The Peanut Butter Falcon

 

Peanut Butter Falcon

• Director: Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Zack Gottsagen, Shia LaBoeuf, Dakota Johnson, Bruce Dern, Thomas Haden Church, John Hawkes
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Dakota Johnson – Cymbeline
• Bruce Dern – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained, The Hole, The Glass House, Silent Running, They Shoot Horses Don’t They?, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, Marnie, various TV series
• John Hawkes – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Winter’s Bone, The Miracle at St Ana, Taken, The Perfect Storm, A Slipping Down Life
• Why? The title.
• Seen: 27 June 2021.      

       Zak (Gottsagen) is a young man with Down’s Syndrome confined to an old people’s home because he has no one to care for him. Eleanor (Johnson) works there and cares for him, but he hates it and escapes. He crosses paths with Tyler (LaBoeuf), an amiable petty criminal. They become friends. Eleanor sets off to find Zak and surprise, surprise, they all become friends. It has Huck Finn pretensions but comes no where near. The film got loads of 9- and 10* ratings on IMDb and I can’t for the life of me understand that. Yes, its intentions are good, the thought is OK, but the story is so trite, it’s so filled with clichés that it’s embarrassing. Besides, it’s macho and boring. That’s what I get for falling for a cute title.

       Sorry, folks. 

1* of 5

 

One Eight Seven

 

One Eight Seven 1997

• Director: Kevin Reynolds
• Seen by this director: Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Samuel L Jackson, John Heard, Kelly Rowan, Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez, Tony Plana, Karina Arroyave, Lobo Sebastian
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Samuel L Jackson – Glass, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained, Avengers, Jumper, 1408, Extras, Star Wars I-III, Kill Bill 2, The Red Violin, Jackie Brown, Long Kiss Goodnight, A Time to Kill, Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, True Romance, Johnny Suede, Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues, Sea of Love, Do the Right Thing
• John Heard – The Great Debaters, O, Pollack, The Pelican Brief, Awakenings, The Trip to Bountiful, After Hours
• Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez – Veronica Mars, Transcendence, Pacific Rim, Sunshine Cleaning, Babel
• Karina Arroyave – Crash, Flawless
• Why? Samuel L Jackson
• Seen: 26 June 2021.      

       Trevor (Jackson) has only ever wanted to be a high school science teacher. Working in a NY school he is stabbed repeatedly by a student in the school corridor. He survives and moves to LA where he gets a substitute position in a school even more violent.

       Jackson is always good and the subject of gang violence in American high school is always important, but it takes an odd turn and becomes a kind of thriller. It doesn’t quite work but it’s still worth seeing. 

3 ½* of 5

 

The Trouble with Harry

 

The Trouble with Harry 1955

• Director: Alfred Hitchcock
• Seen by this director: Torn Curtain, Marnie, The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rear Window, Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, The 39 Steps, probably others
• Based on the novel by Jack Trevor Story
• Cast: Edmund Gwenn, John Forsythe, Mildred Natwick, Mildred Dunnock, Jerry Mathers, Royal Dano, Shirley MacLaine
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• John Forsythe – something, I’m sure but I don’t remember
• Mildred Natwick – Barefoot in the Park, Arsenic and Old Lace, various TV series
• Mildred Dunnock – Death of a Salesman, The Nun’s Story
• Jerry Mathers – Leave It to Beaver
• Royal Dano – Many TV series, Moby Dick
• Shirley MacLaine – Downton Abbey, Rumour Has It, In Her Shoes, Postcards from the Edge, Steel Magnolias, Terms of Endearment, Sweet Charity, Gambit, The Yellow Rolls Royce, Around the World in Eighty Days
• Why? Because I remember liking it
• Seen: Once or twice before. Now 25 June 2021.      

       The trouble with Harry isn’t so much that he’s dead as that something must be done with the body. It’s a farce filled with various people believing they killed him, some wanting to bury him, some wanting to dig him up, doing a bit of both and generally running around inanely. A couple of unlikely romances are tossed in for good measure.

