frames 123

USA
Feature Film
Director: Harry Edwards
Writers: Frank Capra, Hal Conklin, Gerald C. Duffy, J. Frank Holliday, Harry Langdon, Arthur Ripley, Murray Roth, Tim Whelan
Cast: Harry Langdon, Joan Crawford, Edwards Davis, Tom Murray, Alec B. Francis, Brooks Benedict, Carlton Griffin

There’s a cracking two-reeler hidden within this painfully stretched feature film, in which Langdon’s love-struck imbecile stumbles into a cross-country walking race, as two or three scenes are quite wonderful, but unfortunately there’s also a lot of soporific dross in between. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, USA | No comments

Wednesday, 29 April 2009

Mamma Mia! (2008)

Posted on 05:25 by uthpa

Not Recommended

USA/Germany
Feature Film
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Writer: Catherine Johnson
Cinematographer: Haris Zambarloukos
Composer: Benny Andersson
Cast: Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, Dominic Cooper

With a cast (more annoyingly perky than a room full of children’s TV presenters on amphetamines) running around singing ABBA songs against the backdrop of a sun-drenched Greek island, Lloyd’s Mamma Mia! is a typical feel-good film, i.e. totally depressing - for genuine ABBA infused feel-goodery, see Lukas Moodysson's Together (2000). Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, Germany, USA | No comments

Tuesday, 28 April 2009

City of God (2002)

Posted on 11:41 by uthpa

Brazil/France
Feature Film
Original Title: Cidade de Deus
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Writers: Bráulio Mantovani, Paulo Lins
Cinematographer: César Charlone
Composers: Ed Cortês, Antonio Pinto
Cast: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Phellipe Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Jonathan Haagensen, Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge, Jefechander Suplino, Alice Braga

Meirelles’s ‘70s-set, fact-based portrait of a vicious gang war in the hope-starved favelas of Rio de Janeiro, episodically recreating the lives of the fresh-faced inhabitants of the titular slum, contains several scenes of breathtaking power, but unfortunately there is also much in the way of flashy, soulless ephemera. Iain.Stott

Posted in Brazil, Feature Film, France, TSPDT 21st Century, TSPDT Top 1000 | No comments

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Posted on 07:05 by uthpa

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Anthony Minghella
Writers: Anthony Minghella, Patricia Highsmith
Cinematographer: John Seale
Composer: Gabriel Yared
Cast: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jack Davenport, James Rebhorn, Sergio Rubini, Philip Baker Hall

More layered than René Clément’s 1960 adaptation of Highsmith’s novel, Minghella’s sexy, sun drenched effort, chronicling Damon’s mild mannered, titular character’s gradual descent into sociopathy, is also a thoroughly entertaining one, with fine performances from a well assemble cast and a nicely eclectic soundtrack. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, USA | No comments

Sight & Sound's Films of 2003

Posted on 01:10 by uthpa

Adaptation (2002)
The Son (2002)
Le Souffle (2001)
The Five Obstructions (2003)
Être et Avoir (2002)
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
Drunk on Women and Poetry (2002)
Spirited Away (2001)
Young Adam (2003)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Posted in | No comments

Sight & Sound's Films of 2001

Posted on 01:05 by uthpa

Amores Perros (2000)
Apocalypse Now Redux (2001)
The Others (2001)
Code Unknown (2000)
Faithless (2000)
A One and a Two... (2000)
The Circle (2000)
Eloge de l'Amour (2001)
À Ma Soeur (2001)
Together (2000)

Posted in | No comments

Monday, 27 April 2009

The New World (2005)

Posted on 08:20 by uthpa

USA/UK
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Terrence Malick
Cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki
Composer: James Horner
Cast: Colin Farrell, Q'orianka Kilcher, Christian Bale, Christopher Plummer, August Schellenberg, Wes Studi, David Thewlis, Yorick van Wageningen, Raoul Trujillo

Malick’s typically lyrical depiction of the setting up of the Jamestown settlement by British settlers on the shores of the titular lands in the early 17th century, and their troubled interactions with the Powhatan locals, is a pleasingly unromantic work, which is as brutal as it is beautiful. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, TSPDT 21st Century, UK, USA | No comments

The Band's Visit (2007)

