Mrs Henderson Presents

 

Mrs Henderson Presents 2005

• Director: Stephen Frears
• Seen by this director: Victoria & Abdul, Philomena, The Queen, Dirty Pretty Things, High Fidelity, The Van, Mary Reilly, Hero, The Grifters, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Prick Up Your Ears, My Beautiful Laundromat
• Based on the book by Sheila Van Damm
• Cast: Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Will Young, Christopher Guest, Kelly Reilly, Thelma Barlow, Toby Jones
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Judi Dench – Victoria and Abdul, The Hollow Crown, Spectre, Hotel Marigold 2, Vicious, Philomena, Hotel Marigold, My Week with Marilyn, Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides, Jane Eyre, Cranford, Nine, Quantum of Silence, Notes on a Scandal, Casino Royale, Ladies in Lavender, Die Another Day, The Shipping News, Chocolat, The World is Not Enough, Tea with Mussolini, Shakespeare in Love, Tomorrow Never Dies, Mrs Brown, Hamlet, Golden Eye, Middlemarch, Henry V, A Handful of Dust, A Room with a View, Macbeth
• Bob Hoskins – Doomsday, Paris je t’aime, Last Orders, David Copperfield, Felicia’s Journey, Hook, Mona Lisa, Brazil, Othello, Rock Follies
• Christopher Guest – The Invention of Lying, A Might Wind, Waiting for Guffman, Spinal Tap
• Kelly Reilly – Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows, Sherlock Holmes, The Libertine, Last Orders
• Thelma Barlow – Doctor Who, David Copperfield
• Toby Jones - The Man Who Knew Infinity, Hunger Games, Snow White and the Huntsman, My Week with Marilyn, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Doctor Who, Creation, Frost/Nixon, The Mist, Amazing Grace, Infamous, Finding Neverland, Ladies in Lavender, Hotel Splendide, Ever After, Les Misérables, Naked, Orlando
• Why? Dench
• Seen:  Once before. Now 25 October 2020      

       London, 1937. Newly widowed Mrs Henderson (Dench) is told by her friend (Barlow) that widows have hobbies like embroidery, do charity, take lovers, buy things.

       She buys a closed-down theatre. It needs renovation and a manager. She hires the unemployed, brilliant and opinionated Vivian Van Damm (Hoskins). Mrs Henderson herself is completely ignorant of the theatre, filled with the snobbish prejudices of her class, filthy rich, impulsive. And opinionated.

       The theatre is a great success because they provide nude tableaus behind the revues.

       Much of the film is an amusing trifle. It turns serious but it tries to end as a feel-good. Pleasant entertainment, based on a true story.

 3 * of 5 (Hal gives it 4.)

 

Gambit

 

Gambit 1966

• Director: Ronald Neame
• Seen by this director: The Poseidon Adventure, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
• Based on the novel: No.
• Cast: Michael Caine, Shirley MacLaine, Herbert Lom, John Abbot
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Michael Caine – Interstellar, Batman x 3, Inception, Harry Brown, Flawless, Flawless, Children of Men, Last Orders, The Cider House Rules, Little Voice, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sleuth 1972, Educating Rita, Alfie
• Shirley MacLaine – Downton Abbey, Rumour Has It, In Her Shoes, Defending Your Life, Guarding Tess, Postcards from the Edge, Steel Magnolias, Terms of Endearment, Sweet Charity, The Yellow Rolls Royce, Around the World in 80 Days, The Trouble with Harry
• Herbert Lom – The Pink Panther etc, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, El Cid, Spartacus, Third Man on the Mountain
• John Abbott – various series from the 60s
• Why? Caine and MacLaine
• Seen: Once before when it came out. Now 24 October 2020      

       ‘You’re a clever girl, and I love you.’ I’ve remembered that line all these years. Caine is playing Harry who is planning a heist to steal a priceless sculpture. The clever girl is Nicola (MacLaine), a nightclub dancer who, for a very good reason, is helping him. I also remember when Harry asks, ‘Do I look like a crook?’ and she smiles mischievously and said, ‘You do, a little.’

