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2010 film season

First of the BAFTA screenings tonight so I thought I would start my log of things seen between now and February.Please join in

Sara Nathan ● 5452d81 Comments

LIKE CRAZYThis was one of the very few screenings when the Q & A session afterwards was infinitely more interesting than the film itself - which is about two pretty, sucessful, effortlessly successful and rather well-off young people in a long distance relationship and what this does to them over 7 years. I wanted to slap them. But the filming was interesting with some rather good "time passes" set pieces. And loved Alex Kingston as the mum.The director, Drake Doremus, (Douchebag - means nothing to me)  told us in the Q & A that he had written a 50 page outline and the rest was all improvisation by the actors (which sort of explained it) He also said - greeted with wild applause - that the total budget was $250,000.All very sundancy but felt longer than 90 minutes (the Q & A felt shorter than 30)Doesn't open till February 2012

Sara Nathan ● 5452d

I cannot wait to see The Help which was a fab read.Saw Midnight in Paris last weekend which I think was  Woody Allen number,  far fetched but charming and thoroughly enjoyable.

Jen Morty ● 5452d

Screeningof the help next weekend - and yes want To see the woody allen

Sara Nathan ● 5452d

I found the Woody Allen very underwritten, with characters all black or white. Passed 90 minutes pleasantly enough, though.

Susan Kelly ● 5452d

The girlfriend was very one dimensional but it was  fun,  I loved Martin Sheen's character as I am sure we have all known someone like him!

Jen Morty ● 5452d

I think you mean Michael Sheen, Jen. It was nice to see him acting without having to impersonate someone famous, so much so that I'll forgive him the beard.Imagine if it'd been Charlie Sheen!

Susan Kelly ● 5451d

Isn't Martin Sheen President Bartlett?

Sara Nathan ● 5451d

Susan,  you are quite right! Like Martin Sheen as well but a totally different kettle of fish!

Jen Morty ● 5451d

this is very weIrd and uncomfortable to watch - well it is almodovar so that's a given. Strange cross between pygmalion and Frankenstein with a bit of Terror, suicide and murder thrown in. Based on the daft premis that if a scientist was thought to be working with transgenesis, he'd ger sacked. More likely promoted.Music bu Iglesias jnr is very good an the whole thing is thought-provoking in a rather repellent way

Sara Nathan ● 5447d

If you like Woody Allen and Paris this is the film for you! I loved it.

Chris Hurley ● 5443d

Based on the book of the same name but mostly better though it's difficult to follow to start with because the action switches times and the southern accents - especially of the maids - is difficult to follow until you get used to it.This is more focused than the book - the male characters have been almost totally excised - well acted, especially by the lead and Alison Janney (always love her!)and both funny and moving.And the soundtrack is wonderful.At nearly 2 1/2 hours, tis a bit long though.

Sara Nathan ● 5442d

You'd think this just my sort of film; full of Redgraves and Rhy Ifans and Derek Jacobi, all about who wrote Shakespeare and loads of historical swash and buckle.Problem is that it is the most appalling load of ahistorical tosh ever. Make out Shakespeare was illiterate for example. Well he may not have been a groupie at court but he went to one of teh best grammar schools in the country. And it had him murdering Kit Marlowe, and gave Queen Elizabeth 1 about six bastards.So that was one problem, the other is the whole thing is filmed against blue and then the backdrops are CGI - and tehy are so obvious. The only real building was Montacute House. It was SO FAKE.But at least it portayed the beastly Cecil family as evil scheming philistines - and I thought it only the current representatives of the dynasty behaved like repressive tyrants (yes the Robert Cecil de nos jours does own Gaby's Deli since you ask) Not many awards in this one.

Sara Nathan ● 5441d

Sadly, all the mouth breathers will think this tosh is true.

Susan Kelly ● 5441d

Anonymous seems awful, thanks for the warning.  I loved Midnight in Paris.  Charming and witty.  Yes far-fetched but surely the message that the past always looks golden is so true?  Im still chuckling over some of the lines.

