Crooklyn

This semi-autobiographical directed by Spike Lee, and co-written by Lee and his siblings, Cinque and Joie Susannah.  The film is set over the spring and summer of 1973 in a tough but close-knit neighbourhood in Brooklyn, New York, and focuses on nine year old Troy Carmichael (Harris) growing up with four rowdy brothers and her troubled by loving parents:  Strict school teacher Carolyn (Woodward), who holds the family together, and ambitious but naive musician Woody (Lindo), who had some success with pop music covers in the past but now wants to concentrate exclusively on his own music.

The film is colourful, lively and is unusually light for a Spike Lee film, however there is still plenty of grit.  The neighbourhood is populated with eccentric characters, children play on the stoops and the street, everyone knows what is going on with everyone else and more often than not look out for each other, but it is tough, and there is always a threat of violence, although having said that, it's more likely to be a light punch rather than a gunshot.  The film is visually inventive.  Troy goes to stay with relatives in the South, which she finds very disturbing and disorientating, and these scenes are filmed in widescreen without anamorphically adjusting the image, which gives it a strange elongated look.  The performances are great, Alfre Woodward, Delroy Lindo and Zelda Harris are all superb, and the Carmichael family do feel like a real family, and your left wondering what happens to them after the film.  Spike Lee has a part as the neighbourhood glue sniffer Snuffy.  It's a loose film, without a strong plot, and feels quite baggy and episodic.  It's warm, funny, gritty and real, with a fantastic soundtrack of early '70s soul music.

A Clockwork Orange

Near future England:  Teenage gang leader Alex (played by Malcolm McDowell) leads his three friends (or "droogs") on nightly rampages of theft and savage violence against whoever is unlucky enough to encounter them.  Tiring of Alex's arrogance, his friends set him up to be arrested after their latest attack goes fatally wrong.  Alex is convicted and sentenced to fourteen years in prison.  After two years inside, Alex is submitted to an experimental treatment called the "Ludovico Technique" which is intended to cure criminality by making the subject unable to act violently.  Alex is released after the treatment and soon finds that where he was once the predator, he is now the prey.

Released in 1971, written and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and based on the 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess, this is hugely controversial film is now acclaimed as a modern classic.  It is still a shocking film, in fact I would say that it would probably not get made today. because it would just be too problematic.  Not necessarily because of the on-screen violence, which is heavily stylised and more shadowplay than graphic blood and gore, but because we are invited to like and sympathise with a  brutal, unrepentant rapist and murderer.  The entire film is shown through Alex's eyes, and he breaks the fourth wall with his voice-over narration (addressing the audience directly as "my brothers and only friends").  The first part of the film, depicting Alex's crimes is heavily stylised, whereas the latter part of the film, where Alex becomes the victim, the violence is much more realistically depicted thereby inviting the audience to enjoy Alex's rampages at a distance, but to sympathise with his own sufferings.  Which is, of course, how Alex would see it.  Also there is the towering performance of Malcolm McDowell as Alex, alternately threatening and innocent, it is a career best performance, and he is in pretty much every scene of the film. 
The film is relatively faithful to the novel, although it discards the final chapter of the original, British version of the book.  There are some odd elements in regards to the book, in which Alex's age is stated as being fourteen.  Malcolm McDowell was in his late twenties when he made the film, and yet he is constantly referred to as a child, despite being clearly an adult.
The film depicts a very seventies future, and it really is a product of it's time and place, it feels more like an alternate early seventies than a futuristic piece.  The novel was written in an invented slang called "Nadsat" and this is memorably retained in the film, although toned down.  Burgess invented nadsat because he felt that if he wrote it in then-current slang then novel would feel dated as soon as it was published, and he was right.
The film was famously withdrawn from release in Britain by Kubrick himself and was not legally available there until after his death.
It is still a troubling, shocking and powerful experience. 