       It’s fun to see MacLaine in her first tole but it isn’t much of a film, not nearly as funny as I remember it. It’s clever at times but it’s also juvenile and amateurish. It’s hard to believe it was directed by Hitchcock. 

2 * of 5

 

 

The Snowman

 The Snowman 2017

• Director: Tomas Alfredsson
• Seen by this director: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Låt den rätte komma in
• Based on the novel by Jo Nesbö
• Cast: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlott Gainsbourg, Jonas Karlsson, Michael Yates, Ronan Vibert, JK Simmons, Van Kilmer, David Dencik, Toby Jones, Genevieve O’Reilly, James D’Arcy, Adrian Dunbar, Chloë Sevigny, Peter Dalle, Anne Reid
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Michael Fassbender – X Men etc, Macbeth, 12 Years a Slave, Prometheus, Inglourious Basterds, Hunger
• Rebecca Ferguson – Doctor Sleep, The Greatest Showman
• Charlotte Gainsbourg – Melancholia, Lemming, 21 Grams
• Jonas Karlsson – The Tempest (on stage as Caliban at Dramaten in Stockholm), Gustav IIIs äktenskap, Snoken
• JK Simmons - La La Land, Whiplash, Burn After Reading, Juno, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Hidalgo, The Cider House Rules
• Van Kilmer – Pollock, Dead Girl, Heat, Batman Forever, True Romance, The Doors
• David Dencik – Tinker Tailor, Soldier Spy, Män som hatar kvinnor, Upp till kamp
• Toby Jones – The Hunger Games, The Man Who Knew Infinity, My Week with Marilyn, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, St Trinian’s 2, Creation, Frost/Nixon, The Mist, Amazing Grace, Infamous, Mrs Henderson Presents, Finding Neverland, Ladies in Lavender, Hotel Splendide, Joan d’Arc, Naked, Orlando
• Genevieve O’Reilly – Star Wars Rogue One, The Fall, Young Victoria, Matrix etc
• James D’Arcy – Dunkirk, Broadchurch, Jupiter Ascending, Cloud Atlas, Bonekickers, Wilde
• Adrian Dunbar – The Hollow Crown, Good Vibrations, Richard III, The Crying Game, My Left Foot
• Chloë Sevigny – Love and Friendship, Broken Flowers, Manderlay, Dogville, American Psycho, The Last Days of Disco
• Anne Reid – Tango in Halifax, Years and Years, Song for Marion, Marchlands, Doctor Who, Hot Fuzz, Seaforth
• Why? Because I like snow.
• Seen: 20 June 2021. 30 ˚ C in Stockholm today.      

       What an absolutely stunning winter mountain landscape. An exciting beginning too.

       It’s fun to see Oslo in the winter. We’ve only been there in the summer.

       Oh yes, the story. Harry (Fassbender) is a cop, once a legend but now a drunk (have we heard that before?). He has a new partner Katrine (Ferguson) who is obsessed with missing person cases. Women, unhappily married, with children. It’s complex and unfolds slowly.

       The cinematography is outstanding throughout and rates 5* on its own. The cast is strong and it’s really fun to see a film set in so many places in Norway that we’ve visited. The only problem is that I don’t really like grisly convoluted murder mysteries like this (I couldn’t even finish the one Nesbö book I started and that was Macbeth), the ending is too farfetched to swallow and it goes on too long. A pity for a film that started so promisingly.

       And it’s such a beautiful film. 