Posted on 07:39 by uthpa

Israel/France/USA
Feature Film
Original Title: ביקור התזמורת
Writer/Director: Eran Kolirin
Cinematographer: Shai Goldman
Composer: Habib Shadah
Cast: Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri, Khalifa Natour, Imad Jabarin, Tarak Kopty, Hisham Khoury, Francois Kheel, Eyad Sheety, Shlomi Avraham, Rubi Moscovich, Hila Surjon Fischer, Uri Gabriel, Ahouva Keren

An Egyptian police band, invited to perform at the Arab culture centre in Petah Tiqva, end up stranded in the tiny, little backwater of Beit Hatikva, and tentatively begin to interact with the local populace, in Kolirin’s gently droll, deeply affecting, and really rather beautiful exploration of the bitter-sweet universalities of human experience. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, France, Israel, USA | No comments

Sunday, 26 April 2009

Don't Look Now (1973)

Posted on 03:43 by uthpa

Feature Film
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Writers: Chris Bryant, Allan Scott, Daphne Du Maurier
Cinematographer: Anthony Richmond
Composer: Pino Donnagio
Cast: Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie, Hilary Mason, Clelia Matania, Massimo Serato, Renato Scarpa, Adelina Poerio

Posted in Don't Look Now, Feature Film, Italy, TSPDT Top 1000, UK | No comments

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

Posted on 03:27 by uthpa

UK
Feature Film
Director: Terence Fisher
Writers: Peter Bryan, Arthur Conan Doyle
Cinematographer: Jack Asher
Composer: James Bernard
Cast: Peter Cushing, André Morell, Christopher Lee, Marla Landi, David Oxley, Francis de Wolff, Miles Malleson, Ewen Solon

Perhaps the most acclaimed of all Doyle adaptations, this stylish Hammer effort with Cushing as Sherlock Holmes - investigating the death of the venerable Lord Baskerville, against the backdrop of fantastic legends of ancient curses and haunted moors - is an entertaining if perhaps easily forgotten film. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, UK | No comments

Friday, 24 April 2009

The Way I Killed My Father (2001)

Posted on 11:36 by uthpa

France/Spain
Feature Film
Original Title: Comment j'ai tué mon père
Director: Anne Fontaine
Writers: Jacques Fieschi, Anne Fontaine
Cinematographer: Jean-Marc Fabre
Composer: Jocelyn Pook
Cast: Michel Bouquet, Charles Berling, Natacha Régnier, Amira Casar, Stéphane Guillon, Hubert Koundé, Karole Rocher

A successful doctor, with a beautiful wife, a sexy mistress, and a penchant for surgically enhanced prostitutes, finds his comfortable existence under threat when the arrival of his long absent father forces him to reappraise his life in Fontaine’s interesting if rather cold and slightly familiar study of masculine inadequacies and anxieties. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, France, Spain | No comments

Thursday, 23 April 2009

Nuts in May (1976)

Posted on 07:45 by uthpa

UK
Television Film
Series Title: Play for Today (1970-1984)
Writer/Director: Mike Leigh
Cinematography: Michael Williams
Cast: Roger Sloman, Alison Steadman, Anthony O'Donnell, Sheila Kelley, Stephen Bill

Click for review.

Posted in Play for Today, Television Film, UK | No comments

Let's Get Lost (1988)

Posted on 07:24 by uthpa

Recommended

USA
Feature Documentary
Director: Bruce Weber
Cinematographer: Jeff Preiss
Featuring: Chet Baker

Weber paints an even handed portrait every bit as bitter-sweet as its dilapidated protagonist’s often wonderful music (which underscores the majority of the film), presenting Chet Baker as a once beautiful figure, ravaged by years of drug use, but one that could still seemingly hold a tune. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Documentary, USA | No comments

Wednesday, 22 April 2009

Naked (1993)

Posted on 06:38 by uthpa

Feature Film
Writer/Director: Mike Leigh
Cinematographer: Dick Pope
Composer: Andrew Dickson
Cast: David Thewlis, Lesley Sharp, Katrin Cartlidge, Greg Cruttwell, Claire Skinner, Peter Wight, Ewen Bremner, Susan Vidler, Deborah MacLaren, Gina McKee

Posted in Feature Film, TSPDT Top 1000, UK | No comments

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

The Four Feathers (1939)