Sometimes They Come Back

In 1990, high school history teacher Jim Norman (Tim Matheson) returns to his childhood home town for the first time in 27 years, with his wife Sally (Brooke Adams) and young son Scott (Robert Hy Gorman).
In 1963, nine year old Jim (Zachary Ball) and his fifteen year old brother Wayne (Chris Demetral) are walking through a railway tunnel on the way to the library when they are set upon by a gang of teenage greasers who kill Wayne, but are themselves almost immediately killed by a train.
Despite still being haunted by nightmares of his brother's death, Jim and his family settle in, and he starts teaching at the local high school, bonding with some students and making enemies of others.  However, the students who Jim gets close to start dying in apparent suicides, and are replaced in class by students who look suspiciously like the gang who murdered Wayne.
Jim realises that the spirits of the dead gang members have returned and are set on revenge.

This film was originally made for TV and was first broadcast in 1991, directed by Tom McLoughlin.  Based on a short story by Stephen King, it's a pretty by the numbers horror film, that features plenty of King tropes.  Made on a low budget without particular style or flair, with a cast of solid performers, including veteran William Sanderson, who all try their best with stodgy material (pity Brooke Adams, who really has nothing to do here at all except be alternately supportive and scared).  The story is not one of Stephen King's best and the screenwriters, Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, have trouble punching it up to feature length.  The film is at it's best when the focus is on the ghoulish greasers who (as played by Robert Rusler, Bentley Mitchum and Nicholas Sadler) are ominous and threatening, although we never find out enough about them, they have no backgrounds or personalities, and are portrayed as pack animals (they growl, bray and howl like wolves).
Probably due to the limits of television in 1991, the film is light on blood and gore.  At times it seems more like a supernatural drama about coming to terms with grief, than it is about shocks and scares, and the two sides don't gel together.  The biggest problem that the film has is that it offers nothing new.  Really, if you're interested at all in horror, than you've seen it all before.

Flatliners

Medical student Courtney Holmes (played by Ellen Page) convinces her reluctant friends to take part in an experiment during which she will be clinically dead before they resuscitate her, so that she can learn first hand what happens after death.  After the experiment Courtney finds herself with a new lease on life and astonishing powers of memory.  After seeing the effects, Courtney's friends all want to undergo the experience.  However, it soon turns out that flatlining has some much darker side effects, as the students begin to be haunted by bizarre and disturbing visions.

Although referred to as a sequel to the 1990 film Flatliners, this 2017 film, directed by Niels Arden Oplev, is really a remake.  Keifer Sutherland, who starred in the original, does appear in this, although as a different character.  This is a fun film, with a good cast.  Despite being a horror film, it's really not scary at all, and suffers from being too long.  The characters aren't particularly explored and are more or less cliched.  It also suffers from having too pat a conclusion.  There is plenty of humour, the characters manage to rise above the material, and it is exciting, and the flatlining sequences are well executed.
I can't really say how fans of the original Flatliners will take to the remake, because I've not seen the original in years, and can't remember much about it. 

El Mariachi

This 1992 movie is the debut film from writer/director Robert Rodriguez.  An unnamed musician (Carlos Gallardo) travels from town to town with his guitar to pursue his dream of becoming a mariachi like his father and grandfather.  Arriving in a small town, the Mariachi is mistaken for a criminal, Azul (Reinol Martinez), who has broken out of jail and is being hunted by the local crime boss, Moco (Peter Marquardt).  Like the Mariachi, Azul dresses in black and carries a guitar case, only Azul's is full of guns.

Reputedly produced for a budget of only $7000, which Rodriguez raised mainly by taking part in medical tests, this is funnier and more exciting than many bigger and more expensive action films.  Carlos Gallardo is winning as the Mariachi, and Consuelo Gomez is affecting as the bar owner who he falls in love with.  Some of the acting can be politely described as  overly enthusiastic, the low budget is obvious in many scenes, and also there are several scenes that seem to be there just to pad out the run time, but by and large this is a fun, stylish movie, with well choreographed action.  It was followed by two sequels:  Desperado (1995) and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003).      

By the way, Robert Rodriguez's book on the making of the film, Rebel Without a Crew (1995), is worth tracking down for anyone interested in low-budget film-making.

