Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Extremely enjoyable and ultimately very moving prison drama starring Paul Newman as the ridiculously charismatic lead. Rarely will you see an actor with such presence on screen.

Locked up for a petty offence, war veteran Lucas “Luke” Jackson joins a road chain gang. He refuses to behave like the other men (including Harry Dean Stanton as Tramp), but slowly earns their respect with his liberated, nonconformist outlook. There’s a painful and emblematic scene in which he boxes against the leader of the men (George Kennedy as “Dragline”) and is repeatedly knocked down. But such is his strength of mind that he gets up again and again. Another remarkable interlude features the prisoners betting on whether Luke can eat 50 eggs in an hour and Luke then carrying out the challenge. It’s surreal and hilarious.

The second half of the film introduces a more serious tone. Luke tries to escape and the prison guards try to break his spirit. The narrative becomes richer and sadder as the essence of his personality – and even his humanity – is steadily eroded.

A remarkable soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin adds further depth to an extremely affecting story.

Grease 2 (1982)

“Grease is still the word,” claims the extremely lame slogan. Couldn’t they have come up with a new one?

Grease 2 is ridiculed as being a turkey, but if you approach it with low expectations and forget about the original masterpiece it’s actually a fairly enjoyable teen musical. It’s now 1961 and Rydell High School is opening for a new term. The T-Birds and the Pink Ladies are still the top gangs of boys and girls within the school caste system, albeit with entirely different members. English newcomer Michael (Maxwell Caulfield) falls for Samantha (Michelle Pfeiffer), but she tells him she’s only interested in cool biker types. To woo her, he then becomes one – keeping his true identity secret – and she doesn’t realise that the greaser hunk she’s attracted to is the same sensitive academic who helped her with her Hamlet essay...

There are lots of things wrong with this film. The chronology feels odd (the term flashes past within 90 minutes) and the script doesn’t sparkle. Musically and lyrically, the songs simply aren’t in the same league as those in the 1978 original and there’s a harshness and lack of warmth about them. One kicks off during a biology lesson, with the whole class singing about reproduction. Another takes place in a nuclear bunker, with the guy urging the girl he’s trying to seduce that they “do it for America”. In fact, there’s a lot about nuclear fears and John F. Kennedy – a political context that was absent but not missed last time around.

A handful of the actors from the first film reprise their roles. Didi Conn returns as Frenchy (but isn’t given a role), Eve Arden is once again Principal McGee, while Sid Caesar is still the sports coach, and so on. But it badly lacks the charisma of a John Travolta or a Stockard Channing. There simply isn’t anyone with real star quality.

For all its faults, there are plenty of plus points. Patricia Birch’s choreography is dynamic, as it was in the first film. The story is possibly more credible because it doesn’t end with a fairground ride taking off into space. There are some laughs. Michelle Pfeiffer is easy to like in the main role, even though she’s clearly no Olivia Newton-John. And trashy teen dramas full of youthful exuberance are always fun if you are in the mood. 

Hideous Kinky (1998)

It’s 1972 and Julia (Kate Winslet) has gone to live in Morocco with her two young children. She leaves behind her old relationship and hopes to “discover herself”. She becomes involved with a kindly drifter named Bilal (Saïd Taghmaoui), who turns out to be more complicated than he seems.

Winslet is strong as the endearingly naive and earnestly questing young mother. Bella Riza and Carrie Mullan are excellent as the precocious children able to cut through their mother’s hippy-dippy aspirations and speak the truth. They are among the most impressive child actors I’ve seen.

It’s a plot that seems to unfold sideways in almost unrelated episodes, so you can never guess what will happen next. Adapted from Esther Freud’s novel, itself autobiographical, it benefits from seeming “real” because the events it depicts actually took place.

There’s an excellent soundtrack – Canned Heat, Richie Havens, Nick Drake, Incredible String Band – that brings 1972 alive. The colours are rich and vital, making it even more pleasurable to watch.

The Reader (2008)

Intriguing and moving drama. In Berlin in 1958, 15-year-old Michael (David Kross) begins a brief, passionate love affair with 36-year-old tram conductor Hanna (Kate Winslet) that will come to haunt his entire life. Fast-forwarding to 1966, Michael is now a law student who gets to observe a trial of female SS guards who allowed 300 Jewish women to burn to death while locked in a church. He is horrified to see that Hanna is one of the accused women.

The film asks questions about morality and identity. One of the law students suggests that everyone in Germany is complicit in these crimes, and not just those in the court, but The Reader doesn’t try to offer any simplistic answers.

With his usual skill and elegance, Ralph Fiennes plays the older Michael. Bruno Ganz (who was Hitler in Downfall) plays a Holocaust survivor who teaches law), while Alexandra Maria Lara (Hitler's secretary in Downfall) gives evidence in court.

Directed by Stephen Daldry and written by David Hare, it’s a hugely powerful story that gains gravitas as it speeds through the decades towards the present.

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Trashy, unrewarding hybrid of two sci-fi/horror franchises. The Wiki one-liner reads: ”scientists are caught in the crossfire of an ancient battle between Aliens and Predators as they attempt to escape a bygone pyramid”, and that’s pretty much all there is to it. There’s a lot of monster action, but very little suspense.

It’s let down by a terribly lazy script. Characters waste valuable moments stopping what they are doing in order to tell the aliens things like “Die, you ugly son of a bitch!” before firing at them.

It also suffers from an often nonsensical plot:
1. Why do the predators need to turn invisible when they are already deadly assassins? And if they are such high-tech beings, why is their invisibility only partial?
2. The motive of Weyland (Lance Henriksen) is never really explained. Did he just want to discover something “important” before he died? I was expecting a far more sinister motive involving world domination, but he turns out to be a disappointingly ordinary billionaire.
3. The Italian archaeologist (Raoul Bova) is able to glance at alien artefacts once and suddenly know all there is to know about them – leading to some unintentionally funny, laugh-out-loud moments.
4. The Scottish chemical engineer (Ewen Bremner) never stops going on about his kids, leading you to think he has to survive to be reunited with them – but he doesn’t and isn’t.
5. The heroine (Sanaa Lathan) is somehow able to make friends with a dreadlocked predator, even though they use humans for sacrificial purposes.
6. They are meant to be in Antarctica, but the humans can wander around without coats.

