Suddenly (1954)

Rather unexceptional drama about a fake FBI agent (played by Frank Sinatra) who attempts to kill the US President. He and his henchmen take over the Benson family’s house in the town of Suddenly, California, in order to aim their gun at the railway station where the President is shortly due to arrive. 

Although there’s some excitement in the ticking-clock countdown to the planned assassination at 5pm, the performances are mainly wooden and/or half-baked. Sinatra has a definite magnetism and out-performs everyone else, but there’s a B-movie feel that it cannot rise above. 

It’s mostly interesting for its attitudes. Ellen (Nancy Gates) wants to prevent her son playing with a toy gun, but her boyfriend, the sheriff (Sterling Hayden) tells her “Stop being a woman!” Shocking stuff. The “moral” seems to be that guns are great – unless a psychopath happens to get hold of one – and that masculinity is incomplete without them. 

The most remarkable aspect of the film is explained by Wikipedia: “Sinatra asked United Artists to withdraw Suddenly from circulation because he heard the rumor that Lee Harvey Oswald had seen it before shooting President Kennedy. According to Hollywood legend, Sinatra bought up all remaining copies of Suddenly and had them destroyed, but this was not true.”

Sicario (2015)

Tense drug thriller starring Emily Blunt as an FBI agent who gets mixed up in a Mexican gang war beyond her comprehension. Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin play the assassin and CIA agent she finds herself working with. In fact, she soon learns that she’s simply being used to grant legal authority to their actions.

It’s brutally violent and makes for uncomfortable watching. The two male leads are convincingly ruthless, but Blunt seems an odd choice and is slightly awkward as tough-but-sensitive Kate Macer – although that awkwardness may well be the point.

Director Denis Villeneuve gives even the grittiest scenes a panoramic lavishness, as he did in Arrival and Blade Runner 2049.

You are left despairing at the drug wars – a problem that only seems to escalate over time – and this grim, super-realist film is easier to admire than to enjoy.

Wind River (2017)

Tense, gripping thriller set in the snowy wastes of Wyoming. A body is found and an inexperienced FBI agent is sent to investigate (Elizabeth Olsen as Jane Banner). She’s helped by hunter/tracker Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner), who knows the land and who has had his own personal tragedy very similar to the one he becomes involved in.

It’s atmospheric and surprisingly scary. And there’s a wider point being made about the treatment of native American people. The saddest line in the film comes when Martin Hanson (Gil Birmingham) is wearing his traditional “death face” make-up and becomes disheartened and self-conscious about it, saying that there’s no one left to teach him how to do apply it properly.

My only criticism is that quite a bit of the dialogue is muttered or murmured in a way that’s difficult to decipher. But this is a brilliant film.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

This scared the pants off me – possibly even more so than on first viewing 30 years ago.

Adapted from the Thomas Harris novel, it’s a psychological thriller with more intelligence than your standard film from that genre. Trainee FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) tries to capture a serial killer nicknamed Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) with the help of another killer, who is living out his life in prison – Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter (Anthony Hopkins).

Director Jonathan Demme’s masterstroke is to make it as much about the Starling/Lector relationship as it is about solving the case. He develops both characters brilliantly, sometimes filming them face-on for added intensity – without making it look like a tricksy fourth-wall device. Lector is a talented psychiatrist with the uncanny ability to get inside people’s heads, and Hopkins captures that quality with perfect menace. He plays the character as a refined gentleman who just happens to like eating people. Foster also gives the performance of a lifetime, being forced to confront the fears from her childhood alongside the very real terrors of her new job.

The climax, in which Starling is stalked by Buffalo Bill in total darkness while he wears night-vision goggles – accompanied by The Fall’s “Hip Priest” on the soundtrack – is as hypnotic and chilling as cinema ever gets.

Face/Off (1997)

Absurd body-swap action-thriller directed by John Woo and incorporating elements of sci-fi and horror. 

A criminal (Nic Cage) and an FBI agent (John Travolta) have their faces switched with the use of pioneering technology. Meanwhile, the criminal has planted a bomb somewhere in Los Angeles. 

Cartoonish and unbelievable, Face/Off ends up being possibly the strangest film I’ve ever seen. Cage plays it like a pantomime villain, hamming it up so much that you realise the film is nearly a comedy – and would perhaps have worked better that way. On the plus side, the action sequence involving speedboats is one of the best I’ve ever seen. 

The film doesn't really bother to explore the complex identity questions it hints at: are we "ourselves" (with a consistent being at the core) or are we merely what we look like? It's so ridiculous that it takes cinema to a different level where different rules apply. Forget logic. It’s a thrilling, farcical mess that somehow works – despite Travolta’s creepy tic of touching the face of anyone he meets.

