The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

The curiously featureless face of Leonardo Di Caprio works perfectly to represent the banality of ultra-greed in Martin Scorsese’s audacious biopic of non-legal trader Jordan Belfort. 

The aesthetic is bland and corporate, as it should be. Scorsese avoids the subtle layering of American Hustle and instead opts for relentlessness, brilliantly pushing the excess factor. Some of the speeches by the “wolf” are incredibly well done – a much more extreme twist on the “greed is good” theme of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gecko in Wall Street. 

Some critics complained that there’s no moral core, but surely that’s the point of this film. The book is even better. Jordan’s written account condenses certain episodes in his life. The film further combines and condenses, so inevitably drifts towards fiction.

A diverse cast also includes Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Rob Reiner, Joanna Lumley and Matthew McConaughey.

The Vanishing (1988)

Hypnotic Dutch thriller. 

A man and his wife are holidaying in France when the wife, Saskia (Johanna ter Steege), suddenly goes missing. The husband, Rex (Gene Bervoets), needing answers and closure, dedicates the next three years of his life to searching for her. 

When I first saw this film I was wrapped up in the Hitchcockian psychological mystery. Like Rex, I just wanted to find out what happened to Saskia. Watching it again, decades later, I see it as a story about love, loss and bereavement – a sort of relationship drama. 

The film is simultaneously chilling and heartbreaking. The couple seem so real that you really care about them. 

Director George Sluizer adapted The Vanishing from Tim Krabbé’s 1984 novella The Golden Egg. He also remade the film in 1993 as an English-language Hollywood production with a silly new ending.

Seven (1995)

Atmospheric thriller directed by David Fincher. 

A serial killer embarks on a sequence of murders, each of which marks one of the seven deadly sins. Detectives Somerset and Mills (Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt) try to catch him before he can complete the full cycle. 

It’s brilliantly shot, in a noirish manner. The constant rainfall, the grim urban settings and the claustrophobic streets all add atmosphere. Unexpectedly, and presumably for contrast, the film’s tense climax happens in wide-open spaces in bright sunlight. 

Gwyneth Paltrow plays Mills’ wife and is clearly going to have a more important function in the story. Kevin Spacey plays the “intelligent” killer – possibly partly influenced by Anthony Hopkins as the intellectual Hannibal Lector. 

The closing section is slightly far-fetched in the way that the killer is allowed to dictate the terms to the detectives. But it’s still a tense and compelling story that escalates to a satisfying conclusion.

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

 

Clint Eastwood directed, co-produced and scored the music for what may be the greatest film he’s ever been associated with. This is an incredibly powerful and moving drama.

Clint plays boxing coach Frankie, who reluctantly begins training a woman – Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) for the first time. Maggie comes from a poor background and her family is heartless and manipulative. Frankie represents the father she lacks, while Maggie fills a space in Frankie’s life caused by his estranged daughter. It seems like it’s going to be a boxing drama, but it takes on a far more personal and upsetting direction in the final third.

The writing and characterisation is brilliant, full of tenderness, compassion and nuance. 

Morgan Freeman delivers a career-best performance as Eddie Dupris, the gym assistant and a former boxer.

Tamara Drewe (2010)

Skilfully directed by Stephen Frears, this is a comedy-drama adapted from the comic strip by Posy Simmonds, which itself was loosely based on Thomas Hardy’s novel The Mayor of Casterbridge. 

Once an “ugly duckling” and now a much-desired beauty, Tamara returns to the small Dorset village of Ewedown and causes havoc of various kinds, with three different men all in love (or lust) with her. 

It’s funny, but it’s also brilliantly plotted as a drama. All of the characters are three-dimensional and believable. Best of all is Tamsin Greig as Beth Hardiment, the long-suffering wife of the lying, cheating author Nicholas (Roger Allam). 

In visual terms it uncannily evokes the comic strip. 

There’s also a refreshing moral ambiguity. I don’t think we’re even supposed to like the main character.

Joe Kidd (1972)

Western written by Elmore Leonard. 

Clint Eastwood stars as a former bounty hunter who helps a landowner (Robert Duvall) track down the Mexican revolutionary leader Luis Chama (John Saxon). 

