Judgements

I had read about Werner Herzog’s documentary Grizzly Man, which weaves his own footage with that of the dead bear watcher, although I never really made the effort to seek it out. But when it showed up on a DVD evening at a friend’s house, I wasn’t going to object. It is actually a beautifully [...]

Cate Blachett surely has to be in the running for an Oscar, but as Actor or Actress? Her Jude Quinn (without a parka!) in I’m not there is astonishing, Bob Dylan somehow brought to life. She doesn’t impersonate Dylan, but she somehow recreates him, which is fitting as this wonderful, kaleidoscopic film recreates and weaves [...]

Most film directors are content to signal boredom, tedium, ennui and the passage of time with a couple of yawns, maybe a fidget or two, and perhaps the chipmunk rotations of a speeded-up clock. (There are exceptions.) Jim Jarmusch is exceptional, and he’s also not most film directors. So when he sets out to convey [...]

Another cliché fest, but this one is entirely enjoyable. Tea with Mussolini features English battle-ax, free-spirited artist, dyke archaeologist, fresh-faced boy, kindly grandmotherly type, Latin Lothario, Scotsmen, etc etc. And Cher, who really has made some rather good films (this, Moonstruck, Mask). Delightful, without being too trying, and Zeffirelli’s sure hand with music and mood [...]

Really, how long does it take to hammer out a little review? Four minutes? Hahahaha; a private joke, because in the great catch-up effort, the movie in question is Four Minutes. This has everything. The artist as savage beast. Music as savage breast soother. Art as redemption. Sex. Violence. Lesbians. At one point The Squeeze [...]

A Yorkshire on which it never rains. A Women’s Institute peopled by the likes of Julie Waters, Helen Mirren and Celia Imrie. Men who are gruff and taciturn but not grumpy. A story about pluck in the face of adversity and the value of true friendship. What’s not to like about Calendar Girls? Rating:

The truth is, pedantry and non-pedantry can cut both ways. A pedant may vary from a dogged, uninquisitive, cloth-palated follower of orders to a devotee bent on doing everything right; while a non-pedant might be a simply lazy-bones or someone airy-fairily ‘creative’ in the worst, self-applauding way, or someone of justified confidence who has mastered [...]

Arlington Road has Tim Robbins and Jeff Bridges in it; what’s not to like? The heavy-handedness and plethora of hints that all is not what it seems. That old saw “Just because you’re paranoid …” gets a good working over, and the end is something of a surprise, in a movie-making industry addicted to resolution. [...]

Very odd to see a film as quintessentially English as The History Boys among an American audience. Were others aware of the crucial layering of “other” universities? Neither Hull nor Loughborough is Oxbridge, of course; but nor is Hull Loughborough. Excellent, excellent fun, and well portrayed too. All of the adults were both individuals and [...]

I cannot remember the last time I paid money to see a Bond film. There were a couple I couldn’t avoid on TV, and one that helped to pass the time of day on a flight. But actual money? Not since the main purpose was a snog in the back row. Yesterday, however, buoyed a [...]

There’s a clear metaphor at the heart of Wasabi: Jean Reno sucks great gobbets of the aforementioned cruciferous paste from his fingertips and evinces no emotion, no stimulation, whatsoever. He’s that hard. Or, alternatively, this wasabi is entirely without heat. Take your pick. One thing’s for certain. Léon, it ain’t. Rating: