The Hustle

 The Hustle 2019

• Director: Chris Addison
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Ingrid Oliver, Nicholas Woodeson, Dean Norris, Alex Sharp
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Anne Hathaway – Interstellar, Song One, Les Misérables, The Dark Knight Rises, Alice in Wonderland, Rachel Getting Married, Becoming Jane, Breakback Mountain, Ella Enchanted
• Rebel Wilson – Jojo Rabbit, Absolutely Fabulous the Movie, Pitch Perfect
• Ingrid Oliver – Doctor Who
• Nicholas Woodeson – Mr Turner, Skyfall, Hysteria, Amazing Grace, Topsy-Turvy, Titanic Town, Shooting Fish, The Pelican Brief
• Dean Norris – Breaking Bad, Little Miss Sunshine, Gattaca, Terminator 2
• Alex Sharp - UFO
• Why? Hathaway and Wilson
• Seen: 24 January 2021.

       Janet (Hathaway) is a slender, beautiful, elegant, high-class and very rich grifter. Penny is an over-weight, vulgar and ignorant but resourceful grifter. Penny blackmails Janet into teaching her how to become a successful, and especially a very rich grifter.

       They’re soon rivals.

       If you think this is just a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels only with women, you wouldn’t be alone. I enjoyed DRS but I think I enjoy this one more. Of course it’s silly but it’s also amusing and Hathaway and Wilson make a great acting team.

  3* of 5

 

I, Tonya

 

I, Tonya 2017

• Director: Craig Gillespie
• Seen by this director: Fright Night, Lars and the Real Girl
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Julianne Nicholson, Paul Walter Hauser
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Margot Robbie – Once upon a Time in Hollywood, Suicide Squad, About Time
• Sebastian Stan – Black Swan, Rachel Getting Married
• Allison Janney – Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Girl on the Train, The Help, Life During Wartime, Juno, Hairspray, The Hours, Nurse Betty, American Beauty, 10 Things I Hate about You, The Ice Storm
• Julianne Nicholson – August Osage County
• Paul Walter Hauser – BlacKkKlansman
• Why? When I was a kid one of my idols was an Olympic figure skater.
• Seen: 23 January 2021.

             Sort of a true story. I sort of remember the Tonya Harding scandal.

       Tonya (Robbie) is a hostile, proud, oppressed, self-declared white trash redneck. But she could skate. This film is based on pretend interviews and others involved in her life and career.

       She is verbally and physically abused and relentlessly driven by her mother (Janney) who works long hours as a waitress to pay for Tonya’s training. Her boyfriend and later husband Jeff (Stan) abuses her too. She turns her self-hatred outwards and gets a Bad Girl reputation.

       And then she becomes the first American woman to perform the triple axel in public.

       The Olympic trials. The Incident (Google it).

       This is an unexpectedly dramatic and well-acted film with a harsh look at the politics and class prejudice behind the glamour of figure skating.

  4 ½ * of 5

 

The Nightingale

 

The Nightingale 2018

• Director: Jennifer Kent
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Aisling Franciosi, Baykali Ganambarr, Sam Claflin, Damon Herriman, Charlie Jampipinja Brown, Harry Greenwood, Claire Jones, Michael Sheasby
• Aisling Franciosi – The Fall, Quirke
• Sam Clafin – Adrift, Their Finest, Snow White Huntsman, Hunger Games etc, Pirates of the Caribbean, United
• Damon Herriman – Once upon a Time in Hollywood, The Lone Ranger, Breaking Bad
• Why? Good reports on culture programs
• Seen: 22 January 2021.      

       In 19^th century Tasmania, Irish convicts Claire (Franciosi) and her husband Aidin (Herriman) are indentured servants at a military post in the power of a sadistic lieutenant (Claflin), who repeatedly rapes Claire and finally murders Aidin and the couple’s baby then heads north to another outpost with a few henchmen. Claire follows, determined for revenge.

       She reluctantly hires a reluctant guide Billy (Ganambarr). Their hostility to one another accompanies them.

       Violent racism, violent sexism, the way it was. But also powerful friendship.

       Don’t miss this harsh, beautiful and heart-breaking film.