The landscape cinematography by Bruce Surtees is extraordinary. You could turn almost any frame into a poster. The soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin is perfectly judged, mixing western motifs with funkier elements. 

Clint Eastwood is great, as ever. He’s essentially playing the same part he always plays, and you wouldn’t want it any other way.

The Dead Pool (1988)

Directed by Buddy Van Horn, the final part of the Dirty Harry series is unfortunately the weakest.

Harry (Clint Eastwood) investigates a series of murders linked to a bizarre game in which the players predict celebrity deaths. The theme of fame is an intriguing one, but it's not explored well. 

Liam Neeson awkwardly plays Peter Swan, a director of music videos. He's all over the place with a wobbly accent that could be part-English, part-New Zealand. 

The one highlight is the sequence involving a remote-control car carrying a bomb through the streets of San Francisco. But overall, it's a hammy, sad end to a great series. 

On the plus side, Lalo Schifrin’s soundtrack still sounds terrific – even though in terms of textures he's clearly enbraced the styles of the 1980s.

Sudden Impact (1983)

The fourth of five Dirty Harry films, this one was directed by Clint Eastwood himself. 

The story tells of a woman (Sondra Locke), who seeks revenge on the gang that raped her and her sister.

Eastwood and Locke have chemistry (they had been an item in real life), and Locke has a definite intensity. As usual with the Dirty Harry films, the villains are unfortunately one-dimensional and not convincing characters. The pleasure comes from watching how coolly Harry Callahan deals with them. 

Music by Lalo Schifrin provides additional atmosphere, and the cinematography by Bruce Surtees is spectacular.

True Romance (1993)

Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott, this is a mini-masterpiece that defies genre categorisation. 

Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette) meet and experience love at first sight. But in attempting to flee the dangerous underworld contacts Alabama was mixed up with, they inherit a suitcase of cocaine and become associated with lethal gangsters (intimidatingly played by Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken and James Gandolfini).

The film cleverly works as both a sort of fairytale (the “true romance” of the title) and also as an absolutely brutal crime thriller. This uneasy combination gives it a fresh energy. Tarantino's usual preoccupations are evident, with martial arts, comic books, and Elvis Presley all figuring notably in the plot.

Slater is excellent – like a young Jack Nicholson, in terms of his charisma. Arquette is also superb, and the chemistry between the pair is unmistakable.

Perhaps most striking of all is Hans Zimmer’s beautiful soundtrack.

Selma (2014)

Historical drama dealing with the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights marches led by Martin Luther King. 

David Oyelowo stars as King, Tom Wilkinson is President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Tim Roth is George Wallace. 

It’s slow to get going and I wasn’t especially engaged until the second half. I would have liked more about MLK’s family – the kids are barely seen or mentioned, and even the scenes with his wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo) seem to lack dynamism. There's too much of King the legend and not enough about the man, who must have felt so conflicted as he surely knew he wouldn’t be around for long.

Before the Winter Chill (2013)

An engaging French drama. 

Paul (Daniel Auteuil) is a brain surgeon, working too hard for too many years and neglecting his wife Lucie (Kristen Scott Thomas). Then he meets a mysterious woman called Lou (Leila Bekhti), who claims to be one of his former patients but who he doesn’t recall. 

Directed by Philippe Claude, this quiet domestic/psychological study slowly escalates into a sort of thriller. The performances are all strong. Paul is difficult to like, but the writing is strong enough that you are drawn into the strangeness of his predicament as he enters a sort of later-life crisis.

Arlington Road (1999)

Conspiracy thriller directed by Mark Pellington. 

Jeff Bridges is a widowed college professor who begins investigating his suspicious neighbours (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack), who appear to be mixed up in a terrorist plot. It’s tense and fairly gripping but sadly goes completely off the rails towards the end. Once the big twist is revealed, very little of the story seems credible. There are simply too many coincidences and assumptions for things to have worked out the way Tim Robbins’ character planned. I felt cheated and quite angry. 

It’s a shame, because there are lots of good things about the film. Bridges is compelling and as watchable as always. There is an excellent jump scare, brilliantly framed. And I like Hope Davis, as the professor’s former graduate student.

Leap Year (2010)

Romantic comedy. 