       She is indeed clever, as is the film. MacLaine does what she does best – the streetwise, sharp-witted showgirl – and Caine does what he does best – the cheeky upstart Cockney who isn’t nearly as clever as he thinks he is.

       I’m enjoying this as much as I did the first time. I’m not a great fan of heist films, and this is after all just a heist film, but MacLaine and Caine raise it to

 4* of 5

 

The Congress

 

The Congress 2013

• Director: Ari Folman
• Also seen by this director: Waltz with Bashir
• Based on a book by Stanislaw Lem
• Cast: Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel, Sami Gayle, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Danny Huston, Paul Giamatti, John Hamm (voice only)
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Robin Wright – Blade Runner 2049, Wonder Woman, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Breaking and Entering, White Oleander, The Pledge, How to Kill Your Neighbour’s Dog, Forrest Gump
• Harvey Keitel – Moonrise Kingdom, Be Cool, Lulu on the Bridge, Copland, Get Shorty, Clockers, Smoke, The Piano, Sister Act, Reservoir Dogs, Thelma and Louise, The January Man, The Last Temptation of Christ, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
• Sami Gayle – Detachment
• Kodi Smit-McPhee – X Men Apocalypse, The Road
• Danny Huston – Wonder Woman, Robin Hood, Children of Men, The Constant Gardener, The Aviator, 21 Grams
• Paul Giamatti – The Last Station, Sideways, Cradle Will Rock, Donnie Brasco  
• Why? Sci fi, sounded interesting
• Seen: 23 October 2020      

       Robin Wright (Wright) is a 44-year-old former washed up star actor, with neuroses, two children and a studio, Miramount, who is sick and tired of her failures and family crises. Her agent Al (Keitel) tells her that the studio is giving her one last chance. They want to scan her and own her entire image with which to do what they wish. She refuses but….

       It’s a good film up to that point but the second half, twenty years later when Robin is invited to a congress in which the venue and all the participants are animated, the film falls apart.

       It teeters back and forth between intelligent, intriguing, innovative, political, existential and weird (not in a good way), pretentious, self-indulgent and boring. And back again. Or all of it at once.

       I don’t know what to think. I really don’t. Somewhere between 1* and 5* so I guess that makes it

 

3* of 5 (Hal says 4-4½*.)

 

Arés

 

Arés 2016

• Director: Jean-Patrick Benes
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: Ola Rapace, Micha Lescot, Thierry Hancisse, Ruth Vegas Fernandez, Eva Lallier
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Ola Rapace – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Skyfall, Svinalängorna, Tusenbröder, Tillsammans
• Ruth Vegas Fernandez – Upp till kamp
• Why? Ola Rapace
• Seen: 18 October 2020      

       Paris 2035. Fifteen million unemployed and countless living on the street. Corporations own France and the people whose bodies they purchase, and often kill, for experiments.

       Reda Arés (Rapace) was a successful fighter until ten years ago when an experimental but completely legal steroid gave him a stroke. Now he’s a cynical loser with a sister and niece active in the underground movement fighting against the corporations.

       He’s set up for a new powerful drug. He can’t refuse because his sister has been arrested on trumped up charges and his two nieces are in danger.

       It’s been called a French Blade Runner.

       It’s much better. It’s an intelligent political humanistic dystopia and beautifully filmed.

 4* of 5

 PS I had no idea that Swedish Rapace could speak such good French but according to IMDb he’s studied at university in France.