Barbara Yerolemou ● 5439d

Anonymous got the worst review I've seen in a long time in the Mail this morning - True turkeyHoping to see the Woody Allen on friday

Sara Nathan ● 5439d

I loved this film - much more than I have liked a Woody Allen for aeons. It's a fantasy/fairy story about nostalgia and how the imagined past is always more attractive than the real present. I thought everything about it delightful, roared at the script several times, thought the design entrancing and the music apposite (quite a lot of Cole Porter so who wouldn't?)Highlights were Marion Cotillard as the arts groupie and Adrian Brody hamming it up madly as Salvador Dali. And the chap playing Picasso. But Owen Wilson - one of my least favourite actors - wasn't bad either.Took the piss very elegantly of those historical movies which clarify their period by a gesture to seeing Scott Fitzgerald over in a corner or some such.Husband didn't like it quite so much - not sure why not really. I think because Gershwin, Stravinsky and Nadia Boulanger weren't featured in Paris in the 20s.

Sara Nathan ● 5437d

is a wholly delightful and incredibly old-fashioned film starring virtually every Brit except Hugh Bonneville and Maggie Smith currently making films.It's about the week when Marilyn Monroe came to England in 1956 to make the Prince and the showgirl with Sir Laurence Olivier....who is hammed up finely by Kenneth Branagh. It's reported by the younger bro of Alan Clark - who apparently was no mean diarist though rather in the shadow of his illustrious family. Anyhow he falls in succession for Emma (Hermione) Watson and Michelle Wilson. No contest really.A very nice way to spend a couple of hours in the cinema. And darling, so quaint and English.

Sara Nathan ● 5433d

Is a rather good adaptation of the book with Tilda Swinton wholly luminous as the mother - one even feels sympathetic to her.The menace and grimness are all there - as are the flashbacks. I thought it might be confusing if you hadn't read the book but the chap sitting next to me said it wasn't.The end is as much a shock as ever.The only choice the film-maker made that was really different from the book is to excise all of Kevin's relationships at school and any personality of the victims - it's wholly focussed on the family - I suppose it would have been a less good film but I did sort of miss that part.Very much worth seeing but quite hard work.

Sara Nathan ● 5415d

Hmm - I thought this self-indulgent porn though with two brilliant actors. My husband rhaphsodied about the photography and the portrayal of New York.It's about a sex maniac and his sister. there's obviously a huge and damaging back story about how they got to be so damaged but all we see is the damage - in graphic detail. Carey Milligan and Michael fassbinder spiffing though.

Sara Nathan ● 5415d

Political piece starring and directed by George Clooney and shot in Michigan but with a score all recorded etc in Abbey Road Studios London using London Symphony Orchestra - seems to be a growing trend in big US movies, maybe cos our musicians are the best.Anyhow, that was a sidebar at best. This film has an amazing cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giametti and (bizarrely) Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth Bennet) as Mrs Clooney.But it's ever so thin with none of the insider feel of Primary Colours nor the wit and writing Aaron Sorkin brought to West Wing. In fact it only has one brilliant line. Nothing like as good as the other George Clooney movie around at the moment: the Descendants.

Sara Nathan ● 5414d

Just in case you haven't had enough American politics with "Ides of March", here's another stinker.J Edgar is a sprawling monster which takes two hours and 17 langorous minutes to tell us altogether too much about the founder of the FBI. You have to really care about the minutiae of US history to enjoy this one. Leonardo plays Hoover over about 50 years (BAFTA for make-up and prosthetics in the bag) Judi Dench his mother and Naomi Watts his secretary - all rather well. Clint Eastwood directs - not so well and both wrote the music and successfully massacred Bach in the process.It uses hours of your life you will never get back - and to no avail. There's one great speech right near the end when Hoover's longtime assistnat and maybe, the film suggests, great, though celibate, male love, takes him through the lies he has told in his autobiography. It's really gripping and needed to come sooner and last longer.

