The Mortal Storm - 1940 *****

'The Mortal Storm' is a powerful and utterly heart-breaking film about the destruction and pain people can cause others because of their small mindedness and routine precision with power and gain. James Stewart acts wonderfully as a German who refuses to go with the crowd and leave his small town where he has grown up and support the Nazis. He then falls in love with a beautiful Jew whose father, a professor at the local university does not agree with the current political situation and is eventually captured by the Germans. This leaves the couple in a horrendous situation - do they stay together and defy the odds or break apart to save themselves?
Beautifully shot and mesmerizingly painful to experience, Frank Borzage is a true master of his art and has painted a sumptuously powerful picture that needs to be seen.

Gone Missing - 2013 ****

 

 

Gone Missing is a good film. I do enjoy movies about missing people (how sadistic does that sound!) and this was a bit of a corker. Two girls go missing on their Spring Break, and their mothers both realise that their parenting skills are completely off the mark and that they don't know their daughters quite as well as they had hoped.

The acting from the girls is good, and although the mothers are both irritating they still don't come across too badly, expect being at separate ends of the spectrum - one is completely smothering and the other lets her daughter do whatever she wants.

Films like this need to be seen, because this sort of thing is happening still and girls are constantly going missing when they go on holiday together.

Dom Hemingway - 2013 *

 

 

'Raucously entertaining'?! Where are these reviewers from?! Dom Hemingway is appallingly bad. Jude Law's character is not the sort of person you want to see coming at you down the street. And the whole film consists of him either swearing, kicking, fighting, punching, killing or disrespecting anyone who gets in his way. Law's characterisation of an ex-convict sent down for something he didn't do and hell-bent on revenge probably suits him quite well, but he's still extremely unlikeable and makes everyone who is watching wince whenever he appears.

Shame that Richard E. Grant was in this too, because I admire him a lot as an actor, and feel that this was a big dip in his career.

When a film is this unpleasant and can only be told by swearing and violence you know it's not a good film.

 

 

Scalene - 2011 ***

I had really not been expecting much from this film, but was really amazed at how clever it was and how much I enjoyed it. The very first scene shows a woman appearing manically at a woman's door with a gun and trying to break in. This looks crazy and makes the whole movie seem like it's going to be very bad indeed. But it's not, so stick with it.
It's similar to 'Rashomon' in that it's one story told from 3 points of view, involving a brain damaged boy who is possibly being abused by his mother, a rape committed by the boy and murder.
I finished watching it and had to sit and take in what I had seen for a time afterwards. That doesn't always happen. Clever and twisted in equal amounts, although the acting is probably the weakest point.

House of Sand and Fog - 2003 ***

Sad and mournful tale of an evicted woman who begins a battle with the new owners of her house after she can no longer afford to keep up the payments and it is repossessed. Kingsley is riveting as Behrani, the stern and liberal Air Force Officer who believes that the new house will be the key to his family's happiness once and for all, and Connelly isn't bad either as Kathy, the recovering alcoholic who feels she has finally lost the fight with her various demons when she is kicked out of her family home, adding the last blow to her already tortured being. It's very sad and touching, as well as being quite gut-wrenching and upsetting.

Some Velvet Morning - 2013 ****

 

Wow, this is immensely clever. And what a bizarre twist which I NEVER saw coming. I love it when films do that. After an affair some time ago, Fred turns up on his former mistress's doorstep claiming out of the blue that he has left his wife to be with her. The only problem is, she hasn't seen him for a long time and has now moved on with her life and started to date other people.

She's also not particularly keen to see him again after all the agro she went through last time when they were seeing each other. Fred doesn't seem to understand or appreciate this and plonks himself down on the sofa poised to stay. He doesn't even take the hint to go when Velvet explains she really has to be somewhere. And then things take a strange and disturbing turn.

There are only two actors in this, and there is minimum movement except walking around two rooms of the house. And still, the two of them manage to keep you gripped for the entire movie. And it's passionate, haunting and utterly surreal, until the end, when it all becomes clear.

I really liked it, and for a film that I imagine to be quite low budget and independent I really think Neil Labute has done exceedingly well in creating this beautiful piece. Sometimes films are all the more creepy when they at first seem so utterly normal, and then descend into something else.