On the plus side, I did like the sliding, interlocking jigsaw pieces of the pyramid, which rearrange themselves every 10 minutes. This idea – a neat one – may have been “borrowed” for The Maze Runner (2014).

The aliens – gooey and nasty – are probably the best thing about the film, but the colour scheme, in which aliens, predators and the pyramid itself are all the same grey-black, makes everything less interesting to look at.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

A sequel to the 1982 masterpiece, set 30 years later. Ryan Gosling plays K, the replicant seeking answers about his origins. It transpires that in one unprecedented instance, a replicant gave birth. That replicant was Rachael from the first film. K’s discovery of this knowledge begins a quest that ultimately leads him to Deckard (Harrison Ford), who he believes to be his father. But the sinister Wallace Corporation also wants to understand replicant breeding for its own ends.

It's visually stunning – possibly even more so than the original – and asks similarly deep philosophical questions about life, identity and memory. For a few reasons, though, Denis Villeneuve's film does not satisfy in the way that Ridley Scott’s does. Firstly, it’s simply too long (163 minutes). Some of the scenes are ponderous and slow. You can sit back to admire the expansive, luxurious quality or you can become infuriated with the glacial pace. The villains (Sylvia Hoeks and Jared Leto) didn’t quite convince. And too much of the film was given over to Gosling’s time with his synthetic “hologram” girlfriend (Ana de Armas). I liked her as a character, but – other than filling in details of how relationships and technology work in 2049 – this plot didn’t really lead anywhere. 

Harrison Ford’s appearance was surprisingly successful. I had feared it would be a tokenistic attempt to drag the star of the original back on screen for the sake of “sequel credibility”, but they wisely built the plot around him – even though he’s barely in it. And unlike in Star Wars Episode VII, where he’s depicted as the same Han Solo except older, with no character development at all, here he seems wiser and not in any way ridiculous.

I’d like to see it again, and on a big screen. With the plot twists now fully understood, I think I could get more out of it on second viewing.

Jaws (1975)

I’ve seen this gem several times now and never tire of it. Steven Spielberg lost his way in later years, but with this film and Duel (1971) he could do no wrong.

There is no way that Jaws deserves its “12” certificate. In the first scene alone you see drug-taking and nudity. Then there’s a fair bit of “threat”, dismemberment, gore and all-out horror.

It’s full of great little details: Roy Scheider’s son copying his gestures at the meal table; that ultra-dramatic on-the-beach shot that zooms in and pans out at the same time; the iconic “shark approaching” music by John Williams; Quint’s war story; “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”; and the grisly fingers-down-the-blackboard moment at the town meeting.

It really kicks off when the three men go to sea to hunt the killer great white. There’s a macho issue going on between the guys, as well as a theme of class: tough-talking fisherman Robert Shaw is less than impressed with college-educated oceanographer Richard Dreyfuss. As the police chief, Roy Scheider somehow strikes a balance between them. Each man’s character is extremely well drawn. Also excellent is Murray Hamilton as the town mayor who prioritses Amity’s lucrative 4th July celebrations over beach safety.

The shark looks incredibly realistic. So convincingly did the film make these creatures look evil that a great disservice was done to the way they are perceived and their subsequent ecological protection.

My only other real criticism is the intrusively jaunty music used in some of the action sequences. In typical Spielberg style, on a couple of occasions he over-eggs the “adventure” aspect and makes the drama seem silly. But the damage is minimal here compared to in his later films.

Those points aside, it’s a masterful study in suspense.

Billy Liar (1963)

The hilarious yet heartbreaking story of a young man who lives in his imagination to escape the pressures and tedium of his daily existence. Billy Fisher simply isn’t ready for the sensible, grown-up world that surrounds him. Caught up in a web of his own fabricated stories, he has promised to marry three different girls and has managed to “lose” the calendars he was meant to post out for his undertaker employer.

It’s an unbeatable character study and Tom Courtenay is spellbinding in the main role. Julie Christie is wonderful as Liz, the most free-spirited and modern of his three sweethearts. Leonard Rossiter and Rodney Bewes are excellent as his bods (Mr. Shadrack) and friend/colleague (Arthur Crabtree) respectively. I usually dislike fantasy scenes in films (they ruined 9 to 5, for example), but here they are integral and work especially well. Billy machine-gunning the people who enrage him is an extremely vivid depiction of his inner world. There’s so much humour and intelligence in the script (adapted by Keith Waterhouse from his own novel), and real poignancy builds as the single-day plot unravels. A masterpiece, pretty much. Watching this again after seeing Cemetery Junction, I realise just how much that film borrows from this one.

Firewall (2006)

Reasonably entertaining but unexceptional thriller starring Harrison Ford as bank IT security expert Jack Stanfield, who is kidnapped by a criminal gang led by Paul Bettany. The family are taken hostage and Stanfield is asked to hack into his own IT system to transfer $100 million.

The two leads are fairly strong and clichés are mostly avoided, but the film doesn’t quite come alive until the action finally kicks off. The wife (Virginia Madsen) and children are underdeveloped as characters, making their predicament less troubling than it should be. You struggle to believe they are real people in real peril. Likewise, the techie henchmen seem one-dimensional. You know they won’t last long, and they don’t. Far more enthralling is the loyal secretary, played by Mary Lynn Rajskub, whose facial expressions communicate so much. Harrison Ford is reliably watchable and does everything he can with the material, but even he can’t make wandering around an office or a server room seem interesting.

The title seems to have been chosen because, circa 2006, it still had a faint whiff of futuristic glamour about it. In 2020, it’s as quaint as calling the film Download or Software Update.

Non-Stop (2014)

Highly enjoyable thriller about a Federal Air Marshal (played by Liam Neeson) who finds himself on a flight with a hidden killer who threatens to murder a passenger every 20 minutes. But in an exciting twist, the killer manages to frame the Air Marshal so that it is he who is suspected of being the terrorist.

Neeson is easy to like as the heavy-drinking, down-on-his-luck Bill Marks. Julianne Moore, always worthwhile, is also appealing as the woman he sits next to and finds an unexpected connection with.

The action scenes are superbly handled by director Jaume Collet-Serra – fluid and real-looking, but with a bright, clean hyper-reality about them. I also like the way the phone texts are displayed on screen as words floating in the air. It’s imaginative and a lot more interesting and convenient than repeatedly showing close-ups of a mobile phone screen.

