Space Cowboys (2000)

Four elderly test pilots are brought out of retirement to save the world from an armed Russian satellite. This unlikely premise unites Clint Eastwood (who also directs), Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and James Garner. 

During the training process there are age-related jokes aplenty (Eastwood seems obsessed by the topic) before the four guys actually go into space and things get (relatively) serious. 

A few flaws. The Russian plot is never really explained. Also, the despatching of the bombs is oddly never shown. Were those graphics outside of the budget? Or did something get mangled in the edit? 

James Garner seems underused. 

Marcia Gay Harden is good as the scientist Sara Holland, who becomes Tommy Lee’s unlikely love interest. 

Hardly a classic, but it’s a good-natured romp with some enjoyable comic moments.

The Deer Hunter (1978)

A gripping and disturbing war drama directed by Michael Cimino.

Three Slavic-American friends (Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage) find their simple, low-key lives are shattered after they are shipped off to fight in Vietnam. 

Brilliantly, the film establishes a long set-up in their hometown. You get to know the characters and their context. The war segment is merely the second part of the film. The third part then deals with what happens after they come home – the emotional fall-out of everything they've experienced.

Meryl Streep is excellent as a companion from their pre-war existence. De Niro and Walken are at their very best: highly convincing as young men under unbearable pressures. There's a strong anti-war message, handled with subtlety, but it seems to be primarily a story about friendship and the strength of the human soul.

The Russian roulette sequences won't be quickly forgotten.

Black Swan (2010)

Brilliant, engaging drama about a young ballet dancer (Natalie Portman), who gets the lead role in a new production of Swan Lake. Her manipulative and abusive teacher drives her to increasingly extreme actions in the name of training her for the role. She also has a controlling mother to contend with.

Portman is excellent as the ambitious but conflicted dancer who undergoes a remarkable transformation into the swan in the interests of achieving technical perfection. 

Directed by Darren Aronofsky, it’s filmed in a striking way, with tropes from horror films cleverly deployed to add suspense and scary drama.

The Lady in the Van (2015)

Nicholas Hytner’s adaptation of Alan Bennett’s memoir about an eccentric old lady who takes up residence on his Camden Town driveway. 

Alex Jennings plays Bennett. Maggie Smith is superb in the lead role, giving a suitably cantankerous and unlikable yet intelligent performance. I found the gimmick of two Alan Bennetts (as writer Alan talks to regular-guy Alan) an unwieldy distraction. Introducing the real Alan Bennett in a tricksy cameo at the end was further self-indulgent silliness. 

To the film's credit it doesn't sentimentalise the original material (there's plenty about toilet matters), and it reveals psychological depths that a lesser director might have ignored in favour of lazy farce. It also looks at middle-class guilt and how people behave when confronted by difficult situations that puncture the veneer of social normality.

I was pleased to see Rising Damp's Frances de la Tour as one of the neighbours.

Open Range (2003)

Awkward and stilted western directed by and starring Kevin Costner. 

Costner and Robert Duvall play a pair of nomadic cowboys known as “freegrazers”. 

It’s slow and the thin plot doesn’t warrant the extended 139-minute running time. Costner proves the general rule that actors cannot direct (the only exceptions being Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen). He has little sense of moving things along or building character. Instead, it’s like a fifth-rate homage to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. 

The one saving grace is Annette Bening as the doctor’s sister.

Love Is All You Need (2012)

Light romantic drama from Denmark, directed by Susanne Bier. 

Philip (Pierce Brosnan) is a hard-hearted businessman. Ida (Trine Dyrholm) is a hairdresser recovering from cancer treatment. They pair meet when their children are due to marry in Italy, and they fall in love despite various obstacles. 

Contrary to what the generic title and packaging might suggest, it’s surprisingly enjoyable and subtle, with some nice observations about the way families behave.

Blood Work (2002)

Enjoyable thriller starring and directed by Clint Eastwood. 

The plot features a retired FBI agent attempting to catch a killer. The twist is that he is suffering heart problems, which make it even more difficult.

Eastwood is great, as always. In fact, this could have worked as the next Dirty Harry film, although the main character is perhaps too compassionate to be Callahan. 

There are strong female characters – notably Anjelica Huston as Dr. Bonnie Fox. Jeff Daniels also co-stars.

The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)

Light drama adapted from the novel by Karen Joy Fowler. A group of women (and one man) congregate monthly to discuss the novels of Jane Austen. They find the minutiae of relationships detailed in those books mirror their own love lives. 