Posted on 13:18 by uthpa

Not Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Zoltan Korda
Writers: R.C. Sherriff, Lajos Biro, Arthur Wimperis, A.E.W. Mason
Cinematographers: Osmond Borradaile, Georges Périnal
Composer: Miklos Rozsa
Cast: John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez, Allan Jeayes, Jack Allen, Donald Gray, Frederick Culley

At times unintentionally funny, and blighted with soporific action sequences, the Korda brothers’ production of Mason’s much filmed novel, a tale of derring-do set against the backdrop of the British lead massacre of Mahdist freedom fighters at Omdurman, filled with characters afflicted with nobility, selflessness, and other such inhumanly disagreeable characteristics, is a just about watchable if depressingly colonialistic, adventure film. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, UK | No comments

Hillsborough (1996)

Posted on 09:25 by uthpa

UK
Television Film
Director: Charles McDougall
Writer: Jimmy McGovern
Cinematographer: Barry Ackroyd
Composer: Robert Lane
Cast: Christopher Eccleston, Sarah Graham, Mark Womack, Tracey Wilkinson, Ricky Tomlinson, Rachel Davies, Scot Williams, Maurice Roëves

Painting a damning portrait of the former Chief Superintendent of South Yorkshire Police, David Duckenfield, as well as of The Sun newspaper, but also a beautifully human one of the relatives of the victims, McGovern’s sensitive, impassioned, and justifiably angry portrait of the Hillsborough disaster and its ugly aftermath is often painfully hard to watch. Iain.Stott

Posted in Television Film, UK | No comments

Honeydripper (2007)

Posted on 00:23 by uthpa

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: John Sayles
Cinematography: Dick Pope
Composer: Mason Daring
Cast: Danny Glover, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Yaya DaCosta, Charles S. Dutton, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Gary Clark Jr., Mable John, Nagee Clay, Absalom Adams, Arthur Lee Williams, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Davenia McFadden, Daryl Edwards, Sean Patrick Thomas, Eric L. Abrams, Kel Mitchell, Keb' Mo'

In this 1950s-set rural drama, Sayles paints a vibrantly subtle portrait of an American south filled with casual, institutionalised racism, where black people are inducted into slavery under the guise of vagrancy control, and black business is made nigh impossible by seemingly white-only credit, but there’s always the music… Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, USA | No comments

Monday, 20 April 2009

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Posted on 11:23 by uthpa

Feature Film
Original Title: C'era una volta il West
Director: Sergio Leone
Writers: Sergio Donati, Sergio Leone, Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, Mickey Knox
Cinematographer: Tonino Delli Colli
Composer: Ennio Morricone
Cast: Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Gabriele Ferzetti

Posted in Feature Film, Italy, TSPDT Top 1000, USA | No comments

Little Children (2006)

Posted on 06:35 by uthpa

USA
Feature Film
Director: Todd Field
Writers: Todd Field, Tom Perrotta
Cinematographer: Antonio Calvache
Composer: Thomas Newman
Cast: Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connelly, Gregg Edelman, Noah Emmerich, Jackie Earle Haley, Phyllis Somerville

Field’s formally playful picture - a coruscating adaptation of Perrotta’s novel, painting a damning portrait of suburbia, filled with children big and small, selfishly and prejudicially blundering their way towards instant gratification and assumed moral superiority - is a bravely acted, beautifully made, and frighteningly believable film. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, USA | No comments

Sunday, 19 April 2009

Molière (2007)

Posted on 06:21 by uthpa

France

Feature Film
Director: Laurent Tirard
Writers: Laurent Tirard, Grégoire Vigneron
Cinematographer: Gilles Henry
Composer: Frédéric Talgorn
Cast: Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Laura Morante, Edouard Baer, Ludivine Sagnier, Fanny Valette, Gonzague Montuel, Gilian Petrovski

… or Molière in Love; Tirard’s sumptuous speculation on the events that lead to Molière’s writing of Tartuffe, chronicling the eponymous playwright’s brief, farcical dalliance with the very edges of high society, is, with its accomplished performances, excellent production values, and Talgorn’s delightful score, thoroughly entertaining. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, France | No comments

Shattered Glass (2003)

Posted on 02:01 by uthpa

USA

Feature Film
Director: Billy Ray
Writers: Billy Ray, H.G. Bissinger
Cinematographer: Mandy Walker
Composer: Mychael Danna
Cast: Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Zahn, Hank Azaria, Melanie Lynskey, Rosario Dawson

