The Quiet Ones

 

The Quiet Ones 2014

• Director: John Pogue
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Jared Harris, Sam Claflin, Erin Richards, Rory Fleck Byrne, Olivia Cooke
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jared Harris – Fringe, Sherlock Holms Game of Shadows, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Igby Goes Down, How to Kill Your Neighbour’s Dog, Dead Man, Smoke
• Sam Claflin – Adrift, Their Finest, Snow White Hunter’s War, Hunger Games, Pirates of the Caribbean, United, Pillars of the Earth
• Erin Richards – Misfits, Merlin
• Olivia Cooke – Ready Player One
• Why? I don’t know, really.
• Seen: 30 May 2021      

       Oxford 1974. The supernatural. Science. Ghosts. Experiments. Religion. Devils. Documentation. Madness.

       Brian (Claflin) is hired by semi-mad professor Joseph (Harris) to document his on-going experiment – coaxing a violent poltergeist from mental patient Jane (Cooke) to contain it. Joseph is convinced it’s just madness, and when he succeeds he will have found the cure for all humanity’s madness.

       It’s an odd, rather unpleasant film but it’s also a well-crafted and creepy horror film with good actors. 

3* of 5 (Hal says 4.)

 

Dreamgirls

 

Dreamgirls 2006

• Director: Bill Condon
• Cast: Beyoncé, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover, Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose, Keith Robinson, Sharon Leal, John Lithgow
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Beyoncé – Cadillac Records
• Jamie Foxx – Django Unchained, The Soloist, Ray
• Eddie Murphy – Coming to America, Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places, 48 Hours
• Danny Glover – Be Kind Rewind, Honeydripper, Manderlay, The Royal Tenenbaums, Beloved, Bopha!, Lethal Weapon etc, The Colour Purple, Silverado, Witness, Hill Street Blues
• Keith Robinson – Get on Up
• John Lithgow – Interstellar, Third Rock from the Sun, Twelfth Night, The Pelican Brief, Foot Loose, The World According to Garp
• The subject
• Seen: Once before. Now 29 May 2021      

       This is kind of a fictionalised history of Motown and the Supremes. It’s not a pretty picture but we knew that. The film does not work well as a musical, it would have been so much better as a film about music. Beyoncé is great as is Jamie Foxx. Eddie Murphy is good too and Lithgow is fun in his little role, but I really don’t like Hudson’s type of meandering shrieking power soul ballad and I think Rinko Kikuchi from Babel would have been a better Oscar winner.

       As a film about music in Detroit in the turbulent 60’s it’s good (there could have been more focus on that) but it’s disjointed and tries too hard. 

3* of 5

AI Artificial Intelligence

 

AI Artificial Intelligence 2001

• Director: Stephen Spielberg
• Seen by this director: Ready Player One, BFG, War of the Worlds, Catch Me If You Can, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Schindler’s List, Jaws, Hook, The Colour Purple, ET, Close Contact of the Third Kind, Sugarland Express, The Duel
• Based on a short story by Brian Aldiss and screen story by Ian Watson
• Cast: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O’Connor, Sam Robards, Jake Thomas, William Hurt
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Haley Joel Osment – Pay It Forward, Sixth Sense, Forest Gump
• Jude Law – Black Sea, Sherlock Holmes 1&2, Hugo, Contagion, Repo Men, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Sleuth, Holiday, Breaking and Entering, The Aviator, Closer, Alfie, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Cold Mountain, Road to Perdition, eXistenZ, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Gattaca, Wilde
• William Hurt – Humans, Winter’s Tale, Into the Wild, Lost in Space, The History of Violence, Smoke, The Accidental Tourist
• Why? A classic, sort of. Jude Law.
• Seen: 28 May 2021      

       A future in which robots have become vital and childbirth is strictly controlled.  Professor Hobby (Hurt) invents a child robot who can love (Osment).