It’s not perfect. The criminal rationale, when explained, seems far-fetched. The title is generic and could apply to any thriller. And Neeson being chummy with the little girl veers on sentimental tough-guy-with-a-heart-of-gold cliché. But there’s still easily enough excitement and drama to keep you hooked to the end.

Swallows & Amazons (1974)

Enchanting adaptation of Arthur Ransome’s classic novel about four young siblings from the Walker family on holiday in the Lake District. They sail a small boat to an island to camp out and seek adventure. They encounter two girls (the Blackett sisters) doing much the same and – after some initial friction – they team up. Remarkably, their mother doesn’t seem the slightest bit worried about them disappearing for days at a time, entirely out of contact and in various dangerous situations (deep water, cliff edges, talking to strange adults, and so on), but then it is presented from the childrens’ point of view (allowing safety concerns to be ignored). Plus, kids were tougher in those days. They never argue among themselves and they never come to any harm, but they do have a lot of fun.

It’s an innocent story from a more innocent time – jolly japes for posh people with fathers in the navy and an early induction into sailing techniques. The story does develop to an exciting climax involving petty theft, but mostly it’s just about the children playing – and that’s enough. It’s so sweet and endearing that it doesn’t require any further drama. The 2016 remake, while also entertaining, felt the need to introduce an unnecessary plot about a secret agent.

All four child actors are excellent. Not sure what happened to the other three, but in a fairly extreme shift of roles Suzanna Hamilton went on to play Julia in 1984.

Batman: The Movie (1966)

Wonderfully absurd film-length version of the popular TV series, featuring all of the main characters from that timeless show. You get to see the Penguin (Burgess Meredith), the Riddler (Frank Gorshin) and the Joker (Cesar Romero) all working together on an evil plan involving dehydrating members of the United World Organization’s Security Council to a test tube’s worth of dust. Catwoman is also involved, this time played by Lee Meriwether (rather than Julie Newmar or Eartha Kitt from the television version). It’s a pleasure to see her pretending to be Soviet journalist Kitayna Ireyna Tatanya Kerenska Alisoff in order to woo the unsuspecting Bruce Wayne.

As with the TV programme, it’s visually colourful to an extraordinary level, with bright greens and purples bringing out a psychedelic feel. It’s playful and inventive, too, with camera angles as crooked as the crooks themselves used whenever the villains are on screen.

The humour emerges from how seriously Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) take themselves and their crime-fighting. They are stiff, moralistic “straights” in direct contrast to the loose, thrill-seeking baddies.

Stand-out moments include Batman trying to dispose of a bomb as the fuse burns down (wherever he turns, there’s a nun or a baby or a young couple or a family of ducks in his way) and Batman trying to fend off a shark that bites his legs as he dangles in the sea from the Batcopter. (He only survives because Robin climbs down the ladder and passes him a can of shark-repellent spray.)

The frivolous wit is refreshing. When Batman was reinvented in 1989 as a “moody”, troubled character in line with the “darker” comic origins, it all seemed tiresomely po-faced.

Memento (2000)

Director Christopher Nolan likes to do tricky things with time and narrative, but often risks losing narrative cohesion in the process (see also Inception and Dunkirk). Memento is probably his best film and it’s even more tricksy than usual.

Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) is an insurance investigator who suffers from anterograde amnesia – that is, he has no short-term memory. It was lost in an attack that, he believes, also saw his wife raped and murdered. Despite his memory disorder, Shelby seeks to investigate the incident and take vengeance. In order to remember what he learns each day, he writes things down on polaroids and scraps of paper – and even tattoos messages onto his own body – before he can forget it all again. (As someone with a bad memory who obsessively documents things to compensate, I could relate to this a little too well.)

To make this plot even more unusual, the film’s scenes are shown in reverse. Following each episode, we see the episode that preceded it, and so on. Meanwhile, intercut black and white scenes run in standard chronology.

This could have been a horrible confusing mess from the outset, but Nolan handles it skilfully enough that it works as a detective thriller. It is a mind-bender, though, and you may feel yourself getting lost as the plots progress and eventually converge. I think that’s partly intentional, in order that we feel some of the confusion that plagues the protagonist.

Guy Pearce is superb in the main role. You never doubt his condition, even you do wonder how he remembers – every time he awakes – that he’s supposed to be seeking a killer.

Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano are suitably ambiguous in the supporting roles. The film encourages us to distrust them, but then it suggests we should distrust everything and everyone we think we know. The storytelling itself is deliberately unreliable, and urges us to question what we believe to be the “objective” and “subjective” truths that supposedly make up the reality of our lives.

Father (Apa) (1966)

A poignant Hungarian drama directed by István Szabó. Takó (Daniel Erdely) lost his father (Miklos Gabor) in World War II and – with only three memories of him – invents a fantasy figure of who his father might have been. We see these heroic childhood fantasies played out in suitably childish, boys’-own action sequences that are contrasted with the reality of the child’s actual life. His idealised dream sequences – a source of comfort and a way of coping with bereavement – play out against the real-world political changes occurring in Hungary after the war.

The second half of the film shows an older version of Takó (now played by András Bálint) as a student in 1956, at the time of the Hungarian Uprising, still trying to come to terms with who his father was and trying to figure out why this question has been so central to his life.

It’s a terribly sad film that’s not without moments of gentle comedy. The childhood part of the story is more effective and engaging than the grown-up section of the narrative, but both parts work well. The film would be better appreciated with a deeper understanding of Hungarian history than I was able to bring to it.

The Towering Inferno (1974)

A big Hollywood blockbuster disaster film about a fire breaking out in a state-of-the-art skyscraper. Paul Newman (the architect) and Steve McQueen (the chief fireman) lead an all-star cast that includes Fred Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, O.J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn and Robert Wagner.

At 165 minutes it’s long indeed, but surprisingly it doesn’t feel slow or laboured. I last saw it as a child and I enjoyed it then, which wouldn’t have been the case if it was a stodgy, ponderous epic.

In places it’s trashy, and there were a few unintentionally funny moments. But there was also real drama and tension. At times it was truly horrifying – such as when Jennifer Jones falls out of the exterior lift and then bounces off the sides on the building on her way down.

The cast is strong. Paul Newman makes for a very likeable hero and manages to rise above the material he’s given. Faye Dunaway does the same, with a cool, restrained intelligence. Richard Chamberlain is just right as the edgy, selfish electrical engineer and son-in-law of the builder. You know it’s not going to end well for him and sure enough he comes to a sticky end.