 

 5* of 5

 

The Golden Compass

 

The Golden Compass 2007

• Director: Chris Weitz
• Also seen by this director: About a Boy
• Based on a book by Philip Pullman
• Cast: Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Ben Walker, Eva Green, Jim Carter, Tom Courtney, Sam Elliot, Simon McBurney, Jack Shepherd, Derek Jacobi, Claire Higgins, Charlie Rowe, voices of Ian McKellen, Freddie Highmore, Ian McShane, Kristin Scott Thomas, Kathy Bates
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Nicole Kidman – Destroyer, Top of the Lake, Genius, Queen of the Desert, Strangerland, Before I Go to Sleep, The Railway Man, Rabbit Hole, Nine, Australia, Margot at the Wedding, Fur, The Interpreter, Cold Mountain, The Human Stain, Dogville, The Hours, Birthday Girl, The Others, Eyes Wide Shut, Practical Magic, Billy Bathgate
• Daniel Craig –Knives Out, Bond etc, Defiance, Infamous, Road to Perdition, Hotel Splendide, Elizabeth
• Eva Green – Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Dark Shadows, Perfect Sense, Casino Royale, Kingdom of Heaven
• Jim Carter – Downton Abbey, My Week with Marilyn, Cranford, Creation, Out of Season, Modigliani, Ella Enchanted, Bright Young Things, Shakespeare in Love, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Brassed Off, Richard III, The Madness of King George
• Tom Courtney – Unforgotten, Flood, Last Orders, Quartet, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?, The Dresser, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The Loneliness of a Long-Distance Runner  
• Sam Elliot – A Star Is Born, The Big Lebowski, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Simon McBurney – The Theory of Everything, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Jane Eyre, Robin Hood, Last King of Scotland, Bright Young Things, Kafka
• Jack Shepherd – The Politician’s Husband, Tristram Shandy, Wycliffe
• Derek Jacobi - Last Tango in Halifax, Vicious, Cinderella, My Week with Marilyn, The King’s Speech, Doctor Who, Nanny McPhee, Gosford Park, Gladiator, Hamlet, Dead Again, Henry V, Hamlet, Richard II, I Claudius
• Claire Higgins – Ready Player One, Doctor Who, I Give It a Year, Downton Abbey, The Libertine
• Charlie Rowe – Never Let Me Go, The Boat that Rocked
• Why? I liked the book.
• Seen: 17 January 2021

             In an alternative universe, young, orphaned Lyra (Richards) is the only one who can read the Golden Compass, which reveals Truth. The oppressive Authorities will stop at nothing to stop Lyra from finding her uncle (Craig) who is in the far North seeking the Dust, which will enable him to enter and protect other universes from being conquered by the Authorities.

       It’s faithful to the book as far as I remember though much condensed and less intellectual. Half of Britain’s acting elite help to make it entertaining, and the special effects are very nice indeed. The fight between the armoured bears is most impressive.

       A likeable film.

 4* of 5

 

All Is True

 All Is True 2018

• Director: Kenneth Branagh
• Other films seen directed by KB: Murder on the Orient Express, Cinderella, Thor, Sleuth, The Magic Flute, As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hamlet, In the Bleak Midwinter, Frankenstein, Much Ado about Nothing, Peter’s Friends, Dead Again, Henry V
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Katherine Wilder
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Kenneth Branagh – Murder on the Orient Express, Dunkirk, Wallander, My Week with Marilyn, The Boat that Rocked, Valkyria, Warm Springs, Shackleton, Harry Potter and the Secret Chambre, Rabbit-Proof Fence, How to Kill Your Neighbour’s Dog, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Wild Wild West, Hamlet, Othello, Frankenstein, Much Ado about Nothing, Swing Kids, Peter’s Friends, Dead Again, Henry V, Fortunes of War
• Judi Dench – Murder on the Orient Express, Victoria & Abdul, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Hollow Crown, Bond etc, Hotel Marigold 1&2, Philomena, Vicious, My Week with Marilyn, Jane Eyre, Cranford, Nine, Notes on a Scandal, Mrs Henderson Presents, Ladies in Lavender, The Shipping News, Chocolat, Tea with Mussolini, Shakespeare in Love, Mrs Brown, Hamlet, Henry V, A Handful of Dust, 84 Charing Cross Road, A Room with a View, Macbeth
• Ian McKellen – Vicious, The Hobbit etc, X-Men Days of Future Past etc, King Lear, Extras, Richard III, Cold Comfort Farm, The Ballad of Little Jo, Macbeth
• Katherine Wilder – Ready Player One, Murder on the Orient Express
• Why? Shakespeare
• Seen: 16 January 2021.

