29 May 2023

Seven Psychopaths

 

Seven Psychopaths 2012

  • Director: Martin McDonagh
    • Seen by this director – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, In Bruges
  • Based on novel: no
  • Cast: Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Abbie Cornish, Gaboury Sidibe, Zeljko Ivanek
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in
    • Colin Farrel – The Gentlemen, Widows, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Winter’s Tale, Cassandra’s Dream, Total Recall, Fright Night, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, In Bruges, Miami Vice, Intermission
    • Woody Harrelson – Zombieland 1&2, Venom, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, The Glass Castle, The Hunger Games, Out of the Furnace, 2012, Battle in Seattle, No Country for Old Men, A Scanner Darkly, Prairie Home Companion, North Country, Edtv, White Men Can’t Jump
    • Sam Rockwell – Jojo Rabbit, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Moon, Frost/Nixon, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
    • Christopher Walken – Jersey Boys, Romance and Cigarettes, Catch Me If You Can, Sleepy Hollow, Blast from the Past, Suicide Kings, Pulp Fiction, True Romance, Batman Returns, Sarah Plain and Tall, The Deer Hunter
    • Abbie Cornish – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Bright Star, Elizabeth the Golden Age, A Good Year
    • Gaboury Sidiba – Precious
    • Zeljko Ivanek – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, X Men Apocalypse, The Words, In Bruges, Lost, Manderlay, Dogville, Dancer in the Dark, Snow Falling on Cedars, Homicide Life on the Street, Ellen Foster, Donnie Brasco
  • Why? The cast.
  • Seen: 28 May 2023  

Film write Marty (Farrell) is writing a script called Seven Psychopaths, but he only has one psychopath, and he has no idea what the film will be about. His friend Billy (Rockwood) is more than willing to help him with ideas and the writing.

Billy and his partner Hans (Walken) steal dogs and return them to the owners for the reward. Things go badly when they happen to steal the beloved dog of a Mafia leader (Harrelson).

They’re all bonkers as is the film, which I assume it is meant to be.

Oh yeah, there’s a masked man who pops up now and then and shoots bad guys, then tosses the Jack of Diamonds on their corpses.

With this cast, expectations are high, and they don’t disappoint. Sam Rockwell is brilliant.

It’s really quite dreadful. And sad. And hilarious. And totally bizarre. 

4 * of 5

 


 

James Bond - No Time to Die

 

James Bond No Time to Die 2021

  • Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
  • Based on novel: no
  • Cast: Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomi Harris, Rory Kinnear, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in
    • Daniel Craig – Knives Out, the other Bond films, Defiance, The Golden Compass, Layer Cake, Road to Perdition, Lora Croft, Hotel Splendide, Elizabeth
    • Ana de Amas – Knives Out, Blade Runner 2049
    • Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody, Short Term 12
    • Léa Seydoux – Spectre, L’enfant d’en haut, Robin Hood, Inglourious Basterds
    • Ralph Fiennes – Hail Caesar, Harry Potter, the other Bond films, The Invisible Woman, Coriolanus, Cemetery Junction, The Reader, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, The End of an Affair, Sunshine, The English Patient, Strange Days, Schindler’s List
    • Ben Whishaw – The Personal History of David Copperfield, Paddington 2, London Spy, the other Bond films, Suffragette, Cloud Atlas, The Hollow Crown, The Tempest, Bright Star, Layer Cake
    • Naomi Harris – Our Kind of Traitor, Mandela, the other Bond films, Small Island, Pirates of the Caribbean, Miami Vice, Dinotopia
    • Rory Kinnear – Years and Years, the other Bond films, The Casual Vacancy, The Imitation Game, The Hollow Crown, Broken, Secret Smile
    • Jeffrey Wright – Only Lovers Left Alive, The Hunger Games, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Source Code, Cadillac Records, the other Bond films, Broken Flowers, Angels in America, Hamlet
    • Christoph Waltz – Alita Battle Angel, Django Unchained, the other Bond films, Inglorius Basterds
  • Why? Well, obviously
  • Seen: 27 May 2023  

For the record, in my opinion Daniel Craig is the best Bond and his Bond films are the best ones.