Only Fred Astaire – playing a doddery old conman who unexpectedly falls in love – seems wrong for his role.  He loses the woman but inherits her cat, which O.J. Simpson has kindly rescued.

I’m not sure this film could have been made now, post-9/11 and post-Grenfell Tower. Intriguingly, it’s adapted from two novels (with both plots and climaxes woven together), but although it’s a work of fiction there’s a dedication at the beginning to all the real-life firemen who died in the course of their duties.

Flash Gordon (1980)

Highly entertaining adaptation of the comic-book hero’s exploits, wisely playing up the outlandish, cartoonish aspects of the story. The colours are super-bright, the costumes are wonderfully extravagant and everything is over-egged to the nth degree. It’s pure pantomime and it’s enormous fun. 

Sam J. Jones plays the hero as an almost blandly all-American beefcake football star. Melody Anderson is tremendous as Dale Arden, the travel agent who accompanies Flash to Mongo and falls in love with him. Topol is Dr. Hans Zarkov, the batty scientist who kidnaps the pair to investigate the extreme-weather peril Earth is enduring. Max von Sydow is perfect as evil Emperor Ming the Merciless, as is Ornella Muti as his sultry and traitorous daughter Princess Aura. Timothy Dalton (as Prince Barin) and Brian Blessed (as Prince Vultan) are the resistance leaders who join up to help Flash and his friends fight Ming’s empire. Blessed is a joy to watch – a constantly guffawing warrior “hawkman” kitted out in big wings. 

It’s made all the more thrilling and exciting by the soundtrack by Queen. The band contributed not only the famous theme tune, but also all of the incidental music as well. 

Peter Wyngarde plays the Darth Vader-like General Klytus. And Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan has a cameo as a man who has to put his hand in a hole in a tree without being stung by a tree monster. 

Although it’s deliberately daft and cheesy, there’s an uplifting message in there about the power of humanity to display kindness and overcome the forces of evil.

A glorious celebration of silliness.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)

Kitchen-sink drama, written as a novel and then adapted for film by Alan Sillitoe, starring Albert Finney as Arthur Seaton. A smooth-talking factory worker who is dating two women, including the wife of a work colleague, Arthur lives life to the full until events begin to catch up with him.

It’s superbly scripted, with sharp, rapid-fire dialogue bringing the characters to life. There’s plenty of wit and pathos throughout. The fairground sequence – in which Seaton fails to evade two soldiers intent on beating him up – is especially dynamic.

It’s also an amazingly vivid portrait of industrial England in the post-war years – a grey and grim world that would soon undergo modernisation.

Edge of Love (2008)

Fairly compelling drama set during World War II. When young Welsh singer Vera (Keira Knightley) meets her old friend Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys), their youthful attraction is rekindled. But Thomas is now married to Caitlin (Sienna Miller), and Vera is courted by a soldier (Cillian Murphy) soon to be sent back into battle.

The film wisely keeps its focus on the relationship between the two women, the real subject of the story, with the famous poet creating both a bond and a tension between them. Unlike Sylvia and Iris, it’s certainly not a writer biopic.

Knightley’s Welsh accent is surprisingly convincing, although people from Wales might not agree. Her singing is credible, too. She’s charismatic, as is Murphy as her troubled lover, psychologically damaged by the war. Sienna Miller is also impressive, communicating a huge range of emotions with subtle grace. Rhys, meanwhile, struggles somewhat to convey the magnetism that the plot needs to hinge upon. Poetry aside, exactly what was it that these two women loved so much about him?

The film is occasionally a little over-stylised and there are some unrealistic moments (a view of St. Paul’s Cathedral amid bomb wreckage just looked like a painting), but it’s never predictable and it makes you fully engage with all four of the main characters. In terms of mood and tone it flits oddly all over the place, but I rather like that.

There are cameos by Suggs of Madness and Lisa Stansfield.

Keira Knightley’s mother wrote the screenplay.

An incredible number of cigarettes are smoked.

It’s not clear why it’s called Edge of Love – a title that would work for almost any film with a romantic storyline.

Gattaca (1997)

Quietly profound thriller set in a near-future world where genetics are everything. People are graded as “valids” or “in-valids”, depending on their genetic profile. Ethan Hawke plays Vincent Freeman – a man whose “defects” (a weak heart) prevent him realising his dream to go to space. He impersonates Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), a valid who was paralysed in a self-inflicted accident. Uma Thurman plays a work colleague who falls in love with “Jerome”, not realising he is really an imposter. Gore Vidal plays their boss – the mission director with a dangerous agenda of his own.

The film asks complicated questions about the ethics of genetic engineering. It also looks at ambition, human identity, nature vs. nurture and brotherly love.

The “sci-fi” premise is nicely offset by the visuals, which are 1950s-themed. The retro-futuristic look is stylish and believable.

It builds to a surprisingly emotional ending.

The Terminator (1984)

Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a cyborg sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who will give birth to a resistance leader of the future. Sarah is helped by Kyle Reese, another soldier from the future (Michael Biehn), in an attempt to stop the seemingly unstoppable.

James Cameron’s film is both trashy and, given the expert storytelling, strangely sophisticated. The special effects look basic by modern standards, but they are still highly effective.

Schwarzenegger is entirely convincing as the android with astonishing strength. The film is unashamedly violent and seems to fetishise guns.

It’s fascinating to see what we didn’t know about the future in 1984. When the Terminator arrives in 1984, he looks up Sarah Connor in the phone directory. So in 2029, there seems to be no equivalent of the internet or GPS tracking software. Surely they could have sent back something more advanced than a tough-guy robot dependent on a printed phone book?

That small point aside, it’s a highly entertaining romp.

“I’ll be back,” says Arnie, famously, at one point – and he was, in numerous Terminator sequels.

Back to the Future Part III (1990)

The concluding part of the saga is so much stronger than the second instalment. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels back to the Old West of 1885 to prevent his friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) from being shot by the local cowboy Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), who just so happens to be the great-grandfather of Marty’s old enemy Biff.

The DeLorean is damaged and they have to devise a new way of getting back to the future. But all this is complicated when Doc falls in love with a schoolteacher (Mary Steenburgen), and instead of Doc being shot it’s suddenly Marty who’s at risk.