             After the Globe burnt to the ground in 1613 Shakespeare returned to his family in Stratford, never to return to London again. Of his life in Stratford in these, his last years, we know little. The film makes very good use of that little and embroiders that into a plausible tale.

       He returns to an aging resentful wife, a long dead son, a daughter who is bitter in her guilt over not being the twin who died, an adulterous daughter married to a strict Puritan.

       Drama, grief, laughter, love and heartbreak, just like a Shakespeare play.

       And you know, of course, that Branagh + Dench + McKellen + Shakespeare can do nothing but  =

  5* of 5, at least

 

Knives Out

 

Knives Out 2019

• Director: Rian Johnson
• Seen by this director: Star Wars the Last Jedi, Looper
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Christopher Plummer
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Daniel Craig – Bond etc, Defiance, Infamous, Road to Perdition, Hotel Splendide, Elizabeth
• Ana de Armas – Yesterday, Blade Runner 2049
• Chris Evans – Avengers, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Sunshine, Fantastic Four
• Jamie Lee Curtis – Veronica Mars, A Fish Called Wanda, Trading Places
• Michael Shannon – The Shape of Water, Man of Steel, Take Shelter, The Runaways, Groundhog Day
• Don Johnson – Django Unchained, Miami Vice
• Toni Collette - Unlocked, Hereditary, Imperium, A Long Way Down, Mental, Fright Night, The Dead Girl, Night Listener, Little Miss Sunshine, In Her Shoes, The Hours, Sixth Sense, About a Boy, Hotel Splendide, Velvet Goldmine
• LaKeith Stanfield – Short Term 12
• Christopher Plummer – The Last Station, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Emotional Arithmetic, The Lake House, A Beautiful Mind, The Twelve Monkeys, Dolores Claiborne, Malcolm X, Star Trek the Undiscovered Country, Eyewitness, The Man Who Would Be King, Inside Daisy Clover, The Sound of Music
• Why? Toni Collette
• Seen: 15 January 2021.

             Superrich super author Harlan Trombley (Plummer) is found dead after his 85^th birthday party. Suicide? Murder?

       The three children, their various spouses, in-laws, children, and the staff are all interrogated by supersleuth Benoit Blanc (Craig) and it appears that they all had reasons to murder him.

       Gosford Park meets Sleuth meets Agatha Christie in America. It’s funny, clever, suspenseful and well done. There’s even a car chase, short enough to be justified. The actors are all good but it’s especially fun to see Craig in a sort of comedy role with a drawl as thick as molasses, as far from Bond as can be imagined.

  4* of 5

 

 

Fisherman's Friends

 

Fisherman’s Friends 2019

• Director: Chris Foggin
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: James Purefoy, David Hayman, Maggie Steed, Daniel Mays, Noel Clarke, Tuppence Middleton
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• James Purefoy – High-Rise, The Hollow Crown, A Knight’s Tale, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
• David Hayman – London Spy, Macbeth, The Hollow Crown, The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, My Name Is Joe, The Boxer, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Rob Roy, Sid & Nancy
• Maggie Steed – The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
• Daniel Mays – 1917, Rogue One, Victor Frankenstein, Doctor Who, Made in Dagenham, Hustle, Atonement, A Good Year, Vera Drake
• Noel Clarke – Doctor Who
• Tuppence Middleton – Jupiter Ascending, The Imitation Game, A Long Way Down, The Love Punch, Friday Night Dinner
• Why? I’ve heard good things about it. Cornwall.
• Seen: 10 January 2021

             The fishermen of Port Isaac are also singers, calling themselves Fishermen’s Friends. A gormless manager of pop bands (Mays) happens to arrive from London and becomes convinced he can get them a record deal. Reluctance, enthusiasm, romance, phony and snobby Londoners vs true blue down-to-earth (sea?) Cornishmen and women – all the typical ingredients.       Cornwall is beautiful to be sure, and the part (not much evidently) that’s based on a true story is fun. Unfortunately, Mays is unappealing, unconvincing and absolutely and completely wrong as a band manager and the whole film is riddled with tired clichés.

