Avanpost (The Blackout)

 Avanpost (The Blackout) 2019

• Director: Egor Baranov
• Based on book: nyet
• Cast: Aleksey Chadov, Pyotr Fyodorov, Svetlana Ivanova, Lukerya Ilashenko, Ksenya Kutapova, Artyon Tkachenko
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them
• Why? Sci fi
• Seen: 5 June 2022      

       Oh, bloody hell, a Russian film dubbed into English! Why?! Badly too! Stilted dialogue, boring voices, tedious translations.

       Why am I watching a Russian film anyway? All the war scenes look very much like Russia’s current murderous war against Ukraine.

       The film is rubbish in any case. Alien invasion of Earth. Ho hum. Could have been good but it deteriorated from bad to worse. If they had edited it down to 90 minutes maybe, but it goes on forever.

       For its potential and moments of visual beauty 

1* of 5  

 

 

Ser du månen Daniel (Held for Ransom)

 Ser du månen Daniel (Held for Ransom) 2019

• Director: Niels Arden Oplev and Anders W Berthelsen
• Seen by this director: Män som hatar kvinnor (Oplev)
• Based on book by Puk Damsgaard Andersen
• Cast: Esben Smed, Sophie Torp, Anders W Berthelsen, Toby Kebbell, Sara Hjort Ditlevsen
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Anders W Berthelsen – Italian for Beginners
• Toby Kebbell – Kong Skull Island, Fantastic Four, Macbeth Retold
• Why? Sounded good
• Seen: 4 June 2022      

       Danish photographer Daniel Rye (Smed) photographs civilians in war zones. In Syria he’s captured by ISIS, tortured, and imprisoned. His family try desperately to raise the money for ransom.

       True story.

       It’s a compelling film, painful to watch. It’s not for the faint-hearted. Don’t see it when you’re depressed. But see it. 

4* of 5  

The Social Network

 The Social Network 2010

• Director: David Fincher
• Seen by the director: Gone Girl, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Zodiac, Fight Club, Seven, Alien 3, many music videos
• Based on book by Ben Mezrich
• Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jesse Eisenberg – Zombieland Double Tap, Night Moves, Zombieland, The Squid and the Whale
• Andrew Garfield – Under Silver Lake, Breathe, Never Let Me Go, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Boy A, Doctor Who
• Justin Timberlake – Inside Llewyn Davis
• Rooney Mara – Lion
• Why? I’m a Facebook addict
• Seen: 3 June 2022      

       Isn’t it tricky to make a biographical film about a person who is still alive? What does Mark Zuckerberg think of this film? How much of it is true?

       Mark (Eisenberg) is a Harvard student and definitely a nerd. His girlfriend Erica (Mara) breaks up with him because he’s an asshole (direct quote). In a snit he blogs nastily about her then he starts a site by hacking into Harvard’s exclusive clubs comparing girls’ hotness. It goes viral.

       He invents Facebook and gets sued for stealing the idea. He’s sued by his best friend and partner Wardo (Garfield) too because… long story.

       He really is an arrogant geek with zero social competence.

       The flashbacks are confusing at times, but it is a fascinating look at the man who changed our lives. I’m on FB all day, every day. I’ve friends I’ve never met, or have met through FB, around the globe. Mark Zuckerberg, you may or may not be a real screw up, but I kind of love you anyway.

       Oh yes, the acting is extremely good.      

4 * of 5   

 

 

Once

 Once 2007

• Director: John Carney
• Seen by this director: Sing Street
• Based on the book: No
• Cast: Glen Hansard, Marketá Irglová, Bill Hodnett
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Glen Hansard – The Commitments
• Why? Good film
• Seen: Once before. Now 2 June 2022      

       Hansard plays a busker in Dublin. Irglová is a flower seller and a pianist without a piano, a Czech immigrant. Music brings them together. Friendship hovers around love but they are both committed to partners who are not in Dublin.

       It’s a low-key unsentimental music not-quite romance. Hansard and Irglová wrote and sang the songs, one of which won an Oscar for best original song. For a while the two were a couple IRL.

       It’s an odd little gem that I almost love but not quite. 

3 ½ * of 5.

 

 

The Shootist

 The Shootist 1976

• Director: Don Siegel
• Seen by these directors: The Book of Eli, From Hell
• Based on the book by Glendon Swarthout
• Cast: John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Harry Morgan, Sheree North, Scatman Crothers
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• John Wayne – The Longest Day, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, probably others but I tried to avoid his films
• Lauren Bacall – Manderlay, Dogville, Misery
• Ron Howard – American Graffiti, The Music Man, TV series
• James Stewart – Bobby, Six Feet Under
• Harry Morgan – The Shootist, Third Rock from the Sun, M*A*S*H
• Sheree North – TV series
• Scatman Crothers – TV series
• Why? It’s in the James Stewart box
• Seen: 1 June 2022      

       If this hadn’t been in the collection, I would never have watched it. John Wayne is one of my least favourite actors of all time. We’ll see. Stewart is only a ‘guest star’ but Lauren Bacall and a teen-aged Ron Howard are in it so maybe.