       By now we’re used to films and series about robots and love and AI and humanity vs machine. When this was made it was no doubt ground-breaking. Let’s see if it holds up.

       Answer: no.

       There are too many holes in the story and there is altogether too much, ‘Mommy, mommy!’

       The middle third with Jude Law in a kind of homage to Kubrick is pretty good but the first and last thirds are, as noted, way too mommy-kid sugary sweetness and it’s much too long. I don’t understand all the rave reviews. 

2* of 5

 

In Search of the Castaways

 

In Search of the Castaways 1962

• Director: Robert Stevenson
• Seen by this director: Mary Poppins, Darby Gillis and the Little People, Old Yeller
• Based on the novel by Jules Verne
• Cast: Hayley Mills, Maurice Chevalier, George Sanders, Keith Hamshere, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Michael Anderson Jr, Wilfrid Brambell
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Hayley Mills – The Family Way, The Trouble with Angels, The Truth about Spring, The Moon-spinners, The Chalk Garden, Whistle Down the Wind, The Parent Trap, Pollyanna, Tiger Bay
• Maurice Chevalier – Pepe, Gigi
• George Sanders – Various TV series, A Shot in the Dark
• Wilfrid Hyde-White – My Fair Lady
• Michael Anderson Jr – TV series
• Wilfrid Brambell – A Hard Day’s Night
• Why? A childhood favourite.
• Seen: Once before. Now 24 May 2021.      

       Young Mary Grant (a growing up Mills), her little brother Robert (Hamshere) and Professor Paganel (Chevalier) crash a posh party on board ready to sail from Glasgow in 1858. They have found a message in a bottle from the children’s father, a sea captain long disappeared and presumed dead.

       Next stop the Andes, and then a flash flood, and then New Zealand. There’s a few songs, a few exciting moments and very little substance. Jules Verne will be spinning in his grave.

       Still, it was good entertainment for my 12-year-old self and to my surprise also for my considerably older self.

       The ‘you’re all right for a girl’ puppy love and noble/bumbling savage could have been edited out but for a kid’s film from the early 60’s it’s acceptable. 

 2 ½ * of 5

 

White Men Can't Jump

 

White Men Can’t Jump 1992

• Director: Ron Shelton
• Seen by this director: Bull Durham
• Cast: Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, Rosie Perez, Tyra Ferell
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Wesley Snipes – Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues
• Woody Harrelson – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, The Glass Castle, The Hunger Games x 4, 2012, Battle in Seattle, No Country for Old Men, Zombieland, A Scanner Darkly, A Prairie Home Companion, North Country, EdTV, The Thin Red Line
• Rosie Perez – Riding in Cars with Boys, Fearless, Night on Earth, Do the Right Thing
• Tyra Ferell – Jungle Fever, Boyz n the Hood
• Why? A favourite. The cast.
• Seen: Twice before. Now 22 May 2021      

       Billy (Harrelson) has no trouble with self-confidence. He’s the best basketball player on Venice Beach in LA. Sez he. But Sid (Snipes) and everyone else in the world know that white men can’t jump. And besides he’s the best.

       A match made in heaven.

       They set out making money pretending that they can’t play. But who’s hustling who?

       The quick snappy dialog is funny, but it doesn’t ignore racism, sexism and poverty.

       Snipes and Harrelson are great, but the real star is Perez as Billy’s smart and smart-mouth girlfriend Gloria who is going to triumph magnificently on Jeopardy because she’s stuffing herself with more useless facts than anyone in the universe, which she declares in the thickest Brooklyn accent you have ever heard in your life, even if you’re from Brooklyn yourself. She raises an entertaining 3* film to 

4* of 5

 

Head-On (Gegen die wand)

 Gegen die wand (Head-on)

• Director: Fatih Akin
• Based on the book by Fatih Akin
• Cast: Birol Ünel, Katrin Streibeck, Sibel Kelkilli, Meltem Cumbul
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sadly, none of them
• Why? It sounded good.
• Seen: 21 May 2021      

       Cahit (Ünel), a widower, a mean drunk, a coke sniffer, a Turk living in Germany with nothing to live for, crashes his car.

