Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

Well I finally got around to seeing this acclaimed film. I'd been putting it off because I thought it was going to be a bit heavy: 24 hours in a small slice of Brooklyn, with racial tensions soaring along with the temperature. So I am pleased to report it's very entertaining, starting with a terrific opening credits sequence and never letting up, but not in an exhausting way.  It's got a lively set of characters that we jump between, with not a lot happening on the surface, but there is a simmering undercurrent of racial hostility which gradually builds during the day (and the film), until it eventually erupts.    Although it was shot on location the film has a stylised look, maybe because of the use of red and orange paint to suggest heat.  I wouldn't have been surprised to learn that it was adapted from a play because it has a theatrical quality, but in fact Spike Lee knocked off the screenplay in a couple of weeks, for which he rightly received an Oscar nomination...

I'm well into the swords-and-sandals genre so I had a good time with this sequel. And why not? It's got a lot of spectacle and a great cast - Paul Mescal! Denzel Washington! Pedro Pascal!  Matt Lucas!   But of course it doesn't have the power of the original: it  has a less clean storyline, and though he is a fine actor Paul Mescal is no Russell Crowe. We start off following a very similar path to the original: Hanno (Mescal) is captured by the Romans and wants revenge for the death of his wife, the target of his wrath being General Acasius (Pascal).  He is bought by Macrinus (Washington) who among other things trains slaves to be gladiators. From this point on the story arc thankfully diverges from the original if  not always in a good way.  Spoiler alert: Hanno is really (would you believe it?) Lucius, the son from the first film of Crowe's character, Maximus, and Lucilla, sent away by his mother to protect him from assassins.  Lucius is angry about ...

I like Brian De Palma as a director and I'm a huge Hitchcock fan.  So this homage to 'Psycho' should be like catnip for me. But although it has some merit (I guess) it is hard to get past how sleazy and transphobic it is. At times (especially in the opening scene) it seems perilously close to soft porn.  Throughout it seems to invite the audience to enjoy violence, or the threat of violence, against women.  To make matters worse I didn't think the film is especially well made.  There's a long sequence in an art gallery which is supposed to be suspenseful but it didn't work for me, because it seemed to go on forever, and because the accompanying music was so slack. The staging of the murder is intended as a clear parallel to that of Marion Crane in 'Psycho' but it is far less memorable but it does confirm that Hitchcock was right to shoot 'Psycho' in black-and-white. The plot is pretty silly, although there is some enjoyment to be had from seeing ...

Judging by this fifth outing Jack Ryan is a dull character, which probably explains why attempts to build a franchise around him have failed (Chris Pine here is the fourth actor to play him).   The first half hour is so generic and forgettable that indeed I had seen this film before and forgotten the early scenes where we meet three of the four main characters: Jack himself, a marine recovering from a serious war injury, Cathy (Keira Knightley) a British trainee doctor, and Harper (Kevin Costner) a CIA high-up  who recruits Jack. Jack is so boring that the best use for him that the CIA can find is to put him in a bank on the off-chance he might learn something to the CIA's advantage. Fast forward 10 years (!) and Jack is in New York still hoping his stint in the bank will pay off. And guess what?  He discovers some suspicious financial trades pointing to a Russian bank, and off to Moscow he is sent.   One small problem is that Cathy is now his fiancée but h...

This documentary is about an obscure British artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham who led an undramatic life and whose work was largely ignored during her lifetime. Given this unpromising material the fact that this film is as absorbing as it is is down largely to the director and narrator, Mark Cousins.  He is an experienced documentary-maker and he uses a variety of methods, including bringing himself into the film, to bring it to life.  At one point he imagines a conversation between the young Wilhelmina and an older version. It's an idiosyncratic film which jumps around in an engaging way.  Refreshingly for a film of this type, there are no 'talking heads'. The title is more or less how Wilhelmina herself described her experience on a Swiss glacier in mid-life.  I don't know whether this reflects more on me or on the film but I came out at the end not much wiser as to how this encounter transformed her art.  But I did enjoy what I saw of her paintings.  ...

This is very much a film that does exactly what you would expect given the setup, which is that  three daughters are in their dying father's house, waiting for the inevitable. We can confidently predict that the three sisters (played by Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne) are going to work through some sibling issues as the film progresses, and that by the end of the film they will be comfortable with each other, which is far from the case at the outset. The acting throughout is impeccable, so although the overall story arc is indeed as expected, it's still a pleasure to watch. There’s one small surprise, towards the end when the father emerges from his bedroom.  This leads to an audacious and (for me at least) rather confusing scene, which carries a real emotional punch. RATING : ✓ Cheers

How great to come across a film which combines a few simple elements in a fresh and original way. We start off by seeing a young woman Allison (played by Aubrey Plaza) sitting by a lake.  We then see her go into a large cabin, and sit at a desk with a notepad in front of her. We then move to "Part One: The Bear In The Road" which begins with Allison arriving at the same country retreat, as a guest of a married couple, Gabe and Blair (who is pregnant).  It soon becomes clear that all is not well in their marriage and as the evening progresses things escalate, to the point where Gabe and Alison become intimate.  When Blair discovers them, Gabe pushes her to the floor, causing her some internal injury.  In a panic Alison starts driving them to the nearest hospital but crashes the car trying to avoid a (surprise!) black bear in the road. The screen then goes to black and we are on to "Part Two: The Bear by the Boat House".  We are back with Allison sitting by the la...