This pleasingly low-key production, filled with attractively subtle performances and agreeable surface detail, chronicling the fib-telling, infamous, former journalist Stephen Glass’s undoing, despite its obvious entertaining qualities, never really gets under the skin of its ethically dubious protagonist. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, USA | No comments

Saturday, 18 April 2009

Springtime in a Small Town (2002)

Posted on 08:16 by uthpa

China/France/The Netherlands
Feature Film
Original Title: 小城之春
Director: Tian Zhuangzhuang
Writers: Ah Cheng, Li Tianji
Cinematographer: Mark Li Ping-bing
Composer: Xu Jianping
Cast: Hu Jingfan, Wu Jun, Xin Baiqing, Ye Xiaokeng, Lu Si Si

Adapted from the same source story as Fei Mu’s much acclaimed Spring in a Small Town (1948), Tian’s beautifully nuanced film, coming after an enforced ten-year hiatus, exquisitely exploring an emotionally complicated ménage-a-trois, is a visually sumptuous and really rather moving work of great delicacy. Iain.Stott

Posted in China, Feature Film, France, The Netherlands | No comments

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

Posted on 05:17 by uthpa

USA

Feature Film
Director: Larry Charles
Writers: Sacha Baron Cohen, Peter Baynham, Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer, Todd Phillips
Cinematographers: Luke Geissbuhler, Anthony Hardwick
Composer: Erran Baron Cohen
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitian, Luenell

Sacha Baron Cohen travels across America in the guise of his Borat character, lampooning small mindedness and bigotry along the way, in this intelligent yet sophomoric and perhaps a little cruel though undeniably funny and very entertaining ragbag of a movie. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, TSPDT 21st Century, USA | No comments

13 Tzameti (2005)

Posted on 04:50 by uthpa

France
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Géla Babluani
Cinematographer: Tariel Meliava
Cast: George Babluani, Pascal Bongard, Aurélien Recoing, Fred Ulysse, Nicolas Pignon, Vania Vilers, Olga Legrand, Christophe Vandevelde

A young Georgian immigrant chances upon a set of mysterious instructions that promise the possibility of instant riches, and, with him recently losing out on a big payday, he follows them and stumbles into a dangerous world of underground gambling in Babluani’s sub-Bressonian curio that fails as both thriller and allegory, but, with some starkly attractive photography and a lovely sense of pacing, just about manages to hold the attention. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, France | No comments

Friday, 17 April 2009

A Cock and Bull Story (2005)

Posted on 10:11 by uthpa

Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Writers: Frank Cottrell Boyce, Laurence Sterne
Cinematographer: Marcel Zyskind
Composer: Edward Nogria
Cast: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson, Jeremy Northam, Kelly Macdonald, Naomie Harris, Ian Hart, Gillian Anderson

Falling Somewhere between Kiarostami and Entourage (HBO), Winterbottom’s post-modern ragbag of delicious old nonsense – depicting a film-crew’s filming of Sterne’s unfilmmable novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-1767), with most actors playing several parts (including themselves) – is an insightful, very funny, and wonderfully acted look at the artistic process (Brydon, in particular, is excellent). Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, TSPDT 21st Century, UK | No comments

Ghost World (2001)

Posted on 07:09 by uthpa

Recommended

USA/UK/Germany

Feature Film
Director: Terry Zwigoff
Writers: Daniel Clowes, Terry Zwigoff
Cinematographer: Affonso Beato
Composer: David Kitay
Cast: Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Brad Renfro, Illeana Douglas, Bob Balaban, Stacey Travis

Although the plot doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny, Zwigoff’s entertaining comic book adaptation – chronicling the first tentative steps taken by two lifelong friends into the adult world – is a heartbreakingly beautiful portrait of lives growing in different directions, and a sad statement about the impossibility of individuality in today’s society. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, Germany, TSPDT 21st Century, UK, USA | No comments

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Posted on 06:00 by uthpa

USA
Feature Film
Director: Frank Darabont
Writers: Frank Darabont, Stephen King
Cinematographer: Roger Deakins
Composer: Thomas Newman
Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, Mark Rolston, James Whitmore