Sara Nathan ● 5408d

Wuthering hieghtsWho could guess the heights would have so much wuther and so few words? I suppose if you insist on hiring "faces off the street who fit" as the director says she did, you can't expect them to learn lines as well, So they don't. It should have been called Wuthering Heights: a re-imagination...or somesuch as it had nothing but basic plot and location in common with the book. What dialogue there was, was terribly anachronistic.Location great - all mud - and I think it could get a BAFTA for sound - virtually no music except that sung by the female members of the cast while working, but lovely wuthering and birds etc...she was very careful to have no electronic sound at all which does help convey the isolation. Malcolm thought it lasted as long as the Ring Cycle. Have never been so glad to see the American Humane association vergbiage about no animals being hurt as it's full of sheep slaughter, rabbit trapping and hanging pet dogs up by their collar. And insects beating their little wings, as you do.No laughs.

Sara Nathan ● 5406d

Well, it's Shakespeare innit? And the one I have neither read nor seen on stage (well, OK not the only one)But this is a powerful modern version set in warring Yugoslavia with Ralph Fiennes directing and playing the eponymous hero as a sort of Mladic anti hero. It works surprisingly well as does the use of TV pix to keep us up with the action. Not wholly convinced that Jon Snow spouting Shakespeare in interview mode, is convincing - it got the only laugh of the night. But if his day job vanishes, maybe there's another string etc.The real star is Vanessa Redgrave as Corialanus' mother - an amazing part which she gave everything to. Almost the Anonymous debacle is wiped out.This is a really worthwhile film. Do try to see it (bit violent and bloody though)

Sara Nathan ● 5405d

This is a slightly peculiar - but engaging - movie about a young woman who flees a cult and how she tries (and largely fails) to come to terms with her experiences there.She turns up at her sister and rather off-ish (and therefore with English accent!) brother-in-law and does nothing for their life.She can't distinguish between reality and dream and memory and for much of the film the audience has to work quite hard at doing so. The cult emerges and more weird and dangerous with every flashback and, though not a thriller, there are elements.interesting.

Sara Nathan ● 5404d

Just too much baseball -which I have never been able to grasp at all - to make for a brilliant film, but a good one nonetheless, starring Brad Pitt in truelife story of also ran Oakland team that came from nowhere to record- breaking wins when the manager decides to look at the players' statistics instead of what they are paid.Aaron Sorkin script which certainly helps.Jonah Hill - apparently famous but not sure why - co-stars as does Phillip Seymour Hoffman who I would watch in anything...though this not his most rewarding role.But over two hours and incomprehensible tranches throughout.

Sara Nathan ● 5394d

Mrs Thatcher from the perspective of the senile and anxious present - which is rather embarrassing and insensitive seeing as she and her family are very much alive.Meryl Streep is amazing and the stuff aet in the present good, if uncomfortable - Jim Broadbent as the dead Denis works surprisingly well. And the amazing Olivia Colman (Alex in Rev and Sally in twenty twelve) incomparable as Carol. Plus Richard E Grant as Heseltine also a hoot.But the script isn't good enough in the historic part - which is rather trite and gives the only motivation as Grocer's Daughter stuff.

Sara Nathan ● 5394d

Fabulous in 3D and probably OK in 2D (haven't been a fan but it really enhances this one.It's rather a charming piece about being an orphan/the role of machinery/early cinema. Directed by Martin Scorsese with Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, plus two charming child stars and Frances de la tour and Richard Griffiths in tiny, scene-stealing parts.We loved it and though long - at over 2 hours - the packed 1,000 strong screening we went to with loads of young children, didn't yield a peep from any of them. Good for adults too though.

Sara Nathan ● 5394d

I went to see this last week and really liked it. But my friend didn't like it at all - she is partially deaf and couldn't follow the dialogue very well. She said they seemed to be muttering a lot.

Chris Hurley ● 5394d

Elliptical Wim Wenders documentary about a choreographer (now dead?) who worked in a ghastly German town and inspired huge affection and loyalty in her dancers. Honestly, in hours of footage, that was all I learnt. Still dunno basics like where she trained, was born, when she died, what nationality. Call me old-fashioned but I do like to have these minima on a documentray subject. Lots of dancing - some involving mud and water - all of it requiring huge amounts of trust and athleticism. Can't swear I was awake for quite all of it.

