Catch a Fire

 Catch a Fire 2006

• Director: Philip Noyce
• Based on book: No
• Cast: Derek Luke, Tim Robbins, Bonnie Mbuli
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Derek Luke – Antwone Fisher
• Tim Robbins – Then She Found Me, Tenacious D, The War of the Worlds, Mystic River, Human Nature, Mission to Mars, Cradle Will Rock, The Shawshank Redemption, The Hudsucker Proxy, Jungle Fever
• Bonnie Mbuliu - Invictus
• Why? The subject
• Seen: 6 May 2022      

       South Africa. Apartheid. The ANC. We’ve seen films about this before. This one is different because we are shown a young man (Luke) who tries to keep away from politics but is radicalised into joining ANC military training, as well as the private life of a white anti-terrorist cop (Robbins) who teaches his daughters to shoot, who tortures black prisoners and who believes he is doing the right thing.

       The historical conflict brings them together in a strong, dramatic, and well-acted film, based on real people.      

4 * of 5  

 

 

Cinema Paradiso

Cinema Paradiso 1988

• Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
• Based on book: No
• Cast: Phillippe Noiret, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Phillippe Noiret – Il Postino
• Why? Curious
• Seen: 26 April 2022      

       This is a nostalgic story about a little boy who loves cinema, an old man who talks to him about life, and the Italian village they live in. It seems that everyone in the world loves the film and hails it as a masterpiece. I find it trite, far too long and essentially uninteresting. And I am most certainly a film lover.      

2 * of 5  

 

 

  

The Professor/Richard Says Good-bye

 The Professor/Richard Says Good-bye 2018

• Director: Wayne Roberts
• Based on the book: No
• Cast: Johnny Depp, Rosemarie Dewitt, Odessa Young, Danny Huston, Zoe Deutch, Devon Terrell, Ron Livingston
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Johnny Depp – more or less everything up to Murder on the Orient Express
• Rosemarie Dewitt – La La Land, Rachel Getting Married
• Danny Huston – Wonder Woman, Robin Hood, X Men Wolverine, Children of Men, The Constant Gardener, The Aviator, 21 Grams
• Zoe Deutch – Zombieland Double Tap, Beautiful Creatures
• Ron Livingston – The Fifth Wave
• Why? Johnny Depp
• Seen: 4 May 2022      

       Richard (Depp) is told he has advanced lung cancer and has only a short time to live. On the same day his daughter (Young) announces at the dinner table that she is gay which he applauds. His wife (Dewitt) ridicules the very idea. Then his wife tells him she’s having an affair and he laughs. He doesn’t tell them he’s dying.

       He informs his English students that he is no longer interested in teaching them so just leave and he’ll give them a C. The few who choose to remain are given special assignments, including having class at the local bar.

       His vulgar outspokenness about sex, drugs, alcohol, the school staff, and literature confound them, but they start to appreciate his basic decency and integrity.

       Finally. A role worthy of Depp’s acting skills. 

4* of 5.

 

 

 

 

 

Blackbird

 Blackbird

• Director: Roger Michell
• Seen by this director: Notting Hill, Titanic Town
• Based on the book: No
• Cast: Susan Sarandon, Sam Neill, Anson Boon, Kate Winslet, Rainn Wilson, Lindsay Duncan, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Mia Wasikowska
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Susan Sarandon – Cloud Atlas, Emotional Arithmetic, Romance & Cigarettes, Alfie, Ice Bound, Moonlight Mile, The Banger Sisters, Igby Goes Down, Anywhere but Here, Cradle Will Rock, Dead Man Walking, Little Women, The Client, Lorenzo’s Oil, Thelma and Louise, White Castle, The January Man, Bull Durham, Witches of Eastwick, Atlantic City, The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Sam Neill – A Long Way Down, Skin, Jurassic Park, Ivanhoe
• Anson Boon - 1917
• Kate Winslet – The Mountain Between Us, Contagion, The Reader, Holiday, Little Children, Romance & Cigarettes, Extras, Finding Neverland, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Hideous Kinky, Titanic, Hamlet, Jude, Sense and Sensibility
• Rainn Wilson – Juno, Six Feet Under, Full Frontal, Almost Famous, Galaxy Quest
• Lindsay Duncan – The Leftovers, Sherlock, About Time, Merlin, The Hollow Crown, Doctor Who, Lost in Austen, Starter for 10, Under the Tuscan Sun, Prick Up Your Ears
• Mia Wasikowska – Only Lovers Left Alive, Tracks, Alice in Wonderland, The Kids Are All Right, Defiance
• Why? The cast
• Seen: 30 April 2022      

       Rich white liberal dysfunctional family gather in a remote architecturally designed house on the shore when the mother Lily (Sarandon) is dying. They are aware that she has chosen to end her life because she can’t bear the indignity of dying of ALS (it’s not named but the symptoms and prognosis fit). The family’s attempts at staying upbeat waver. Lily herself is grimly macabre and unsentimental.

       It’s an American remake of the Danish Stille hjerte. I am not a fan of American remakes of European films and probably the Danish version is better but the cast does what it can with a rather banal script (despite the euthanasia subject).

       It does get quite dramatic, and the acting is very good. Against my better judgement I find myself giving it 

4* of 5.