An American woman (Amy Adams) travels to Ireland to propose to her boyfriend, who after four years hasn’t asked her to marry him. (She’s honouring an old tradition in which it becomes acceptable for the roles to be switched every four years.) Once in Ireland she meets the unrefined but free and independent Declan O'Callaghan (Matthew Goode) and inevitably they fall in love. 

The film tries to trade on Irish clichés but doesn’t even do that very well. The focus-grouped checklist gives you nice scenery (admittedly excellent), an Irish wedding (visually and tonally flat: a missed opportunity), Irish music (sometimes replaced by American music: another missed opportunity) and an Irish castle (which doesn’t look real and may be just a matte painting). 

There’s very little wit in the script, and dialogue that might have sparkled simply falls flat. The main couple are watchable and likeable, and Amy Adams is always a delight, but there’s very little here for them to go on.

Tess (1979)

Roman Polanski’s superb adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1891 novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

In the 1880s, a poor Wessex family seek social betterment after they discover their connection to a noble lineage.

Natasha Kinkski is mesmerising in the lead role. She says little but conveys great presence. 

Long and luxurious, it looks fantastic and the 186-minute running time never seems excessive.

Jude (1996)

Michael Winterbottom’s skilful adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure is a powerful and moving saga. 

Christopher Eccleston plays Jude Fawley, the self-educated stonemason who falls in love with his well-to-do cousin Sue Bridehead (Kate Winslet). In addition to the scandal of the couple being related (and both married to someone else), the story also addresses their conflicting class backgrounds. 

There’s real gravitas in the performances and it ends up being moving without resorting to sentimentality. 

June Whitfield is excellent as Jude’s elderly mother.

Seraphim Falls (2006)

Western directed by David Von Ancken.

In the weeks following the US Civil War, Colonel Morsman Carver (Liam Neeson) and a team of men attempt to hunt down a man he wants to kill (Pierce Brosnan). 

Both leads are excellent. It’s probably the most actual acting Brosnan has ever done. 

There’s a relentless quality as they survive a sequence of grim fates, but unlike its spiritual cousin Revenant it doesn’t become ridiculous or unbelievable.

88 Minutes (2007)

Preposterous thriller directed by Jon Avnet. 

Al Pacino stars as famed forensic psychiatrist Dr. Jack Gramm, who is suddenly faced with a new murder that resembles the ones from his past that led to him putting away serial killer Jon Forster (Neal McDonough), who is now on Death Row. Then Gramm gets a phone call telling him he has 88 minutes to live… 

The premise is a strong one, and Pacino cannot help but be anything except extremely charismatic, but the film just doesn’t work. The action is meant to occur in almost real time, but so many of the episodes shown would have taken much longer than the narrative allows them. Crossing a concourse, driving across town, going up in a lift: all of these things take more time than the few minutes the plot allows for them. And for some of that time, he doesn’t even seem in a hurry.

The story logic is pushing it, but just about holds together. But it’s still deeply odd, and only works if you accept that Pacino hangs around with young girls all the time.

A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)

Gritty adaptation of the Lawrence Block novel, starring Liam Neeson as former cop and ex-alcoholic Matthew Scudder. 

Scudder, who now works as a private detective, begins investigating a series of brutal kidnappings. 

It’s a little gruelling in places – there’s a theme about chopping people up, so there’s some gore. There’s a degree of tension from the suspenseful plotting, and the film is highly watchable without ever quite dazzling. 

The “Y2K” panic references stand out. It’s a story that’s preoccupied with the millennium in a way that seems baffling now.

Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

Drama set in the early 1950s, directed by Mike Newell.

A free-thinking art teacher named Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) starts working at a private school where women are trained to be good wives who will obey their husbands. Watson encourages them to think beyond those boundaries and question the roles that have been selected for them. 

It’s nearly brilliant. The four main students are excellently played by Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Julia Stiles and Ginnifer Goodwin. Roberts is somehow less convincing – a rather po-faced character, drawn in the broadest strokes. Also, Roberts somehow seems like she’s from the 1990s rather than the 1950s, so you can never quite believe in her. It’s almost like a time travel film in which she’s a social visionary from the future who comes to enlighten the girls of the past.

The film makes lots of points about social roles but it’s just too simplistic to carry any real weight. Instead, it ends up being a rather wishy-washy compromise about doing what’s right and following your heart. 

