About the introductions and star ratings
Stan & Ollie – 24/09/26
There are so many ways a biographical drama about probably still the world’s most famous comedy partnership could have gone horribly wrong. With fairly modest credentials behind him director Jon S. Baird has skipped along the tightrope and put together a sincere, moving, highly engaging and at times hilarious tribute to the real-life men behind the iconic on-screen buffoons, and also to their wives, with whom they seem to have shared an intuitive understanding and rapport despite their long periods of separation. Stan & Ollie (2018) lives or dies of course by the performances in the two lead roles, and it seems as though Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly have been waiting for this opportunity all their acting lives. Their joy in the portrayal is evident even though Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy find themselves at rock bottom, trying to put their act back together in miserable, rainy, impoverished post-war Britain and Ireland. It seems a forlorn cause, but they are nothing if not persevering.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3385524
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000sdz8/stan-ollie
Vertigo – 24/09/26
Vertigo (1958), is currently number two in the decennial Sight and Sound critics’ poll of the greatest films of all time, and has been on the very top rung of the ladder. If “great” can be taken to mean “pleasurable to wallow in” then I fully agree. The atmosphere, the rich, highly saturated technicolor of the 1950s, the settings, the two stars, the tantalising Kim Novak and the tormented Jimmy Stewart in his most interesting period, make for a sumptuous experience regardless of story or meaning, but there is plenty of both – the slow-burning mystery, both dangerous and delicious, offering light at the end of the tunnel, the protagonist comes within a whisker of his heart’s desire, but no, we are only in the middle and the roof caves in, all is lost. As the plot twists and turns so do the characters in a mesmerising thriller that is also a disturbing psychological study. Even with high production values at his disposal it is the dark and murky corners that Alfred Hitchcock loves to explore. I might choose another as the very “best” film he directed, but this one is the ultimate cinematic pleasure.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052357
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vertigo
My Life So Far – 10/09/26
An eccentric family which provides a rich cast of characters muddles its way through a year between the wars in My Life So Far (1999). Perhaps the sense of privileged, if not necessarily pecunious, aimlessness has less appeal for the viewer of today, but I was hugely entertained by the fads and crotchets of three generations battling for ascendancy in the rambling mansion and grounds of a Scottish estate, as well as friends and relations who dropped in to share the fun or stir things up. A young Colin Firth portrays the energetic, often blundering father of the boy narrator in the centre of all the shenanigans. This witty biographical comedy drama is also an affectionate portrayal of time, place and people, and directed with a lightness of touch that I don’t otherwise associate with Hugh Hudson. Or so I vaguely recall from watching it on telly more than 20 years ago. I’m anticipating it will be a great pleasure to renew my acquaintance with the Pettigrews of Kiloran House.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120899
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_life_so_far
The Misfits – 10/09/2026
Directed by John Huston from an original screenplay by Arthur Miller and starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift, with Eli Wallach and Thelma Ritter in support – a line-up to die for, and that’s exactly what The Misfits did at the box office in 1961. Sadly, so too did both Gable and Monroe within a year, yet for many critics the mature performances they delivered on a difficult shoot in their last completed film were the best of their respective careers. I’m a great fan of these serious, atmospheric, beautifully composed black and white, perhaps somewhat meandering but absorbing, edgy dramas of the late fifties and early sixties, this one set in the dusty Western plains, where hard-bitten men could once earn big bucks by rounding up wild Mustangs (or “misfit horses”). Young women in boarding houses wait for their divorce cases to be heard. In the centenary year of Monroe’s birth I am looking forward to re-appraising her role as the witting or unwitting catalyst of male rivalry in this now widely appreciated classic.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055184
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/misfits
My Brilliant Career – 20/08/2026
My Brilliant Career was voted best film at the Australian Film Institute awards for 1979, and director Gillian Armstrong won the award for best director. It is based on the novel of the same name by Miles Franklin, who achieved her greatest literary success in her early twenties when it was published in 1901. The film is an example of Australian ‘new wave’ cinema, as well as being a feminist movie. I found it a fascinating portrayal of a young woman living in the outback in the 1800s trying against all odds to forge a literary career for herself, which went against her parents’ and society’s expectations. The role of Sybylla Melvyn the aspiring writer in a harsh, unpromising environment launched the real-life career of Judy Davis, who won the BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role, while the award-winning and much-loved New Zealand actor Sam Neill (Sir Nigel John Dermot Neill OBE) who died last month, also gave his first notable screen performance as the dashing suitor Harry Beecham.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079596
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_brilliant_career
