Film Shapes

The films I've seen about The Troubles in Northern Ireland have pretty much been of a type. Odd Man Out , The Crying Game , In the Name of the Father , '71 - very good films, but all essentially bleak. Kenneth Branagh's Belfast is something different. The film is a charming paean to the city, and specifically Branagh's time growing up there. It opens during the August 1969 riots, generally regarded as the start of the conflict, and shows a group of Protestants attacking Catholic houses in the street where the young Ken surrogate, Buddy (Jude Hill) lives with his parents and brother. This shock is seen through Buddy's eyes, but rather than trauma, a creeping curiosity seeps out. Scenes of strife and looting on TV; politicians fannying about; English soldiers on the streets, these things all happen in the background for Buddy, leave that stuff to the adults. The perplexing notion of the 'two roads' sermon, given by a grotesque, Ian Paisley-like preacher, is ...

This should have been great, maybe it was to Spider-fans, but I couldn't shake the feeling of ennui that usually only appears when I'm witnessing one of Tottenham's many false dawns. No Way Home is the third installment of Tom Holland's Peter Parker (not counting his appearances in other MCU films). Let me back up a bit here. When I say this should have been great, I'm thinking about the potential of the premise, not necessarily anything pertaining to Spidey. As I've droned on about before, I just can't abide the character. He's fine in other films, in small doses, but carrying one stand-alone film, let alone three? Not for me, Clive. There's nothing wrong with Holland, nor with Zendaya, who plays Spider-love interest, MJ. Benedict Cumberbatch is excellent support as Dr. Strange and there are notable cameos from This Fella , That Geezer and even Old Whatsijizzit . The central idea is that Spides is bummed that people know his alter ego, after his ...

Memoria starts with a locked off, very mundane shot of a curtain with a dark, triangular shape in the foreground. This holds for around a minute until an incredibly loud bang provokes the shape to move. This is the shoulder of Tilda Swinton's Jessica, and she slowly rises and wanders through her apartment, settling at a table next to some caged mice. Cut to a car park at night, where alarms start sounding and continue for what feels like ages. They eventually die out one by one, all held in a slow zooming shot. I admit to never having seen any of the director's (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) previous films, but if this is anything to go by, he's certainly a brazen chap. The source of the loud bang is the nominal thrust of the film, as Jessica, almost half-heartedly, investigates the cause. But the noise is just a pretext for Weerasethakul (who also wrote the film) to explore ideas of displacement, disconnection, memory and the weight of history. Jessica is an English botanist...

Swine after pearls, here are the 10 films that either disappointed, annoyed or mortified me in 2021. In descending order, have a gander at some of this shite. [Check out the full reviews by clicking on the title] 10. Clue (1985) Found this on a streamer and kind of wish I hadn't. The cast has a lot going for it - Tim Curry, Michael McKean, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd  - but none of them can rise above the forced energy and boring story. Films based on board games, eh? A product of its time. 9. The Toll (2021) This was a huge disappointment. An interesting cast, including Michael Smiley, Iwan Rheon, Annes Elwy (best in show) and Paul Kaye, couldn't save the material. It was trying to be many things all at once, but sadly none of the angles worked. The novice writer and director will hopefully learn from this ambitious mess. 8. Death Note (2017) This Netflix adaptation of the Japanese manga, then anime, then three (!) live action Japanese films, was entirely unnecessary. ...

Well, film made it through 2021, mostly intact. There were more cinema closures around the world but a couple of delayed films from 2020 were finally released, though there's still a bit of a lag for others. A gall bladder removal in February meant no trips to the cinema for that month, but I managed to get to the big screen 68 times in all. So from a total of 125 films watched this year (112 first time viewings), here are the top ten films I saw in 2021.  [Click on the titles for links to full reviews for all but number 10] 10. The Wicker Man (1973) This is the Edward Woodward original from the 70s, not the Cage remake (though I'm keeping an open mind to that one). I shamefully hadn't seen this and I'm sorry I left it so long. It's a clever, moody, very bloody odd look at the perils of faith and conversely, curiosity. Christopher Lee is imperious, Britt Ekland stunning - her seduction of Woodward FROM A DIFFERENT ROOM has to be seen to be believed. A real cult cla...