The Rocky Horror Picture Show
A cult film, yes, but is it good?
Not especially.
Lame story, only OK songs, silly characters.
Nope.
2* of 5
Oliver! 1968
This is not a musical I know well, only
having seen it once before. The reviews are mostly glowing and it won an Oscar
for Best Film.
If I remember correctly I wasn’t that
impressed.
So far, only Jack Wild as the Artful
Dodger has any charisma and his ‘Consider Yourself’, the only catchy tune, and
then ‘Anything’ together with Nancy (Wallis) and the altogether too sweet
Oliver (Lester) and hammy Fagin (Moody).
Actually most of them are hammy, even the
usually wonderful Oliver Reed as Bill Sikes. The songs are mostly mediocre and
go on far too long. Oliver has a weak and reedy voice.
Nancy singing ‘As Long As He Needs Me’
after being beaten by her lover Bill loses the film another *.
2 /2* of 5
Je m’appelle
Agneta 2026
Agneta (Melander),
49, loves France though she has never been there. She has worked for twenty
years for the Swedish Traffic Administration when suddenly she loses her job.
She applies for work as au pair for a Swedish boy who lives in Provence, and
gets it. She leaves her doltish husband (Kjellman) and off she goes. Only the
boy is an old homosexual man (Månsson) who doesn’t want an au pair. Of course
they become best friends.
Cosy feel-good but altogether too hammy and clichéd.
2 ½ * of 5
Wuthering
Heights 2026
How many
film versions have I seen? How many times have I read the novel? Who can count?
Margot
Robbie as Cathy? Interesting.
The
reviews are almost unanimously harshly negative and I can agree that there are
problems. First of all, everyone except Robbie and Elodi as Heathcliff, and he’s
too pretty, are miscast. Particularly Latif as Edgar and Clunes as the father.
Great
freedom has been taken with the story, especially the erotic additions, which,
to be honest, lurk throughout the entire novel, albeit far from implicitly.
The
novel’s great and tragic passion is there, though, and the visuals are
spectacular.
Flawed, yes, but quite brilliant.
4* of 5
West Side Story
1961
It’s the
dancing. And the songs, the ones that aren’t love songs, which are too sweet
for me. But ‘America’, ‘Officer Krupke’, ‘Cool’, ‘A Boy Like That’.
And the
Shakespeare, of course.
Sadly the film is badly flawed. Beymer is completely wrong and lifeless as Tony, and though I love Wood dearly, she’s too adorable here, and not convincing. Nor is their love affair. So
5* of 5 for the good stuff and 1* for the bad.
The Outrun 2024
Troubled
by alcoholism and unemployed despite a Master’s in biology, Rona (Ronan) leaves
London and her boyfriend Daynin (Essiedu), who has given up on her, and returns
to her childhood home in Orkney. Her mother (Reeves) is a religious fanatic,
her father (Dillane) is bi-polar.
She
fights the desperate urge to drink, and the urge to return to London.
It’s as
much a nature documentary on the magnificent Orkney Islands as a gripping
portrait of a woman struggling with addiction. Ronan is, as always,
outstanding.
Do you know what a corncrake is?
4* of 5
The
King and I 1956
Yul
Brynner is such a sweetie. Probably not completely realistic in this role
though it’s based on a true story. The chemistry between Brynner and Kerr is
entertaining. The visuals are lavish, the songs appealing.
Hammy at times but I can’t help but love it a bit.
4* of 5.