       What a disappointment.

 2* of 5

 

 

Doctor Sleep

 

Doctor Sleep 2019

• Director: Mike Flanagan
• Based on the novel by Stephen King.
• Cast: Ewan MacGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Cliff Curtis, Zahn McClarnan, Emily Alyn Lind
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Ewan MacGregor – Trainspotting 2, American Pastoral, Our Kind of Traitor, Star Wars etc, Mortdecai, August Osage County, Jack the Giant Slayer, The Impossible, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Perfect Sense, The Ghost Writer, The Island, Moulin Rouge, Big Fish, Young Adam, Little Voice, Velvet Goldmine, A Life Less Ordinary, Brassed Off, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave
• Rebecca Ferguson – The Greatest Showman, Life, The Girl on the Train
• Kyliegh Curran – Nothing yet but keep an eye open. She’s great!
• Cliff Curtis – Die Hard 4, Sunshine, The Fountain, Whale Rider, Bringing Out the Dead, Once Were Warriors, The Piano
• Zahn McClarnan – Skins
• Why? Ewan MacGregor
• Seen: 9 January 2021.      

       Twenty years or so after the events of The Shining (which, by the way, did not impress me), the traumatised boy Danny has grown up to become an alcoholic and totally messed up Ewan MacGregor. There’s also the beautiful and evil leader of the True Knot, Rose (Ferguson), her companions Snakebite Andi (Lind) and Crow (McClarnan), young teen-ager Abra (Curran) who has enormous powers, and a very kind and supportive man called Billy (Curtis) who befriends Danny.

       It all ties together and is much better than The Shining. Mostly thanks to the excellent cast.

  4* of 5

 

Die Hard 4 Live Free

 

Die Hard 4 (Live Free) 2007

• Director: Len Wiseman
• Seen by this director: Underworld
• Cast: Bruce Willis, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q, Justin Long, Cliff Curtis, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Zeljko Ivanek
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Bruce Willis – Looper, Moonrise Kingdom, Friends, The Siege, Armageddon, The Fifth Element, The Twelve Monkeys, Billy Bathgate, In Country, Die Hard with Vengeance, Die Hard
• Timothy Olyphant – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I Am Number Four, High Life, Ellen Foster, A Life Less Ordinary, First Wives Club
• Justin Long – He’s Just Not That into You, Galaxy Quest
• Cliff Curtis – Sunshine, The Fountain, Whale Rider, Bringing Out the Dead, Once Were Warriors, The Piano
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead – Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Factory Girl
• Zeljko Ivanek – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, X Men Apocalypse, In Bruges, Manderlay, Dogville, Dancer in the Dark, Snow Falling on Cedars, Homicide Life on the Street, Ellen Foster, Donnie Brasco
• Why? It’s in the box.
• Seen: 8 January 2021.

             Oh, modern! Computers and Internet and mobile phones and everything.  And John (Willis) has a now grown-up daughter who hates him.

       John is roped into rescuing a known hacker, Matthew, (Long) who is in danger from the bad guys.

       Is that enough of the story? The shooting starts very early on.

       Maybe it’s a mistake to watch a Die Hard film three Fridays in a row. I understand that each one has to outdo its predecessor but this one really is too much of a muchness.

       Long is very good and even Willis has some good lines. It’s exciting and yes, I do like these films, this film. But you know? I don’t quite love them. 

 3 ½ * of 5 (Hal likes it a lot and gives it 4 ½ *.)

 

 

Fruitvale Station

 

Fruitvale Station 2013

• Director: Ryan Coogler
• Also seen by this director: Black Panther
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: Michael B Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer, Ahna O’Reilly, Ariana Neal
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Michael B Jordan – Black Panther, Fantastic Four, The Wire, The Sopranos
• Melanie Diaz – Be Kind Rewind
• Octavia Spencer – The Shape of Water, Snowpiercer, The Help, The Soloist, Being John Malkovich, many TV series
• Ahna O’Reilly – The Help
• Why? It sounded good.
• Seen: 3 January 2021

             Oscar (Jordan) has done time for drug dealing but now he’s struggling to go straight, to make things work with his girlfriend Sophina (Diaz), be a good dad to his little girl T (Neal), a good son to his mother Wanda (Spenser). But he’s lost his job and he’s becoming desperate.