       John Books (Wayne) is an aging shootist, read: killer. A silver-haired and kindly doctor (Stewart) tells him that he’s dying of cancer. Books decides to stay and rents a room from a stately widow Mrs Rogers (Bacall) and her son (Howard).

       Books is as arrogant and obnoxious as Wayne always is and a few moments of manly vulnerability don’t make him likeable. If he and Mrs Rogers fall in love this film gets 0*.

       But it sure got a lot of 10* of 10 on IMDb. People worship John Wayne and go all gooey-eyed because this was his last film and it’s about a macho tough guy who wants to die with dignity. So why does that dignity entail more killing?

       Sorry, I’m not impressed. Why, oh why wasn’t Bell, Book and Candle included in the collection instead of this pile of clichés?

       But for Stewart’s tiny role and because Bacall and Howard do a decent job with the thankless roles they are given, and because the basic idea has a small amount of merit 

2 * of 5.

 

 

The Raven

 The Raven 2012

• Director: James McTiegue
• Seen by this director: V for Vendetta
• Based on the book: No, but very loosely on Poe’s works
• Cast: John Cusack, Alice Eve, Luke Evans, Brendan Gleeson, Kevin McNally, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Jimmy Yuill
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• 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
• Alice Eve – The Decoy Bride, Starter for 10
• Luke Evans - The Girl on the Train, High-Rise, The Hobbit etc, Tamara Drewe, Robin Hood
• Brendan Gleeson – Alone in Berlin, Suffragette, Edge of Tomorrow, Harry Potter etc, In Bruges, Breakfast on Pluto, Kingdom of Heaven, Cold Mountain, 28 Days Later, AI, My Life So Far, The Butcher Boy, Michael Collins, Braveheart
• Kevin McNally - The Man Who Knew Infinity, Legend, Downton Abbey, Valkyrie, Pirates of the Caribbean etc, Johnny English, Shackleton, The Pianist, Sliding Doors, Cry Freedom, I Claudius
• Oliver Jackson-Cohen – Bonekickers
• Jimmy Yuill – All Is True, The Magic Flute, As You Like It, Ladies in Lavender, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Frankenstein, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V
• Why? Poe and Cusack
• Seen: 29 May 2022      

       Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary

       Over the many quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore

       While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping….

 

       ‘The Raven’ is one of the few poems of which I can actually quote a verse or two. I’ve read and reread Poe since I was a kid.

       It’s with some trepidation that I start the film. I’m quite sure that it won’t live up to Poe’s greatness. On the other hand, I’m quite fond of John Cusack.

       The story, such as it is, borrows blatantly from Poe but turns it all into a gruesome murder-police film and a banal love story. It’s almost clever but also contrived, muddled and a bit boring.

       The main problem, it grieves me to say, is the miscasting of John Cusack. I simply can’t see him as Edgar Allen Poe in him, I see only John Cusack with a black goatee. Furthermore, Eve is tepid as the love interest and there is zero chemistry between her and Cusack.

       My advice: read Poe’s works instead. 

2 1/2* of 5.

 

 

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Odds Against Tomorrow

 Odds Against Tomorrow 1959

• Director: Robert Wise
• Seen by this director: The Sound of Music, West Side Story, I Want to Live
• Based on the book by William P McGivern
• Cast: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Ed Begley, Shelley Winters, Gloria Grahame, Will Kuluva, Kim Hamilton, Mae Barnes
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Harry Belafonte – BlacKkKlansman, Bobby, Swing Vote, Kansas City, Carmen Jones
• Robert Ryan – Something, no doubt
• Ed Begley – The Unsinkable Molly Brown, 12 Angry Men, TV series
• Shelley Winters – Alfie, A Patch of Blue
• Gloria Grahame– Oklahoma!, The Greatest Show on Earth, It’s a Wonderful Life
• Kim Hamilton – TV series
• Why? Harry Belafonte
• Seen: 28 May 2022      

       Three men in desperate need of money, Belafonte, Ryan and Bagley, plan a bank heist. Things go awry, starting when Ryan’s character reveals himself as a racist and Belfonte’s character is far from being an Uncle Tom. Strong stuff for the 50s. Character development of these three men and their women companions (Winters, Grahame and Hamilton) is strong.

       I love black and white films. I’ve been in love with Harry Belafonte since I was five years old. It’s a beautifully crafted film with a fine sense of detail. It’s suspenseful with a stunning ending. Do not miss this classic. 

5* of 5.