Although hamstrung somewhat by the speechifyingly unrealistic dialogue and a general lack of credibility when it comes to prison life, Darabont’s sprawling portrait of a mild mannered banker, wrongly imprisoned for the murder of his wife and her lover, is, never the less, by the time that it gets to its thoroughly satisfying conclusion, an entertainingly rewarding experience. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, TSPDT Top 1000, USA | No comments

Night of the Demon (1957)

Posted on 01:32 by uthpa

UK/USA
Feature Film
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Writers: Charles Bennett, Hal E. Chester, Cy Endfield, M.R. James
Cinematographer: Ted Scaife
Composer: Clifton Parker
Cast: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Maurice Denham, Athene Seyler

An American psychologist who specialises in debunking witchcraft travels to England, where he becomes dangerously intertwined with a nefarious cult, in Tourneur’s (surprisingly direct) horror film, which, despite some rather camp moments and a slightly weak central performance, proves to be an atmospherically entertaining little film. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, TSPDT Top 1000, UK, USA | No comments

Thursday, 16 April 2009

Afghan Star (2009)

Posted on 09:29 by uthpa

Recommended

UK
Feature Documentary
Director: Havana Marking
Cinematographer: Phil Stebbing

Marking’s fascinating Afghanistan-set documentary, chronicling the progress of a number of contestant’s on a reality-TV tinged musical talent show (one that retains all of the qualities that make its western equivalents so distasteful), paints an eye-opening portrait of a country in the process of monumental change. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Documentary, UK | No comments

Victim (1961)

Posted on 06:57 by uthpa

Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Basil Dearden
Writers: Janet Green, John McCormick
Cinematographer: Otto Heller
Composer: Philip Green
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Syms, Dennis Price, Nigel Stock, Peter McEnery, Donald Churchill, Anthony Nicholls, Hilton Edwards

Although at times logic is in danger of being lost to polemic, Dearden’s beautifully paced film, chronicling a married, non-practicing homosexual lawyer’s attempts to track down a blackmailer targeting the local gay community (homosexuality was still illegal at this point), is a brave, stylish, and important exploration of a, then, taboo subject. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, UK | No comments

Michael Clayton (2007)

Posted on 01:08 by uthpa

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Tony Gilroy
Cinematographer: Robert Elswit
Composer: James Newton Howard
Cast: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack, Merritt Wever, Michael O'Keefe

Screenwriter Gilroy’s directorial debut - a tale of corporate skulduggery, legal manipulation, and moral awakening, chronicling Clooney’s world-weary, indebted, gambling addicted lawyer’s quest for truth and redemption - is an intelligent, well-made, and surprisingly humanistic journey through a cynical and dangerous world. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, USA | No comments

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

The Innocents (1961)

Posted on 23:43 by uthpa

Feature Film
Director: Jack Clayton
Writers: William Archibald, Truman Capote, John Mortimer, Henry James
Cinematographer: Freddie Francis
Composer: Georges Auric
Cast: Deborah Kerr, Megs Jenkins, Martin Stephens, Pamela Franklin, Peter Wyngarde

Posted in Feature Film, TSPDT Top 1000, USA | No comments

Mildred Pierce (1945)

Posted on 07:03 by uthpa

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Director: Michael Curtiz
Writers: Ranald MacDougall, James M. Cain
Cinematographer: Ernest Haller
Composer: Max Steiner
Cast: Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Bruce Bennett, Eve Arden, Jo Ann Marlowe, Moroni Olsen

With its alternately playful and unsettling mise en scène and universally convincing performances, Curtiz’s jolting noir-cum-melodrama, an adaptation of Cain’s novel about a mother who gives up just about everything for her ungrateful, snobby, materialistic, and desperately-in-need-of-a-good-slapping eldest daughter, is a parenting cautionary tale quiet unlike any other. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, TSPDT Top 1000, USA | No comments

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Posted on 00:52 by uthpa

Recommended

USA
Feature Film
Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Writer: Michael Arndt
Cinematographer: Tim Suhrstedt
Composers: Mychael Danna
Cast: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin

Dayton and Faris’s feature debut – boasting some brilliant comic performances, chronicling one extended, dysfunctional family’s road trip from Alburkerke to California to a attend a rather disturbing child beauty pageant – is a moving, insightful, and often laugh-out-loud funny examination of the things and dreams that we fill our lives with in order to stave off thoughts about the pointlessness of existence. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, TSPDT 21st Century, USA | No comments