3* of 5

 

Män som hatar kvinnor

 Män som hatar kvinnor 2009

• Director: Niels Arden Oplev
• Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson
• Cast: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Sven-Bertil Taube, Lena Endre, Peter Haber, Peter Andersson, Marika Lagerkrantz, Ingvar Hirdwall, Björn Granath, Ewa Fröling, Michalis Koutsogiannakis
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Michael Nyqvist (1960-2017) – John Wick, Luftslottet som sprängdes, Flickan som lekte med elden, Den bästa av mödrar, Grabben i graven bredvid, Reuter & Skoog, Tillsammans
• Noomi Rapace – Stockholm, Unlocked, Rupture, Prometheus, Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows, Svinalängorna, Luftslottet som sprängdes, Flickan som lekte med elden, Tusenbröder
• Sven-Bertil Taube – Upstairs Downstairs
• Lena Endre - Luftslottet som sprängdes, Flicka som lekte med elden
• Peter Andersson – Luftslottet som sprängdes, Flicka som lekte med elden, Änglagård
• Ingvar Hirdwall – Den tatuerade änkan
• Ewa Fröling – Snoken
• Michalis Koutsogiannakis – Tusenbröder, Flickan som lekte med elden, Luftslottet som sprängdes, Det nya landet
• Why? The book
• Seen: Once before. Now 19 June 2021      

       En undersökande ekonomijournalist Mikael Blomqvist (Nyqvist), nyligen åtalad och dömd för förtal, tar motvilligt på sig uppdraget att söka sanningen om en industrimagnats brorsdotter, försvunnen, troligen mördad för 40 år sen.

       Till hjälp får han Lisbeth Salander (Rapace), en psykiskt störd hacker utan like som är omyndigförklarad och djupt hatisk mot auktoriteter och nästan alla andra.

       Mot alla odds kommer de på gåtans svar.

       Boken var smärtsam att läsa. Filmen är smärtsam att se. Titeln är befogad. Tyvärr är den alltför sann, det finns många män som hatar kvinnor.

       Det är klart att en så komplex bok måste förenklas i en film med det har gjorts på ett beundransvärt sätt. Nyqvist och Rapace är som klippta och skurna för rollerna. 

4 ½ * of 5 

Journalist Mikael Blomqvist (Nyqvist) and psychologically disturbed hacking genius Lisbeth Salander (Rapace) take on an investigation into the disappearance and probable murder of an industrial tycoon’s niece 40 years ago. It’s a painful book to read and a painful film to see. The title (Men who hate women) is all too appropriate. There are many men who hate women. The book is complex, the film has been condensed admirably. Nyqvist and Rapace are perfect for the roles.

 

Logan

 

Logan 2017

• Director: James Mangold
• Seen by this director: Walk the Line, Kate & Leopold, Girl Interrupted, Cop Land
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Dafne Keen, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, Richard E Grant, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Eriq LaSalle, Elise Neal, Quincy Fouse
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Hugh Jackman – The Greatest Showman, Chappie, Les Misérables, Australia, The Fountain, The Prestige, Kate & Leopold, X Men etc
• Patrick Stewart – The Hollow Crown Richard II, Hamlet, Extras, X Men First Class, Star Trek (one of them, I don’t remember which), Excalibur, Hamlet, I Claudius
• Boyd Holbrook – Gone Girl, The Magic of Belle Isle, Milk
• Stephen Merchant – Jojo Rabbit, Fighting with My Family, Life’s Too Short, I Give It a Year, The Invention of Lying, Extras, Hot Fuzz
• Richard E Grant – Their Finest, Doctor Who, Colour Me Kubrick, Bright Young Things, Gosford Park, Keep the Aspidistras Flying, Twelfth Night, Cold Lazarus, Karaoke, Withnail & I
• Elizabeth Rodriguez – Six Feet Under, Blow, Dead Presidents
• Why? X Men!
• Seen: 18 June 2021. Happy 78^th birthday, Paul McCartney      

       Logan (Jackman), aka Wolverine, is on his own, working as a chauffeur and taking care of the aging and ill Charles (Stewart). There is a new generation of mutants, and the two old men are forced into protecting one of them, young Laura (Keen).

       Well.

       No spoilers, but this was unexpected.      

