Knives Out (2019)

Directed by Rian Johnson, this is a brilliant parody of a classic Agatha Christie-style murder mystery. 

Daniel Craig stars as the detective Benoit Blanc, who is hired to investigate the suspicious death of a hugely successful crime novelist named Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). All of Harlan’s family stand to gain from his will, and all of them have a motive for killing him. So who actually committed the murder?

Craig’s “deep south” accent takes some getting used to, but he’s compelling in the role nevertheless. Ana de Armas is perfect as Marta Cabrera, Harlan’s kindhearted nurse who becomes inextricably mixed up in the events and who – in a surreal twist – cannot tell a lie without vomiting.

It works because alongside the mystery needing to be unravelled there’s also an intriguing portrait of a dysfunctional family. And in a surprisingly old-fashioned way, the film seems to offer a simple moral about kindness.

A sequel followed in 2022.

Man of Steel (2013)

Found on a wall. 

This Superman reboot starring Henry Cavill is faster, noisier and slicker than the 1978 version with Christopher Reeve, but it has none of that film’s charm. Nothing seems remotely real, either. This is partly because of the excessive CGI (it looks like a slick computer game) and partly because of the fast edits. There are no “rules” in terms of the powers we see the heroes and villains use: anything can happen and anything does happen, but none of it carries any real “weight” or actually adds up to anything. The thrown-through-a-building effect is used again and again and ultimately becomes completely mind-numbing – partly because, despite all the endless scenes of destruction, no one ever seems to get hurt

Michael Shannon underwhelms as the evil General Zod. Certainly he’s no Terence Stamp. Amy Adams does her best as Lois Lane, although she’s not given much of a character to develop. Diane Lane is credible as Superman’s Earth mum, while Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner are both watchable as Superman’s Krypton dad and Earth dad respectively

In visual terms, it’s excessively filtered – another distraction.

The joy of Christopher Reeve’s Superman was watching him save lives again and again. Man of Steel has surprisingly little of that. Also, the relationship with Lois Lane – so integral to the Reeve films starring Margot Kidder as Lois – is completely and coldly undeveloped here. There’s virtually no romance. 

All in all it’s an expertly made yet completely empty experience.

The Runaways (2010)

Highly entertaining biopic of the 1970s all-girl rock band adapted from Cherie Currie’s autobiography (Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway). It charts their rise to fame, aided by producer Kim Fowley (here played flamboyantly by Michael Shannon) and the group’s inevitable decline into drug hell and internal bickering. Visually and musically, it’s spot-on. Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart paint sympathetic portraits of Cherie Currie and Joan Jett respectively, and it’s their relationship that forms the heart of the story. Oddly, guitarist Lita Ford has been completely minimised to just a few lines. 

Like their records, it’s brash and loud – full of vitality and not especially subtle. But the storytelling is strong and the characters are convincing. I felt it skipped across events somewhat – you’d never guess from watching this that they recorded four albums – but perhaps that’s inevitable when a band’s career is squeezed down to a time that’s roughly equivalent to one of their gigs. 

The only slight criticism is that the seedier 1970s locations don't look dirty or grungy enough. Everything’s a little too clean – even when Joan Jett urinates on a guitar backstage. And the girls look like film stars (because they are) rather than ordinary kids in an extraordinary situation.