This has all the laughs, thrills and romance of the first part, but none of the misjudged bleakness or over-the-top pantomime of the second. It’s once again extremely clever without being confusing, so well planned and executed are the intricate plot twists. And the piling up of reference points and jokes from the first two films makes it a real pleasure to watch.

It’s lovely that Doc has his own story and it’s nice that they found room for his character to be developed further. The high-speed climax is genuinely nail-biting and the coda is both absurd and satisfying. A truly joyous end to the trilogy.

Don't Look Now (1973)

Based on the story by Daphne du Maurier, Nicolas Roeg’s psychological thriller verges on horror and is genuinely terrifying. 

Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are in Venice, trying to come to terms with the death (by drowning) of their young daughter. But when they meet a woman who appears to have the gift of second sight, their lives are changed all over again. 

Roeg is brilliant at building tension. Visually, it’s striking too: recurring motifs come to carry great significance as the inevitability of the conclusion draws closer. 

Sutherland and Christie are all-too-believably “real” as the grieving parents. In some ways this is a film about bereavement and what it does to the mind and soul. 

The closing moments are unbearably tense and chilling, leaving you with an enduring feeling of being deeply unsettled and disturbed.

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

Disaster film depicting the true-life events of the 2010 BP oil-rig explosion leading to 11 deaths and one of the world’s worst environmental disasters. As the closing text puts it: “The blowout lasted for 87 days, spilling an estimated 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.”

It’s to the film’s credit that it doesn’t sensationalise these events. Mark Wahlberg plays the Chief Electronics Technician, with admirable restraint. Likewise, Kurt Russell as “Mr. Jimmy”, the Offshore Installation Manager. John Malkovich plays Donald Vidrine, one of the BP managers keen to cut corners despite the risk of compromising the rig’s safety. Gina Rodriguez is the likeable Dynamic Position Operator, who has to dive with Wahlberg over the burning ocean oil to safety. And Kate Hudson plays Wahlberg’s worried wife back home.

It’s a tense drama that also makes some good points about technical expertise coming into conflict with corporate might, but without getting bogged down in engineering detail or industry politics. An efficient, intelligent script builds character, offers flashes of wit and keeps the emphasis on the human side of the tragedy.

The Invention of Lying (2009)

Ricky Gervais stars as Mark Bellison in an offbeat but flawed comedy in which people are incapable of speaking nothing but the truth. When Bellison finds out that he can lie, he discovers that he has the means to change the world.

The concept is brilliant (imagine a world in which there’s no fiction of any kind), but somehow the film never develops its full potential. It’s especially intriguing as a critique of religion: when Bellison is overheard fibbing to his dying, frightened mother that she’ll have a wonderful afterlife, he accidentally creates a whole new belief system. But the anticipated satire on religion – a topic Gervais has strong opinions on – never really arrives.

There’s also a confusion between honesty and unkindness. Just because people speak the truth doesn’t mean they have to be rude and unpleasant. Wouldn’t kind people speak kind truths? We never find out because most of the characters are so obnoxious. This issue is complicated by the “love interest”, played by Jennifer Garner, who grows fond of Bellison but won’t marry him because he’s “fat” with “a snub nose”. She’d rather be with the callous, shallow egotist played by Rob Lowe because he apparently has better genes. It’s difficult to see why Bellison likes her.

Cameos by Christopher Guest and Philip Seymour Hoffman seem thrown away.

There are some funny moments, and the central premise is a fascinating one, but it just feels like a missed opportunity.

Cemetery Junction (2010)

Written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, this film has all the pathos, humour and drama that made The Office so special. The romance story at its heart is also very similar to that of Tim and Dawn in that show – even down to the idea of a girl wanting to pursue a creative urge (painting/photography) despite a heartless boyfriend standing in her way.

The film tells the story of three working-class friends (Christian Cooke, Tom Hughes and Jack Doolan) coming of age in Cemetery Junction, Reading, in 1973. Each of them struggles with the limits imposed by a backward-looking English community. When one of them starts to think outside of the small-town confines, he finds his family and colleagues are less than open-minded about his ambitions.

Felicity Jones plays Julie, a glamorous photographer who wants to travel and live a more fulfilling life than the one her nasty, selfish father (Ralph Fiennes) and boyfriend (Matthew Goode) have planned for her. Ricky Gervais plays a racist, unpleasant father bickering with his family, while Steve Merchant has only a brief walk-on cameo.

The period detail is well-observed, although sometimes things look a little too clean and bright.

There’s an unbeatable soundtrack (David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Roxy Music, T.Rex – even Elton John sounds good in this context) and a powerful sense of yearning.  Plenty of laughs, too, amid some serious points about class and social aspirations.

Trivia: Emily Watson plays Felicity Jones’ mother, just as she did in the Stephen Hawkins biopic The Theory of Everything (2014).

Arrival (2016)

Denis Villeneuve's philosophical sci-fi mind-bender has an emotional core that you might not expect from this genre.

Aliens arrive and park their huge egg-like ships at 12 strategic points hovering over the Earth. No one knows what they want nor why they are here. An army colonel (Forest Whitaker) recruits a world-class linguist (Amy Adams) and scientist (Jeremy Renner) to help the US military team understand the visitors’ motives and, ideally, communicate with them. That communication begins and a remarkable interchange is set in motion.

As if this wasn’t exciting enough, world tensions escalate as various nations panic about what’s generally considered to be a hostile invasion. But it transpires that the aliens are bringing something altogether different to humanity...

The film is extremely moving, with an interwoven plot about bereavement. It looks stunning, too. The aliens resemble tree-like creatures, but – unusually for a sci-fi film – the attempt to visualise the unimaginable doesn’t disappoint.

Adams and Renner had already worked together in American Hustle. They make for a good team.

The ending is sad but surprisingly satisfying.

Back to the Future Part II (1989)

This sequel is sillier than the first film and not as enjoyable, for various reasons:
• There are fewer laughs.
• Without the romance, some of the warmth is missing.
• The plot is more complicated, with events building up in parallel in different chronologies and talk of time paradoxes. It would make little sense if you hadn’t seen the 1985 original.
• Thomas F. Wilson as Biff Tannen isn’t really charismatic enough to be fleshed-out from local bully to major villain.
• The “darker” moments feel misjudged, such as when we see Marty’s mother Lorraine (Lea Thompson) reduced to a hopeless, broken alcoholic.
• The make-up used to age characters looks horrible.
• The future they visit (2015) is sketchy at best and we learn little beyond the facts that Jaws 19 is now showing in cinemas and that cars and skateboards can fly.
• Musically, there’s nothing in the soundtrack as punchy as “The Power of Love”.