Life of Pi – 20/08/2026
Director Ang Lee’s Life of Pi (2012), adapted from Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winning novel, opens in the sun-soaked streets of Pondicherry, where young Piraj “Pi” Patel, the son of a zookeeper, drifts happily between Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, much to the bemusement of the priest, the pastor and the imam, who eventually compare notes. It’s a warm, funny prelude to a story that soon turns into something altogether more extraordinary: a shipwreck, a lifeboat, and an uneasy companionship with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, all rendered by Lee in visuals of genuine, Oscar-winning beauty. Suraj Sharma, in his first film role, carries the weight of the adult Pi’s ordeal (with Irrfan Khan narrating the older Pi’s account to a visiting writer), while the film quietly asks a question it never fully answers: whether the story we choose to believe matters more than the one that’s strictly true. It’s a film that rewards a second viewing, and the novel prompted one of the deepest discussions we have had over the past 25 years in my North West London bloke’s book club.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454876
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/life-of-pi
The Insider – 23/07/26
Directed by Michael Mann, a dab hand at action set pieces in crime thrillers and war films, The Insider (1999) provides two and a half hours of gripping screen drama without, as far as I remember, a gun being fired or a punch being thrown. In this dramatisation of a real-life conspiracy in the tobacco industry Russell Crowe is a revelation as the mild scientist Jeffrey Wigand, the insider trapped between a rock and a hard place, personified by Michael Gambon as the ruthless company CEO and Al Pacino the relentless producer of investigative documentaries Lowell Bergman, both in vintage form, along with Christopher Plummer as CBS veteran Mike Wallace. The chill of the boardroom, the heat of the newsroom, the clash of the courtroom, as well as Wigand’s threatened family life are authentically portrayed in what one reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes describes as “an absorbing, passionate, entertaining … utterly immaculate movie”. I quite agree.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140352
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/insider
The Petrified Forest -23/07/26
The lonely Arizona roadside stop, where tired and dusty travellers refuel themselves and their motors before the next unforgiving stretch of desert highway, takes its stark name from the surrounding arid region, strewn with fossils of fallen trees. Robert E. Sherwood also makes it the title of his play, in which young Gabrielle Maple mopes around the family diner and gas station, dreaming of romantic escape. Her boredom is banished with the arrival of an itinerant philosopher poet who seems to be a kindred spirit, followed by the less welcome intrusion of a desperate gangster. With the perfect casting of Bette Davis, Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart in these three leading roles, getting fully stuck into their juicy dialogue under the direction of Archie Mayo, there was never a dull moment for this viewer during the eighty-two minutes of The Petrified Forest (1936).
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028096
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_petrified_forest
Boyhood – 18/06/26
To bring his biggest and boldest idea for a film to fruition the Texas-based auteur Richard Linklater committed himself, along with a stable of actors and production workers to a minimum twelve year-long project. Such is his self-belief and the confidence he inspires in others, the obsessive discipline to prepare for the annual shoots and the creative fluidity to make the most of them, that there never seems to have been much doubt about the outcome. Boyhood (2014) has achieved huge critical acclaim and recouped its budget ten times over. As Mason, initially six years old, progresses from 1st through to 12th grade the actor Ellar Coltrane is himself growing up, while Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke as his mom and dad are gradually ageing, along with other relatives and friends. This natural transition heightens the realism of the joys and conflicts presented, including, as I remember it, the unfortunate installation of borderline psychopaths into the home. It’s no picnic for the child or adolescent in a family beset by familiar 21st century dysfunctions, but an engrossing two hour and forty minute journey for the viewer.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1065073
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/boyhood
Taxi – 18/06/26
Taxi (aka Taxi Tehran) is an understated, seemingly innocuous yet eye-opening film, giving Western viewers an insight into daily life in Iran which they otherwise wouldn’t have, through the stories of passengers in a “share taxi” travelling through the city streets. It’s a kind of docufiction, made in defiance of a 20 year ban imposed on the director Jafar Panahi in 2010. The taxi becomes a setting for debate and drama around social issues such as women having to wear the hijab. So much more has happened since Panahi wrote, directed and played the lead role of the good-humoured driver in this 2015 film which won the Golden Bear award. He was detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison in July 2022 for protesting against the arrest of fellow directors. After going on hunger strike, he was released in 2023. His next film, It Was Just an Accident (2025) won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. He returned to Iran from exile in France in April this year, determined to continue at whatever personal risk with his thought-provoking, serious yet playful brand of film-making focused on the realities of Iranian society.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4359416