       On New Year’s Eve Sophina wants to head into Frisco for the fireworks so off they go.

       It’s based on a true story. A true story that is still happening. Again and again.

       BLM!

 4* of 5

 

The 33

 

The 33

• Director: Patricia Riggen
• Based on a book by Hector Tobar
• Cast: Antonia Banderas, Juliette Binoche, Rodrigo Santoro, Gabriel Byrne, Lou Diamond Phillips
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Antonio Banderas – Once upon a Time in Mexico, Frida, Evita, Philadelphia, The House of Spirits
• Juliette Binoche – High Life, Dan in Real Life, Breaking and Entering, Paris je t’aime, Caché, Chocolat, The English Patient, Rouge, Blanc, Bleu, Wuthering Heights, Les amants du Pont-neuf
• Rodrigo Santoro – Love Actually, The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone
• Lou Diamond Phillips – SGU Stargate Universe, La Bamba
• Gabriel Byrne – Hereditary, Quirke, Emotional Arithmetic, Jindabyne, Wah-Wah, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Dead Man, The Usual Suspects, Little Women, Prince of Jutland, Miller’s Crossing, Gothic, Excalibur
• Why? I followed the news while it was happening. I read the book.
• Seen: 2 January 2021

             Do you remember the thirty-three Chilean miners buried alive in a gold mine in 2010? This is the Hollywood version of their story.

       Thirty-three miners. One is two weeks from retirement. One is entering the mine for the first time. One is about to become a father. One is scheduled for a day off but asks to work because he’s short of money. One warns the boss that the mountain is about to collapse but is told to get to work.

       It collapses.

       We follow the trapped men, their families, the government officials who at first don’t want to take action because it’s a privately-owned mine, the rescuers, the journalists. We see the doubts and fears, the hopelessness, the conflict.

       It does have its Hollywood moments but it’s a decent film. An impossible reality to convey, it was in fact conveyed rather well.

 3½ * of 5

 

Die Hard with a Vengeance

 

Die Hard with a Vengeance 1995

• Director: John McTiernan
• Seen by this director: Die Hard
• Based on the novel by Walter Wager and characters by Roderick Thorp.
• Cast: Bruce Willis, Samuel L Jackson, Jeremy Irons, Graham Greene, Colleen Camp, Larry Bryggman, Sam Phillips, Sharon Washington
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Bruce Willis – Looper, Moonrise Kingdom, Friends, The Siege, Armageddon, The Fifth Element, The Twelve Monkeys, Billy Bathgate, In Country, Die Hard
• Samuel L Jackson – Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Django Unchained, Jumper, 1408, Star Wars, Kill Bill, Changing Lanes, The Red Violin, Jackie Brown, The Long Kiss Goodnight, True Romance, Jurassic Park, Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues, Sea of Love, Do the Right Thing
• Jeremy Irons – Their Finest, The Man Who Knew Infinity, Beautiful Creatures, The Hollow Crown, Kingdom of Heaven, Being Julia, The Merchant of Venice, Longitude, The House of Spirits, Waterland, Kafka, Australia, The French Lieutenant’s Woman
• Graham Greene – Molly’s Game, Winter’s Tale, Skins, The Green Mile, Dances with Wolves
• Sharon Washington –Joker, On the Basis of Sex, Michael Clayton, School of Rock, The Long Kiss Goodnight
• Why? It’s in the box.
• Seen: Once before. Now 1 January 2021.      

       Simon (Irons) wants to play Simon says and he wants to play it with John (Willis). He sends John and the reluctantly but increasingly enthusiastic Zeus (Jackson) on all kinds of daft missions. If they don't succeed he’ll blow up New York.

       The first hour is fun but the second half lags. The story itself becomes tangled, less than realistic and even uninteresting. It goes on too long. It could have been as good as the first one and Jackson would have been as good as Rickman if he had been given a better part. Jackson and Willis are good together though.

  3* of 5 (Hal likes it as well as the first one and gives it 4*.)