hepburn. 

Also popping up are Kate Beckinsale (as Ava Gardner), Ian Holm, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law, Gwen Stefani (as Jean Harlow), Willem Dafoe and Alan Alda (as Senator Ralph Owen Brewster).

Elizabethtown (2005)

Slightly awkward comedy-drama directed by Cameron Crowe. 

Drewe (Orlando Bloom) works as a designer for a shoe company and somehow manages to lose them nearly a billion dollars. His boss (Alec Baldwin) fires him. About to commit suicide, Drew learns that his father has died. He travels to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, to arrange the funeral, and reconnects with friends and family. He also meets and falls in love with Claire (Kirsten Dunst), who gives him a reason to live. 

It’s all very odd. There’s a strong performance from Susan Sarandon (as Drew’s mother), who brings the family together with a funny and moving speech at the funeral, but Bloom himself is weak and cannot carry the lead role. Unable to convince you that he’s suicidal, he’s extremely dull to watch – a problematic vacuum at the very centre of the film. Dunst is as magnetic and charming as ever, and it’s worth watching just to see her, but it was difficult to understand what her sparkly character would like about someone so featureless. 

Some of the humour falls a little flat. Also, there’s too much music (a lot of it by Tom Petty) as almost every scene seems to be punctuated by a “moody” rock song. That worked in Almost Famous, because it was about the music world, but it’s merely intrusive here. Sometimes less is more. 

Roger Ebert claims that Claire is actually an angel and not to be taken too literally. Certainly the story is a salvation saga and there are themes of life/death, being doomed/redeemed and so on. Maybe that’s the case, but this additional layer doesn’t make the film more vital or entertaining. It needs more laughs and a credible male lead. Plus, the whole business about the shoe company seems random and misjudged. There are no insights into that industry nor why Drew might have been working in it.

An actor who looks like Loudon Wainwright turns out to be the actual Loudon Wainwright.

The Hunt for Red October (1990)

Submarine drama adapted from a Tom Clancy novel and starring Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin. Connery is a Russian naval captain who wants to defect to the USA, but his actions threaten to bring about full-scale war. Baldwin is the CIA intelligence analyst who has to save the world.

The performances are reasonable (James Earl Jones and Joss Ackland also have roles), but there’s something missing. It’s probably unfair to compare this film to Das Boot or K-19: The Widowmaker, but I never once felt I was aboard an actual submarine. It’s oddly lifeless, with a lack of atmosphere and a certain stilted quality. This isn’t helped by Connery, whose “calm” manner is taken to extremes, resulting in merely an expressionless mask.

Motivations stay mysterious: we don’t learn why Connery wants to defect or how his staff feel about it. Nor do we discover why one of the sub’s cooks wants to sabotage the mission.

Another oddity is the use of subtitles in the early stages of the film. Once it has been established that these are Russians speaking, the subtitles cease and their dialogue reverts to English. That creates confusion later when subtitles return and it’s actually unclear which language Baldwin and Connery are meant to be speaking in. It would have been better to use the standard film trope of a non-English language simply being spoken in English – but with accents.

While there’s nothing really wrong with the film, and you could argue that it ticks all the right boxes for a Cold War thriller, ultimately it falls flat. But a more inspired director than John McTiernan could probably have made it work.

Still Alice (2014)

Moving drama starring Julianne Moore as a brilliant professor of linguistics who is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's at the age of 50. 

The film focuses on her struggle with the disease, and also on the relationships with her insensitive, career-focused husband (Alec Baldwin) and three grown-up children. There’s particular emphasis on her daughter Lydia (Kristen Stewart), who initially seems the most estranged but who then gives up the most to care for her mother. 

Moore is fantastic, as always. It’s difficult to imagine anyone else playing this role with more empathy. I could believe her totally. Stewart is also nuanced and sensitive, and the scenes with the pair together are by far the most affecting.

If there’s a failing it’s that the family’s life of privilege is never really in question. The crisis of the disease would be an altogether different outcome for someone who wasn’t successful, wealthy or beautiful, but – this being a film – those options are not even considered.