Sara Nathan ● 5393d

We absolutely loved this.  Good to hear it kept children enthralled - I did wonder whether it was really more geared to adults.  Ravishingly beautiful film.

Gill Hothersall ● 5393d

This is Stephen Daldry's adaptation of the Loer novel about 9/11. It's told by the aspergers-y son of a jeweller who dies in the attack, and is set mostly a year later - with flashbacks.It stars a total novice and newcomer, Thomas Horn as the boy alongside Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock as his parents and Max von Sydow, Viola Davis and John Goodman in smaller roles.The boy is amazing - Daldry has form for getting exceptional performances out of yourng lads - qv Billy Elliot and the Reader - but told us in th eQ & A afterwards that it came down to extensive rehearsal and Tom Hanks taking his paternal role seriously and working hard with Thomas. It is a very moving film -only the second this year I have wept in ( Hugo was the other one which has some similar themes - must be vulnerable to orphans!)Daldry said he only finished editing a fortnight ago and the DVD is still in post-production. He genuinely wanted to know what we - almost the first audience he had spoken to - thought of it which was nice!It will be interesting to see how Americans react to this - an adaptation of one of the first fictions on 9/11. I think it was done really sensitively with a good script, some fine acting and an interting score by Alexandre Desplat.Doesn't open for some time.

Sara Nathan ● 5384d

is a silent film in black and white which explores the beginings of the talkies.It's quite interesting but exposes the limits of the silent genres - that you have to be incredibly simple and linear of all communication is by script cards - and that complexity is impossible.It all takes rather a long time.John Goodman seems to be having a good year in small parts but there is a write-in campaign - wholly justified - for the dog to get best supporting actor. Unfortunately BAFTA has ruled that only humans are eligible. Shame.

Sara Nathan ● 5378d

concerns a mildly successful but wholly unpleasant writer of teen fiction who returns from the big city of Minnesota to the hick town she grew up in to try and win back her High School sweetheart - while meanwhile finishing the last book in the series.It's quite hard work spending all that screen time with such a profoundly unlikeable character - played by Charlize Theron.It's by the creative team that produced Juno - but is nothing like as good or as funny.

Sara Nathan ● 5378d

Cute aardman animation with very short shelf life and every British actor You can think of doing the voices. Quite entertaining Combination of traditional and techie probably betTer on big screen or possibly 3d - low be it spoken

Sara Nathan ● 5377d

Spielberg directed tin tin epic in stop frame animation with a wooden wooden script - dated already and without charm. Animation good as is the music by John Williams and voices from a range of British acting talEnt including Jamie Bell.Another star dog in Scotty. Is this Tje season of the dog star (as it were)?Possibly better iN 3 D than dodgy DVD

Sara Nathan ● 5376d

Stephen Spielberg directing This stop frame animation of herge's classic story with a Wooden wooden script that is heavy and dated - shame as the animatioN is great as is the music by Jojn Williams and many top British actors featured including Jamie bell as the eponymous hero. Another great supporting role For a dog in Scotty. Maybe better in 3d than DVD in crappy lap-Top

Sara Nathan ● 5376d

I really enjoyed this.  Full of those little subtle Ardman moments.My favourite was when Santa is coming to bed, and his wife is sitting in bed wrapping the family presents.  She passes a wrapped present to him, and says 'And here's mine, dear'.  He gives it to her, and she feigns surprise.Such a familiar occurrence in many families - it got a laugh of recognition from both of us.

Gill Hothersall ● 5376d

This is a low-budget Irish film starring Brendan Gleeson in a comedy thriller reminiscent of In Bruges though not quite so clever.Gleeson is fab as the policeman (Guarda) of the title, the support good and the ending opaque - I think in a good way.We rather enjoyed it though dont think it will win anything

Sara Nathan ● 5375d

stars Ewan McGregor with impeccalbe American accent alongside Christopher Plummer and concerns the death of the older man who only came out as gay at 75 after over forty years of marriage. Unsurprisingly the son is unable to commit to a relationship...or is he?This is the year of the dog co-star: this one features Arthur, a Jack russell of unusual brilliance and tenacity. Definitely a contender for best supporting dog.