Pulp Fiction

 Pulp Fiction

• Director: Quentin Tarantino
• Also seen by this director: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Django Unchained, Inglourius Basterds, Kill Bill 1&2, Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: Samuel L Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Ving Rhames, Bronagh Ghallager, Roseanna Arquette, Eric Stoltz, Steve Buscemi, Cristopher Walken, Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• 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
• John Travolta – Be Cool, The Love Song of Bobby Long, The Thin Red Line, Face/Off, Get Shorty, Urban Cowboy, Grease, Saturday Night Fever
• Uma Thurman – Be Cool, Kill Bill 1&2, Hysterical Blindness, Les Misérables, Gattaca, Beautiful Girls,
• Bruce Willis – Looper, Moonrise Kingdom, Friends, The Siege, Armageddon, The Fifth Element, The Twelve Monkeys, Billy Bathgate, In Country, Die Hard
• Tim Roth – The Liability, To Kill a King, Gridlock’d, Rob Roy, Reservoir Dogs, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
• Amanda Plummer – The Hunger Games Catching Fire, My Life without Me, Dead Girl, Fisher King, Joe and the Volcano, Daniel, The World According to Garp
• Ving Rhames – Dawn of the Dead, Bringing Out the Dead
• Bronagh Ghallager – The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Last Chance Harvey, Tara Road, Star Wars I, Mary Reilly, The Commitments
• Roseanna Arquette – Le Grand Bleu, After Hours, Silverado, Desperately Seeking Susan, The Aviator
• Eric Stoltz - Rob Roy, Little Women, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
• Steve Buscemi – Paris je t’aime, The Sopranos, Romance & Cigarettes, Big Fish, 28 Days, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, Dead Man, Living in Oblivion, Reservoir Dogs, Billy Bathgate, Barton Fink, Miller’s Crossing, Mystery Train
• Christopher Walken – Nine Lives, Jersey Boys, Romance & Cigarettes, Catch Me If You Can, Sleepy Hollow, Blast from the Past, Suicide King, Nick of Time, The Addiction, True Romance, Sarah Plain and Tall, Deer Hunter
• Quentin Tarantino – mostly small roles in his own films
• Harvey Keitel – Moonrise Kingdom, Be Cool, Lulu on the Bridge, Copland, Get Shorty, Clockers, Smoke, The Piano, Sister Act, Reservoir Dogs, Thelma and Louise, The January Man, The Last Temptation of Christ, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
•  Why? Tarantino and cast and film itself
• Seen: 26 September 2020      

       This is such a classic that the whole thing is iconic. Oddly, I don’t remember the stories about the petty robbers, drugs lords, hit men, coke-head, spaced-out, multi-pierced wives but some scenes, some close-ups of this incredible cast – is that Steve Buscemi as Buddy Holly? We had not yet seen him in anything when we saw Pulp Fiction – some settings and the Jackson-Travolta exchanges are forever etched in my memory.

       However. Between the many highlights it almost lags a little. And the flashbacks and flashforwards are a bit too wibbly wobbly timey wimey to really keep up. Having recently seen Django Unchained it’s clear that this is a less polished product.

       But, oh, what a milestone in film history!

 4½ * of 5 (Hal says 5.)

 

The Favourite

 

The Favourite 2018

• Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
• Seen by this director: Dogtooth
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, Mark Gatiss, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Olivia Colman – Murder on the Orient Express, Broadchurch, The Night Manager, The Thirteenth Tale, I Give It a Year, Tyrannosaur, Doctor Who, Hot Fuzz, Much Ado about Nothing Re-told, Black Books, The Office
• Rachel Weisz – The Deep Blue Sea, The Fountain, The Constant Gardener, About a Boy, Sunshine
• Emma Stone – La La Land, The Help
• Mark Gatiss – Doctor Who, Sherlock, Absolutely Fabulous the Movie, London Spy, Victor Frankenstein, Wolf Hall, Starter for 10, Bright Young Things
• Nicholas Hoult – X Men etc, Mad Max Fury Road, Jack the Giant Slayer, Wah-Wah, About a Boy, Intimate Relations
• Joe Alwyn – The Magic Flute, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Karaoke, Takin’ over the Asylum
• Why? Olivia Colman
• Seen: 16 October 2020      

       The early 18^th century is not my favourite period in English (or European) history. All those hideous wigs, all that outrageous gaudiness and luxury amidst dreadful poverty, all those stupid wars.