       Sibel, a teenager, oppressed under her Turkish father’s strict code of honour, slits her wrists.

       They both end up under psychiatric care.

       Melodramatically and dramatically, she demands that he marry her. A pretend marriage to escape her father and brother. She just wants to live a little.

       He’s reluctant, even hostile, but somehow it happens.

       Just when you think it’s predictable, it isn’t. There are many twists and turns in this tale of two lost self-destructive people who try to find their way in an alienating world.

       Heavy stuff. And very good. 

4 ½ * of 5

 

Les aventures extraordinaire d'Adèle Blanc Sec

Les aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc Sec 2010

• Director: Luc Besson
• Seen by this director: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Lucy, Jeanne d’Arc, The Fifth Element, Léon, La Femme Nikita, Le grand bleu, Le dernier combat
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Louise Bourgoin, Mathieu Amalric, Gilles Lellouche, Nicolas Giraud
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Louise Bourgoin – The Love Punch
• Mathieu Amalric – Wolf Hall, Quantum of Solace, La Scaphandre et le Papillion
• Why? Luc Besson
• Seen: 16 May 2021      

       This was bought at a nerd conference for 10 Swedish crowns (about 1£). It must be worth it, right? It’s Besson after all.

       Paris, 1911. Flying dinosaurs. Young love.

       Egypt. Intrepid journalist Adèle Blanc Sec is riding a camel in search of archaeological sensations. Mummies and things.

       It’s like I imagine a Saturday matinée to be – adventurous and far-fetched, n’est-ce pas?

       That’s one way of putting it.

       Besson has a most varied repertoire, to be sure, but this is just silly. Can this really be the same director who made Léon and La Femme Nikita?

       Ce n’est pas possible!

       Fortunately, the last half-hour is quite entertaining. The revived mummies are amusing, saving this from being a complete turkey. It's worth 1£ but no more. 

2* of 5

 

Red Joan

 Red Joan 2018

• Director: Trevor Nunn
• Seen by this director: King Lear, Twelfth Night, Lady Jane, Macbeth
• Based on the book by Jennie Rooney
• Cast: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Nina Sosanya, Tereza Srbova, Freddie Gaminara, Tom Hughes, Ben Miles, Stephen Campbell Moore
• 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, Mrs Henderson Presents, 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
• Sophie Cookson – Snow White Huntsman Winter’s War
• Nina Sosanya – Last Tango in Halifax, Hustle, Bonekicker, Doctor Who, Much Ado about Nothing Retold, Manderlay, Love Actually
• Tom Hughes – About Time, Dancing on the Edge, The Hollow Crown
• Ben Miles – The Hollow Crown, Woman in Gold, V for Vendetta, Hustle, Keep the Aspidistra Flying
• Stephen Campbell Moore – The Lady in the Van, Johnny English Reborn, Amazing Grace, Hustle, Bright Young Things
• Why? Judi Dench
• Seen: 15 May 2021      

       A nondescript elderly woman, Mrs Stanley (Dench) is arrested at her modest middle-class home. The charge: espionage.

       In 1938 Joan (Cookson) is studying physics at Cambridge. She becomes friends with the flamboyant Sophie (Srbova) and Leo (Hughes), refugees from Germany, and Jewish. Joan quickly joins them in the communist movement though she doesn’t join the party herself. It is an era of belief in a brighter future and the leading star of the Soviet Union.

       Alternating between the present as Mrs Stanley is plunged into the judicial nightmare of police interrogation and her own memories, and the 40’s, when Joan is recruited into top secret research into developing the atom bomb before the Germans and also to prevent the US from having a monopoly. And her now ex-comrades try to recruit her into sharing the research with British allies, the USSR.