The Imposter (2012)

Documentary about a 13-year-old Texan boy, Nicholas Barclay, who goes missing in 1994. More than three years later in 1997 he is “found” living in Spain and returns to the USA to live with his family. In fact, the family has taken in Frédéric Bourdin, a serial con-artist who is French, has a different eye colour and is several years older than the vanished child. His ears look totally different, too, as is noted by the private detective who begins looking into the case. Despite the additional involvement of the FBI, it takes almost five months for Bourdin to be found out. How the family could have believed this was Nicholas – or whether indeed they did believe it – is the subject of this riveting film. It expertly weaves together interviews with the family and the imposter himself and places these in context with subtle and clever reconstructions. Barclay’s sister made a big impression on me. Her account of travelling to Spain to retrieve her “brother” – and the countdown to the moment of their meeting – is horrifically compelling. And Bourdin himself – seemingly remorseless and even smug about his deceptions – is disturbingly charismatic. The most gripping and mind-boggling documentary I’ve ever seen.

The Town (2010)

Ben Affleck (who also directs) stars as Doug, a member of a gang of mask-wearing robbers in Charlestown, Boston. While doing a bank job they briefly take a female hostage, Claire (Rebecca Hall), but their situation is complicated when Doug forms a romantic attachment with her. It’s also messy because Doug’s intense gang partner Jem (Jeremy Renner) won’t let him leave the group to start a new life, and nor will Irish mobster Fergie (Pete Postlethwaite). 

It’s a tense and exciting thriller that keeps you guessing. Can Doug escape his past and his criminal associations to run off with the woman he loves? Or is he destined never to leave Charlestown except by following his father into prison?

Cleverly, it gets you to empathise with Doug rather than with the FBI agent investigating him (Jon Hamm). And the romantic story is all the more affecting because you know it’s doomed. The only criticism is that Affleck looks too healthy and well-presented to be as desperate as his character is supposed to be.

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.

Fast & Furious (2009)

Silly thriller based around flashy cars being driven fast, probably designed for young boys who’ve recently grown out of playing with Hot Wheels. It’s the fourth in the popular franchise, despite a confusing name that makes it sound like the first. 

A “lovable” crook (Vin Diesel) and an FBI agent (Paul Walker) team up to catch a drug baron (John Ortiz). Vin Diesel isn’t very expressive when he delivers his formulaic dialogue, so he acts with his muscles. His character’s sister (Jordana Brewster) and girlfriend (Michelle Rodríguez) also feature prominently. 

The action is slick. The violence is sanitised (not a drop of blood). The emotions are simplistic (not a smile nor a tear). It’s all constructed around high-speed racing. If that’s your thing, you will love it.

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.

Ransom (1996)

Thriller in which Mel Gibson and Rene Russo star as the wealthy parents of a boy kidnapped by Gary Sinise and his gang. Rather than pay the $2 million, Gibson's character takes matters into his own hands and creates a bounty for the kidnapper. 

It’s taut if trashy, and it keeps you engaged. Russo and Sinese are watchable, as always, but Gibson is oddly overwrought. It’s partly the character – he plays a loose cannon reckless enough to take the ransom process off-piste and gamble his son’s life in the process – but it’s partly just his odd acting. 

There’s a sort of theme about macho behaviour, with the two male characters trying to dominate each other, but it’s not entirely believable. Gibson simply isn’t convincing as a dad or husband, and he has remarkably little chemistry with Russo. In fact, his character comes across as a total weirdo. (What kind of parent thinks he knows more about kidnap strategy than the FBI?) A plot thread about him having lied to his wife promised to take the film in a more interesting direction – i.e., with the criminal exploiting their divisions to play the couple off against one another – but strangely that possibility isn’t explored beyond an initial hint. Also, it fails my standard test of a film’s quality in that the minor characters are cardboard cut-outs instead of being developed and given their own motivations.  

Slow-motion action sequences are never a good sign in a thriller, and there are too many here. I also found the black-and-white treatment applied to the closing moments a little naff and unnecessary. 

Ron Howard is usually a dependable director, but you can’t help feeling that this one somehow got away from him.

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.

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.

Miss Congeniality (2000)

So-so comedy directed by Donald Petrie. 

Sandra Bullock stars as an FBI agent who goes undercover as a contestant in a beauty pageant after a terrorist threatens to set off a bomb. Michael Caine plays her coach, Victor, while William Shatner is the veteran presenter, Stan. 

There are a few funny moments, but not nearly enough. As always, Bullock is brilliant but the material isn’t worthy of her talents. It’s also somewhat ambiguous in terms of its messaging about beauty contests, seeming to both condemn them and praise them. Plus, there's not enough of her as an agent.

I don't think I need to bother with the sequel.

Now You See Me (2013)

Highly entertaining but totally unfeasible thriller. 

Four street magicians are brought together by a criminal mastermind to pull off large-scale tricks – such as robbing a bank in another country – as part of their glitzy stage show. 

It’s an unusual concept and it just about works, provided that you never question a sequence of highly unlikely scenarios in which the magicians exercise almost god-like powers. You also need to overlook a couple of enormous plot holes.

Mark Ruffalo is appealing as FBI agent Dylan Rhodes, and Mélanie Laurent is likeable as French Interpol agent Alma Dray. Morgan Freeman is a little silly as a professional debunker of tricks. Michael Caine doesn't have enough to do as a dodgy insurance magnate. The magicians themselves – played by Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco – are a little too slick and self-satisfied. They can behave like superheroes, and we could have been given more of a sense of their motivations. 

The film is itself a sort of magic trick and it keeps you guessing to the end. It’s very silly indeed – but fun.