Birdwatchers

 

Birdwatchers (La terra degli uomini ross) 2008

• Director: Marco Bechis
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Pedro da Sílvia da Silva, Ambrosio Vilhava, Adamilson Concianza Verga, Alicélia Batista Cabreira, Claudio Santamaria, Fabiane Pereira da Silva, Chiara Caselli, Leonardo Medeiros
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Chiara Caselli – My Own Private Idaho
• Why? The subject.
• Seen: 19 August 2023      

       Alcoholism and teen suicides plague a reservation in Brazil. Rich white farmers with spoilt daughters live right next door. Racism, oppression, violence, resistance. The universal conflict between the descendants of colonial invaders and the indigenous people.

       It’s an interesting and important subject but the film is very slow and it often borders on the cliché. The ending is quite strong though and it’s worth seeing.     

 3* of 5  

 

 

Lonesome Jim

 

Lonesome Jim 2005

• Director: Steve Buscemi
• Seen by this director: episodes of The Sopranos and Homicide Life on the Street
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler, Mary Kay Place, Kevin Corrigan, Seymour Cassel, Mark Boone Junior, Jack Rovello
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Casey Affleck – Light of My Life, Manchester by the Sea, Interstellar, Out of the Furnace, Gone Baby Gone, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Hamlet. Good Will Hunting
• Liv Tyler – Ad Astra, The Leftovers, Lord of the Rings, Armageddon
• Mary Kay Place – Human Nature, My First Mister, Girl Interrupted, Being John Malkovich, Citizen Ruth, Manny & Lo, New York New York
• Kevin Corrigan – Cymbeline, Winter’s Tale, Fringe, American Gangster, True Romance
• Seymour Cassel – something, I’m sure
• Mark Boone Junior – something, I’m sure
• Jack Rovello – The Hours
• Why? I liked it the first time.
• Seen: Once before. Now 18 August 2023      

       Jim (Affleck) returns home to his parents in Indiana after an unsuccessful stint in NYC. He’s a loser and knows it. He has no idea what to do with his life. His brother Tim (Corrigan) is also a miserable failure. Jim’s comforting words: ‘I’m a fuck-up but you’re a goddam tragedy.’ That kind of sums the whole film up. It’s a good film to see if you’re depressed because it’ll make you think, ‘At least my life isn’t as dreary as that.’

       I like it.   

 4* of 5  

 

Spontaneous Combustion

 

Spontaneous Combustion 1989

• Director: Tobe Hooper
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Brad Dourif, Cynthia Bain
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Brad Dourif – Fringe, Lord of the Rings, Alien Resurrection, Jungle Fever, Mississippi Burning
• Why? I can’t remember
• Seen: 17 August 2023      

       What a bizarre film. Sam (Dourif) self-combusts and learns that his parents had taken part in a nuclear experiment and died from self-combustion when he was a baby.

       If this is an anti-nuclear power, the message is far from clear. I have rarely, if ever, seen such a collection of bad acting, but it almost seems to be deliberate, like it’s a parody of a 50s horror film. Maybe it is. IMDb informs me that it’s by the same director who made The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which I have never seen and never will. This is so bad that it might be good. Or maybe it’s just bad. I can’t decide. 1* for my indecision, and 1* for the red Studebaker. We had a Studebaker when I was a kid, but it was green. 

2* of 5  

 

 

Cold Prey (Fritt vilt) (Kallt byte)

 

Kallt byte (Fritt vilt) (Cold Prey) 2006

• Director: Roar Uthaug
• Seen by this director – Tomb Raider, Bölgen
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Ingrid Bolsö Berdal, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Tomas Alf Larsen, Endre Martin Midtstigen, Viktoria Winge, Rune Melby
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them
• Why? Norwegian. Possibly good.
• Seen: 13 August 2023      

       Five 20-somethings, two couples and a single guy, snowshoe up a steep snowy Norwegian mountain in high spirits and snow board down. It’s all great fun until one of them crashes and breaks a leg. They’re forced to take shelter in an abandoned ski hotel. Convenient, buy why abandoned? At the height of the ski season?

       Oh, right, the film starts with a series of reports of the many missing people in the area since 1975.

       Something bad is going to happen.

       Finding booze, the youngster have a grand old time, not realising they’re in a scary film. A slasher, no less, according to IMDb. Yuck. I’m not a slasher fan.