       The moral and political dilemmas are very sticky indeed which leads to a suspenseful and gripping film.

       Unsurprisingly, Dench excels as Red Joan. The whole cast is good. 

4* of 5

 

The Wolf of Wall Street

 

The Wolf of Wall Street 2013

• Director: Martin Scorsese
• Seen by this director: Hugo, Shutter Island, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Bringing Out the Dead, The Last Temptation of Christ, New York New York, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
• Based on the book by Jordan Belfort
• Cast: Leonardo Di Caprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Joanna Lumley
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Leonardo DiCaprio – Once upon a Time in Hollywood, The Great Gatsby, Django Unchained, Inception, Shutter Island, Blood Diamond, The Aviator, Catch Me If You Can, Gangs of New York, Beach, Titanic, Marvin’s Room, Romeo & Juliet, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, This Boy’s Life
• Jonah Hill – Hail Caesar, Django Unchained, The Invention of Lying
• Margot Robbie – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I Tonya, Suicide Squad, About Time
• Matthew McConaughey – The Gentlemen, The Dark Tower, Interstellar, Dallas Buyers Club, The Lincoln Lawyer, EDtv, Amistad
• Kyle Chandler – First Man, Manchester by the Sea, Zero Dark Three, The Day the Earth Stood Still, King Kong
• Rob Reiner – EDtv, First Wives’ Club, Sleepless in Seattle, Misery, Postcards from the Edge, Spinal Tap, All in the Family
• Joanna Lumley – Absolutely Fabulous, Ella Enchanted, Cold Comfort Farm, Shirley Valentine, In Her Majesty’s Secret Service
• Why? Deal with my FB friend JA: if I watch this, though I hate rich creep films, he’ll watch Hair, though he hates musicals. He’s kept his side of the bargain and reports that it wasn’t bad for a musical and the ending was strong.
• Seen: 14 May 2021      

       JA warned me that his girlfriend thought the first five minutes were ‘irritating and strange’.

       She’s so right. Add off-putting.

       Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio) is a trillionaire, a sexist pig, a drug addict, an alcoholic and a thoroughly despicable person.

       That’s the point, I assume.

       OK, I already hate Wall Street and capitalism, so I don’t need this film for that. So let’s just see what I think of the film as a film.

       The question is: is it really like this? If so, it’s even worse than I thought but sadly the film hasn’t started the necessary revolution to destroy this lousy system. If it isn’t like this, then why make such an unpleasant film?

       McConaughey is good as Jordan’s totally sleazy mentor, and the music is good. So not a total flop.

       But, sorry, JA, we very often agree on films, just not this time. Thanks, anyway! It was a fun challenge! 

2* of 5 (Hal was impressed with the filmmaking itself so he says 3* of 5.)

 

 

 

The Idol (Ya tayr el tayer)

 

The Idol  (Ya tayr el tayer) 2015

• Director: Hany Abu-Hassad
• Also seen by this director: The Mountain Between Us
• Based on a book: no
• Cast: Tawfeek Barhom, Qais Attallah, Hiba Attallah, Teya Hussein, Dima Awaweh
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sadly, none of them
• Why? It sounded good.
• Seen: 9 May 2021      

       A young brother Muhammad (Q Attallah) and sister Nour (H Attallah) who live in Gaza are determined to be musicians. He has a voice, she plays the guitar and refuses to act like a girl if it restricts her. They practice, they get gigs, then Nour falls seriously ill. Muhammad tries to earn enough money singing to pay for her treatment.

       Years pass. The occupation of Gaza leads to an ever-worsening situation for the inhabitants. The Strip is in bombed-out ruins. Muhammad is desperate to reach out with his voice and sees Arab Idol as his only chance. But for that he needs a visa and for Palestinians in the Gaza it’s impossible.

       More impossibilities await him.

       It’s based on a true story and it’s tragic, suspenseful, politically charged and excellently performed especially by young Hiba Attallah as Nour. 