My Voyage to Italy (1999)

Posted on 00:41 by uthpa

Italy/USA
Feature Documentary
Original Title: Il mio viaggio in Italia
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writers: Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Raffaele Donato, Kent Jones, Martin Scorsese
Presenter: Martin Scorsese

Scorsese guides us on a delightfully personal and subjective journey through classic Italian cinema, shining a delicate, thoughtful light on Rossellini, De Sica, Visconti, Fellini, and Antonioni, in this more focused companion piece to the equally excellent A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995). Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Documentary, USA | No comments

Tuesday, 14 April 2009

Red Dwarf: Back to Earth (2009)

Posted on 03:16 by uthpa

UK
Television Series Special
Director: Doug Naylor
Writer: Rob Grant
Cinematographer: Andy Martin
Cast: Craig Charles, Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn

The crew of the Red Dwarf, following a squid attack, somehow end up back on Earth in 2009, and discover that they are just fictional characters in a TV show in this curious return to our screens, after a ten year hiatus, that at times threatens to disappear up its own backside, but some nice topical gags and a few recycled plot ideas just about make it a welcome return. Iain.Stott

Posted in | No comments

Friday, 10 April 2009

In the Company of Men (1997)

Posted on 23:47 by uthpa

USA/Canada
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Neil LaBute
Cinematographer: Tony Hettinger
Composer: Karel Roessingh, Ken Williams
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Stacy Edwards, Matt Malloy

At times, very hard to watch, LaBute’s searing, allegorical (?) portrait of a schadenfreudian businessman, who shows signs of misogyny, misandry, racism, snobbery, homophobia, and general misanthropy, is an uncompromisingly constructed, ultra-low budget work that has much to say about the dark heart of mankind. Iain.Stott

Posted in Canada, Feature Film, USA | No comments

Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)

Posted on 11:19 by uthpa

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Michael Apted

Writers: Tom Rickman, Loretta Lynn, George Vecsey

Cinematographer: Ralf D. Bode

Cast: Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D'Angelo, Levon Helm, Phyllis Boyens, Ernest Tubb

Spacek, doing her own singing, is absolutely fabulous in the titular role of the popular country singer Loretta Lynn, in Apted’s entertaining biopic, chronicling her progress from 13-year-old child bride in the hills of Kentucky to her arrival in Nashville and onto international stardom. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, USA | No comments

Millions Like Us (1943)

Posted on 07:16 by uthpa

Feature Film
Writer/Directors: Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder
Cinematographers: Jack Cox, Roy Fogwell
Cast: Patricia Roc, Gordon Jackson, Anne Crawford, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Moore Marriott, Eric Portman

Despite an all too brief, superfluous, and surprisingly dull appearance from the oft brilliant duo of Radford and Wayne, Gilliat and Launder’s warmly drawn portrait of life on the home front during the Second World War is, with its mix of funny, dramatic, romantic, and poignant moments, a movingly entertaining little film. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, UK | No comments

The Long Memory (1952)

Posted on 04:19 by uthpa

Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Robert Hamer
Writers: Robert Hamer, Frank Harvey, Howard Clewes
Cinematographer: Harry Waxman
Composer: William Alwyn
Cast: John Mills, John McCallum, Elizabeth Sellars, Eva Bergh, Geoffrey Keen, Michael Martin-Harvey, John Chandos, John Chandos, Thora Hird

John Mills’s recently released ex-convict, wrongly accused of murder, ventures back out into the world, single-mindedly intent upon revenging those that connived and contrived to put him behind bars; but humanity (his and others’) ensures that twelve years of pain is not as easy to wipe-out as he had first thought, in Hamer’s stylish, excellently acted, and really quite moving examination of vengeance and loss. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, UK | No comments

A History of Violence (2005)

Posted on 03:41 by uthpa

USA/Germany

Feature Film
Director: David Cronenberg
Writers: Josh Olson, Vince Locke, John Wagner
Cinematographer: Peter Suschitzky
Composer: Howard Shore
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Ashton Holmes, Peter MacNeill, Stephen McHattie, Greg Bryk, Kyle Schmid