Performance

This film was produced in 1968 but not released until 1970, and was directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg.  In London, Chas Devlin (James Fox) is a brutal gangland enforcer, who genuinely enjoys his work.  When he disobeys direct orders from his boss and kills a rival for personal, rather than business reasons, Devlin becomes targeted by his own gang.  He decides to hide out in the vast mansion of reclusive rock star, Turner (Mick Jagger), who lives with Pherber (Anita Pallenberg) and Lucy (Michele Breton).  In Turner's surreal, erotic, decadent world of drugs, sex and mysticism, Devlin finds the boundaries of reality and fantasy collapsing.

This is a film that, if you see it once, you will never forget it.  It's very much a film of two halves.  The first half is, in terms of plot, a great if conventional gangster film (in terms of style and technique it is a million miles away from an ordinary gangster film), and in the second it becomes a surreal fantasy of sex, drugs and identity.  It utilises a fragmented, stream of conscience style, using almost every cinematic trick in the book.  James Fox is perfect as Chas Devlin, someone who is, in British criminal slang, a "performer" (a gangster with a special talent for violence and intimidation), he frequently tells people "I know who I am", he lives in a pristine apartment, and is always immaculately groomed and dressed in sharp suits, and is always in control.  Mick Jagger's Turner is another type of performer, a rock star who has retired because, as he says "I lost my demon".  Devlin, a man who needs to be in control, suddenly finds himself, in Turner's house, in a situation where he has no control, where all the old rules just don't apply.  Very much a product of it's time, and full of references to Jorge Luis Borges and William Burroughs, this is still genuinely shocking and disturbing.

White Heat

This 1949 film is one of the quintessential Hollywood gangster movies.  Tracing the violent life of psychotic robber Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) who despite being married to Verna (Virginia Mayo),  has a deeply unhealthy bond with his equally ruthless mother (Margaret Wycherly) who is the only person that he seems to have any real feelings for.

This is an exciting, influential film and is widely regarded as one of the best films ever made.  It has aged well, and the almost documentary style film-making is still in evidence today.  The ending of the film has become one of the iconic scenes in movie history, and the prison cafeteria sequence is startling.  James Cagney turns in a gripping performance as the savage, but strangely sympathetic Jarrett, and Virginia Mayo is impressive as Verna, who Jarrett cruelly ignores, but has her own capacity for extreme ruthlessness.   Edmond O'Brien makes less of an impression, however, as the square-jawed hero.  This is a must see for thriller fans.

Mother!

A young woman (Jennifer Lawrence), referred to as "Mother" in the credits, although nine of the characters are named in the film, is married to a successful poet (Javier Bardem), who is suffering from writer's block.  They live together in a rambling country house which she is renovating after a severe fire.  One night a strange couple (Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer) arrive and insinuate themselves into the lives of the homeowners.  It then gets progressively darker and weirder as more and more people invade the couple's home.

This film from writer/director Darren Aronofsky is frankly bizarre.  It's full of striking, memorable images and sequences, and Jennifer Lawrence gives a fantastic, tortured performance.  Some of it though is frankly tedious, and almost the whole thing makes very little sense.  It's probably best to see the film as an allegory, not to be taken literally, and there is likely to be a lot of discussion about what it actually means.  My take on it is that Jennifer Lawrence just wants to be left in piece with her family, but it's impossible to escape from the demands and intrusion of the world outside.  It's worth watching for it's sheer ambition.  You'll likely not see much like this, certainly not from a mainstream Hollywood release.  Personally I didn't enjoy the film, but I'm glad that I saw it, and I*'m still trying to decode what the hell it's all about.

 

A Nightmare on Elm Street

A group of teenage friends in a small American town find themselves pursued in their dreams by a horrifically burned figure armed with a glove which has razor-sharp blades attached to the fingers.  If they are killed in their dreams, they die in reality too.  As the friends are killed off one by one, the survivors have to stay awake long enough to figure out a way to fight their dreams.