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/taxi_2015
Junebug – 28/05/26
Like so many of my favourite obscure independent movies Junebug (2005) is a small-scale domestic drama which skilfully laces the interpersonal conflicts with wry observational comedy. Both elements emerge naturally from the clash of cultures between the polished metropolitan couple and the down to earth rural relatives that the husband persuades his wife to drop in on. To refresh my memory I’ve dropped in briefly on the occasional scene – Embeth Davidtz and Amy Adams as the sisters-in-law trying to bridge the jarring gap between art dealer Madeleine’s posh British accent and the southern twang of the pregnant homebody Ashley – Ben McKenzie as the brother Johnny who has stayed put, maintaining a sullen profile and wishing the intruders gone. Added to the family dynamics in this engaging first feature film of only two directed by Phil Morrison is the real reason for the venture into the North Carolina hinterland – Madeleine’s wish to display the work of local self-taught artist David Wark in her Chicago “outsider art” gallery, a plan which may be easier conceived than achieved.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418773
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/junebug
The Beat That My Heart Skipped – 28/05/26
Unusually, The Beat That My Heart Skipped (De Battre mon Coeur s’est Arrêté)(2005) is a remake of a long forgotten film slated by the critics at the time, the 1978 American production Fingers starring Harvey Keitel. And the basic premise might seem improbable – Thomas, a 28-year-old real estate broker with aspirations to become a concert pianist pursues both metiers with equal determination and dedication – but director Jaques Audiard’s boldness brings it off with conviction and panache. In this stylish and visceral crime drama the gritty realism is leavened by Tom’s unlikely sideline. That the hands wielding the baseball bat to evict vulnerable squatters from buildings scheduled for redevelopment are also those of a pianist is, for me, a brilliant image at the centre of the film. Romain Duris delivers a great performance in the starring role, as does Niels Arestrup as his criminal father and other supporting actors.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411270
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beat_that_my_heart_skipped
Far from the Madding Crowd – 07/05/26
I can’t see any of the flaws in Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) that some critics complain of. Whether on a small black and white TV or the big screen it’s held me entranced from the first mutually respectful stand-off between Julie Christie as the wilful Bathsheba and Alan Bates as the solid Gabriel Oak, through more than two and a half hours of agricultural toil and harmony punctured by the tumultuous interventions of Terence Stamp as the swashbuckling Sergeant Troy and Peter Finch as the landowning neighbour William Boldwood. With John Schlesinger directing from a Frederic Raphael script based on Thomas Hardy’s powerful novel, and with Nicholas Roeg wielding the camera, the talents brought together seem almost too good to be true. Still, they all need to click to produce the magic and, in my view, sixty years ago in the Dorset countryside they did.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061648/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1007105-far_from_the_madding_crowd
Ball of Fire – 07/05/26
Two worlds collide in the exceptional screwball comedy Ball of Fire (1941) directed by Howard Hawks. Like Meet John Doe, released in the same year, it pairs Gary Cooper as the good-natured, unworldly innocent opposite Barbara Stanwyck as the fast talking street-wise siren whose lack of scruples set him up for a fall. Here Cooper is surprisingly convincing as the awkwardly upright Professor Bertram Potts while Stanwyck trips gaily through the closeted quarters where he lives and toils with seven older professors on an encyclopaedia, distracting them with her sassy charm. The scriptwriters Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder are also a classic pairing, with several other gems to their combined names. They confidently construct a setting laden with humorous potential and allow the entire professorial menagerie a turn to shine, along with a host of varied characters, from garbage collector and housekeeper to gangsters and highly-strung heiress. For me this is one of those rare examples in any genre of a film that gets better and better as it goes along.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033373/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ball_of_fire
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir – 16/04/26
What I recall enjoying particularly about The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) is some sparkling dialogue – laced, in the words of a contemporary critic, with “salty expressions” – and a brooding coastal atmosphere with swirling mist as the backdrop for an unexpectedly touching romance. The late Captain Daniel Gregg and the bereaved Mrs Muir from London find themselves occupying the same creaky old house much to their mutual consternation. As in a number of other well-loved films directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz the leading actors give performances beyond their usual bounds. I revelled in the confrontations and assignations between Gene Tierney as the uncommonly pretty young widow and Rex Harrison as an unusually dapper if irascible sea dog, and I was caught up in their predicament as reality intruded. Third on the bill is George Sanders, an actor I always enjoy watching in these well-scripted classic Hollywood productions. I barely remember his role but I’m sure it involved some entertaining rivalry with the ghost.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039420/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ghost_and_mrs_muir