When a pair of psychotic thieves attempt to rob a family-owned diner in a small American town, the quiet, mild-mannered proprietor leaps into action and kills the two of them, and in the process becomes a media hero, but when a group of Philadelphia mobsters arrive in town asking some awkward questions, the family man’s history of violence gradually comes to light, in Cronenberg’s expertly crafted examination of violence and its effects upon the inflictor and those around them. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, Germany, TSPDT 21st Century, USA | No comments

Thursday, 9 April 2009

Robin and Marian (1976)

Posted on 07:34 by uthpa

USA
Feature Film
Director: Richard Lester
Writer: James Goldman
Cinematographer: David Watkin
Composer: John Barry
Cast: Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Nicol Williamson, Robert Shaw, Richard Harris, Kenneth Haigh

Let down only by John Barry’s sentimental score, chronicling Robin Hood’s return to England after twenty years of obediently following King Richard around the world, re-teaming him with his beloved Marion, and putting him back at odds with his mortal enemy, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Lester’s typically myth-busting look at the later life of this bow-wielding legend is a desperately funny and melancholy minor masterpiece. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, USA | No comments

Gallivant (1997)

Posted on 04:43 by uthpa

Feature Documentary
Director: Andrew Kötting
Cinematographer: Nick Gordon Smith
Composer: David Burnand
Featuring: Andrew Kötting, Eden Kötting, Gladys Morris

Kötting’s remarkable film - chronicling the film-maker’s low-key journey around the entire coastline of Britain accompanied by his 85-year-old grandmother and 7-year-old, Joubert's-syndrome-suffering daughter - is a visually playful, whimsically funny, quietly moving, and obliquely informative minor masterpiece, and a quite unforgettable experience. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Documentary, UK | No comments

1408 (2007)

Posted on 03:56 by uthpa

USA
Feature Film
Director: Mikael Håfström
Writers: Scott Alexander, Matt Greenberg, Larry Karaszewski, Stephen King
Cinematographer: Benoît Delhomme
Composer: Gabriel Yared
Cast: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, Jasmine Jessica Anthony

An author who travels from “haunted” hotel to “haunted” motel in search of paranormal experiences – experiences that he has yet to, but would dearly love to, experience – receives an intriguing sort-of invite to stay in room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel, New York, which he duly takes, and then, of course, things begin to go bump in the night, in Håfström’s smart, chilling, and surprisingly moving ghost story. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, USA | No comments

The Family Friend (2006)

Posted on 03:38 by uthpa

Italy/France

Feature Film
Original Title: L’amico di famiglia
Writer/Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Cinematographer: Luca Bigazzi
Composer: Teho Teardo
Cast: Giacomo Rizzo, Laura Chiatti, Gigi Angelillo, Marco Giallini, Barbara Valmorin, Luisa De Santis, Clara Bindi

An ageing, small-time moneylender who lives with his elderly, bed-ridden mother, and is, thanks to his hideous looks and complete lack of charm, prolifically unlucky with members of the opposite sex, manages to manoeuvre his way into the knickers of the beautiful young daughter of an indebted client, in Sorrentino’s stylish and entertaining if mildly disappointing follow-up to the far superior The Consequences of Love (2004). Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, France, Italy | No comments

Wednesday, 8 April 2009

Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Posted on 05:47 by uthpa

Highly Recommended

USA
Short Feature Film
Director: Buster Keaton
Writers: Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez, Joe Mitchell
Cinematographers: Byron Houck, Elgin Lessley
Cast: Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton, Erwin Connelly, Ward Crane

An aspiring detective is accused of a crime that he did not commit by the family of his potential fiancée; banished, he returns to his day job as a film projectionist, and dreams of apprehending the real culprit, his dastardly love rival, in Keaton’s thrillingly imaginative short film. Iain.Stott

Posted in Short Feature Film, TSPDT Top 1000, USA | No comments

The Wrong Arm of the Law (1963)

Posted on 05:21 by uthpa

Recommended

UK
Feature Film
Director: Cliff Owen
Writers: Len Heath, John Warren, John Antrobus, Ray Galton, Alan Simpson, Ivor Jay, William Whistance Smith
Cinematographer: Ernest Steward
Composer: Richard Rodney Bennett
Cast: Peter Sellers, Lionel Jeffries, Bernard Cribbins, Davy Kaye, Nanette Newman, Bill Kerr, Ed Devereaux, Reg Lye, John Le Mesurier