Released in 1984, this film is one of the most influential horror films of the 1980s and possibly one of the most influential horror movies of all time, introducing the iconic movie villain Freddy Krueger (played by Robert Englund), and spawning six direct sequels, a TV series (Freddy's Nightmares (1988-1990)), a crossover with the Friday the 13th franchise (Freddy vs. Jason (2003)) and a remake in 2010.  By and large the film sticks to the well-established slasher movie formula, but given a supernatural twist.  The death scenes are, by and large, imaginative and well-staged.  Another reason why the film works so well is the simple fact that everyone sleeps and dreams, and our dreams are always beyond our control, and it plays with the idea that is we are harmed in a dream we could be harmed in real-life as well (the idea that dying in a dream equals dying in real life is a very old one, and it used to be believed that this is why we wake up at the very last minute, a kind of psychological escape hatch so we don't snuff it in our sleep because we happened to have a midnight snack).  Writer-director Wes Craven was inspired by a series of disturbing real-lifer incidents from the 1970s where refugees from Southeast Asia refused to sleep after suffering terrifying nightmares, some of them subsequently died in their sleep.

The film creates a believably cluttered suburban setting, and is elevated by Craven's obvious affection for his teenage characters, who are played by a talented cast headed by Heather Langenkemp who gives a great performance mixing vulnerability and strength as the strong-minded Nancy, and a very young Johnny Depp as her boyfriend Glen.  Of course, the standout performance is Freddy Krueger who, coupled with his memorable appearance, gives Freddy a gleefully cruel wit, before the character became a pop culture joke.         

It

This is an adaptation of the 1986 novel by Stephen King.  Set in 1989 (as opposed to the novel's 1958 setting) in the small town of Derry, Maine, which has been terrorised by a spate of mysterious disappearances of children.  Seven young outcasts, who call themselves "The Loser's Club" decide to put a stop to it:  Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Lieberher) has a bad stutter and his younger brother, Georgie, is among the missing; Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor) is picked on because he is overweight; Beverley Marsh (Sophia Lillis) is abused by her father and is the subject of cruel rumours; Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard) is the group clown, often getting in trouble due to his loud mouth and foul language; Stan Uris (Wyatt Oleff) is picked on because he is Jewish; Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs) is subjected to racist bullying; and Eddie Kaspbrak (Jack Dylan Grazer) has become a hypochondriac due to his over-protective mother.  They discover that the culprit is Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgard), who is in reality an evil, shapeshifting entity which feeds on fear, particularly children's fear.

Previously adapted as a two part TV miniseries in 1990 which was re-edited into a feature film; It is one of Stephen King's best known books.  The film lacks the richness of the book, but is an effective horror film, with a reliance on sudden jump scares.  It is well acted, and the film really shines in  the quieter character moments.  

The Limehouse Golem

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Juan Carlos Medina
Screenplay:  Jane Goldman, based on the novel Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem by Peter Ackroyd
Starring:  Bill Nighy, Olivia Cooke, Douglas Booth, Daniel Mays, Sam Reid, Maria Valverde, Henry Goodman, Morgan Watkins, Eddie Marsan
Running Time:  105 minutes
Genre:  Horror, crime, period drama, mystery, thriller

Limehouse is one of the poorest and roughest areas of Victorian London where every kind of crime, degradation and vice is rampant, and now it is targeted by a brutal serial killer, the so-called "Limehouse Golem" which strikes seemingly at random, targeting the young, the old, men and women.  World weary Police Inspector John Kildare (Nighy), who has been passed over for promotion due to rumours about his private life, is put in charge of the case and during the investigation finds himself drawn to troubled music hall actress Elizabeth Cree (Cooke), who is on trial for the poisoning of her husband, one of several suspects in the Golem case.

This is a lurid, full-blooded Victorian melodrama, rich with atmosphere and period detail.  It's full of gore and horror, but also works as an intriguing mystery.  The film uses historical figures as characters, such as Karl Marx (Goodman), novelist George Gissing (Watkins) and comedian Dan Leno (Booth).  Bill Nighy is great as the sensitive, troubled police inspector and the connection he forms with  Elizabeth is genuinely touching.  The film explores themes of social inequality and the pursuit of fame.