       Queen Anne (Colman) is a neurotic, spoiled, ailing and pathetic tyrant. Lady Marlborough (Weisz) is her acerbic but devoted confidante and lover. Enter Lady Marlborough’s poor cousin Abigail (Stone) who connives to restore her lost aristocratic status, starting as a skivvy in the palace.

       Political and romantic intrigues abound. The complex relationship between the three women is fascinating. No wonder Colman won an Oscar, Weisz could well have too, and it’s Stone’s strongest performance so far.

       Most unpleasant characters. A riveting but most unpleasant film. And so very well done.

 

4 ½* of 5

 

 

The Goldrush

 

The Gold Rush 1925

• Director: Charles Chaplin
• Seen by this director: The Kid, The Woman in Paris
• Based on the novel: no.
• Cast: Laurence Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, Malcom Waite, Gloria Hale
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Charles Chaplin – The Kid, The Woman in Paris and bits of many others.
• Why? Chaplin
• Seen: 11 October 2020      

       The Little Tramp (Chaplin) slapsticks his way through blizzards and mountains in Alaska, prospecting for gold in his bowler hat, baggy trousers, oversized shoes, little moustache and black eyeliner. Originally a silent film, Chaplin himself wrote a script and narrated this updated version.

       It’s full of laugh-out-loud moments with both drama and sweet romance. It’s black and white, which I love, and this is the film with the dancing rolls which Johnny Depp borrowed for Benny and Joon.

       Chaplin deserves his reputation and a humanist and film genius. 

5* of 5

 

Babel

 

Babel 2006

• Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
• Seen by this director: 21 Grams
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Mohamed Akhzam, Boubker Ait El Caid, Said Tarchani, Mustafa Rachidi, Adriana Barraza, Elle Fanning, Nathan Gamble, Gael Gárcia Benal, Rinko Kikuchi, Kôchi Yakusho, Harriet Walter, Michael Maloney
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Brad Pitt – World War Z, The Tree of Life, Inglourious Basterds, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, Troy, confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Friends, The Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Meet Joe Black, Twelve Monkeys, Seven, True Romance, Thelma and Louise
• Cate Blanchett – The House with Clocks in Its Walls, Cinderella, The Hobbit etc, Hanna, Robin Hood, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Elizabeth the Golden Age, Elizabeth, I’m Not There, Notes on a Scandal, Little Fish, The Aviator, The Shipping News, The Gift, The Man Who Cried
• Adriana Barraza – Cake
• Elle Fanning – Ginger & Rosa, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Taken, I Am Sam
• Nathan Gamble – The Hole, The Dark Knight, The Mist
• Rinko Kikuchi – Pacific Rim, Norwegian Wood
• Harriet Walter – Star Wars the Force Awakens, London Spy, Downton Abbey, Hollow Crown, From Time to Time, Young Victoria, Atonement, Bright Young Things, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Sense and Sensibility
• Michael Maloney – River, Utopia, Summer in February, Young Victoria, Bonekickers, Notes on a Scandal, Hamlet, Othello, In the Bleak Midwinter, Hamlet, Henry V
• Why? Good cast. Good film.
• Seen: Once before. Now 10 October 2020

             Four stories. Richard (Pitt) and Susan (Blanchett) are having marital troubles. On a coach outing through Morocco Susan is shot by accident by two young goatherders (El Caid and Tarchani) whose father (Rachidi) has just bought them a rifle to shoot hyenas.

       Emilia (Barraza), Richard and Susan’s housekeeper/nanny, can’t find anyone to take care of the children (Fanning and Gamble) so she takes them to her son’s wedding across the border in Mexico.

       In Japan, an emotionally disturbed deaf girl Chieko (Kikuchi) has lost her mother and feels neglected by her father (Yakusho).

       Such fragile and tragic threads tie these characters together around the globe. Such destructive consequences from such small seemingly harmless decisions. Such a powerful film.