The writing seems clever on one level – the intertextuality of plots – but the characters are mainly annoying. Especially unbearable is Kathy Baker as Bernadette, who knits a lot and looks smug, but isn’t given a plot thread of her own. 

Emily Blunt is probably the best of those in the ensemble cast, but even she is only given trite dialogue.

A Room with a View (1985)

Produced by the Merchant Ivory team, this adaptation of E.M. Forster's 1908 novel is arguably the ultimate costumer.

A young woman named Lucy Honeychurch navigates relationship troubles and the social restrictions of Edwardian England.

Helena Bonham Carter is immensely lovable in the main role.

There's so much subtle, gentle wit on display, and the Italian locations look lavish.

Surprisingly, Forster seems to work much better on film than on the page (see also Howard's End, which also starred H.B.C.). Rich and vibrant characters come alive through a sparkling script. Simon Callow is excellent as the Reverend Mr Beebe. Judi Dench is also on top form as the novelist Eleanor Lavish. 

The rest of the all-star cast includes Julian Sands, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott and Daniel Day-Lewis.

Prisoners (2013)

A gripping and terrifying thriller directed by Denis Villeneuve. 

In Conyers, Pennsylvania, two girls go missing – believed to be abducted. Their families begin to disintegrate under the strain, with one of the fathers (Hugh Jackman) resorting to increasingly extreme behaviour. 

Jake Gyllenhaal plays the local detective, desperately trying to find the girls despite the community and his own boss working against him. 

It’s brilliantly written, acted and photographed. There’s a genuinely creepy look to the rainswept houses and streets. 

Themes of religion, family and community run through the narrative, adding depth and texture.

Jackie (2016)

Directed by Pablo Larraín, this is a sort of biopic about the wife of John F. Kennedy in the days before and after his assassination. 

Like all the best biopics, it doesn’t attempt to cram a complete life story into two hours. Instead, it zooms in on one moment in that life and uses it to explore the character in depth. 

It’s impressionistic, without losing sight of dialogue and storytelling. Natalie Portman gives the performance of a lifetime as Jacqueline Kennedy. 

It’s sad and disturbing, perfectly capturing her mixture of shock, anger and loss.

The Mission (1986)

A remarkable drama directed by Roland Joffé and written by Robert Bolt.

Plot (borrowed from online): "18th century Spanish Jesuits try to protect a remote South American Indian tribe in danger of falling under the rule of pro-slavery Portugal."

Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons star. 

The jungle setting is visually stunning.

It's powerful and moving, especially given that it's based on true events.

The stirring music is by Ennio Morricone. 

Viceroy's House (2017)

A not especially compelling historical drama, set at the time of India’s handover from Britain, and the partitioning of India and Pakistan. 

It tells that political story as well as the tale of a young couple separated along social and religious lines. 

Hugh Bonneville stars as the final Viceroy of India, Lord Dickie Mountbatten, and Gillian Anderson is excellent as his wife. 

Overall, the film disappoints. Somehow it fails to bring all of this to life. The script never sparkles and the overuse of archive footage (or at least mocked-up archive footage) has the effect of distancing you from the action. Also, it’s never clear whether the British actors are being formal and stuffy on purpose or whether they simply don’t have particularly well-written parts.

The Mercy (2017)

Directed by James Marsh and based on the true story, this is an account of the amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst, who entered the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. 

Crowhurst lies about his progress, giving false coordinates of his location. He needs to win the race to resolve his financial affairs, despite the fact that his state-of-the-art ship (Teignmouth Electron) isn't ready in time for the trip. He can't give up and he can't go on, and this ultimately destroys him. 

Colin Firth is entirely convincing as the troubled Crowhurst, who quickly unravels when alone at sea. Rachel Weisz is excellent as his loving but possibly naive wife.

A desperately sad drama, brilliantly done.

The Mountain Between Us (2017)

Disaster/survival story that’s also a romance. 

A surgeon (Idris Elba) and Guardian journalist (Kate Winslet) survive a plane crash in the High Uintas Wilderness and attempt to walk to safety. The pair are very different to each other but the intensity of the experience brings them together. 

It’s engaging and heartwarming, if a bit idealised. 

I liked the simplicity: just two people and a dog trying to stay alive in a vast, desolate space.

Case 39 (2009)

Genuinely chilling supernatural thriller. 

A social worker (the always likeable Renée Zellweger) applies for custody of a girl she believes is in danger from her parents. But after a spate of disturbing events it turns out that the real danger is the girl herself. 