Show Pieces

Alan Moore is possibly one of the most important and influential figures in the entire history of comics, the creator/writer of Watchmen (1986), V for Vendetta (1988-89), From Hell (1989-1996) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen  (1999 - current) and the writer of one of the most influential and controversial Batman stories of all time, "The Killing Joke" (1988) among many others.  A lot of his work has been adapted to film, with varying degrees of success.  However Moore himself has been famously against any of the film adaptations, to the extent of refusing payment and taking his name off the credits.  However here is something that he has written specifically for the screen.  Show Pieces is actually five short films, three of which have been collected into a linked anthology.

In "Act of Faith", a young newspaper journalist (Siobhan Hewlett) makes a rash decision with deadly consequences, in "Jimmy's End" a heavy drinking womaniser (Darrell D'Silva) enters a bizarre and sinister working men's club, and in "His Heavy Heart" a man is forced into a nightmarish version of Ancient Egyptian funerary rites.

Directed by Mitch Jenkins, the film is visually very striking, with a powerfully oppressive, bleak atmosphere, and a minimum of graphic gore.  More atmospheric and disturbing than actively scary, it has a strong thread of dark humour. 

Eddie the Eagle

Year of Release:  2016
Director:   Dexter Fletcher
Screenplay:  Sean Macaulay
Starring:   Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, Iris Berben, Mark Benton, Keith Allan, Jo Hartley
Running Time:  106 minutes
Genre:  biopic, comedy, drama, sports

Those of you old enough and with long enough memories may remember the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, where Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards became the first British competitor in the ski jump event and spectacularly failed to win any medals and ended up coming in last.  However, he became something of a national treasure and something of a beloved character.

This film focuses on Eddie's dogged attempts to make the Olympics.  Deciding that there is no way to get into the Summer Games he focuses his attentions on the Winter Games and, failing to get into the British team as a skier, despite being quite good at it, turns his attentions to ski jumping.

The film takes a lot of liberties with Eddie's real life.  Hugh Jackman's gruff boozed up coach who reluctantly agrees to help Eddie, is entirely fictional.  However, this is a solid heart-warming underdog sports movie.  It's funny, slight and entertaining.  Even though you know how it all turns out, it still manages to make you root for Eddie.

The film could have been a lot crueller, making Edwards a figure of fun, particularly given his eccentric appearance and mannerisms, but to it's credit it really doesn't.  Egerton gives a good performance as Edwards, almost unrecognisable with Edwards' jutting chin, clenched teeth and peering from behind thick coke-bottle glasses.  Jackman is charismatic as the gruff alcoholic ex-ski jumper  who takes the Eagle under his wing.    

Trumbo

Year of Release:  2015
Director:  Jay Roach
Screenplay:  John McNamara, based on the book Dalton Trumbo by Bruce Cook
Starring:   Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg,
Running Time:  124 minutes

This is a very entertaining slice of Hollywood history.  In the late 1940s and 1950s, acclaimed screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Cranston) becomes one of the "Hollywood Ten", investigated by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and blacklisted from the entertainment industry, forbidden to work in film in any capacity, all due to his Communist leanings.

The film is intelligent, funny and well-made. The acting is fantastic, especially from the Oscar-nominated Cranston as Trumbo, and Helen Mirren as venomous gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.  As with all based on fact films, the idea of this being entirely accurate need sot be taken with a pinch of salt, but as entertainment it definitely works.  It also works as a fascinating look at a shameful moment in Hollywood history.          

Deadpool

Year of Release:  2016
Director:  Tim Miller
Screenplay:  Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, based on the character created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld
Starring:  Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T. J. Miller, Gina Carano, Brianna Hildebrand, Stefan Kapicic
Running Time:   108 minutes

This film is based on the Marvel Comics character created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld, and is technically part of the X-Men franchise.  The movie tells the story of Wade Wilson (Reynolds) a wisecracking mercenary, who discovers that he has cancer.  Reluctantly he agrees to an experimental treatment which is designed to trigger mutant abilities.  The end result is that it cures his cancer and leaves him well-nigh invulnerable, but also hideously scarred and even more unbalanced than before.  Discovering the sinister purpose behind the treatment, and feeling unable to return to Vanessa (Baccarin), the woman he loves, due to his mutilated appearance, Wilson renames himself Deadpool and sets out for violent revenge.