 5* of 5

 

 

 

 

Keeping Mum

 

Keeping Mum

• Director: Niall Johnson
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Rowan Atkinson, Patrick Swayze, Tamsin Egerton, Toby Parkes, Liz Smith, Emilia Fox
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Maggie Smith – Downton Abbey, Harry Potter, The Lady in the Van, Hotel Marigold 1&2, My Old Lady, Quartet, From Time to Time, Becoming Jane, Ladies in Lavender, Gosford Park, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Gosford Park, David Copperfield, Tea with Mussolini, The First Wives Club, Richard III, The Sister Act 1&2, A Room with a View, The Quartet, Oh What a Lovely War, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
• Kristin Scott Thomas – My Old Lady, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Contre toi, Elle s’appelait Sarah, Nowhere Boy, The Other Boleyn Girl, Il y a longtemps que je t’aime, Keeping Mum, Man to Man, The English Patient, Richard III, A Handful of Dust
• Rowan Atkinson - Mr Bean’s Holiday, Johnny English Reborn, Johnny English, Love Actually, Black Adder, Mr Bean, Four Weddings and a Funeral
• Patrick Swayze – Donnie Darko, Ghost, Dirty Dancing
• Tamsin Egerton – Kick Ass Girls 2 St Trinian’s, Driving Lessons
• Liz Smith – The Magic Flute, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Karaoke, Takin’ over the Asylum
• Emilia Fox - Merlin, The Pianist
• Why? Maggie Smith
• Seen: Once before. Now 9 October 2020      

       Forty some years ago sweet young pregnant Rosemary (Fox) is locked up in a mental hospital for killing her husband and his mistress.

       Today, in Little Wallop, population 57, lives the Goodfellow family: Father (Atkinson), a pastor. Mother (Scott Thomas), exhausted and frustrated. Teenaged daughter (Egerton), growing up fast. Son Petey (Parkes), dealing with bullies. Village life,

       Enter Grace (Smith), the new housekeeper. A murderous Mary Poppins.        

       It’s amusing, clever and entertaining. Smith and Scott Thomas are terrific.

 4* of 5

 

 

 

Clash of the Titans

 

Clash of the Titans

• Director: Desmond Davis
• Seen by this director: The Girl with Green Eyes
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Claire Bloom and others
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Honestly, this film was so bad that these actors must blush with shame at the memory. It’s not even worth listing the great roles they have played.
• Why? The cast!
• Seen: 9 October 2020

             It must be confessed that the Greek gods interest me very little but even they deserve better than this. Whatever possessed these actors to take part in this disaster? Maybe it’s a kid’s film. Whatever. We did not even finish. It is extremely seldom that I give a film such a low rating but here it is:

 0* of 5

The Station Agent

 

The Station Agent 2003

• Director: Tom McCarthy
• Seen by this director: The Visitor
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Williams, Raven Goodwin, John Slattery
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Peter Dinklage – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, X-Men Days of Future Past, Human Nature
• Patricia Clarkson – Maze Runner etc, The Bookshop, Shutter Island, Lars and the Real Girl, Good Night and Good Luck, Six Feet Under, Dogville, Far from Heaven, The Green Mile, Tune in Tomorrow, The Old Man and the Sea
• Bobby Cannavale – Romance & Cigarettes, The Exonerated, Six Feet Under, The Guru
• Michelle Williams – The Greatest Showman, Manchester by the Sea, My Week with Marilyn, Shutter Island, Brokeback Mountain, The United States of Leland, A Thousand Acres
• John Slattery – Madmen, Mona Lisa Smile
• Why? Good film
• Seen: Once before. Now 4 October 2020      

       Train enthusiast Fin (Dinklage) inherits an abandoned train depot in a small town in New Jersey. He moves there, hoping to get away from people and their cruel and thoughtless taunting of his stature. He’s a dwarf. He’s bitter. He only wants to be alone. It’s not to be.

       Joe (Cannavale) runs his dad’s food truck by the railroad tracks. He’s aggressively friendly. Fin is taciturn.

       Artist Octavia (Clarkson) almost runs him down twice with her car and apologises profusely, offering him rides in compensation. He turns her down.