Body Language - 1992 ****

Obsessed woman becomes dangerous when she tries to take over her boss's life, as well as her boyfriend. It's been likened to 'Single White Female' although I would say that's at a push, because it's no way near as creepy as that.
Betsy is in a job she loves, but it's also a job that has a huge responsibility and takes up a lot of her spare time, much to the annoyance of her partner. Norma is her assistant, wide-eyed and eager to help her with anything she needs, which turns out to be spying on her boyfriend, cancelling Betsy's dates with him, and generally making life awkward so that he eventually leaves her. She then swoops in on him, masquerading as a stood up woman also named Betsy, and he falls for her, at first...
Not a bad movie. Worth a view.

The Libertine - 2004 *

Mournfully depressing movie about the notorious womaniser the 2nd Earl of Rochester. We know it's going to be depressing because one of the first things he says to the audience is how much we are going to dislike him. I suspect this is supposed to be 'quirky', but it's really not. Johnny Depp is a fantastic actor, but even he couldn't do much with this. Most of the movie consists of swearing, depressing conversations about how unpopular he is, screaming matches with various women he has been bedding, and a lot of emphasis on a huge plaster cast of a penis that keeps appearing in a play that has been put on for Rochester's pal Charles II. I must say that Malkovich does a pretty good English accent, well to be honest they both do, but why either of them chose to be in this film is a mystery to me. It wastes two talented actors and doesn't show their acting abilities in a good light at all. 

Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret - 2013 ***

Really creepy movie, about a woman named Jodi who becomes obsessed with a religious man she meets named Travis. Travis isn't after any sort of commitment unless it's with someone from his church (although he's happy to jump into bed with her as much as possible) and this leads to mixed messages, added to which his friends aren't all that keen on her either. Jodi obsessively believes they are meant to be together forever and hopes they will get married, and Travis already has his eye on a new woman he feels he is more suited too. It's just that by the time he gets round to telling Jodi about his true feelings, she is already in too deep and he has no escape. 

Disturbing and I'm not sure how realistic it is. 

(HORROR) You Can't Kill Stephen King - 2012 *

VERY bad. Very, very bad. A group of friends go to a lake where Stephen King is said to have worked and stayed and are murdered in ridiculous ways one at a time. That's pretty much the gist of the film. It's totally silly and not scary in the slightest, not even in a 'so bad it's good way.' Avoid if you value your time. 

The Husband She Met Online - 2013 ***

What actually happened here? It was like the director suddenly decided he had to drop everything with only a day's notice. The story, having started out at a good pace about a successful businessman who meets and falls in love with a beautiful and attentive woman suddenly takes off at a roaring pace and within twenty minutes *spoiler* the woman is chained to the bed, the couple are married, the woman is kidnapped by the husband who has suddenly turned into a maniac of epic proportions, the couple are found and the husband is arrested. It's a bit of a shame, because it could've been a much better film if it had slowed itself down a bit. 

Compulsion - 2013 ***

I don't know what I was expecting with this film, but whatever it was, it didn't happen. In fact nothing happened. The most shocking thing according to film critics was how much padding Heather Graham was wearing to 'big herself up' into a typical 1950s housewife. Apparently the look made her 'a bit overweight' which scared the living daylights out of me, as there is nothing overweight about her and makes you worry about the American size system. 

A woman obsessed with food spends her days cooking amazing meals for her grumpy, parrot obsessed boyfriend who couldn't be less interested in her if he tried. An anorexic, former child star moves in across the hall and doesn't speak to anyone for love nor money. 

Gradually the pair open up to each other and form a bond that proves fatal.

A strange film, very weird and quite surreal, just appeared to move a bit slowly. 

The Stranger Beside Me - 1995 ***

Unsettling drama about a newly married woman who begins to suspect her perfect husband is not only a peeping tom but a rapist as well. Once confronted, far from denying it, he flaunts it in her face, threatening her if she doesn't stand by him. Creepy film.

Conte D'Ete - 1996 ****

A recent graduate takes a holiday before starting his first job and meets not one, but two women, both with different qualities. One is quiet and thoughtful and the other is loud and beautifully aware of her own allure. The only trouble is he also has a girlfriend who's a bit of a pain. Who should he choose?

