Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

Fun is not necessarily the first word that comes to mind when I think of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, ‘Boogie Nights’ notwithstanding.    But right from the outset this film signals that it is going to have a comedic or satiric edge to it, with a frankly bizarre scene between a black and fearsome freedom fighter Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) and the very white Colonel Stephen J Lockjaw (played wonderfully well by an almost unrecognisable Sean Penn), in which the latter becomes sexually aroused in a ridiculous manner which had me worried about where the film might be going tone-wise. Perfidia is in a relationship with Pat (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), both of them being members of a resistance group named the French 75.  When she  gives birth to a baby girl he naturally assumes he is the father, oblivious to the fact that she has been enjoying sexual high jinks with Lockjaw.    We then get some quickfire scenes, leading to Perfidia ratting on fellow French 75 m...

Martin Scorsese's previous film 'The Irishman' was both very long and quite dull.   So for a while I resisted seeing this 206-minute epic, especially since I found the trailer rather offputting.  Eventually though the favourable critical response overcame my objections, and I am glad to be able to report that this is a pretty impressive effort from the veteran director (I'm sure that's a relief to him.) It's an adaptation of the non-fiction book of the same title which recounts how in 1920s Oklahoma there were a series of murders of Osage Native Americans after oil was discovered on their tribal land. The main villain of the piece is a local rancher and bigwig, King Hale, here played by Robert De Niro.  We sense straight away that he might be a bad 'un despite his outwardly benevolent attitude to the Osage, and that he might use his rather malleable and somewhat simpleminded nephew Ernest (played by Leonardo Dicaprio) to further his schemes. One of these sch...