5* of 5

 

The Gentlemen

 

The Gentlemen 2019

• Director: Guy Ritchie
• Seen by this director: Sherlock Holmes 1&2
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant, Eddie Marsan, Geraldine Somerville
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Matthew McConaughey – The Dark Tower, Interstellar, Dallas Buyers Club, The Lincoln Lawyer, EDtv, Amistad
• Charlie Hunnam – Pacific Rim, Children of Man, Cold Mountain, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?,
• Michelle Dockery – Downton Abbey, The Hollow Crown, Hanna
• Jeremy Strong – Molly’s Game, Zero Dark Thirty, The Happening
• Colin Farrell – Widows, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Winter’s Tale, Total Recall, Fright Night, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, In Bruges, Intermission, Daredevil
• Hugh Grant – Cloud Atlas, Music and Lyrics, American Dreamz, Love Actually, About a Boy, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Notting Hill, Sense and Sensibility, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Remains of the Day, Impromtu
• Eddie Marsan – Their Finest, River, God’s Pocket, River, Filth, The World’s End, Sherlock Holmes 1&2, Tyrannosaur, Merlin, Heartless, Happy-Go-Lightly, V for Vendetta, Vera Drake, 21 Grams, Gangs of New York
• Geraldine Somerville – Quirke, My Week with Marilyn, Harry Potter, Gosford Park
• Why? Warmly recommended by our dear friend JB
• Seen: 9 May 2021      

       Is that Hugh Grant???? It can’t possibly be!!! Sleazy, vulgar, crooked PI called Fletcher who talks like Ricky Gervais???

       Scarcely recognisable but there it is. Hugh Grant so out of character. And so brilliant. Fletcher has a clever plan for double-crossing everybody in this gang of crooks. Little does he know everybody is double-crossing everybody, so it gets a little complicated.

       I’m waiting for the delectable Colin Farrell. Ah there he is (cringe), wearing a hideous brown plaid track suit and big square glasses, a boxing coach who only does a very little (ahem) gangstering only when it is absolutely inevitable.

       The multiple narrative is so complex and so quick that you can’t let your mind wander for a second. It’s worth it. Intelligent and witty, it’s a great story wonderfully written. The best line is uttered by a most un-Downton Abbey-like Michelle Dockert: ‘There’s fuckery afoot.’

       Thank you, JB, for this must-see-many-times film!

 

5* of 5

 

 

 

Lost in Space

 

Lost in Space 1998

• Director: Stephen Hopkins
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Heather Graham, Lacy Chabert, Jack Johnson, Gary Oldman, Matt LeBlanc, Jared Harris
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• William Hurt – Humans, Winter’s Tale, Into the Wild, The History of Violence, Smoke, The Accidental Tourist
• Mimi Rogers – Mad Men, The X Files
• Heather Graham – Cake, From Hell, Twin Peaks
• Jack Johnson – Jeeves and Wooster
• Gary Oldman – The Space Between Us, The Dark Knight Rises etc, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Harry Potter, The Book of Eli, Rain Fall, Friends, The Fifth Element, Immortal Beloved, Léon, Romeo Is Bleeding, True Romance, Dracula, JFK, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Prick Up Your Ears, Sid and Nancy
• Matt LeBlanc – Friends
• Miranda Richardson – Testament of Youth, Made in Dagenham, Harry Potter, Young Victoria, Paris je t’aime, Gideon’s Daughter, Wah-Wah, Get Carter, Black Adder, Sleepy Hollow, The Crying Game, Enchanted April, Dance with a Stranger
• Jared Harris – Fringe, Sherlock Holms Game of Shadows, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Igby Goes Down, How to Kill Your Neighbour’s Dog, Dead Man, Smoke
• Why? Gary Oldman
• Seen: 7 May 2021      

       The 60’s series was not one of my favourites, but I did watch it. I know this film got bad reviews, but Gary Oldman is in it. That must mean something?