Tori Amos has a cameo as a wedding singer. Juliet Stevenson has an intriguing role as a rebellious lesbian, but she’s cast out of the school and the film too early.

I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007)

Witty romantic comedy directed and written by Amy “Clueless” Heckerling.

Rosie (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a TV scriptwriter. Adam (Paul Rudd) is an actor who comes to work on the show she writes. There’s a big age difference between them. 

There are some funny lines and there’s obviously a lot of intelligence in the Hollywood satire. Overall, though, it doesn’t quite work. The “magical” thread in which Tracey Ullman plays Mother Nature isn’t funny enough to work, and seems like a leftover from a different kind of story concept. Also, it sometimes seems too knowingly crammed full of industry in-jokes and references that aren't directed at the wider public. A cameo by Henry “Fonz” Winkler is thrown in with little effect.

It's visually distinctive, with super-bright, bleached-out lighting. It's notable, too, for the number of British actors, from Graham Norton to Sarah Alexander, and also for the inclusion of several songs on the soundtrack by The Cure.

It Could Happen to You (1994)

Highly unusual and enjoyable romantic comedy drama. A New York cop called Charlie (Nic Cage) wins the lottery and – honouring a promise – donates half of the money to a waitress called Yvonne (Bridget Fonda) who he’d never met before. 

As with A Simple Plan, in which Fonda also featured, it explores what happens to poor people who suddenly have money. The twist this time is that Charlie and Yvonne are such kind people that – unlike their selfish spouses – they cannot be corrupted by their windfall. 

The big flaw is Rosie Perez gratingly hamming it up as Charlie’s wife Muriel. She’s almost unbearable to watch. The character is clearly meant to be annoying, but maybe they took it too far. Cage and Fonda, however, are both tremendous. There’s great chemistry between them, and their gentle romance is sweet and charming. 

All in all, it's refreshingly different.

Unbroken (2014)

Directed by Angelina Jolie, this is a long and slow true story of American Olympic runner Louis Zamperini (Jack O'Connell). 

Zamperini survives two plane crashes, several weeks floating on a raft and two Japanese POW camps – and yet the film detailing these events somehow ends up plodding and dull. 

O'Connell is OK, but he has few lines and little actual character. Even less well drawn is Sgt. Mutsuhiro "The Bird" Watanabe (Miyavi), who is sadistic in a way that’s never really explained – despite the seemingly endless scenes of torture. 

A good story, badly told, it's further proof that actors don't usually make for great directors.

Tootsie (1982)

Strikingly unusual romantic comedy. 

New Yorker Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) cannot hold down work as an actor because he's too opinionated to accept his directors' instructions. Out of desperation, he pretends to be a woman (reshuffling his name as Dorothy Michaels) and is hired to play a hospital administrator on the popular TV soap opera Southwest General. While on the set he meets and falls in love with another member of the cast, Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange), who believes he is both her new best friend and also a woman.

Hoffman is at his best – pushy but vulnerable, quirky but sharply witty. Lange is also excellent. Bill Murray, as Michael's long-suffering friend Jeff, pretty much does his usual thing. Teri Garr, meanwhile, has an intriguing role as his other friend Sandy. 

In the film's oddest moment, Sandy catches Michael in a state of undress in her bedroom where he hopes to find new clothing ideas for his Dorothy persona. But hoping to hide this from her, he pretends he wanted to sleep with Sandy and then goes ahead and does exactly that. Moments like this make it quite revealing in terms of the gender politics of the late 1970s/early 1980s, and the film would certainly have turned out differently if it had been made now.

Broken (2012)

Bleak, disturbing and brilliant drama about the inhabitants of a cul-de-sac in north London. 

It’s presented from the perspective of Emily "Skunk" Cunningham (Eloise Laurence), a diabetic girl who witnesses a violent act committed by one neighbour on another. 

Various threads relating to three families – all “broken” in various ways – are expertly woven together. It becomes increasingly harrowing to the point that it’s almost unbearable to watch. In a way it’s like a particularly well-constructed episode of Brookside. 

Rory Kinnear is superb as a desperate, angry father with psychopathic episodes. Tim Roth is fully convincing as Skunk's solicitor father Archie. And Cillian Murphy is believable as the well-meaning teacher Mike. 