       But that’s what it is. And scary. And actually quite good. If it wasn’t a slasher – 4* but since it is 

3½ * of 5  

 

 

 

Herself

 

Herself 2020

• Director: Phyllida Lloyd
• Seen by this director – Mamma Mia
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Clare Dunne, Molly McCann, Ruby Rose O’Hara, Ian Lloyd Anderson, Harriet Walter, Cathy Belton,
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Harriet Walter - Doctor Who, Rocket Man, Star Wars the Force Awakens, London Spy, Downton Abbey, Young Victoria, Atonement, Babel, Bright Young Things, Keep the Aspidistras Flying, Sense and Sensibility
• Why? The director. Sounds good. Good reviews.
• Seen: 12 August 2023      

       Sandra (Dunne) has two small daughters (McCann and O’Hara) and an abusive husband Gary (Anderson). She finally leaves him but becomes desperate when she can’t find a place to live. For now she’s in a hotel paid for by family services. She finally decides to build her own house with the help and support of old friends and new.

       Problems abound, especially her husband who insists they should get back together and even takes her to court for custody of the girls.

       It’s a film filled with despair, cruelty, kindness, hope and resilience, performed by excellent actors, none but Walters previously known to me. 

4 ½ * of 5  

 

 

Iron Man 2

 

Iron Man 2 (2010)

• Director: Jon Favreau
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L Jackson, Clark Gregg, John Slattery
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Robert Downey Jr – Iron Man, Avengers, Sherlock Holmes, The Soloist, Zodiac, Fur, A Scanner Darkly, Good Night and Good Luck, Richard III
• Gwyneth Paltrow – Mortdecai, Thanks for Sharing, Iron Man, Avengers, Contagion, Two Lovers, Proof, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Shakespeare in Love, Sliding Doors
• Don Cheadle – Hotel Rwanda, Crash, The United States of Leland, Mission to Mars, Devil in a Blue Dress
• Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler, Once upon a Time in Mexico, The Pledge, Get Carter, Rumble Fish
• Scarlett Johansson – so many
• Sam Rockwell – Jojo Rabbit, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Seven Psychopaths, Moon, Frost/Nixon, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Samuel L Jackson – so many
• Clark Gregg-  Much Ado about Nothing, Iron Man, Avengers, Thor, 500 Days of Summer, The Human Stain, AI
• John Slattery – Ant-Man, Mad Men, Reservation Road, Mona Lisa’s Smile, Station Agent
• Why? My addiction to superheroes
• Seen: 11 August 2023           

       Tony Stark (Downey Jr) is still awful. Forgive me for noting that he’s acting like Donald Trump - arrogant, insulting, narcissistic… Granted, he’s better looking than Trump, but capitalist privatised peace? That’s a claim Trump would make.

       But we’re supposed to feel sorry for him because he’s dying. His Iron Man suit’s radiation is killing him.

       Yeah well, the first one started out bad too, so I’ll give it a chance. The villains played by Mickey Rourke and one of my favourites Sam Rockwell are annoyingly hammy and there is far too much violent action. That’s when I check my email and FB and snooze. But there’s some entertainingly snappy dialog and Robert Downey Jr is just so good in the role. Against my better judgement... 

3* of 5  

 

 

Aberdeen

 

Aberdeen 2000

• Director: Hans Petter Moland and Tony Spataro
• Seen by Hans Petter Moland – Ut og stjaele hester
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Stellan Skarsgård, Lena Headey, Ian Hart, Charlotte Rampling
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Stellan Skarsgård –  Ut og staele hester, Mamma Mia 1&2, Melancholia, Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean, King Arthur, Dogville, The Glass House, Dancer in the Dark, Amistad, Good Will Hunting, Breaking the Waves, Hamlet, Den enfaldige mördaren
• Lena Headey – Game of Thrones, Fighting with My Family, Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Brothers Grimm, The Remains of the Day, Waterland
• Ian Hart– Escape from Pretoria, Mary Queen of Scots, Breakfast on Pluto, Finding Neverland, Harry Potter, Born Romantic, Liam, Longitude, The Butcher Boy, Michael Collins, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain
• Charlotte Rampling - Dune, Melancholia, Never Let Me Go, Life During Wartime, Lemming, A Hard Day’s Night
• Why? The cast
• Seen: 10 August 2023      

       Helen (Rampling) is dying of cancer. She induces her tough daughter, coke-snorting, partying lawyer Kaisa (Headey) to go to Norway and fetch her father Tomas (Skarsgård), a drunk who Kaisa hates and hasn’t seen for years. It is not a happy reunion and the journey from Oslo to Aberdeen is a road trip in hell with flat tires, drunken vomiting, long hours of ferry and car, encounters with more or less helpful and/or malicious strangers - long enough for memories, old conflicts, old hurts and resentments to surface, entangling both Kaisa and Tomas more than ever in their love/hate relationship.

       It’s a heart-breaking, exceptionally well-acted gem. 

4 ½ * of 5