Sara Nathan ● 5375d

remember the delightful East is East? About the mixed race family in Salford in the 70s adjusting to the differeing demands of different cultures in a mixed marrieage and a chip shop.This has some of the same cast but none of the charm or wit. Set largely in pakistan and focussed on the younger son, it is neither amusing nor informative.And no discernible plot.Bit of a waste of time really.

Sara Nathan ● 5375d

Odd title for a gritty very Paddy Considine piece about a chap with anger management issues and a foul mouth. It is a relentlessly gloomy portrayal of life on a deprived and hopeless housing estate/town somewhere in Britain. The end is very odd too for two reasons neither of which I can talk about as it would be a serious spoiler. Ever so well acted by Olivia Colman - this year's British star in my view and not recognisable as Carol Thatcher in the Iron Lady - and Peter Mullan as the hard man with a bit of a heart somewhere, maybe. Eddie Marsan (the psychotic driving instructor in Happy go Lucky) excellent in support too.Because this is the year of the dog, there are two, one charming and one rottweiller. They don't win best supporting dogs though. No laughs!

Sara Nathan ● 5373d

Rather moving bio-pic about Burmese heroine ang san su kai and her delightful English professor husband.It's a bit long and there are definitively no laughs but Michelle Yeoh (crouching tiger etc) is compelling as The Lady and David Thewlis (Lupin in the Harry Potter movies and in the ghastly Anonymous - but lets draw a veil over that)is the real hero of the piece.The Burmese junta do not come out of it well.Better than most bio-pics and definitely worth seeing

Sara Nathan ● 5372d

Actually there were a few laughs in Tyrannosaur, as I recall.

Susan Kelly ● 5372d

Susan.I too saw Tyrannosaur and didn't exactly split my sides laughing.When were the 'few laughs' as a matter of interest?There were a few wry,everyday type lines,but hardly laughs.Very good film of it's type,btw.Not recommended for the easily depressed tho'.

Keith Iddon ● 5372d

I'm with you Keith - barely even a turn up of the lips...compelling though.

Sara Nathan ● 5372d

So this shoulf be fab: David Cronenburg movie with a script by Christopher Hampton starring Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley and loads of Wagner...who could ask for anything more?Shame my husband thought it worse than Anonymous (they don't come worse than anonymous so that's no mean slagging off) and I thought it rather repellent and probably ahistorical - even if not on the scale of Elizabeth I having six illegitimate children and committing incest with at least one of them.It's the story of the emergence of the "talking cure" or psycho-analysis and involves a lot of grimacing by Ms Knightley and then quite a lot of masochistic sex... all in lovely white costumes though.Seemed longer than 100 minutes.Laughs only at the idiocy.

Sara Nathan ● 5372d

Sara,I thought the ending not so much odd as the only part of the grim,relentlessly hopeless world portrayed that offered any hope for both of them to have some kind of future.That it ended on this note said to me that out of all the misery,two people can still acknowledge their humanity and gratitude to one another for their mutual support in dire times of need.Or am I being soppy?

Keith Iddon ● 5372d

Trying not give it away - it was the bit before that - would she - in The circa and with all the witnesses - have ended up there? I don't think so Also with the boy like that, the dog would not have been available for that treatment

Sara Nathan ● 5372d

Agree about the dog,but the woman likely to have been treated relatively lightly due to on going and horrendous mitigating circumstances me thinks.A very good effort by Paddy Considine.Proves not loads of money needed to make a very good film.

Keith Iddon ● 5372d

I'm certainly with you on that - his stuff is always thought-provoking.Must do some more foreign language ones now

Sara Nathan ● 5372d

I'll be giving The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a gander at Waterman's soon.

Keith Iddon ● 5372d

PS. Did you see The Tree of Life? I was NOT impressed.That was proof that loads of money does not necessarily mean a good film.It was indulgant and pretentious drivel imo.

