Films Discussed in 2026

King’s Game – 12/02/26

I’ve never watched a Nordic noir TV series but if any of them are as good as the Danish political thriller King’s Game (Kongekabale) (2004) I admit I’ve been seriously missing out. Rather than guns and detectives, the focus of this intelligent and gripping film is on dark intrigue in the corridors of power and a journalist who stumbles on something suspicious. With great precision and plausibility writer/director Nikolaj Arcel and his team have conjured up a fictional Watergate on a smaller scale and an investigation full of suspense and jeopardy that takes over the life of the workaday reporter who may have bitten off more than he can chew. I seem to recall that I was able to follow the twists and turns as the mystery unfolds – a rare bonus – and the pay-off in the culminating scene was fabulous. I’m not surprised that this movie swept the board in the national awards of its home country, winning the prize for best film as well as director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, editor and three other categories – thankfully sufficient domestic success for it to be released in this country. I was fortunate enough to catch it.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378215/

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kings_game

Back to Black – 12/02/26

Though inhabiting the same city as the celebrated jazz/soul/R&B/pop phenomenon Amy Winehouse, she was little more than a name to me during her tragically short career and I may not have listened to any of her songs. This perhaps made me the perfect customer for Sam Taylor-Johnson’s biopic Back to Black (2024), a strong successor in my view to the director’s better received Nowhere Boy (2009) about the teenage years of John Lennon. To my fresh eyes it was an intriguing and disturbing mix that held me in its sway – the uneasy family background, a pure ambition clashing with commercial pressures, then derailed by alcohol, drugs and an all-consuming romance. The unexpected bonus was to be transported by the music itself. Finally I heard what all the fuss was about and enjoyed some of the pieces in full-length performances by the astonishing Marisa Abela, who even the knowledgeable fans agree achieves an amazing incarnation of her subject, including a stage presence and vocal mimicry founded on months of intensive training. A worthy tribute that was highly watchable for this viewer.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21261712/

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/back_to_black

It’s Love I’m After – 22/01/26

Of the 88 films directed by Archie Mayo, from silent shorts in 1917 to the last and perhaps weakest Marx Brothers vehicle in 1946, two stand a head clear of the rest according to their IMDb rating, partly thanks to the delicious pairing of Leslie Howard and Bette Davis at the head of the cast in both of them. Apparently the two stars did not get along on set, adding spice to their volatile relationship as a theatrical couple in It’s Love I’m After (1937). This top-class romantic comedy bordering on drawing room farce also showcases Olivia de Havilland as the adoring fan who becomes a mixed blessing for the great Basil Underwood, played by Howard with his customary debonair panache. Davis issues her withering put-downs in a more light-hearted vein than usual, competing for the limelight as Underwood’s stage partner and official lover Joyce Arden. The wryly amused observations of manservant Digges, played by Eric Blore, who often popped up in this kind of role, add to the fun. I thoroughly enjoyed this very witty frolic when I caught it at the BFI about twenty years ago.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029058/

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/its-love-im-after

L.A. Confidential – 22/01/26

The epitome of cool and machismo respectively, Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe, established stars still on the rise towards the peak of their fame, take on the roles in L.A. Confidential (1997) of morally dubious cops amongst the general corruption and brutality of the Los Angeles Police Department. The acting pedigree runs deep in this cracking crime thriller directed by Curtis Hanson, with an ensemble that includes Kim Basinger, Guy Pearce and Danny De Vito. The tense relationships between the distinctive characters, the 1950s setting rendered with a winning combination of style and grit, the Oscar winning script in which the gradual revelation of a murky mystery leads to a satisfying dénouement, all contribute to the high reputation that this adaptation of James Ellroy’s 1990 potboiler enjoys. I remember nothing more of the plot, only that the movie held me in its grip as it seems to have done almost everyone else who’s seen it. With slight trepidation as to the violence that might erupt at any moment during the two and a quarter hours’ running time, I look forward to revisiting this undoubted classic of the genre.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119488/

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/la_confidential

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