If you want to know the story, check IMDb for the resumé. It’s too complicated for me. It seems that everybody in the world hates this film. I can’t see why. What did they expect? Branagh’s Hamlet?

This is Bond. Car chases, shout-outs, cool technology, fantastic landscapes, a world on the verge of annihilation by evil forces, and like all of Craig’s Bond films, good emotional drama. Great cast as well.

I like it.

Good-bye, and thank you, Daniel Craig. 

4 * of 5

 


Two Lovers

 

Two Lovers 2008

  • Director: James Gray
  • Seen by this director: Ad Astra
  • Based on book: no
  • Cast: Joachin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw, Isabella Rossellini, Moni Moshonov
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Joachin Phoenix – Joker, Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far on Foot, Reservation Road, Walk the Line, Hotel Rwanda, Gladiator, To Die For
    • Gwyneth Paltrow – Mortdecai, Avengers, Contagion, Proof, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Shakespeare in Love, Sliding Doors
    • Isabella Rossellini – something, I’m sure.
  • Why?  Joachin Phoenix
  • Seen:  Once before. Now 24 May 2023 

Leonard (Phoenix) is bi-polar, doesn’t always take his meds, and the film starts with him jumping off the pier. He’s moved back with his parents (Rossellini and Moshonov) and works for his father’s dry-cleaning shop.

He meets Sandra (Shaw.)

He meets Michelle (Paltrow.)

It’s too depressing to be a rom com but it’s still rom and I don’t think any of them should choose any of them. Essentially, it’s just about two-timers. But Phoenix is good as always. 

2 ½ * of 5

 

 


 

 

Under the Domim Tree

 

Under the Domim Tree 1994

  • Director: Eli Cohen
  • Based on book: no
  • Cast: all unknown to me
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • None of them
  • Why?  Possibly interesting
  • Seen:  22 May 2023 

Orphans of the Holocaust live in an Israeli boarding school in the early 50s. Like all teen-agers they argue, sulk, have love dramas and woes, listen to music. Unlike most teen-agers, they long for missing and probably dead parents.

Unfortunately, it’s more like a Disney teen-age melodrama, mainly because of the unsuitable music which clashes merrily with the subject. There are a few dramatic moments but they’re too close to clichés to be convincing. It’s like Pollyanna and The Parent Trap only in Hebrew and without Hayley Mills’s cheekiness to make the sugary parts palatable.

 2 ½ * of 5

 

 

 

22 May 2023

Michael Collins

 

Michael Collins 1996

  • Director: Neal Jordan
  • Seen by this director: Breakfast on Pluto, The Butcher Boy, Interview with the Vampire, The Crying Game, Mona Lisa
  • Based on book: no
  • Cast: Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Julia Roberts, Ian Hart, Alan Rickman, Stephen Rea
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Liam Neeson - The Dark Knight Rises, Widows, Life’s Too Short, Seraphim Falls, Batman Begins, Kingdome of Heaven, Love Actually, Gangs of New York, Star Wars, Les Misérables, Michael Collins, Rob Roy, Nell, Schindler’s List, Ruby Cairo, Excalibur
    • Aidan Quinn – Elle s’appellait Sarah, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, The Exonerated, Music of the Heart, Practical Magic, Looking for Richard, Frankenstein, The Handmaid’s Tale, Desperately Seeking Susan, Benny & Joon
    • Julia Roberts – August Osage County, Fireflies in the Garden, Closer, Moan Lisa’s Smile, Full Frontal, Erin Brockovich, Runaway Bride, Notting Hill, Mary Reilly, The Pelican Brief, Sleeping with the Enemy, Pretty Woman, Steel Magnolias
    • Ian Hart – Breakfast on Pluto, Tristram Shandy, Finding Neverland, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Born Romantic, Longitude, The Butcher Boy, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain
    • Alan Rickman – Eye in the Sky, The Butler, Snow Cake, Harry Potter, Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Love Actually, Galaxy Quest, Dogma, Sense and Sensibility, Robin Hood, The January Man, Die Hard, Romeo and Juliet.
    • Stephen Rea - Utopia, V for Vendetta, Tara Road, Breakfast on Pluto, Till Crazy, Butcher Boy, Fever Pitch, Interview with the Vampire, The Crying Game
  •  Why?  The subject.
  • Seen:  21 May 2023 

The Irish Republic. The IRA.  1916 and onwards. The heroes and villains. Michael Collins (Neeson) is supposedly the hero here.