Keith Iddon ● 5372d

Well, I can't quote you chapter and verse on the tiny jokes, since it's ages since I saw it, and I didn't say they were side-splitting, just that it meant that the film wasn't relentlessly grim.As to the ending, the heroine seemed happier and more at peace that at any other time in the film, and the scientific evidence would have been quite enough.And please stop misspelling tyrannosaur!

Susan Kelly ● 5372d

Fairy nuff Susan. Knew it was misspelled,just replied to the post.Obviously.

Keith Iddon ● 5372d

oh dear.mea culpa.Missed tree of life - too pretentious looking for me.May do dragon tattoo later today - after A separation. and more ironing. and homework. and sorting socks. oh, its a bonza day

Sara Nathan ● 5372d

I liked A Separation. It's slow but there's not a redundant scene.

Susan Kelly ● 5371d

Have downloaded it to husband's new ipad (think it took all night) but means I could watch it in bed -- if I made the bed.

Sara Nathan ● 5371d

It is now 2012

Munira Khan ● 5371d

Couldn't bear to watch a film on something so tiny. Don't even like watching them on TV that much. A nice, dark, cold cinema; that's what you want.

Susan Kelly ● 5371d

I do - but with the film selection at my personal disposal. Not happening this year!And I know it's now 2012, but the awards are for films that were released in 2011 so nothing changes.

Sara Nathan ● 5371d

is a thoughtful and rather moving portrayal of a family under huge pressue which breaks up and then has problems with the carer hired to look after senile grandpa.I was rather impressed by the role and conduct of the Sharia courts and it was a very interesting look at life in Iran...and life in a theocracy.Long though. PS did watch it on ipad and it was amazing quality though ovvie not the breadth of the cinema.

Sara Nathan ● 5371d

Sounds like you bought Malcolm the ipad so you could use it. Confess.

Susan Kelly ● 5371d

Well, not at the time but I can see a passion leading to struggle to the death emerging. I'm better at it...

Sara Nathan ● 5371d

This - rather surprisingly - is a hoot re-telling (ovvie) of ye olde Shakespeare set in a pair of gardens on, yes, Verona Street. Produced by Elton Johyn, with some of his music and self-aggrandiszing. Chock full of British star voices from James McAvoy to Michael Caine plus one Ameircan. You guessed it - Dolly Parton.Charming animation and some good script.

Sara Nathan ● 5366d

Zis is so Francais you vould not believe!Family arrives in new home, pregnant mum, loving dad and two daughters. the older looks boyish and tells her new friends she is called Michael. Ur...that's it.All very hand-held and doesn't feel scripted. The younger sister is wholly delightful and has a slightly "outnumbered" feel about her.Perfectly pleasant 82 minutes but bit so-what ish.

Sara Nathan ● 5366d

Strange south American flick about a boy (what is it with child heroes this year - even more than dogs) who has been in hospital for a couple of years and, when he is released to the care of his mum and siblings (dad absent) he seems to think he's someone he isnt.The family dynamics are rather scary and it's ever so sad and hopeless. Quite gripping though.

Sara Nathan ● 5366d

Sort of bio-pic about no-good gangster turned artist. His is the only voice and it's not a nice voice.Not a pleasant story - but the art is rather ace

Sara Nathan ● 5366d

This is the English version of the Swedish film in last year's lists and of course, of the best-selling book.Tisn't just a remake really but a substantially different film - especially in the last third. It's more of a straight action adventure and stars Daniel Craig - so you know where you are - and Rooney Mara, who I hadn't heard of but is rather good.Supporting cast of Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård Joelly richardson and others is really strong and i liked that we got the end of the book story which the earlier film ignored. But there had to be some distorting compromises to make it happen.Overall though, better than I expected

Sara Nathan ● 5366d

This is an EWnglish language remake of Ha Hov - a Hebrew film only released a couple of years ago. The original is darker and more gripping but in Hebrew so no good for the international market.Remake stars all sorts such as Helen Mirren Tom Wilkinson Ciaran Hands and Sam Worthington.Helen Mirren's accent is not as execrable as it seemed in the trailer but no way is she deserving of a BAFTA nomination for her part in this. It's OK but the original is far better (and that's in spite of the Helen Mirren character in the remake having my daughter's name...the French version was called L'affaire Rachel Singer - we have the poster to prove it!)