       It follows the series as far as I remember it. The Robinson family heads for outer space to save Earth but ends up lost. On board is the evil Doctor Smith (Oldman) and sexist pilot (LeBlanc).

       OK, it’s bad. Filled with gender clichés – OMG those breasty spacesuits for the women! The dialog is lame. There are way too many hardware bang bang toys. The heroes and villains are stereotypes. The genius kid is seriously annoying. So yes, it’s a very bad film. Now I’ll just watch and see if it gets better.

       Sadly, it remains another case of, ‘What are these actors doing in this rubbish film?’ Oldman seems almost bored with his character, as well he should.

       Still, I am determined to find a * in there somewhere. The sister Penny (Chabert) is quite cool? Oldman is after all Oldman? It is unembarrassedly ridiculous? It’s so bad it’s good?

       I guess that will do. 

1* of 5

 

Educating Rita

 

Educating Rita 1983

• Director: Lewis Gilbert
• Seen by this director: Shirley Valentine, Moonraker, Friends, Alfie
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Julie Walters, Michael Caine, Michael Williams, Maureen Lippman, Malcolm Douglas
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Julie Walters – Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, Brooklyn, One Chance, The Hollow Crown, Harry Potter, Filth, Mamma Mia, Becoming Jane, Driving Lessons, Wah-Wah, The Calendar Girls, Before You Go, Billy Elliot, Titanic Town, Intimate Relations, Prick Up Your Ears
• 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, Alfie
• Michael Williams – Tea with Mussolini, Henry V
• Maureen Lippman – Doctor Who, The Pianist, Love’s Labour’s Lost
• Malcolm Douglas - Michael Collins
• Why? A real favourite

Seen: Three times previously. Now 2 May 2021      

       In a sort of modern-day Pygmalion, working class Rita (Walters) makes the courageous decision to start at Open University. She has the misfortune to get as her tutor the drunken, jaded, cynical literature professor Frank (Caine). Fortunately for her she’s not afraid to speak her mind. And she doesn’t take no for an answer. She’s there to learn and he will bloody well teach her.

       Walters is luminous in the role and Caine isn’t bad either. They both won Baftas as did the film, and Oscar nominations.

       Enough said. If you haven’t seen it, hurry and do so immediately. 

 5* of 5

 

The Hours

 