It’s suspenseful and dramatic, with excellently handled tension throughout. Co-stars Bradley Cooper and Ian McShane add depth, although Cooper seems underused for an actor of his talents. 

Thankfully, Case 39 doesn’t turn silly at the end like so many horror-flavoured stories tend to. That said, the ending did disappoint as I imagined a much bleaker (and even darkly comic) outcome. In fact, something similar to what I’d expected can be seen as the DVD bonus alternative ending.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

Utterly ridiculous and extremely weak retelling of the standard myth. This film made $390.5 million, but it’s difficult to see why. 

Kevin Costner is fair enough in the lead role (even if he looks like Jon Bon Jovi), but Alan Rickman is utterly woeful as the Sheriff of Nottingham. There’s a silly “pantomime” style about the way his character is written and directed. You are reminded of the second Blackadder series, although that was much funnier. The constant changing of lenses is distracting: baddies are shown in grotesque fish-eye close-ups. 

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is merely adequate as Maid Marian, while Christian Slater is slightly odd as Will Scarlett. 

Production values are poor, with constantly changing light and an often washed-out quality to the footage. 

The famous theme song by Bryan Adams ("Everything I Do) I Do It for You") doesn’t even appear in the film, although it is used over the end credits.

Beyond the Sea (2004)

Intriguing but flawed biopic of Bobby Darin, written and directed by Kevin Spacey, who also stars as the singer. 

It’s a baffling film. The set pieces featuring the songs are expertly created and Spacey inhabits the role brilliantly. But things come slightly unstuck with the “magical realist” element of him talking to his younger self. There’s no attempt to describe his rise to fame, but there’s lots about his health problems and his ambiguous parentage. 

John Goodman and Bob Hoskins are on screen too much. Brenda Blenthyn is excellent as his mother. Kate Bosworth is underdeveloped as Darin’s wife. It’s suggested that she drinks too much but the question of alcoholism is never explored further. 

In terms of storytelling it’s disappointingly shallow and inconclusive, despite moments of brilliance.

The Weatherman (2005)

Extremely downbeat drama with flashes of comedy. 

Nicolas Cage plays a TV weatherman having problems with his dying father (Michael Caine), estranged wife (Hope Davis) and unhappy children. He’s also having a sort of midlife crisis, and members of the public who recognise him keep throwing junk food at him. 

It’s whimsical and engaging but you wish it was funnier. Michael Caine’s dodgy American accent is a distraction. Cage and Davis are both excellent, however, and the film gains gravitas as it progresses. 

It’s a deeply sad story. Cage’s character seems such a nice guy that you’re completely on his side even as everything seems to go wrong around him.

The Cutting Edge (1992)

A sort of romantic comedy, although there could have been a lot more comedy, directed by Paul Michael Glaser. 

Prima-donna figure-skater Kate (Moira Kelly) rejects a series of male partners until she gets paired-up with a former ice hockey player named Doug (D. B. Sweeney). Kate ’n’ Doug aim to compete at the Olympics, but tensions run high between them. She’s wealthy. He’s not. Inevitably, they begin to fall in love…

The low budget is evident but that cannot explain the strangeness of the locations and the script. Their coach is a “comedic” Russian (Roy Dotrice, with a dodgy accent). Kate’s father Jack (Terry O’Quinn) doesn’t have much to do and is a complete void in terms of character. 

There’s a lot of music crammed into the film and used at every opportunity. And there’s a strange “misty” quality to the ice-skating scenes – either in the name of “atmosphere” or to disguise the fact that the actors aren’t the ones doing the skating. Even the main couple seem strange. Kate, low on charm, isn’t good at the expressive scenes. And yet despite all this, there’s lots to enjoy about The Cutting Edge. It’s a simple story that gets you rooting for the young couple, however preposterous they might seem.

The Birds (1963)

Following Rebecca (1940), this was another Daphne du Maurier adaptation by Alfred Hitchcock. It’s a sort of horror story, set in Bodega Bay, California, where birds begin to attack humans for no apparent reason. 

It’s to Hitchcock’s credit that he never explains away the cause of these bizarre events. You can interpret them any number of ways. Is it a Cold War allegory? Is it about repressed sexuality? Or is it simply a horror story? 