Rohmer has a beautiful knack of showing off character studies to the maximum, each one is totally individual and captivating. He delivers this all in sumptuous surroundings that make you want to drop everything and leave for France immediately. 

Straw Dogs - 2011 ***

I was in mixed minds about watching this, given how poor I found the original film. I was surprised actually how much more I enjoyed it and how much clearer the story seemed. Amy (Kate Bosworth) brings her new husband David (a geeky James Marsden) home to her old town to live on her deseased father's house, and before long Amy's ex-boyfriend Charlie is becoming overly protective of Amy being back, to the extent of getting his friends to taunt David and terrorise him on a regular basis whilst also being lewd and perverted to Amy. This escalates to a terrifying conclusion. There is an intense psychological build-up in this film which I don't recall happening in the original. I quite liked it. 

(FILM NOIR) The Clay Pigeon - 1949 ***

A man wakes from a coma in hospital to discover he has been court marshaled and accused of treason against his former inmates at a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Desperate to prove his innocence he turns up at his best friend's house, unaware that he has been accused of his murder. His wife, after initially wanting to get him arrested, decides to give him the benefit of the doubt and goes with him to search for the true murderers of her husband.
It's not a bad film, but not one of the stronger film noirs.

(NOIR) Fog Island - 1945 ***

A poorly done "B'' movie about a group of people invited to an old man's house at Fog Island. He invites them there under the pretext that they will be given some of his inheritance but he actually wants to uncover which of them murdered his dead wife. I was surprised but happy to see Jerome Cowan of the 'Fred and Ginger' films taking a moderate sized part here, but the quality of the film was so dire that a lot of the time it was hard to differentiate who was who.

(NOIR) A Woman's Secret - 1949 ***

Susan (Gloria Grahame) lies on the floor shot. Marian (Maureen O'Hara) is found leaning over her with a gun. But is the story as black and white as it seems (did you see what i did there with the black and white...?)
Actually it's not. We discover that Susan is the young protegee of Marian, a popular singer who loses her voice and is desperate to find a replacement. It's a tiny bit like 'All About Eve' but with singing instead of acting. Luke (Melvyn Douglas) is her piano player, and to be honest he's my favourite character (and actor) in the film. He has enough gusto to keep it going, without stepping on the two lead actresses toes. When Susan becomes popular herself, (and appears to catch the eye of Luke, this makes Marian rather jealous. She wants a replacement, but not at the cost of her relationship or career. O'Hara isn't a bad actress, but I've never been particularly into her work, and although Gloria Grahame is the typical femme fatale in noir, she didn't appear to be at her best either.
Worth a watch though, although as one critic remarked - 'There's too much unintended mystery about A Woman's Secret for it to be anything but spotty entertainment'. Sadly I think that might be right.

(NOIR) The Big Bluff - 1955 ***

For a 'typical film noir' The Big Bluff  is quite good. Produced by Billy Wilder's overlooked (and much less talented) brother W. Lee Wilder might've given it a bit of credit. Alas it did not. And acting-wise it was rather shoddy, which spoilt it tremendously.
After a chance meeting and quick marriage, a wealthy fortune hunter hopes to cash in on his terminally ill wife's inheritance, but when he discovers that the 'last holiday' they are taking together is actually improving her health considerably, he and his lover have to resort to other startling tactics to get the money.
I like how the idea of 'The Big Bluff' is actually the bluff of the marriage and the relationship which the would-be killer has to keep up the pretence of for a lot longer that originally hoped.
Apart from that however, it's predictable and not very strong.

(HORROR) The Last Exorcism Part II - 2013 **

After the pandemonium of the first 'Exorcism' film, this second one follows Nell in the years after her exorcism. Believing that is cured from her past experiences, she takes a job as a chambermaid in a hotel and lives in a girl's home. However, it is not long before she starts experiencing strange things, and a close relationship with a co-worker at the hotel that appears to be going well ends in tragedy.
I didn't enjoy this as much as the first film, and couldn't quite come to grips with Nell as a normal girl in a normal environment.