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.