With the subject and a cast like this the film should be brilliant. Some find it so. Others are disturbed by its historical inaccuracy. My main objection is that it’s mostly a cloak and daggers melodrama with a lot of shooting and an unnecessary love story. At times it borders on the farcical. It does little, if anything, to clarify the conflict. And – the cardinal sin – it’s boring.

 

2 * of 5

 

 


New York Waiting

 

New York Waiting 2006

  • Director: Joachim Hedén
  • Based on book: no
  • Cast: Christopher Stewart, Annie Woods, Katrina Nelson
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • None of them
  • Why?  Swedish director.
  • Seen:  19 May 2023 

Supposedly this is a love story, but I don’t really get it. A guy (Stewart) is trying to reconnect with the love of his life (Nelson) in NY but connects up instead with a bird (Woods) who has just left her sleazy boyfriend…

Not a great premise. It got good reviews and some awards, but it does nothing for me. The dialog is worthless, the story goes nowhere, the acting is lacklustre, and I’m bored.

 

2 * of 5

 

 

 

The Addiction

 

The Addiction 1995

  • Director: Abel Ferrara
  • Seen by this director: The Visitor, Station Agent
  • Based on the book: no
  • Cast: Lily Taylor, Christopher Walken, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Lily Taylor – Maze Runner, The Conjuring, Public Enemies, Six Feet Under, High Fidelity, A Slipping- Down Life, I Shot Andy Warhol, Arizona Dream, Born on the Fourth of July
    • Christopher Walken – Jersey Boys, Romance & Cigarettes, Catch Me If You Can, Suicide Kings, Pulp Fiction, True Romance, Sarah Plain and Tall, Deer Hunter
    • Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie, Then She Found Me, The Sopranos, Cop Land, Trust
    • Michael Imperioli – The Sopranos
  • Why? I mixed it up with another film.
  • Seen: 18 May 2023 

Oh no, not another vampire film ?!?!

Yapp.  Philosophy doctoral student Cathy (Taylor) is bitten by a vampire in a back alley in NY and starts craving human blood herself. But there the similarities to other vampire films end. For one thing, it’s in black and white, which I always like. There are a lot of discussions about philosophy, morality, evil, free will. The parallels with drug addiction, war and lust are clear.

And the Christopher Walken shows up.

It’s the weirdest vampire film I’ve seen (is that a weird sentence?) and possibly the best.  

4 * of 5         

 

 

 

 

Birdman

 



Birdman 2014

  • Director: Alejandro G Iñarritu
  • Seen by this director: The Revenant, Babel, 21 Grams
  • Based on the book: no
  • Cast: Michael Keaton, Zack Galifianikis, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Amy Ryan
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Michael Keaton – Jackie Brown, Much Ado About Nothing, Beetlejuice 
    • Edward Norton – Moonrise Kingdom, The Invention of Lying, Kingdom of Heaven, Frida, Fight Club, American History X
    • Emma Stone – Zombieland 1&2, The Favourite, La La Land, The Help, Crazy Stupid Love
    • Naomi Watts – The Glass Castle, The Impossible, Funny Games, King Kong, 21 Grams, Ned Kelly
    • Amy Ryan – The Wire, Dan in Real Life, Gone Baby Gone
  • Why? Sounded good.
  • Seen: 17 May 2023 

Here’s a paradox. I love books and films, but I don’t usually like books and films about authors and actors.

Story: Riggan (Keaton) is a washed-up former super-hero actor who is trying to create some self-esteem by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway adaption of a Raymond Carver story.

It must be said that the acting in this film is brilliant but the film? Yeah, well, it’s a film about actors. It’s kind of boring. I think Imitation Game should have won the Oscar for Best Film.

But for the acting alone 

3* of 5       

  


 

Poetry

 

Poetry 2010

  • Director: Lee Chang-Dong
  • Seen by this director: Burning 
  • Based on the book: no
  • Cast: Yun Jeong-Hie, Lee Da-Wit, Kim Hee-Ra
    • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
  • None of them
  • Why? Good reviews.
  • Seen: 16 May 2023      

       Mi-ja (Jeong-Hie) is 66 years old and raising her grandson Wook (Da-Wit) who she learns is one of a group of boys who gang raped a classmate, leading to her suicide. She has no money and is diagnosed with Alzheimer.