All that said, there are many good things about Part II. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reprise their roles effectively and the film is at its best when the pair are in scenes together and able to play off each other. There are some nice jokes based on our knowledge of the previous film. And once again, there are some extremely clever twists.

Weirdly, Marty’s girlfriend is replaced by a different actor: Elisabeth Shue plays Jennifer instead of Claudia Wells. Weirder still, Crispin Glover is barely present as George McFly owing to a dispute over what he was paid. Given that this film recreates entire scenes from the first film – many of the key events are seen again, from different angles – building in his absence must have been even more challenging. For example, you see the Enchantment Under the Sea Ball from a different perspective, painstakingly re-enacted amid the new scenes, with George played by a not-quite-in-focus stand-in.

It ends with previews of Part III, which looks as if it will be even more ridiculous. Looking forward to seeing that.

Iris (2001)

A biopic of Iris Murdoch, a love story and a study of the great writer’s decline into Alzheimer’s, this is a gripping and sad drama.

Adapted from John Bayley’s book about his dying wife, Iris: A Memoir of Iris Murdoch (1998), it cleverly flits between young Iris (Kate Winslet) and old Iris (Judi Dench) in order to show you the strength of talent and personality being eroded by the disease. The two eras dovetail perfectly, often connected by visual signifiers (such as the couple swimming “then” and “now”) that make them flow together seamlessly.

Jim Broadbent plays Bayley as a bumbling figure who remains deeply in love with the brilliant, unconventional woman he met in Oxford. My only criticism of the film is that this almost comically awkward characterisation gives little sense that he also had a remarkable intellect of his own.

Winslet and Dench are both highly convincing as the celebrated writer – painfully so in the case of the latter. It’s almost unbearable to watch her “sailing into darkness”, as she puts it, as she slowly but steadily forgets everything she ever knew and even who she is.

I also found it deeply uncomfortable to see the appalling mess in the couple’s home. They were truly living in squalor with no outside support.

Penelope Wilton (of Ever Decreasing Circles fame) is excellent as Iris’s friend Janet Stone.

Intermezzo (1939)

Tepid and mostly uninvolving drama about a celebrated violinist (Leslie Howard) who falls for his young daughter’s piano teacher (Ingrid Bergman). It’s only an hour and nine minutes long, racing through scenes and events in a way that seems unsubtle and even childish.

Bergman is believable enough as a young woman getting out of her depth. She had already appeared in a Swedish version of the same film in 1936, and she appears entirely comfortable reprising the role. Leslie Howard, however, completely fails to convey the passion or confusion he is supposed to be experiencing. There’s a lack of nuance throughout and this prevents you engaging with the characters. Indeed, the family dog is given more personality than the violinist’s wife Margit (Edna Best).

Everything is resolved far too easily, suggesting that the emotional stakes were never very high. Even the one moment of true drama – a car accident – is quickly dealt with and made as unremarkable as all the other events.

Room (2015)

Extremely moving drama about a mother, Joy (Brie Larson), and her son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay), who are held captive in a tiny outhouse by an abductor. Joy was kidnapped seven years previously and later impregnated by her captor. This room is Jack’s entire world as a result of his being born and confined there. It is his only reality, but – thanks to Joy’s ingenious efforts to protect him from the true horror of their situation – it has become a sealed universe of play and learning. Every object in the room (or “Room”, as he calls it) takes on huge significance because space is so limited but time is so abundant. This is the opposite of the world beyond, of which Jack later observes: “I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter over all the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there’s only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit.”

Room was adapted from the brilliant novel of the same name by Emma Donoghue, who also wrote the screenplay. The transition to screen is skilfully handled. The book is narrated by Jack, so we learn via his youthful perceptions how abusively they are being treated, and the child’s view of a miniature world is enthralling. The film doesn’t have this option, generally opting to show rather than tell, although you do hear occasional sections of Jack’s narration. Surprisingly, however, it does manage to recreate the oppressive feel of the novel.

Room is unbearably sad, especially since Jack demands so little from life beyond the love of his mother. You find yourself desperately rooting for the pair.

Ultimately, their story is both life-affirming and profound.

Back to the Future (1985)

Absolutely wonderful time-travel comedy starring Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly. He is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a DeLorean modified by his friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd). He then has two major problems to resolve. Not only does the car lack the plutonium it needs to get him “back to the future”, but also his presence in 1955 leads to wide-reaching ripples in the fabric of time itself. For example, instead of his mother (Lea Thompson) meeting his father (Crispin Glover), she falls for Marty instead. As events start heading towards an outcome in which the couple never date and marry, Marty and his siblings begin to fade from his family photograph. That’s silly and makes little sense (they would either have existed or not existed), but pretty much all of the clever plotting works perfectly if you accept a few basic leaps of faith.

The direction by Robert Zemeckis is lively and precise. Every detail matters and the dovetailing of events in 1955 and 1985 is ingenious indeed. The storytelling is so clear and uncluttered that a potentially complex and tangled narrative really works. It's both an exciting adventure and a warm-hearted love story. Plus, there are plenty of laughs.

Denial (2016)

Gripping account of the high-profile London court case between US historian Deborah Lipstandt and David Irving, the Holocaust denier who filed a libel suit against her.

Based on Lipstandt's memoir, History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving, this film is presented from her point of view. She’s played, fairly convincingly, by Rachel Weisz. Irving is played by Timothy Spall, who – in a transfixing performance – alternates between character traits that seem almost charming, a bit mad and quite terrifying. Both of these actors do wonders with what must have been extremely difficult material. Tom Wilkinson and Andrew Scott (who was “C” in the Bond film Spectre) play her heavy-drinking barrister and clinical-but-brilliant solicitor.

It’s a taut legal drama in which the stakes are incredibly high: if Irving had won, it would have given Holocaust denial far greater cultural weight. It’s also a personal drama about a writer who has to let go of what she believes most strongly and place all her trust in her team to seek justice.