By the end you feel quite shaken.

Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)

Directed by Stephen Frears, this is the compelling true-life story of a wealthy New York heiress who was generally regarded as a terrible singer, yet who became a recording artist and even performed at Carnegie Hall because her social set encouraged and applauded her. 

Meryl Streep is excellent as Florence Foster Jenkins, singing technically challenging opera in a way that’s just about good enough to be credible but also strange enough to be surreally comic. 

Simon Helberg is ideally cast as Cosmé McMoon, a wildly talented pianist who – against his initial misgivings – agrees to work as her accompanist.

In what is perhaps his most fully rounded and satisfying role, Hugh Grant is remarkable as her lover and manager St. Clair Bayfield. The unusual nature of the couple's relationship and the depth of his feelings really came across. I was slightly wrong-footed because I thought the plot was leading to Bayfield being exposed for scamming Florence and promoting the whole "emperor's new clothes" circus around her efforts, but touchingly the film turns out to be a true love story after all.

Blown Away (1994)

Thriller. 

Ex-IRA soldier and expert bomb-maker Ryan Gaerity (Tommy Lee Jones) escapes from prison in Northern Ireland. He travels to Boston to seek revenge on his former colleague Lieutenant James “Jimmy” Dove (Jeff Bridges), who is now a hero in the bomb-disposal unit. But Dove is also ex-IRA and the secrets of his past threaten to destroy both his career and his marriage. 

Directed by Stephen Hopkins, this is a fairly average thriller with some exciting moments. Every time Jimmy has to defuse a bomb that’s about to go off, the tension increases considerably. Bridges has a certain charm, as does Forest Whitaker as Officer Anthony Franklin. But Dove’s wife Kate (Suzy Amis) and uncle Max (Lloyd Bridges) are less well drawn as characters and threaten to tip it into B-movie territory.

Stan & Ollie (2018)

Poignant account of Laurel and Hardy’s UK tour of 1953, directed by Jon S. Baird. 

The duo were very much on a decline, career-wise, but there was still enough affection for their old routines for them to be able to perform in theatres. This is set against Hardy’s declining health, and also the evolution of their long and complex relationship. 

Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly are superb in the lead roles, really nailing the mannerisms and voices. It’s touching to see how they interact after years of friendship and as a working unit. It’s also quite funny.

Vice (2018)

Punningly titled biopic of Dick Cheney, the US vice president in 2001–2009, during the period that George W. Bush was in power. 

There is a fascinating story to be told here, but director Adam McKay chooses a gimmicky, tricksy approach, breaking the fourth wall, adding text on screen and inserting surreal skits that constantly remind you you’re watching a film, rather than allowing you to become absorbed in it. There’s even a “false ending” about halfway through, with the production credits rolling up the screen. 

Cheney emerges as a complete enigma and the film cannot get inside his character enough to explain the motivations behind his various abuses of power. In reality he was an extreme figure, responsible for introducing torture, abolishing the FCC fairness doctrine (leading to the rise of biased, politicised TV news reporting), rebranding “global warming” as “climate change” to make it more palatable to the masses, and focus-grouping reactions to September 11th in order to further America’s geopolitical interests. It’s all especially relevant in the era of Donald Trump.

There’s no shortage of strong material, and the key performances by Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Steve Carell are outstanding. But Vice is hugely frustrating nonetheless.

Supernova (2020)

Stanley Tucci plays Tusker, a novelist who has early onset Alzheimer’s. Colin Firth plays his lover Sam, a pianist willing to give up everything to care for him. The pair embark on a final road trip in England as they try to come to terms with the enormity of their approaching loss. 

This compelling drama works like a play, mostly based around dialogue rather than action. There’s plenty of warm, subtle humour but it’s also very moving and it looks mortality in the face with an honesty that few films manage. The acting is top-notch, with both leads at their very best. 

The music is perfect, too. I was surprised and pleased to hear Karen Dalton on the soundtrack.

Tigerland (2000)

Excellent war drama directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Colin Farrell. 

It details the training process for soldiers who will be sent into the Vietnam War. Farrell is absolutely perfect as the rebellious Private Roland Bozz, who has a different outlook that gets him in trouble but makes his colleagues trust him. 

