Film Shapes

Cold War , directed and co-written by Pawel Pawlikowski, has been the darling of the festival circuit and it's reviews have ranged from very good to glowing. But I'm afraid to say that it didn't quite do all that for me. It's clearly a masterful piece of work - nicely acted, beautiful to look at in its monochrome and 4:3 ratio and adeptly directed with a real restraint. It's loosely based on the lives of Pawlikowski's parents, who went through similar turbulence in cold war Europe. The film follows around 15 years in the lives of musicians, Witkor, played by Tomasz Kot, and Zula, played luminously by Joanna Kulig, who fall in love and spend the rest of their lives trying to be together. Black and white? Academy aspect ratio? Europe in the post-war years? Bleak as all hell? Why didn't I like this more? It's a puzzler. I think part of the reason lies in the protagonists. I couldn't warm to them, as good as the performances were. I guess it's ...

M. Night Shyamalan's latest is the third part of a trilogy that was supposedly dreamt up around 20 years ago. If you liked  Split  and don't remember  Unbreakable , this is the film for you. The neat trick in  Glass  is bringing together the three heavy hitters of the previous films - James McAvoy's multiple personality 'Horde', Bruce Willis's unbreakable David Dunn and Samuel L. Jackson's fragile Elijah Price (or Mr. Glass) - and placing them in a slightly creepy, understaffed asylum. The majority of the film does its business here and that's where it feels most comfortable. In fact, I'd suggest that, due to the nonsense that is perpetrated in the final third, Shyamalan has problems finishing his movies. Not the most controversial statement, I know. The mooted showdown at the tallest building in Philadelphia was nicely shelved, though. It probably would've been too  Die Hard  meets  King Kong,  but it's a herring, none redder. Presum...