Living

 

Living 2022

• Director: Oliver Humanus
• Based on book: no, but written by Kazuo Ishiguro based on a film by Karosawa
• Cast: Bill Nighy, Aimee Lee Wood, Alex Sharp, Tom Burke, Adrian Rawlins·       
• Why?  Bill Nighy
• Seen: 29 June 2025      

       Straight-laced seemingly humourless bureaucrat Mr Williams (Nighy) is told by his doctor that he has six months to live. After the shock wears off he decides to live. With the help of a frustrated artist (Burke) and a young vibrant ex-employee (Wood) he ventures cautiously out into the world.

       It’s a warm, melancholy, gentle film and Bill Nighy is even lovelier than usual.

 4* of 5

 

 

 

Horrible Bosses

 

Horrible Bosses 2011

• Director: Seth Gordon
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Aniston·       
• Why? Colin Farrell
• Seen: 27 June 2025      

       This is probably as horrible as its title. So why watch it? To see if it gets better? No, it gets worse. There is not a funny frame in the whole film. It’s maybe not the worse film I’ve ever seen but it comes close. 

1* of 5

 

 

Glass Onion

 

Glass Onion 2022

• Director: Rion Johnson  
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monáe·       
• Why? The cast and Knives Out
• Seen: 25 June 2025      

       Super zillionair (Norton) invites a gang of friends for a murder game weekend. The sleuth from Knives Out (Craig) is also there with a sneaky agenda.

       It has fun moments but whodunits are not my thing and it’s too long. 

3* of 5

 

 

 

Infinitely Polar Bear.

 

Infinitely Polar Bear 2014

• Director: Maya Forbes
• Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldaña, Imogene Waladarsky, Ashley Aufderheide·       
• Why? Mark Ruffolo
• Seen: 24 June 2025      

       Cam (Ruffalo) is bipolar. After a serious breakdown and months in a mental hospital he is better and his wife Maggie (Saldanña), desperate for money, has been accepted into business school in New York. Cam needs routine and responsibility and they agree that he will move into their flat in Boston to raise their two daughters.

       It doesn’t go well. And then, of course, it does. It’s a feel-good film. 

3* of 5

 

 

Ambulancen

 

Ambulansen 2005

• Director: Laurits Munch-Petersen
• Cast: Paw Henriksen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Helle Fagralid·       
• Why? I enjoyed the American re-make.
• Seen:  21 June 2025      

       Two Danish brothers rob a bank and escape in an ambulance. Only there’s a passenger and nurse in the back.

       More a farce than a drama and surprisingly not as good as the American re-make, which I gave 3*, mostly because Jake Gyllenhaal lifted it. These Danish actors don’t. A disappointment. 

2* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mudbound

 

Mudbound 2017

• Director: Dee Rees
• Based on the novel by Hilary Jordan
• Cast: Jason Mitchell, Carey Mulligan, Jason Clark, Mary J Blige, Rob Morgan, Garrett Hedlund, Jonathan Banks·       
• Why? The book.
• Seen:  19 June 2025      

       Two families, one white and one black, on adjacent farms in Mississippi in the 40s. The white family know nothing of farming but own the land. The black family has farmed the land for generations but don’t own it. Both families struggle. The racism is deep and devastating but shared war trauma draws white Jamie (Hedlund) and black Ronsel (Mitchell) into friendship, and white farmwife Laura (Mulligan) and black farmwife Florence (Blige) share hardships and mutual dependency.

       It’s strong and well-made but depressing. 

4* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

 

Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977

• Director: Stephen Spielberg
• Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Cary Guffey·       
• Why? Maybe better this time?
• Seen:  Twice before. Now 20 June 2025      

       Slow, way too long, irritating family – that’s how I remember it and that’s the way it is this time too.       

Kind of a cool ending, though. 

2* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hallam Foe

 

Hallam Foe 2007

• Director: David Mackenzie
• Cast: Jamie Bell, Ruth Milne, Claire Forlani, Ciarán Hinds·       
• Why? Jamie Bell
• Seen:  Once before Now 18 June 2025      

       Hallam (Bell) spies on people and breaks into places. He’s obsessed with his mother’s suicide. He accuses his dad’s (Hinds) new wife of murdering her.

       He runs off to Glasgow and encounters a woman who looks like his mother. He continues spying.

       Jamie Bell can play anything, even a creepy kid in a creepy psychological thriller. 

3½ * of 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Vanished

 

The Vanished 2020

• Director: Peter Facinelli
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Thomas Jane, Anne Heche, Jason Patric·       
• Why? Possibly interesting
• Seen:  17 June 2025      

       Missing kid, incompetent cops, frantic parents who take things into their own hands. Watchable, but that’s about it. 

2* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

Primal Fear

 

Primal Fear 1996

• Director: Gregory Hoblit
• Based on the novel by William Diehl
• Cast: Richard Gere, Edward Norton, Laura Linney, Frances McDormand, Alfre Woodard, Andre Braugher·      
• Why? Suggested by my FB group Filmnördarna
• Seen:  16 June 2025      

       Young Aaron (Norton) is arrested for killing the archbishop. Hot shot cynical defence lawyer Martin (Gere) takes on the case.

       Trial films are not my thing and this isn’t very interesting but the actors are good and they do their job, especially young Norton in his first film role. 

3* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

News of the World

 

News of the World 2020

• Director: Paul Greengrass
• Based on the novel by Paulette Jiles
• Cast: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel·       
• Why? The book
• Seen:  14 June 2025      

       Civil War veteran Captain Kidd (Hanks) travels around reading newspaper articles to communities in Texas. He encounters a white girl Johanna (Zengel) who has been been raised by the Kiowa but who has been left alone when her family is murdered by whites and the tribe banished from their land. She is to be brought to an aunt and uncle but there is nobody who will do it. Reluctantly he does. She is frightened and all she wants is to return to the Kiowas.

I liked the book a lot. The film does a decent adaption. 

3½ * of 5

 

 

 

 

Another Earth

 

Another Earth 2011

• Director: Mike Cahill
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Brit Marling, William Mapother·       
• Why? Sci fi
• Seen: 13 June 2025      

       A planet remarkably like Earth has been discovered. Meanwhile Rhoda (Marling) is released from prison where she has served time for vehicular manslaughter while drunk, in which a woman and child died. She discovers that the husband John (Mapother) has now come out of his long coma. She seeks him out but doesn’t dare to reveal who she is. He is a wreck.

A most unusual sci fi film. More a study of grief and guilt with a cosmic background, a parallel universe?

An unexpected existential gem. 

4* of 5

 

 

Rent update June 2025

 

Rent 2005 update 12 June 2025

• Director: Chris Columbus
• Seen by this director: Harry Potter and the Chambre of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Rosario Dawson, Jesse L Martin, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Idina Menzel, Tracie Thoms, Taye Diggs
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Anthony Rapp – A Beautiful Mind, Six Degrees of Separation
• Adam Pascal – School of Rock
• Rosario Dawson – Jessica Jones
• Wilson Jermaine Heredia – Flawless
• Adam Beach – Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Smoke Signals

·       Why? Came on a double DVD with Across the Universe

• Seen:  Once before. Now 25 September 2020

      

       A group of young musicians, actors, filmers and other cultural workers in a NY slum struggle against eviction, drugs and AIDS. Loosely based on La Bohème it portrays poverty, illness and creativity in the form of a rock opera.

       There are echoes of Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair without coming close to their power. The story has its heart in the right place, but the acting and singing aren’t more than adequate. It seems too long. I remember it as better than this.

 

2 ½ * of 5

 

https://rubyjandsfilmblog.blogspot.com/2020/09/rent.html

 

Update 12 June 2025

Why 2 ½*? It’s hard to pinpoint what’s lacking. One problem is that the two roommates Mark (Rapp) and Roger (Pascal) are completely bland in their roles, and none of the actors is really convincing. Some of the songs and lyrics are clumsy. Some work well, though, and there are gripping moments. Third time a charm? Or better understanding after Tick Tick?

 

3* of 5

Tick Tick...Boom

 

Tick Tick…Boom 2021

• Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda
• Cast: Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Skipp, Robin de Jesus, Vanessa Hudgens, Joshua Henry
• Why? Andrew Garfield
• Seen: 10 June 2025 and again the next day 11 June 2025     

 

Jonathan Larson wrote the Broadway super-hit Rent then died. This is a biopic film based on the play he wrote before Rent, in which he tells about a rock opera he wrote that never quite made it.

Andrew Garfield is a magnificent Spider-Man. He is also a magnificent singer.

It’s very much a theatre piece about a theatre piece, which doesn’t always work, only this works.

 

5* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tommy

 

Tommy 1975

• Director: Ken Russell
• Cast: Roger Daltrey, Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Tina Turner
• Why? A classic
• Seen: Two or three times before. Now 8 June 2025              

 If you want to analyse symbols it’s all about blind faith, commercialised religion, traumatised salvation and all that. If you’d rather just see it as a rock opera extravaganza with mostly mediocre music and idiotic lyrics with lots of colour and flash, that’s OK too. Or maybe just a pretentious self-indulgent acid trip. Or a brilliant break-through in innovative rock music and film making. Or all of the above. Or none of the above. Whatever. You should probably see it, even though it goes on far too long and loses focus, if it ever had any. Because it’s quite often entertaining between the boring parts

 

3* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Straw

 

Straw 2025

• Director: Tyler Perry
• Cast: Taraji P Henson, Sherri Shepherd, Teyana Taylor, Ashley Verser
• Why? Recommended by friend AJ
• Seen: 7 June 2025

 Janiyah (Henson) is a single mother with a sick daughter, a rotten job, a nasty boss, a nasty landlady, trouble at her daughter’s school, trouble with the social services. She is fired, evicted, harassed by a white male cop.

Then there is a robbery and the film starts having a Dog Day Afternoon feeling. It’s very dramatic, a bit too melodramatic and hammy at times, but Henson gives a sterling performance.

 

4* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trap

 

Trap 2024

• Director: M Night Shyamalan
• Cast: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donaghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Alison Pill, Hayley Mills, Jonathan Langdon
• Why? M Night Shyamalan
• Seen: 6 June 2025

 Cooper (Hartnett) takes his young daughter Riley (Donaghue) to a concert with the popular Lady Raven) (Shyamalan). We soon learn that something weird is going on. The place is crawling with cops, there to capture a serial killer called the Butcher.

Never mind that the story is ridiculous, though rather clever, and different from anything else Shyamalan has done. It’s entertaining and quite suspenseful.

 

3* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Unforgivable

 

The Unforgivable 2021

• Director: Nora Fingscheidt
• Cast: Sandra Bullock, Viola Davis, Vincent D’Onofrio, John Bernthal, Richard Thomas, Linda Emond, Aisling Franciosi, Emma Nelson, Will Pullen
• Why? Sandra Bullock
• Seen: 5 June 2025

 Ruth (Bullock) is released from prison after serving years for killing a cop. Life outside is difficult. She searches for her little sister as the sons of the dead cop seek revenge. The film is grim, Bullock is outstanding but the film is a bit of a mish-mash, trying to cram the original British series into one film.

 

3½ * of 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Harbor

 

Dark Harbor 1998

• Director: Adam Coleman Howard
• Cast: Alan Rickman, Polly Walker, Norman Reedus
• Why? Alan Rickman
• Seen: 3 June 2025

 Quarrelling couple Alexis (Walker) and David (Rickman) encounter a mysterious young man (Reedus). Psychological thriller. Though made in 1998 it has the feel of an 80s, or even 60s, film. It’s creepy, but mostly weird. I’m bored. But of course Rickman is good.

 

2* of 5