Hidden – 16/04/26
The enviable Parisian lifestyle of an attractive couple – played by my favourite French actor Daniel Auteuil and the ever watchable Juliette Binoche – is tainted by the inexplicable actions of an unknown stalker. The invisible, perhaps imagined persecution, gets to the husband Georges in particular, affecting his behaviour at work as well as towards his wife. He digs deeper, and dangerously, remaining as unprepared as the viewer for the shock in store. Hidden (Caché) (2005) is a Michael Haneke film, designed to make you feel uncomfortable, to experience the “deep-seated collective malaise” of modern society, in this case through the medium of a gripping neo-noir drama. The formidable German-born writer/director achieved even greater acclaim with The White Ribbon (2009) and Amour (2012) but I’ve shied away from these subsequent projects as they sounded too bleak for me. I’m happy to recognise an inspired auteur on the basis of this one brilliant work that exercises the talents of Auteuil and Binoche in their prime.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387898/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cache_2005
Double Indemnity – 26/03/26
The palpable tension in the air between the protagonists of Double Indemnity (1944), remains with me forty years or so after watching this renowned classic of film noir, probably on a late-night BBC transmission. I shared the romantically entwined plotters’ fear of discovery. Did I want them to abort the plan or go through with the desperate deed? All the ingredients of the genre are here, whipped up into a particularly rich brew by the talents involved – director Billy Wilder, who adapted the screenplay along with Raymond Chandler from the novel by James M. Cain, cameraman John F. Seitz and the trio of stars, Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson, all of whom were stepping outside their comfort zone and needed persuasion to take on their unaccustomed or unflattering roles. It’s more than high time for me to see this legendary crime drama again.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036775/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/double_indemnity
Shine – 26/03/26
Who had heard of either David Helfgott or Geoffrey Rush before 1996? Certainly not me. The latter’s energetic but deeply touching portrayal of the former in the biopic Shine of that year brought fame to both and deservedly won the Oscar for Rush. Huge credit is also due to director Scott Hicks who conceived the project, screenwriter Jan Sardi, and Noah Taylor who plays the adolescent Helfgott. There are delightful turns by John Gielgud as the mentor who prepares the nervous young pianist for his headline performance of the notorious “Rach 3” and Lynn Redgrave as the woman who befriends him many years later. From a gloomy home atmosphere in Melbourne to London privations and glamour to mental institutions and casual performances in bars this is a turbulent ride in which we share the excitements and anguish of a talented, troubled man, while being treated of course to some glorious piano playing. I’ve found it a compelling watch both times so far.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117631/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shine
Glengarry Glen Ross – 05/03/26
Playwright David Mamet’s incisive, witty and brutally frank exposés of the American male psyche in pursuit of money, sex and the sheer satisfaction of trampling over your rival to achieve your goal, reached its zenith, or nadir in terms of the behaviour depicted, with his 1983 play set in a cut-throat real-estate office. For the film version of Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) director James Foley insisted on box-office stars to play the major roles of office manager, motivational trainer and four salesmen who fight over the leads (unwary investors to be manipulated into signing a deal) and who regale each other with their methods of achieving closure. Boy did he get his wish! Never in the history of cinema has such a modest indoor scene been the setting for such a roster of renowned actors (too many to name here) to flex their muscles and show their mettle in close-quarter combat. The distinctive personalities and conflicting agendas in Mamet’s brilliant script make for a claustrophobic drama of the highest order in this production. I’m amazed it achieved only a single Oscar nomination.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104348/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/glengarry_glen_ross
Snow Cake – 05/03/26
Snow Cake (2006) is small independent film set in the snow drifts of Ontaria that might have been frozen beneath them without reaching the screen were it not for Alan Rickman accepting the leading male role and enlisting Sigourney Weaver as his co-star. No surprises in Rickman playing the decent, considerate but guilt-ridden visitor to the remote township of Wawa, but it was initially a bit of a shock to see Weaver looking so plain as the unworldly resident he has come to see. It’s a credit to the much lesser-known director Marc Evans and two scriptwriters that my growing interest in the characters and how their relations would develop soon banished the apparent bleakness of their situation. The critics seem a bit sniffy but I’m with the majority of ordinary punters in finding this a highly involving domestic drama with some original twists, a good mix of the serious and humorous, and of course beautifully acted by the two principals as well as the supporting actors. I’ve said almost nothing about the story, leaving it as virgin territory for the first-time viewer to discover.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448124/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/snow_cake
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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