       Her only wish now is to write a poem. She searches for beauty, for words, and she carries on.

       The film is contemplative, melancholy, and slow. It deals quietly with the pain of life. It’s interesting but I’m not as lyrical over it as the professional critics. I just can’t feel deeply for Mi-ja. 

3* of 5

 

 

Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire 1994

  • Director: Neil Jordan
  • Seen by this director: Breakfast on Pluto, The Butcher Boy, The Crying Game, Mona Lisa
  • Based on the novel by Anne Rice
  • Cast: Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, Thandiwe Newton, Stephen Rea
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Brad PittAd Astra, Once upon a Time in Hollywood, World War Z, The Tree of Life, Inglourious Basterds, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, Babel, Troy, confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Friends, The Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Meet Joe Black, Twelve Monkeys, Seven, True Romance, Thelma and Louise
    • Tom Cruise - Edge of Tomorrow, Oblivion, Valkyria, War of the Worlds, A Few Good Men, Rain Man, Cocktail
    • Kirsten DunstUpside Down, Hidden Figures, Melancholia, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mona Lisa’s Smile, Levity, Virgin Suicides, Little Women
    • Antonio Banderos – Once upon a Time in Mexico. Frida, Evita, Philadelphia
    • Christian SlaterThe Power of Few, Bobby, True Romance, Star Trek the Undiscovered Country, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
    • Thandiwe Newton – 2012, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, The Chronicles of Riddick, Beloved, Gridlock’d
    • Stephen Rea – Utopia, V for Vendetta, Tara Road, Breakfast on Pluto, Till Crazy, Butcher Boy, Fever Pitch, Michael Collins, The Crying Game
  • Why? I remember it as interesting. 
  • Seen: Once before. Now 15 May 2023      

       Zombies are best but some vampires are cool. Spike. Dracula. Nosferatu. Mitchell and Hal.

       Louis (Pitt) is telling his story to the interviewer (Slater) of his non-life as a vampire. Two hundred or so years ago he was made a vampire by Lestat (Cruise) who is evil and loves killing. Poor Louis hates killing, hates himself.

       Cruise was a controversial choice to play Lestat and I agree with the nay-sayers. He can be a decent actor, for example in Born on the Fourth of July, but a vampire he ain’t. Pitt makes a good melancholy sad-eyed vampire but by far the best is 12-year-old Dunst as Claudia, a fierce precocious child vampire.

       The story is mostly quite boring with only a few moments of drama. See my list of favourite vampires above. They are all more interesting. 

 2 ½ * of 5    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 May 2023

Spotlight

 



Spotlight 2015

  • Director: Tom McCarthy
  • Seen by this director: The Visitor, Station Agent
  • Based on the book: no
  • Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Brian D’Arcy James, Stanley Tucci, James Sheridan, Billy Crudup
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Mark Ruffalo – a Now You See Me, The Kids Are All Right, Reservation Road, Zodiac, Rumour Has It, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, My Life without Me
    • Michael Keaton – Jackie Brown, Much Ado About Nothing, Beetlejuice 
    • Rachel McAdams – Doctor Strange, About Time, Sherlock Holmes 1&2, Slings and Arrows
    • Liev Schreiber – The Fifth Wave, The Butler, Mental, Repo Man, Taking Woodstock, X-Men, Defiance, Kate & Leopold, Hamlet, Sphere
    • John Slattery – Antman, Mad Men, Reservation Road, Mona Lisa’s Smile, Station Agent
    • Stanley Tucci – The Children’s Act, The Hunger Games, Fortitude, Jack the Giant Slayer, Swing Vote, Road to Perdition, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Life Less Ordinary, Life During Wartime, The Pelican Brief, Billy Bathgate
    • James Sheridan – Sully, Cradle Will Rock, The Ice Storm, Stanley and Iris
    • Billy Crudup – Public Enemies, Big Fish, Almost Famous
  • Why? Sounded good.
  • Seen: 14 May 2023 

An investigative team for The Boston Globe called Spotlight are delving deeply into allegations against Catholic priests of sexual abuse of children.