This is a hugely entertaining film. It's fast, funny and full of violent action.  Deadpool frequently breaks the fourth wall, addressing jokes and comments directly to the audience, and being seemingly aware that he is a fictional character.  The action is stylish and violent (it is definitely one of the most violent of the Marvel Comics movies).  It's a film that is definitely made by fans for fans.  The problem that the film has is that the constant asides to the audience and overall flippant tone means that it's hard to connect to the characters.

It's funny and action packed, and comedy and action are very difficult genres to mix together successfully.  Deadpool doesn't always work, but it does more often than not.
    

Triple 9

Year of Release:  2016
Director:  John Hillcoat
Screenplay:  Matt Cook
Starring:  Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Norman Reedus, Woody Harrelson, Kate Winslet
Running Time:  115 minutes

This movie is a gritty, urban, cop thriller set in Atlanta, Georgia.  The story concerns a group of corrupt cops who are blackmailed by a powerful Russian-Israeli mob boss (Winslet)  into attempting a dangerous heist.  The gang decide that the only way to pull off the heist is to kill a fellow police officer, thereby distracting the attention of the cops ("triple 9" refers to the police code for "officer down").

The film is well performed by a very good cast, and there are some really good moments.  The opening robbery scene is fantastic, but the middle of the film sags, although it does pick up as it goes along.  The problem is that there is nothing really distinctive about it.  There is really nothing here that you haven't seen before in countless other cop thrillers.  The characterization is minimal with the result that it is very hard to care about anyone in the film, and the relentlessly moving camera just makes the action look confused.

It's the kind of movie that will probably have a long life on late night cable, and it passes the time, and it is quite entertaining, but you'll probably have seen it all before.       

Play It Again, Sam

Year of Release:  1972
Director:  Herbert Ross  
Screenplay:  Woody Allen, based on the stage play Play It Again, Sam by Woody Allen
Starring:  Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts
Running Time:  85 minutes

In this film written by Woody Allen, and based on his 1969 Broadway play, San Francisco film critic Allan Felix (Allen) is broken-hearted since his recent divorce.  His best friend Dick (Roberts) and Dick's wife, Linda (Keaton), try and help as best they can by setting him up on a succession of disastrous dates.  However Allan finds himself increasingly drawn to Linda, who is herself feeling neglected by her workaholic husband.  Allan's secret weapon in his quest for love, is romantic advice from none other than a ghostly Humphrey Bogart (Jerry Lacy).

Despite not having Allen in the director's chair and the move to San Francisco than Allen's more usual Manhattan locations, this definitely has the feel of early seventies Woody Allen, when he was still making more conventionally comedic films (the "early funny ones") rather than his more philosophical comedies.  This definitely isn't one of his best.  It's more amusing than actually funny, several jokes will raise a smile but not much will get a laugh.  The film frequently flits between reality and Allan's memories and fantasies.  There are times when the film's origins on the stage are quite obvious (for example Allan's conversations with the imaginary Bogart, even when out in public don't elicit any kind of reaction).

The central premise of the film is interesting, with the idea of how viewers react and connect with characters on screen, a theme that Allen would return to in The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985).  Diane Keaton gives the film it's life and lifts every scene she appears in, to the point that when she's not on screen her absence is felt.  There is also a fun running gag with the workaholic Dick constantly phoning the office to give the number of where he is and where he is going (those pre cellphone days!).

However, as so often with Woody Allen his character is more annoying than sympathetic, and it's really not that funny a film.  I would also warn that a lot of the humour is quite un-PC, and it does include a rape joke which leaves quite a sour taste.      

  

Room

Year of Release: 2015
Director:  Lenny Abrahamson
Screenplay:  Emma Donoghue, based on the novel Room by Emma Donoghue
Starring:  Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, Sean Bridgers, William H. Macy
Running Time:  117 minutes

Put simply, this adaptation of the best-selling novel Room by Emma Donoghue sounds really unpromising.  24 year old Joy (Larson) and her 5 year old son Jack (Tremblay) live together in a furnished, but squalid and tiny garden shed, where Joy has been held prisoner for the last seven years and where Jack has lived his entire life, without ever seeing anything of the outside world except the patch of sky that can be seen through a tiny skylight.  To Joy it's a living hell where she is subjected to daily rape by her captor "Old Nick" (Bridgers), but to Jack, who Joy shields from the reality of their situation, it is a place of wonder and magic and contains his entire world.  To say anything more would be to risk spoiling it, although to be honest, if you've seen the trailer or the poster than you'll get a pretty good idea.

This is not a horror film and it is not really a crime film (although obviously it centres on a crime).  The story is told through Jack's eyes, it opens seven years into Joy's ordeal, we never see her abduction and Old Nick's assaults are never shown.  It's a film about the bond between a mother and her child, and it is also about how people find strength even in the worst possible circumstances.  It's a harrowing, heartbreaking but ultimately redemptive film.  

The performances are fantastic with Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay both fantastic,  Larson managing to convey so much of the horror of the situation with just a look, and Tremblay giving an astonishing debut performance.  

Many people will probably be put off the film simply by the premise, and that is completely understandable, it is definitely not for everyone.  However it is worth giving it a chance because it is really stunning.          

Smashed

USA / 2012 / 81 mins

Director:  James Ponsoldt
Screenplay:  James Ponsoldt and Susan Burke
Starring:  Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Octavia Spencer
Genre:  Drama, comedy

Elementary school teacher Kate Hannah (Winstead) is married to writer Charlie (Paul).  Their union is based on a mutual love of alcohol and not much else.  After a very bad day and night, Kate finally realises that they are both definitely alcoholics and decides to get help, on the advice of her friend Dave (Offerman), himself a recovering alcoholic.  Kate is serious about her attempts to stay sober, Charlie, however, has no intention of quitting the drink, stretching both their relationship and Kate's resolve, to breaking point.

This indie film is a little gem.  Shot in a freewheeling hand held style, it tackles  a serious issue without coming across as either preachy of flippant.  Of course alcoholism is no laughing matter, and the film does not play it for laughs.  The humour comes form the characters and the situations that they find themselves in, even if it at times the very darkest humour.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the film's standout.  She goes to some very bleak places as Kate, but always makes her a warm, sympathetic character.  Kate is never played as a victim, and Winstead gives her the steel necessary to deal with everything that is thrown at her.  

The Bridge on the River Kwai

1957  /  UK /  161 minutes

Director:  David Lean
Screenplay:  Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, based on the novel The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle
Starring:  William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Genre:  Action, drama, war

This film is set in Thailand in 1943 and concerns a group of British Prisoners Of War led by principled dutiful gentleman officer Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Guinness) who are ordered by their Japanese captors, led by tough strict Colonel Saito (Hayakawa), to work on a rail bridge spanninjg the Kwai river.  After a long battle of wills between Nicholson and Saito, primarily due to the latter's insistence that officers work alongside the men, the two reach a compromise, and Nicholson and his men co-operate on the construction of the bridge, partly to boost the prisoner's morale and partly out of pride in British engineering.
Unbeknownst to anyone at the prison camp however, a small group of Allied soldiers, led by cynical realist American naval officer Shears (Holden), who has some secrets of his own, and who managed to escape from the prison camp, are moving through the jungle on  a dangerous mission to destroy the bridge by any means necessary.

Based on a novel by French author Pierre Boulle (whose work also inspired Planet of the Apes), this is an acknowledged cinema classic.  Directed by David Lean, the master of widescreen spectacle, it is a hugely entertaining film.  It's not an all-action shoot 'em up war film, although there are some exciting action set pieces, it's more of a character piece.  Particularly interesting is the relationship between Nicholson, practically the epitome of the stiff upper lipped British officer, and Saito, his Japanese counterpart, initially antagonistic it becomes something more complex.

The film was the winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and there are elements of it that have become part of cinema history, such as the prisoners whistling the "Colonel Bogey March" while marching, and the exciting climax.