The Hours 2002

• Director: Stephen Daldry
• Seen by this director: Billy Elliot the Musical Live, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Reader, Billy Elliot
• Based on the book by Michael Cunningham
• Cast: Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Ed Harris, Allison Janney, Stephen Dillane, Miranda Richardson, John C Reilly, Toni Collette, Margo Martindale, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, Eileen Atkins
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Nicole Kidman – Destroyer, Top of the Lake, Genius, Queen of the Desert, Strangerland, Before I Go to Sleep, The Railway Man, Rabbit Hole, Nine, Australia, The Gold Compass, Margo at the Wedding, Fur, The Interpreter, Cold Mountain, The Human Stain, Dogville, Birthday Girl, The Others, Moulin Rouge, Eyes Wide Shut, Practical Magic, Batman Forever, Billy Bathgate
• Meryl Streep – Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, Suffragette, Into the Woods, August Osage County, Mamma Mia, A Prairie Home Companion, Angels in America, Adaption, Music of the Heart, Marvin’s Room, Bridges of Madison County, The House of Spirits, Post Cards from the Edge, Ironweed, Out of Africa, Silkwood, Sophie’s Choice, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Kramer vs Kramer, The Deerhunter, Holocaust
• Julianne Moore – The Hunger Games Mockingjay 1&2, The Kids Are All Right, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Children of Men, Far from Heaven, The Shipping News, The End of an Affair, A Map of the World, The Big Lebowski, Surviving Picasso, The Fugitive, Benny and Joon   
• Ed Harris – Cymbeline, Snowpiercer, Gone Baby Gone, Copying Beethoven, A History of Violence, The Human Stain, A Beautiful Mind, Pollock, Glengarry Glen Ross, Swing Shift, Abyss
• Allison Janney – I Tonya, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Girl on the Train, Get on Up, The Help, Juno, 10 Things I Hate about You, The Ice Storm
• Stephen Dillane – Zero Dark Thirty, Perfect Sense, Nine Lives, Hamlet
• Miranda Richardson – Testament of Youth, Made in Dagenham, Harry Potter, Young Victoria, Paris je t’aime, Gideon’s Daughter, Wah-Wah, Get Carter, Black Adder, Sleepy Hollow, The Crying Game, Enchanted April, Dance with a Stranger
• John C Reilly – Guardians of the Galaxy, A Prairie Home Companion, The Aviator, Chicago, The Good Girl, The Perfect Storm, Georgia
• Toni Colette - Knives Out, Imperium, Hereditary, A Long Way Down, Enough Said, Mental, Fright Night, The Dead Girl, Night Listener, Little Miss Sunshine, In Her Shoes, About a Boy, Hotel Splendide, Sixth Sense, Velvet Goldmine, Muriel’s Wedding
• Margo Martinadale – August Osage County, Beautiful Creatures, Paris je t’aime, Million Dollar Baby, The Human Stain, Proof of Life, 28 Days, Practical Magic, Marvin’s Room, Dead Man Walking, Lorenzo’s Oil
• Claire Danes – Stardust, Terminator 3, Romeo & Juliet, Igby Goes Down, Les Misérables, To Gillian on her 37^th Birthday, Little Women
• Jeff Daniels – The Martian, Looper, Good Night and Good Luck, The Squid and the Whale, Pleasantville, Speed, Terms of Endearment
• Eileen Atkins – Beautiful Creatures, Robin Hood, Last Chance Harvey, Cranford, Cold Mountain, Gosford Park, Wit, Cold Comfort Farm, Titus Andronicus, The Dresser
• Why? The cast
• Seen: Once before. Now 1 May 2021      

       It starts with Virginia Wolff’s suicide in England in 1941, then switches to LA in the 50s, then NYC in 2001.

       Three women, three times, three parallel stories. Virginia Wolff (Kidman) and her husband Leonard (Dillane), Virginia struggling with her writing and mental illness. Laura (Moore), pregnant, struggling with suburban life and reading Mrs Dalloway. Clarissa (Streep), arranging a big do to celebrate the prestigious literature award granted to her ex Richard (Harris), who is dying of AIDS.

       Three despairing women living Mrs Dalloway’s life while families and friends look on, unable to help.

       The film is about hopelessness, death and survival and it’s compelling. Kidman won an Oscar. They all could have. 

 4 ½ * of 5

 

Hereditary

 

Hereditary 2018

• Director: Ari Aster
• Seen by the director: Midsommar
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Toni Collette – Knives Out, Imperium, A Long Way Down, Enough Said, Mental, Fright Night, The Dead Girl, Night Listener, Little Miss Sunshine, In Her Shoes, The Hours, About a Boy, Hotel Splendide, Sixth Sense, Velvet Goldmine, Muriel’s Wedding
• Gabriel Byrne – Quirke, Emotional Arithmetic, Jindabyne, Wah-Wah, Smilla’s Sense of Snow Dead Man, The Usual Suspects, Little Women, Prince of Jutland, Miller’s Crossing, Gothic, Excalibur
• Ann Dowd – Leftovers
• Why? Collette and Byrne
• Seen: Once before. Now 30 April 2021      

       A death in the family weighs heavily on Annie (Collette), her husband Steve (Byrne) and their children Peter (Wolff) and Charlie (Shapiro). Then even more tragedy strikes.

       It’s creepy and it gets creepier. It’s slow, atmospheric and heavy. The acting is very good and the filming artistic. But oh, the grimness. Collette is outstanding but the silly ending pulls it down a notch.      

3 ½ * of 5