Their Finest (2016)

Comedy drama.

A writer named Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is hired by the Ministry of Information in 1940 to help create propaganda films during World War II. She faces sexism and other setbacks, has to deal with the ego of star actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy), and develops an up-and-down creative relationship with her co-writer Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin). 

It’s subtle and witty, with the film-within-a-film aspect working extremely well. Initially it has the feel of a “Sunday night TV drama”, but it acquires depth as it develops. Arterton is excellent, conveying an emotional range that you might not expect after seeing her brief appearance as MI6 agent Strawberry Fields in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace.

Quantum of Solace (2008)

Not a promising title, and it’s never really explained either.

Daniel Craig is excellent again (this was his second of five Bond films), but the girl Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko) and the villain Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) are weaker than usual. The former gets shoddy lines and a simplistic “revenge” motivation. The latter isn’t particularly scary or “evil”, just difficult to feel strongly about.

The plot isn’t easy to follow on first viewing, although it works better second time around. It’s extremely violent – sometimes more so than the story demands. Ludicrously, there’s an MI6 agent called Strawberry Fields (played by Gemma Arterton). She comes to a sticky end in a scene that seems to acknowledge the fate of Shirley Eaton’s character Jill Masterson in Goldfinger. The climax is a little underwhelming – perhaps because the stakes aren’t very high. Whereas Bond is usually saving the world from imminent destruction, this time he’s merely battling a nasty crook selling water back to the Bolivian government after creating an artificial drought.

Judi Dench is reliably watchable as M and raises the quality of the film whenever she appears. Her scenes are much needed as there’s sometimes a tendency for it to dip into trashier territory than Casino Royale (2006) or Skyfall (2012).

The title theme by Jack White and Alicia Keys has an appealingly fuzzy riff, but as a song it’s a total mess.

All in all, the least effective of the Daniel Craigs but still well worth a watch or two.

The Boat That Rocked (2009)

Highly entertaining ensemble comedy written and directed by Richard Curtis.

It focuses on a North Sea pirate radio station, Radio Rock, and the DJs and other characters aboard it. Their adventures are juxtaposed against the government’s attempts to make pirate radio illegal and shut down the whole operation. 

The all-star cast includes Gemma Arterton, Kenneth Branagh, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rhys Ifans, Bill Nighy, Katherine Parkinson and Emma Thompson, but the film is told from the perspective of a teenager, Carl (Tom Sturridge), who joins the floating team and gains the sense of family and identity that he’s been missing. There’s also a thread about him seeking his father, who he’s led to believe is on the boat. 

There are plenty of laughs but there are poignant moments too. And each of the characters is extremely well drawn, so you feel you get to know them all. 

The music is fantastic as you might expect for a film set in 1966–1967. Warm yet unsentimental, it works towards a dramatic and satisfying conclusion.