Marie Antoinette (2006)

A stunningly vivid masterpiece written and directed by Sofia Coppola. Kirsten Dunst is absolutely excellent in the title role. It begins with her portraying the 14-year-old Archduchess of Austria being sent to marry the Dauphin of France (Jason Schwartzman), who would become Louis XVI. It ends during the French Revolution, with the royal couple being taken away from the Palace of Versailles to be executed. Admirably it doesn’t need to show those grisly last moments because the suggestion of them is powerful enough.

The film presents a surprisingly sympathetic and non-judgemental portrait of a young woman in an impossible situation, while skilfully building up the wider context that led to her downfall.

Visually, it’s remarkable. There’s a vivid quality to the colours and every scene could be freeze-framed as a poster. It’s richly sumptuous without merely looking pretty.

In keeping with Marie Antoinette’s “unconventional” ways, the film has an urgency that’s boosted by the prominent new-wave and post-punk soundtrack (Siouxsie & The Banshees, Bow Wow Wow, Adam & The Ants, The Cure, New Order, The Strokes). This refreshing, edgy vitality really brings it alive. It’s about as far from the stilted, fusty tropes of a Merchant Ivory-type costumer as it’s possible to get.

Steve Coogan judges it perfectly as Austrian diplomat Florimond Claude, comte de Mercy-Argenteau. Marianne Faithfull has gravitas as Empress Maria-Theresa. Rose Byrne is terrific as the garrulous Yolande de Polastron, Duchess of Polignac.

It’s a joy from start to finish.

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

I really disliked this Coen Brothers so-called “comedy drama” about a folk singer in New York in 1961.
1. It looks horrible: washed-out and grey – just not a visual treatment I can enjoy. I understand that this was meant to mirror a washed-out and grey existence, but it felt heavy-handed and self-conscious.
2. Everyone and everything was made as ugly as possible. Why?
3. With the exception of Oscar Isaac as the character in the film title, no one was likeable in any way.
4. There’s an entirely superfluous sub-plot about a road trip to Chicago that promises lots and goes absolutely nowhere.
5. I have an aversion to John Goodman. He’s always the same in everything he does and he’s never as funny as he’s meant to be. Just the same annoying tics. 
6. The comedy in general was extremely weak. No laughs, or even wry smiles, and opportunities to satirise were overlooked.
7. Unfortunately, the drama was weak also – mainly because of point 3, above.
8. Carey Mulligan’s character was so objectionable that you couldn’t care in the slightest about her problems.
9. There’s something deeply soporific about it – the long, ponderous performance scenes and the consistently unsparkling dialogue. Even the endless swearing lacked impact.
10. The directors take a fascinating time and place in American history and crush all the life out of it. Or as Suzanne Vega stated: “I feel they took a vibrant, crackling, competitive, romantic, communal, crazy, drunken, brawling scene and crumpled it into a slow brown sad movie.” The arrival of Bob Dylan at the end to usher in a new era was too little too late.

A Bigger Splash (2015)

Superb drama in which Tilda Swinton plays a pop star recovering from a throat operation in seclusion on an Italian island. Matthias Schoenaerts is her partner, a recovered alcoholic who survived a suicide attempt. Their lives are turned upside down again when the singer's former lover and promoter (Ralph Fiennes) arrives and moves in, bringing with him a girl who may or may not be his 22-year-old daughter (Dakota Johnson). Tensions soon develop, with far-reaching consequences for all four of them.

Ralph Fiennes’ performance is astonishing. Incredibly charismatic and bursting with energy in every frame, he absolutely nails it and never lets up. There’s a perfect scene in which he dances to “Emotional Rescue” by the Rolling Stones.

The film is beautifully and strikingly shot, with an unusual visual flair. Director Luca Guadagnino knows exactly what to linger on, when and for how long. It’s full of nuance. The diverse music is remarkable, too, throwing you into unexpected moods.

My only criticism is that I was never convinced by Tilda Swinton as a rock star. She doesn’t look right and she doesn’t project the kind of magnetism you would expect. You do see her in flashback, and there’s even a moment when she’s seen on stage, but you never learn what made her famous. The fact that she can only speak in rasping whispers, owing to her recent surgery, adds to the problem. She has little to project beyond contorted facial expressions. She’s certainly not a Chrissie Hynde. She’s not even an Annie Lennox.

Almost Famous (2000)

Cameron Crowe wrote and directed this account of his time as a young journalist on tour with a rock band. It’s a sentimental and sanitised portrait of the music industry, but that makes for a hugely entertaining film. I love it.

Patrick Fugit is perfect as the wide-eyed, 15-year-old writer William, mentored by Creem journalist Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and desperate to follow his dreams as he takes off with the up-and-coming (fictional) rockers Stillwater. Kate Hudson is expressive and sympathetic as Penny Lane, a 16-year-old groupie who also follows the band and learns too late that she’s being used by them. Frances McDormand is amusing and compelling as the overbearing mother who’s convinced her son will be lost to a world of drugs and decadence.

The soundtrack features Led Zeppelin, The Seeds, Simon & Garfunkel, Yes and Neil Young among others. I’m not a fan of Elton John, but the scene in which everyone sings along to his “Tiny Dancer” is warm and touching. The music by Stillwater sounds authentically 1973, if a little generic.

“I have to go home,” says William, at one point.
“You are home,” replies Penny Lane.

Wall Street (1987)

There’s something not quite right about Oliver Stone’s stock-market thriller. Michael Douglas is actually fairly compelling as the corrupt Gordon Gecko and his much-discussed “Greed is good” speech remains an iconic bit of cinema. But Charlie Sheen is woeful as the young upstart who initially wants to be Gecko and ultimately wants to ruin him. Can Charlie Sheen act? Seemingly charmless, humourless and lacking emotional range, he’s almost exactly the same here as he was in Platoon. He simply does not convince and it's unclear whether or not you are meant to be on his side.

Daryl Hannah is oddly underwritten as Sheen’s interior-designer girlfriend. James Spader isn’t given enough of a role, either. He would have been a better choice for the main part. But the script is slightly clichéd all round.

The best things about the film are Martin Sheen, the on-screen and real-life father of Charlie, and the New York skylines and scenery. Terence Stamp is OK, but – absurdly – he’s made to say “mate” and “bloke” to accentuate his Englishness.

There’s a good film in there somewhere, but Oliver Stone – as usual, intent on making a Big Statement – cannot tease it out.

Cosmopolis (2012)

A super-rich, super-powerful businessman in search of a haircut travels across New York City in a hi-tech limousine. Strange, scary, violent things happen. He’s joined at various points by expert advisors – on financial markets, on modern theoretical thinking, and (by Juliette Binoche) on buying art.