4 * of 5

 

Sensoria

 

Sensoria 2015

• Director: Christian Hallman
• Cast: Lanna Ohlsson, Norah Andersen, Alida Morberg, Rafael Pettersson, Boel Larsson, Karin Baertling, Harald Leander
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Boel Larsson - Svinalängörna
• Karin Baertlig – Äkta Människor
• Why? Possibly good. Swedish.
• Seen: 13 June 2021      

       Carolina (Ohlsson) has been abandoned by her boyfriend and has moved into an ordinary flat in an unnamed Swedish city. She is fragile and lonely.

       Strange things happen. Her neighbours are odd, even creepy. A faucet drips repeatedly, ghostly figures flit in and out.

       Urban horror, it’s called on the DVD cover. It is indeed a ghost story but not much horror. Not much of anything. It’s nicely filmed and well-acted but what’s the point? 

På Svenska:

Carolina har övergetts av sin pojkvän och hon flyttar in i en typisk lägenhet i någon onämnd svensk stad. Hon är bräcklig och ensam.

Konstiga saker händer. Grannarna är udda, till och med läskiga. Det droppar från en kran, spökliga figurer fladdrar förbi.

Urban horror, heter det på DVD-fodralet. Visst är filmen en spökhistoria men den är inte särskilt skrämmande. Den är fint filmad och välspelad men vad är poängen?  

2* of 5

 

Moby Dick

 

Moby Dick 1956

• Director: John Huston
• Seen by this director: Prizzi’s Honour, The Man Who Would Be King, The Night of the Iguana, The Misfits, Moulin Rouge, The African Queen, The Unforgiven, The Asphalt Jungle
• Based on the novel by Herman Melville
• Cast: Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Leo Genn, Friedrich Ledebur, Orson Welles, Tamba Allen
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Gregory Peck – To Kill a Mockingbird, The Guns of Navarone, On the Beach, David and Bathsheba, Spellbound
• Richard Basehart – various TV series
• Orson Welles – The Voyage of the Damned, Catch 22, Casino Royale, Touch of Evil, The Long Hot Summer, Chimes at Midnight, Citizen Kane
• Why? The book
• Seen: 12 June 2021      

       When this film came out, I was five or six years old. I finally read the book at the age of forty-nine. It was required reading in a class on the American novel at Stockholm University where I was getting my second and third university degrees in preparation for becoming a teacher. The novel put me to sleep and gripped me with excited fascination in turn.

       You know the story. It’s about whales. And Captain Ahab. And Moby Dick. If you haven’t read it, do. It’s worth the effort.

       So, the film. How in the world have they squished this incredibly complex, philosophical, existential and adventurous book into less than two hours, even with Ray Bradbury as a screenwriter?

       Like the book, it puts me to sleep (almost) and impresses me in turn. And it’s so clear that the film did not do the book justice (no film could). Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab is stiff and hammy – he could and did so much better in other films. Richard Basehart is entirely wrong for Ishmael, being too old, too handsome with slicked back hair just like my dad had in the 50s. He neither looked nor acted anything like a youthful whaler from the 1840s. Ledebur is entirely too white to even come close to Queecquog’s character. It’s also painful to watch the mass murder of whales even with the knowledge of the historical significance of whaling, or maybe because of it.

       Still, it was a noble enough attempt. The photography is beautiful and the storms and battles with Moby Dick are dramatic. But is it the ‘best American film ever’ as the New York Herald Tribune apparently deemed it? Not even close.   

3* of 5

 

Shoplifters

 

Shoplifters 2018

• Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu
• Cast: Lily Franky, Sakuro Andô, Kirin Kiki, Mayu Matsuoka, Jyo Kairi, Miyu Sasaki
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sadly, none of them. Yet.
• Why? It sounded good.
• Seen: 11 June 2021      

       A family in Japan supports itself partly through shoplifting. They take in an abused little girl though they are already crowded in a squalid squat. The father and the boy teach her to help with the shoplifting. The family is kind to her, treating her like their own.

       They are not like other families but there are many different kinds of families, aren’t there? And many ways for families to fall apart.

       The acting is superb, especially the little girl, played by Miyu Sasaki. Don’t miss this one. 