 

 

Breakfast on Pluto

 Breakfast on Pluto 2005

• Director: Neil Jordan
• Seen by the director: The Butcher Boy, Michael Collins, The Crying Game, Mona Lisa
• Based on book by Pat McCabe
• Cast: Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, Ruth McCabe, Ruth Negga, Liam Cunningham, Brendan Gleeson, Stephen Rea, Ian Hart
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Cillian Murphy – Dunkirk, Transcendence, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, The Dark Knight, Sunshine, Batman Begins, Cold Mountain, Girl with Pearl Earring, Intermission, 28 Days Later
• Liam Neeson – 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
• Ruth McCabe – Victoria & Abdul, Philomena, Good Vibrations, Inside I’m Dancing, Intermission, Titanic Town, Circle of Friends, Takin’ over the Asylum, My Left Foot
• Ruth Negga – Ad Astra, World War Z, Misfits
• Liam Cunningham – Doctor Who, Merlin
• Brendan Gleeson – Alone in Berlin, Suffragette, Edge of Tomorrow, Harry Potter, In Bruges, Kingdom of Heaven, Cold Mountain, 28 Days Later, AI, My Life So Far, The Butcher Boy, Michael Collins
• Stephen Rea – V for Vendetta, Tara Road, Still Crazy, Fever Pitch, Michael Collins, The Crying Game, Life Is Sweet
• Ian Hart – Escape from Pretoria, Tristram Shandy, Finding Neverland, Harry Potter, Born Romantic, Longitude, The Butcher Boy, Michael Collins, The Englishman Who Went up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain
• Why? The cast
• Seen: 29 April 2022      

       Patrick (Murphy) is a transvestite, possibly trans, possibly gay, whatever. That is not acceptable in the 70’s in the Catholic Northern Ireland. She’s had enough, off he heads for London, arriving after various adventures.

       I’m all for gender-bending and thumbing one’s nose at the Catholic church, or any church for that matter, but all this vampish girlishness with pouty lips, fluttery heavily mascaraed eyelashes and cooing voice is irritating no matter who’s doing it.

       Kitten, as she calls himself, will do anything to avoid seriousness, but seriousness hounds her. The IRA, homophobia, police brutality. He goes through it all in hazy dreaminess, possibly madness.

       Murphy is convincing, the music is mostly great, and there are some fun small roles (Brian Ferry, Mad-Eye Moody, for example).

       It hovers between moving and parody. By the end I’m almost won over, but it goes on too long and becomes too sugary at the end.      

3 ½ * of 5   

 

The Grifters

 The Grifters 1990

• Director: Stephen Frears
• Seen by the director: Victoria & Abdul, Philomena, Tamara Drewe, The Queen, Mrs Henderson Presents, Dirty Pretty Things, Liam, High Fidelity, The Van, Mary Reilly, Sammie and Rosie Get Laid, Prick Up Your Ears, My Beautiful Laundromat,
• Based on book by Jim Thompson
• Cast: Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, Annette Bening, Pat Hingle, JT Walsh
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Anjelica Huston – Darjeeling Limited, Seraphim Falls, The Royal Tenenbaums, Ever After, Prizzi’s Honor, Spinal Tap
• John Cusack – The Butler, 2012, 1408, The Contract, Serendipity, High Fidelity, Being John Malkovich, Cradle Will Rock, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Grosse Pointe Blank, Stand By Me
• Annette Bening – Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, Ginger & Rosa, The Kids Are All Right, Being Julia, American Beauty, Mars Attacks, Richard III, Postcards from the Edge
• Pat Hingle – A Thousand Acres, Norma Rae, TV series
• JT Walsh – Pleasantville, The Negotiator, Sling Blade, The Client, Red Rock West, Lethal Weapon, Good Morning Vietnam
• Why? Good film
• Seen: Once before. Now 28 April 2022      

       Is this film that old? John Cusack looks like a teen-ager! Here, he’s Roy, a small-time but successful grifter. Lily (Huston) is a racetrack grifter. Myra (Bening, also looking young) is an all-round grifter/hooker.

       Roy and Myra have known each other a couple of months and are lovers. Lily is Roy’s mother. They’ve been estranged for years but now she seeks him out. They’re still at loggerheads and she and Myra loathe each other.

       Behind the Bimbo façade, Myra is an expert at the long con. She wants Roy to become her partner.

       The film starts out light, but it soon turns grim, dramatic and violent.      

3 ½ * of 5   

 

 

 

Apflickorna (She Monkeys)

 Apflickorna (She Monkeys) 2011

• Director: Lisa Aschen
• Based on book: No
• Cast: Mathilda Paradeiser, Linda Molin, Isabella Lindquist, Adam Lundgren, Maria Hedborg
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Adam Lundgren – Upp till kamp
• Maria Hedborg – Fucking Åmål
• Why? Curious
• Seen: 26 April 2022      

       Emma (Paradeiser) och Cassandra (Molin) blir vänner på ridskolan. Jag kommer faktiskt inte på mer att skriva. Den är långsam och långtråkig och stundtals obehaglig. Av någon anledning förväntade jag mig fantasy, typ Låt den rätta komma in. Tyvärr.

       Skådespelarna är dock bra.      

2 * of 5    

In English: Emma and Cassandra become friends at riding school. I can’t think of anything else to write. It’s slow and boring and at times unpleasant. For some reason I had expected fantasy, similar to Let the Right One In. Unfortunately.

The acting is good though.