Pixie (2020)

Plot: “Pixie Hardy sets out to avenge her mother's death and attempts a heist that will give her the means to leave her small-town life behind. When the plan goes horribly wrong, she's forced to team up with a pair of misfits who are clearly in over their heads. On the run from a criminal gang of priests and nuns, the trio tries to scheme and swindle anyone they come across.”

Superb comedy crime thriller set in Ireland. It’s funny, perfectly scripted and surprisingly violent. Olivia Cooke is fantastic in the role of the charming, intelligent and resourceful Pixie. Ben Hardy, so hopeless in Bohemian Rhapsody, is also excellent. Even Alec Baldwin, a disaster in It’s Complicated, is spot-on as the ruthless Father Hector McGrath. 

The road-trip and shoot-out elements owe something of a debt to Quentin Tarantino, especially his True Romance, but Pixie feels so fresh that it doesn’t matter at all. 

The scenery looks great, too.

It’s Complicated (2009)

Rom-com with little rom and and even less com. It’s not even very complicated.

Divorcee Jane (Meryl Streep) begins an “affair” with her own ex-husband (Alec Baldwin). But she’s also drawn to the architect she hired to make her huge home even bigger (Steve Martin). 

The film is directed by Nancy Meyers, who was responsible for Something’s Gotta Give, and very much follows the formula of that earlier film. But whereas that was just about salvaged by the talents of Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, this film has to survive on the abilities of Streep alone. Baldwin is oddly repulsive (it’s not clear how much of that is intentional), while Martin seems bland and underwritten. 

These smug, wealthy people are difficult to like. That’s not helped by the shallow way the film addresses a potentially interesting web of relationships. But it’s not a story about how people actually are. Instead, it seems to be an aspirational exercise about how you too can be wealthy, have a huge home, have lots of friends, be loved by everyone and have a top-quality job that’s both well-paid and endlessly rewarding. 

There’s a bottom line of watchability with Streep, but that’s not enough this time.

Blue Jasmine (2013)

The best Woody Allen film for a long time, although that may be damning it with faint praise, Blue Jasmine stars Cate Blanchett as a wealthy socialite whose life falls apart when her husband (Alec Baldwin) is imprisoned for fraud. Battling panic and depression, she goes to live with her sister in San Francisco (Sally Hawkins) in order to start a new life.

The premise sounds bleak, but there’s plenty of black comedy in this supremely well-observed study of class and downward mobility. Woody Allen’s pacing and construction are very solid, with expert handling of extended flashback sequences, and he really knows how to tell a story and reveal a character.

Blanchett gives one of her greatest ever performances. She’s twitchy and on the edge, but – as per the demands of her character – also elegant and hugely appealing. You can see the conflict and turmoil in every facial expression.

She’s Having a Baby (1988)

Romantic sort-of comedy-drama about a young couple (Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern) who get married and eventually embark on parenthood. It’s a strange film. There are several dream sequences/magic-realist interludes that don’t add a great deal (and which possibly confuse the narrative), although the scene in which a street of all-American dads mow their lawns in stylised formation is effective satire that would have been critically applauded if Dennis Potter had shot it.

The lead actors are OK if not spectacular in the two key roles, but the main problem with the film is that it doesn’t establish their relationship and what they mean to each other – until it’s too late. We meet them on their wedding day with Alec Baldwin trying to talk a nervous Kevin Bacon out of getting married because he doesn’t want to lose his best friend (this seems like a homo-erotic sub-plot, but the film is so muddled that you can’t be sure). It would have been far better to start with an establishing scene – a romantic walk along the beach, or whatever – that shows how the couple really feel about each other. Instead, it leaps into themes of social conformity and how Americans are expected to behave. When Kristy secretly stops taking the pill in order to get pregnant it comes as a total surprise because the character is so underwritten that we don’t know how she feels about anything, let alone contraception and parenting. And then it becomes a different sort of film in the last 45 minutes. John Hughes juggles many themes (peer pressure, our role in society, masculinity, etc.), but doesn’t satisfactorily address any of them.

It’s difficult to know who this film is for. Was it made for female Bacon fans (he’s topless a lot of the time)? And if so, how are they meant to feel about the women in the story?