Sara Nathan ● 5365d

I preferred this to In Bruges.  Lots of great one-liners and definitely not politically correct... Brendan Gleeson superb, Picot and I really enjoyed it.  Comes out on DVD next week.

Jill Williams ● 5365d

I was fascinated by the extraordinary power and imaginative use of non verbals.This is in a higher category than just a Saturday afternoon out.

George Knox ● 5365d

I sort of thought I might not enjoy this much but it started Ok if a bit thin and it has a jolly good cast: Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan and Christina Henricks (Mad Men's Joan) in a bit part.But it just got bloodier and bloodier and more and more violent - consequently more time with eyes tight shut. I stopped after about an hour.If you like fast driving sequences interspersed with imaginative torture/killing in lifts, bathrooms, cafes, parking lots, sex clubs, with little dialogue, then this may be for you. Doesn't get my vote but then neither did No Country for Old Men yet lots loved it.

Sara Nathan ● 5362d

Drive is brilliant, you wuss, you.

Susan Kelly ● 5362d

SaraLove all these reviews, really good and very helpful as I am a hopeless chooser of films. I do the LoveFilm thing but never seem to know what I want to see and their choices never quite work so any more films that you can recommend that are already out on rental, ie 2010, much appreciated.

Jocelyn Ridley ● 5362d

Oh I know I'm a wuss.Explain please why it is brilliant.

Sara Nathan ● 5361d

The film never goes where you think it's going. Soon we are into a fully-fledged Revenge Tragedy and those never end well. To save the lives of Irene and her little boy from soulless criminals, Driver must do things which mean she's lost to him forever.It's violent but the violence isn't the point of the film the way it so often is. It's a love story and both Gosling and Mulligan convey so much with no more than a shy glance.

Susan Kelly ● 5361d

Stunning visually and steeped in sentimentality.The only thing the two soldiers with wire clippers meeting in No Man's land forgot, was to write the agenda for the Treaty of Versailles!

George Knox ● 5358d

I know its not a current release but as I mainly watch DVDs I am always catching up I am afraid!Having just seen the French movie "Sarah's Key" last week  which is apparently  based on a novel I have not read, I just thought it was amazing. Story is around the French involvement in deporting Jews in July 1942 to German concentration camps. The film workson many levels but not least because of the two central performances of the great Kristin Scott Thomas and the French 10 year old schoolgirl Melusine Mayance as the Sarah of the title. The film is one of the best I have seen in recent years compared with most of the Hollywood pap we are drowned with.

Joe Conneely ● 5354d

This barely made my OK for a Saturday afternoon out category.Found it difficult to engage with any depth in the characters: a prior knowledge of the issues between Freud and Jung is almost assumed - before a proper sense of the conflicts may be better understood.Jung’s last dream (unconvincing for a psychoanalyst but less so for a soothsayer) somewhat summed up the film for me. Thin in parts.Glad to see the well deserved accolades for the Artist at BAFTA.

George Knox ● 5330d

Dreadful wasn't it?I thought it a shame Descendents missed out - the Artist was alright but was it THAT good?Am sorry that Olivia Colman wasn't recognised for her fabulous performance in tyrannasaur. At least the movie got best debut though.

Sara Nathan ● 5330d

This Hebrew language film has been nominated for best foreign film in the Oscars but seems to have by-passed BAFTA completely.It's a delightful exploration of the relationship between father and son - both Talmudic Scholars at Hebrew U in Jerusalem. One's only claim to fame is the eponymous footnote ina great work, the other is meretricious, showy and famous.Guess who gets the public acclaim? When there is a cock-up in th country's biggest award, family tensions come to the fore - and the virtues of philology fully explored - which makes for tricky sub-titles!Anyhow, a lovely film and worth seeing if you can find it. It ran at teh Tricycle for a couple of sold-out performances but I don't know where it will coe up next. Unless it wins the oscar of course, in which cae it will be everywhere - but I bet Almodovar does that.

Sara Nathan ● 5323d