It’s a more even and satisfying Vietnam training film than Full Metal Jacket.

Bitter & Twisted (2008)

Written, directed by and starring Christopher Weekes, this is a brilliant Australian drama with flashes of comedy. 

A couple struggle to come to terms with the death of their son, whose brother and ex-lover have also been profoundly changed by the bereavement. 

It’s terribly sad: you see a family trying and failing to make sense of the inexplicable, losing themselves in overeating and off-the-rails behaviour. It’s a low-budget affair that works brilliantly because the script is so sharp. 

The acting is superb. The only thing that doesn't quite work is the title, which somehow isn't right.

Three Mothers (2006)

Directed by Dina Zvi-Riklis, this is an engrossing Israeli drama about the lives of three sisters – Rose, Flora and Yasmeen – who grew up in a prosperous family in Egypt before moving to Tel Aviv. They look back on their lives and the various challenges that came their way, and in doing so reveal the secrets behind their relationships. 

There’s strong acting, and the singing by Rose (Miri Mesika) is particularly good. The plot has a few holes, or rather moments that risk tipping it into “trashy soap-opera” territory. For example, it’s hinted that a death was actually a murder, but then the plot continues as if nothing especially unusual has happened.

On the plus side, the modern day vs. flashback elements are handled extremely well, with both timelines sustaining equal interest. This isn’t usually the case in now-and-then film scenarios.

The Missing (2003)

Ron Howard directs this rather slow drama set in 19th-century New Mexico. 

Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee Jones) tries to reconcile with his estranged daughter Maggie (Cate Blanchett), who resists his efforts. But when Maggie’s daughter is abducted, she allows her father to help her rescue the girl.

The main two leads are excellent, with a degree of chemistry, and the scenery looks stunning. But it could’ve been better. It’s workmanlike where it should have sparkled. Long, too. It dabbles with a watered-down mysticism but doesn’t really deliver on that front. Also, the main villain is comical and silly rather than terrifying and the ending seems oddly abrupt. The alternative endings on the DVD make more sense, suggesting that something went a little askew in the edit.

Gran Torino (2008)

Excellent drama directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, who stars as Walt Kowalski, a grumpy, racist old Korean War veteran who slowly begins to confront his prejudices. 

Eastwood is ideal in this role, which is perfectly tuned to his career-long preoccupations with violence, machismo and protocol. 

Bee Vang and Ahney Her are excellent as the Hmong teenagers living next door to him in Michigan. There’s humour and compassion in the way that Kowalski first clashes with them and ultimately wants to defend them from the forces of oppression that he sees taking over America.

The Tree of Life (2011)

An amazing film directed by Terence Malick. On one level it’s a story of an American family and how they deal with a bereavement. But the film is also designed as a work of art, constructed to operate on multiple levels of symbolism and philosophical exploration. 

Early on it detours into a history of life on Earth (perhaps influenced by 2001), showing dinosaurs and the meteorite that forced their extinction. It then returns to the story of the family. Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain play the parents of three boys, while Sean Penn plays one of those boys as an adult in the present day and struggling to come to terms with his past. 

There are so many impressionistic elements that you’re often unsure what to think and what, if anything, is actually happening in narrative terms. That can be frustrating if you are expecting anything close to a regular drama. Indeed, the dinosaur segment borders on the ludicrous. 

If the job of the film is to take you on an emotional journey, then it’s too muddled to succeed. But if you embrace the sheer ambition of the project – in terms of its visuals, music, editing techniques and production – it’s unlike anything else you will see.

The Enforcer (1976)

The third Dirty Harry film sees Clint Eastwood once again working as a San Francisco cop. This time he’s trying to catch some rather ludicrous hippy terrorists who go under the name of the People's Revolutionary Strike Force. 

Tyne Daly of Cagney & Lacey fame plays Inspector Kate Moore and is wonderful in the role. She endures sexism and scepticism from Harry before eventually winning his respect. 

Directed by James Fargo, the film is very nicely shot, with clever, well-judged framing of scenes making for satisfying visuals throughout. The villains seem unnecessarily hammy and one-dimensional, but the real theme of the film is Harry’s developing relationship with Kate and that more than makes up for it.

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.