       These three wildly disparate individuals – all socially incompetent in their own ways, find themselves walking the train tracks together, watching trains, talking about trains, eating by the train tracks, chasing trains. Becoming friends.

       It’s an unusual set-up with unusual characters but it’s not really more than a film about friendship. Which is nice. It has its strong moments but it’s also a bit clichéd. It was better the first time.

 3* of 5 (Hal still likes it and gives it 4*.)

 

 

Fences

 

Fences 2016

• Director: Denzel Washington
• Seen by this director: The Great Debaters, Antwone Fisher
• Based on the novel: no, but the play by August Wilson
• Cast: Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, Mykelti Williamson, Saniyya Sidney
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Denzel Washinton – The Book of Eli, Philadelphia, The Great Debaters, Antwone Fisher, The Siege, Devil in a Blue Dress, The Pelican File, Much Ado about Nothing, Malcolm X, Mississippi Masala, Mo’ Better Blues
• Viola Davis – Widows, Ender’s Game, Beautiful Creatures, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Solaris, Antwone Fisher, Far from Heaven, Kate & Leopold
• Stephen McKinley Henderson – Manchester by the Sea, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• Mykelti Williamson – Forrest Gump, Miracle Mile, Hill Street Blues
• Why? The cast
• Seen: 3 October 2020      

       Troy (Washington) is in his 50’s, bitter over racism and the rough life he’s had. He’s a tyrant to his sons, humiliating them repeatedly and withholding even the slightest sign of affection or love. His wife Rose (Davis) tries to soften his rigidity. He repeatedly tells her how much he loves her but is having an affair with another woman.

       It’s a very talky film and it’s clear that it’s based on a stage production, which doesn’t usually bother me. Here it does and the first half of the film, frankly, is boring.

       The second half is more dramatic. Washington gives a solid performance as the damaged, egocentric, unreasonable and unlikeable boor. Davis is magnificent as a woman who realises that she has made mistakes but stands up for them until dignity demands a change.

       Sadly, I just don’t like the film much because I really don’t like the character Troy, and the ending is too sugary for such a realistic film.

 3* of 5 (Hal says 4*.)

Inglourious Basterds

 

Inglourious Basterds 2009

• Director: Quentin Tarantino
• Also seen by this director: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Django Unchained, Inglourius Basterds, Kill Bill 1&2, Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbinder, Diane Kreuger, Daniel Bühl,
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Brad Pitt – Ad Astra, World War Z, The Tree of Life, 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
• Christoph Waltz – Alita Battle Angel, Django Unchained, Spectre, The Zero Theorem, Carnage
• Eli Roth – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Great Gatsby, Inception, Shutter Island, Blood Diamond, The Aviator, Catch Me If You Can, Gangs of New York, Beach, Titanic, Marvin’s Room, Romeo and Juliet, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, This Boy’s Life
• Michael Fassbender – X-Men, Macbeth, Prometheus, Jane Eyre, Fish Tank, Hunger,
• Diane Kreuger – Good-bye Bafana, Copying Beethoven
• Daniel Brühl – Alone in Berlin, Woman in Gold, Ladies in Lavender, Good-bye Lenin
• Why? Tarantino
• Seen: Once before. Now 2 October 2020      

       An SS officer Hans Landa (Waltz) arrives at an isolated farmhouse in occupied France hunting Jews. One of the family hiding there, Shosanna (Laurent) escapes.

       US Lt Aldo Raine (Pitt) is putting together the Basterds, a troop of eight Jewish soldiers, to kill Nazis as cruelly and brutally and torturously as possible. They become feared and hated by the Nazis.

       And then there’s the cinema plot. Tarantino loves to change history. Wouldn’t it be nice?

       It’s Tarantino, and it’s a great film, but it’s not quite Django Unchained which we watched last week (Hal disagrees, likes this one even better). Waltz however is worth a few stars of his own, as evil here as he was beneficent in Django with much the same acting. He got an Oscar for this one too.

 4* of 5 (Hal says 5*)