5* of 5

Men in Black

 

Men in Black 1997

• Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
• Seen by this director: Wild Wild West, Get Shorty
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D’Onofrio, Rip Torn, Siobhan Fallon
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Tommy Lee Jones – Ad Astra, No Country for Old Men, A Prairie Home Companion, The Client, The Fugitive, JFK, Stormy Monday
• Will Smith – Suicide Squad, Winter’s Tale, After Earth, I Am Legend, Wild Wild West, Six Degrees of Separation
• Linda Fiorentino – Dogma, After Hours
• Vincent D’Onofrio – Thumbsucker, Feeling Minnesota, Strange Days, Ed Wood, JFK, Full Metal Jacket
• Rip Torn – Robocop 3, TV series
• Siobhan Fallon – Dogville, Dancer in the Dark
• Why? A classic
• Seen: 6 June 2021      

       K (Jones) is an agent. J (Smith) is a NYPD cop. The world is coming to an end. The aliens arrive. K recruits J to the alien agency whose job is to keep track of the ca 1500 intergalactic aliens on Earth, most living in NY, most refugees and most decent individuals just trying to get by.

       It’s an enjoyable enough story but it’s mainly a showcase for Smith and Jones. Their acting talents are put to very good use.

       It’s laugh-out loud amusing and worth watching again when we need something light. 

4* of 5

 

Crash

 

Crash 2004

• Director: Paul Haggis
• Cast: Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Keith David, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, Thandiwe Newton, and many others I haven’t see in other films
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Don Cheadle – Hotel Rwanda, The Assasination of Richard Nixon, The United States of Leland, Bullworth, Devil in a Blue Dress,
• Sandra Bullock – Gravity, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Lakehouse, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, 28 Days, Practical Magic, While You Were Sleeping, Speed
• Matt Dillon – Beautiful Girls, Drugstore Cowboy, Rumble Fish
• Thandiwe Newton – Beloved, Gridlock’d
• Why? Gift from colleague JC
• Seen: Once before. Now 5 June 2021      

       A pile-up in LA opens the film but the crash is more a collision of racism and sexism, of class conflict, of complex personal and professional relationships. The biggest collision, though, is the conflict within each of the individual characters.

       There are an awful lot of people in this film and a lot of things happening, and it all happens the day before the crash which links them together in one way or another.

       It’s a bit too incoherent to succeed fully but it’s a bold and gripping film and it deserves its Oscar for Best Film. 

4* of 5

 

Green Book

 

Green Book 2018

• Director: Peter Farrelly
• Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Viggo Mortensen – The Road, A History of Violence, Hidalgo, Lord of the Rings etc, 28 Days, A Perfect Murder, Carlito’s Way, Ruby Cairo, The Indian Runner, Witness
• Mahershala Ali – Alita Battle Angel, The Hunger Games Mockingjay
• Linda Cardellini – Brokeback Mountain, Legally Blonde, Third Rock from the Sun
• Recommended by good friend JB
• Seen: 4 June 2021      

       Tony Lip (Mortensen) is a quick-fisted bouncer at the Copacabana in the 60s but it closes for repairs. He’s got a wife, two kids and a big Italian family. He applies for a job as a chauffeur for a doctor. It turns out that the good doctor is the very high-class black pianist Don Shirley (Ali) who is starting a tour in the Deep South. He needs a driver, a valet and an all-round-make-sure-everything-works-right guy.

       Tony needs the job. He takes it. He also takes the Green Book offered by the record company. A vital guide for black people travelling in the south. Where to stay. Where to eat. Places to avoid.

       Class conflict in the car. Racism outside of the car. More and more as they head south.

       It’s a bit predictable with a stereotype here and there but it’s also funny at times, dramatic at others. Points are made and the acting is top-notch.

       You’d have to have a heart of stone not to fall for this film. But is it better than its Oscar rivals, Bohemian Rhapsody, Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman? Tough choice!    

 

4* of 5