This disturbing film is David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s short novel from 2003. It’s difficult to work out if it’s more Cronenbergian than DeLillo-esque. The former’s deliberately ugly visuals and horror elements are distinctive. The latter’s ultra-dry, play-like dialogue is also prominent, although it’s less funny here than it is on the page – even though (or perhaps because) the film adaptation is fairly faithful to the novel.

Robert Pattinson stars as Eric Packer and Sarah Gadon plays his “wife”, although their marriage is more of a farcical abstraction than a reality – another of the deliberately absurd elements that push the narrative into surreal and existential territory.

The problem with the film is that it succeeds so well in its aim to be cold and cerebral that you wonder what you might actually gain from watching it. If the characters don’t care about anything, why should we care about them? And therefore it starts to feel as shallow and empty as its subject matter.

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Adapted by David O. Russell from a novel by Matthew Quick, Silver Linings Playbook is a warm-hearted drama that somehow finds comedy and romance in mental illness without trivialising it.

Pat (Bradley Cooper) is a bipolar man who was placed in a psychiatric hospital for assaulting the teacher having an affair with his wife. Released to live at home with his mother (Jacki Weaver) and father (Robert De Niro), he’s intent on getting back with his wife, which you sadly learn is a delusion, and when he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) he believes he’s found a way to engineer a reunion. His father wrestles with OCD and superstitions, which are brought into focus by his love of the Philadelphia Eagles and his work in illegal bookmaking. Plus, he’s had his own violent episodes. You soon realise where Pat’s troubles stem from.

The plot progresses in various threads and resolves them all wonderfully. There’s sparking dialogue, considerable wit and remarkable acting.

It’s a treat to hear "Girl from the North Country" sung by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, accompanying a tender collage scene in which Cooper and Lawrence learn to dance together. The strong soundtrack also includes the White Stripes.

How amazing that you can feel moved by a film in which the main character goes jogging in a black bin liner, but Silver Linings Playbook is something very special. I’ve seen it three or four times now and it never fails to move and amuse.

American Hustle (2013)

If you like the novels of Elmore Leonard, you will almost certainly enjoy this neatly plotted crime thriller. A couple of con-artists and an FBI agent try to out-con one another amid an emerging love triangle that complicates matters further. The lead actors are so good that they are a joy to watch. Amy Adams has sparkly chemistry alongside both Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper. Jennifer Lawrence is a treat, as ever – especially in the scene in which she sings along to “Live and Let Die” in a manner that seems genuinely unhinged. Jeremy Renner is compelling as the corrupt mayor regretfully framed by Bale, who has become great friends with him. The 1970s fashions and music are expertly chosen and the period detail feels perfectly done. It’s funny, too, but the comedy is as black as it gets.

There’s not a single scene or line that doesn’t move the plot forwards or deepen the characterisation. It’s funny, too. The team of director David O. Russell plus Cooper, Lawrence and Robert De Niro also made The Silver Linings Playbook and Joy. These people truly know what they are doing.

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Charming New York comedy written and directed by Woody Allen. It examines the lives and relationships of three sisters, played by Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey and Dianne Wiest. Their husbands (or ex-husbands) are played by Michael Caine, Max von Sydow and Woody Allen, while Carrie Fisher is woefully underused as a family friend.

As with most Woody Allen films it’s intricately plotted, with wit, sophistication and emotion, but unusually for his work a few things seemed slightly unresolved. What happened to the architect that Dianne Wiest and Carrie Fisher were both going to the opera with? Did they both decide not to date him? It felt like a scene was missing. Also, there’s a moment in which Barbara Hershey’s character Lee is heading to an AA meeting. Then later she is seen dancing with Michael Caine and enjoying a glass of wine. Did he get her back on the booze and, if so, shouldn’t the story have picked up on this? Or was that a continuity mistake? These points aside, it’s a thought-provoking drama that’s resolved in a very satisfactory way.

A View to a Kill (1985)

Roger Moore plays James Bond for the seventh and final time. He looks too old for the role (Q and Moneypenny aren’t getting any younger, either), but despite that it’s a better film than I recalled.

Christopher Walken plays Max Zorin, a demented tycoon who plots to flood and destroy Silicon Valley in order to control the world market in microchips. Grace Jones is his right-hand woman. Unfortunately, she is given almost no dialogue and so spends most of the film merely looking fashionable and angry.

There is a genuinely tense and dramatic finale at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, involving Bond dangling by a rope from an airship, which is not for vertigo sufferers. There’s also a surprisingly brutal scene in which Zorin sprays miners with machine-gun fire while laughing his head off.

Tanya Roberts plays a slightly weedy geologist called Stacey. And Patrick Macnee plays a horse trainer named Sir Godfrey Tibbett.

There are plenty of ridiculous moments, as you’d expect. The most absurd is a motorised iceberg that Bond uses as a boudoir in Siberia. Or maybe it’s when Bond quickly cooks a quiche.

I’m a little saddened that I have now seen all of the films, but at least there’s the forthcoming (much delayed) No Time to Die to look forward to.

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.

Blade Runner: The Final Cut (2007)

Ridley Scott’s masterpiece (originally released in 1982) is also Harrison Ford’s greatest film. In the Los Angeles of 2019, a cop has to track down and terminate four “more human than human” robots (or “replicants”) who have turned murderous as their four-year lifespan is about to expire. It’s wonderful on so many levels:
• The super-atmospheric soundtrack by Vangelis.
• The dark, dank visuals that so convincingly create a world and which have proved so influential on other films.
• The way it plays with genre. Is it sci-fi, horror, film noir, existential drama or a detective story? It’s all of those.
• The perfect cast: Rutger Hauer and Daryl Hannah are so convincing that you never once doubt that they are synthetic beings. Sean Young is also perfectly not-quite-right as the replicant who believes she’s human until all her illusions are crushed.
• The philosophical depth of it. What is life? What is humanity? How should we best use the little time we have?
• The exciting plot that builds to a remarkable and unexpected resolution.
• The restraint of it. No one over-acts. And Harrison Ford looks genuinely frightened when he’s being pursued. It’s the opposite of a shoot-’em-up cop film, or rather an extremely sophisticated version of one.

This is the third version of Blade Runner I’ve seen and they are all valuable in their own ways.