When a gang of Aussie rapscallions, dressed as policemen, start hitting London’s ordinary decent criminals, both Scotland Yard and a crooked cooperative join forces in order to restore the mutually beneficial status quo ante, in this deliriously funny satirical farce. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, UK | No comments

Tuesday, 7 April 2009

Bob Roberts (1992)

Posted on 10:59 by uthpa

USA/UK
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Tim Robbins
Cinematographer: Jean Lépine
Composer; David Robbins
Cast: Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Alan Rickman, Ray Wise, Brian Murray, Gore Vidal, Rebecca Jenkins, Harry Lennix

Existing in some sort of satirical limbo - not quite subtle enough to be biting, but too subtle to be seen as camp fun - Robbins’s faux documentary, chronicling the senatorial election campaign of a popular country singer, manages, never the less, to hold one’s attention throughout. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, UK, USA | No comments

Ratcatcher (1999)

Posted on 08:15 by uthpa

Highly Recommended

UK/France
Feature Film
Writer/Director: Lynne Ramsay
Cinematographer: Alwin Kuchler
Composer: Rachel Portman
Cast: William Eadie, Tommy Flanagan, Mandy Matthews, Michelle Stewart, Lynne Ramsay Jnr., Leanne Mullen, John Miller

Set amongst the mournful Glaswegian tenements of 1973, beset by alcoholism and striking binmen, against a backdrop of filth and squalor, deprivation and loss, Writer-Director Lynne Ramsay paints a lyrical, sensual, and quite beautiful portrait of a 12-year-old boy’s tragic, adventure-laden summer holidays. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, UK | No comments

Monday, 6 April 2009

Five Minutes of Heaven (2009)

Posted on 09:30 by uthpa

Highly Recommended

UK/Ireland/France
Television Film
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Writer: Guy Hibbert
Cinematographer: Ruairi O'Brien
Cast: Liam Neeson, James Nesbitt, Mark Davison

A former member of the UVF (Neeson) agrees to meet with the brother (an excellent, anxiety ridden Nesbitt) of a man that he killed 33 years previously, on camera for a television show, in Hirschbiegel’s tense and moving film, which thankfully avoids any easy answers to The Troubles. Iain.Stott

Posted in France, Ireland, Television Film, UK | No comments

Unfaithfully Yours (1948)

Posted on 00:46 by uthpa

Feature Film
Writer/Director: Preston Sturges
Cinematographer: Victor Milner
Cast: Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Kurt Kreuger, Rudy Vallee, Barbara Lawrence, Lionel Stander, Edgar Kennedy

Posted in Feature Film, TSPDT Top 1000, USA | No comments

The Host (2006)

Posted on 00:27 by uthpa

South Korea
Feature Film
Original Title: 괴물
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Writers: Baek Chul-hyun, Bong Joon-ho, Ha Jun-won
Cinematographer: Kim Hyung-ku
Composer: Lee Byung-woo
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Byeon Hie-bong, Park Hae-il, Bae Du-na, Ko Ah-sung

Bong’s socially conscious creature feature, a very funny, thrilling, and superior piece of entertainment, chronicles the attempts of one family to recover their beloved youngest member, following the emergence of a chemically mutated monster from the Han river. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, South Korea, TSPDT 21st Century | No comments

Saturday, 4 April 2009

Green for Danger (1946)

Posted on 00:47 by uthpa

UK
Feature Film
Director: Sidney Gilliat
Writers: Sidney Gilliat, Claud Gurney, Christianna Brand
Cinematographer: Wilkie Cooper
Composer: William Alwyn
Cast: Alastair Sim, Sally Gray, Trevor Howard, Rosamund John, Leo Genn, Judy Campbell, Megs Jenkins, Moore Marriott

The incomparable, mercurial Sim enlivens an otherwise rather silly whodunit with a raft of wonderful facial expressions, plus there are some nice comic moments, but the central mystery, revolving around a couple of murders in a rural hospital towards the end of the Second World War, is never even vaguely believable, and as for the horrible underuse of the brilliant Marriott - unforgivable. Iain.Stott

Posted in Feature Film, UK | No comments

Friday, 3 April 2009

Summer Interlude (1951)

Posted on 05:27 by uthpa