True story. You might remember it.

The film moves quickly, presenting one complication after another as the church fights back and newspaper bosses are sceptical to the story.

I don’t usually like newspaper scandal scoops but this one has excellent actors and I really really don’t like organised religion so this one has great merit.

 

4 * of 5         

 

 

 

Rise of the Zombies

 



Rise of the Zombies 2012

  • Director: Nick Lon
  • Based on the book: no
  • Cast: Mariel Hemingway, Ethan Supplee, LeVar Burton, Danny Trejo, Heather Hemmens, French Stewart, Chad Lindberg
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • LeVar Burn – a Star Trek or two  
    • Danny Trejo – something I’m sure 
    • French Stewart – Third Rock from the Sun
  • Why? Zombies, of course!
  • Seen: 12 May 2023

San Francisco. Zombies. Research. Fleeing. Blood and gore. It’s bad, of course. Did anybody expect a masterpiece? But who cares? As a zombie freak, it’s my obligation to like it. And I do.

For such a bad film, it’s sort of…not bad. 

2 ½ * of 5         

 

 

The Art of Getting By

 



The Art of Getting By 2011

  • Director: Gavin Weisen
  • Based on books by Lewis Carroll
  • Cast: Freddy Highmore, Emma Roberts, Michael Angarano, Marcus Carl Franklin, Ann Dowd, Alicia Silverstone
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Freddy Highmore – Toast, A Good Year, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland
    • Michael Angarano – Dear Wendy, Seabiscuit, Almost Famous
    • Marcus Carl Franklin - Be Kind Rewind
    • Ann Dowd – The Leftovers
    • Alicia Silverstone  –  The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Clueless
  • Why? Possibly fun
  • Seen: 4 May 2023

George (Highmore) doesn’t see the point since everyone dies anyway. So he doesn’t do his homework. He mouths off, politely of course, to his teachers. He doesn’t care. About anything. Ever. Until he meets Sally (Roberts).

This is really boring. Just another American rich kid high school film only in New York instead of California.

Highmore is cute as always, but Roberts is charmless and annoying.

Pretentious codswallop. 

2* of 5         

 


 

 

Alice Through the Looking Glass

 Alice through the Looking Glass 2016

  • o  Director: James Bobin
  • o   Seen by this director: Flight of the Conchords 
  • o   Based on books by Lewis Carroll
  • o   Cast: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Sacha Baron Cohen
  • o   Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Johnny Depp -  Nightmare on Elm Street, Platoon, Slow Burn, Cry-Baby, Edward Scissorhands, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Arizona Dream, Benny and Joon, Ed Wood, Don Juan DeMarco, Dead Man, Nick of Time, Donnie Brasco, The Brave, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Astronaut’s Wife, Sleepy Hollow, The Man Who Cried, Chocolat, Blow, From Hell, Lost in La Mancha, Pirates of the Caribbean (all four of them), Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Secret Window, Finding Neverland, Libertine, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Public Enemies, Alice in Wonderland, The Tourist
    • Mia Wasokowska – Jane Eyre, The Kids Are All Right, Defiance
    • Helena Bonham Carter – Les Misérables, Great Expectations, Life’s Too Short, Harry Potter, Toast, The King’s Speech, Alice in Wonderland, Absolutely Fabulous, Enid, Terminator Salvation, Sweeney Todd, Corpse Bride, Conversations with Other Women, Big Fish, Planet of the Apes, Fight Club, Keep the Aspidistras Flying, Twelfth Night, Frankenstein, Howards End, Hamlet, A Room with a View
  • Why? The first one.
  • Seen: 3 May 2023.

Faced with betrayal and disaster, grown up Alice (Wasokowska) flees through the looking glass amd learns that the Mad Hatter (Depp) is madder than ever and needs her help.

Are the actors embarrassed that nearly everyone hates this sequel? Granted, it’s a shallow story but funnily enough I enjoy it despite its flaws. Unlike most other reviewers, I like Dep’s prissy silliness and Bonham Carter’s royal tantrums.

 

2 ½ * of 5