20 September 2015

The Gamechangers, 2015 - ★★

At a time when we're fighting for the BBC it's a shame that nearly everything about this film goes against what we should expect from the corporation. It's terribly written, badly performed, horribly cliched and that scene in the police station just comes across as badly misjudged rather than the clever sequence it was obviously intended to be. Things did seem to get better in the second half but not by much.

September 20, 2015 at 09:51PM

An Inspector Calls, 2015 - ★★★★

Somehow I've made it this far without ever knowing the story of An Inspector Calls although towards the end I realised I did know part of how it ends. I found this to be a joy to watch, well put together and performed and surprisingly relevant today as it has been in the past.

September 20, 2015 at 09:38PM

15 September 2015

45 Years, 2015 - ★★★★

Despite all the praise, I was struggling to find the motivation to actually leave the house to go and see 45 Years, it just didn't feel like it was a "cinema film". Fortunately my favourite arthouse kept playing it and so I eventually made it. In it's small unassuming way it may not appear cinematic but it does benefit from an intimacy and a lack of distraction that the cinema brings. The result is really quite remarkable with Rampling's magnificent performance holding everything together (or pulling it apart?). It's the kind of film that feels like a reflection of humanity along with all the complexities life brings but never feels like it's trying too hard.

September 15, 2015 at 11:04PM

14 September 2015

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, 2015 - ★★★½

A huge amount of fun with a smart script holding the action together. Once again I find myself wondering if it was really that great or just great in comparison to most other mediocre films. Rebecca Ferguson was by far the best thing in the film delivering yet another strong performance in what is turning out to be a great year for female roles.

September 14, 2015 at 10:02PM

10 September 2015

Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015 - ★★★★

When I first saw Fury Road I struggled to get into it straight away. On this second viewing I understood (or already knew) what was happening in the first half and could enjoy it a lot more. It's not particularly confusing but it isn't always clear why certain things are happening.

I've also been listening to the soundtrack a lot and this meant I also saw the film as almost a musical. There's certainly an operatic or perhaps balletic feel to many of the amazingly choreographed action sequences. If there are problems then they're probably dialogue related, it's often difficult to make out some lines (even in a newly refurbished Imax screen) and other lines are quite cheesy, it's perhaps a good thing that nobody really says too much.

This (retro-fitted?) 3D adds very little, in fact in some places it makes the film look worse and there are one or two moments when the 3D looks really bad.

September 10, 2015 at 10:29PM

06 September 2015

The Diary of a Teenage Girl, 2015 - ★★★½

I've been trying to think what to say about The Diary Of A Teenage Girl for 24 hours now. The best I can come up with is "honest". Everything about the film feels authentic and it manages to be funny, sad and heartwarming without ever being preachy or condescending.

I don't normally like to think of things being gender specific but I do think this would have resonated more with me if I had once been a teenage girl.

September 06, 2015 at 06:50PM

The Scandalous Lady W, 2015 - ★★

It may have been both shocking at the time and shocking to look back at how women were treated but this television film was dull and repetitive and did little justice to either scandal.

September 06, 2015 at 06:20PM

The One I Love, 2014 - ★★★★

It turned out I knew nothing about this film apart from the two stars and that's almost certainly how you should approach it.

Once things do start happening you become aware that it's the type of film that probably can't have a satisfactory ending. However it does just about manage to pull it off which is quite an achievement on top of the interesting premise.

September 06, 2015 at 06:14PM

01 September 2015

The Watch, 2012 - ★★

Not good. Richard Ayoade is the best thing about the film but even he gets tiresome long before the end. There is one genuinely funny moment with some packets of walkie talkies but it's such a small moment it may have been accidentally funny.

September 01, 2015 at 09:44PM