It’s strange in other ways, too. The relationship between Melanie (Tippi Hedren) and Mitch (Rod Taylor) doesn’t follow the usual love-story progression. And the age difference between Mitch and his younger sister is also striking. The widowed mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy) is also deeply odd. Initially, I thought the natural disturbance was a reflection of her grief manifested in nature – and it's possible that this is another of the many intended interpretations. 

The ending satisfies because it’s ambiguous and doesn’t offer any easy solutions.

My Cousin Rachel (2017)

Superb historical drama adapted from the novel by Daphne du Maurier. 

A young man in Cornwall (Sam Claflin) meets his older cousin’s widow (Rachel Weisz). Initially, he suspects her of causing his cousin’s death. But he is quickly bewitched by her and – driven mad by lust – donates his estate to her. But is she to be trusted? 

It’s tightly plotted and excellently acted. Weisz judges her role perfectly, seeming to be simultaneously sinister and completely proper in everything she says and does.

The Two Faces of January (2014)

Directed by Hossein Amini, this is an absolutely stunning thriller adapted from the 1964 novel by Patricia Highsmith. 

It’s 1962. American con artist Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen) and his wife Colette (Kirsten Dunst) are holidaying in Greece, when MacFarland’s criminal past catches up with him. Desperate and needing to flee, the couple team up with Rydal Keener (Oscar Isaac), an American tour guide who himself is a conman, albeit on a far smaller scale. But Rydal’s motivations are ambiguous – he has designs on Colette, while seeing Chester as a reminder of the father he recently lost. 

The exciting plot consistently ramps up the tension as the fortunes of the three become more and more entangled. 

It’s brilliantly directed: every shot is expertly framed for maximise the drama. 

The soundtrack by Alberto Iglesias is uncannily well suited to the action. 

It’s an admirably short film at 97 minutes: taut and perfectly paced.

All That Jazz (1979)

An autobiographical musical drama directed by Bob Fosse. It’s a noble failure – high on ambition, low on satisfaction. 

The “story”, what there is of one, deals with a character supposedly based on Fosse himself. Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider) is a theatre director and choreographer. He’s a womaniser, chain-smoker and drug user whose health is getting worse by the day. When he’s eventually hospitalised, the remainder of the film plays out as a sort of fantasy/dream sequence that blends scenes from his life with high-concept showbiz production numbers. These take place in an imaginary nightclub with the angel of death played by Jessica Lange. 

The problem is that Joe's character is established in the first five-to-10 minutes and is left with nowhere to go. It’s never explained how he got to be who he is, why he behaves like this, why his family put up with him, and why we should care. A brief bit of back story (Joe as a teen) is quickly abandoned, and way too much of the film is taken up with him hallucinating while in hospital. That time could have been used for character development. 

The impressionistic scenes are a spectacle, but there’s an ugly quality to the visuals that’s off-putting. Ultimately it becomes wearying.

Music and Lyrics (2007)

Enjoyable romantic comedy directed by Marc Lawrence. 

A 1980s pop idol named Alex (Hugh Grant) is tasked with writing a song for a Shakira-like pop star of the present day (Haley Bennett). To achieve this he ends up collaborating with Sophie (Drew Barrymore), the slightly eccentric woman who comes round to water his plants. 

Plot-wise it might sound silly (and indeed it is), but Hugh ’n’ Drew have real chemistry. Also, they get to reel off some genuinely funny lines. 

The film seems to lose its way a little about two thirds of the way through, with a couple of rather misjudged scenes. For example, why does Sophie take a box of biscuits to the party? It seems to be setting up a joke, but there’s no pay off. Was a vital bit of the script cut at the last minute?

Thankfully, the film recovers before the end. 

Kristen Johnston is easy to like as Rhonda, Sophie’s sister. Grant is surprisingly effective as a pop star, and his song and dance routines are all quirky and enjoyable.

The Bridge at Remagen (1969)

A merely OK war film based on the true story of the Germans and the Allies fighting for control of a strategically vital bridge over the Rhine. 

It’s interestingly shot, and the firepower all looks real enough. The problem is an average script. Also, the characters aren’t especially well-drawn. Without a focal point, it’s harder to identify with anyone. Poor storytelling means that you’re unsure how you’re meant to feel about the characters and their situation. 

Robert Vaughn plays a German general who seems troubled by his role with the Nazis. Unfortunately the actor doesn’t really bother with an accent. George Segal plays his American counterpart while Ben Gazzara is Sergeant Angelo (a.k.a. “Angel”), his likeable friend. 

There’s a stronger, grittier film buried deep inside this one, but director John Guillermin is unable to draw it out.

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.