My Blueberry Nights (2007)

Cautiously RecommendedHong Kong/China/FranceFeature FilmDirector: Wong Kar WaiWriters: Lawrence Block, Wong Kar WaiCinematographer: Darius KhondjiComposer: Ry CooderCast: Norah Jones, Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, Frankie FaisonThe delightful scenes between Law’s Mancunian café owner and Jones’s heartbroken customer, in the first of three patchy episodes, in Wong’s beautifully photographed English language debut, just...

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London to Brighton (2006)

RecommendedUKFeature FilmWriter/Director: Paul Andrew WilliamsCinematographer: Christopher RossComposer: Laura RossiCast: Lorraine Stanley, Georgia Groome, Johnny Harris, Nathan Constance, Sam Spruell, Alexander MortonWilliams’s grim tale - part social-realist character study (excellently done) part gangland thriller (less well done), chronicling a young prostitute and an eleven-year-old runaway’s flight to Brighton following a trick gone wrong - is a disturbing and harrowing yet sensitively made film, boasting a number of excellent performances,...

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The Bridge (2006)

RecommendedUSA/UKFeature DocumentaryDirector: Eric SteelCinematographers: Peter Baldwin, Peter McCandlessComposer: Alex HeffesDespite the film-makers’ slightly dubious ethics (the film’s structure is particularly troubling), the resulting documentary, an unflinching look at suicide, featuring actual footage of people jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge as well as interviews with family and friends, is an undeniably invaluable, strangely beautiful, and deeply sad work, and one that highlights the insignificance of the individual, as it dispassionately...

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Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Cautiously RecommendedUSAFeature FilmWriter/Director: Michel GondryCinematographer: Ellen KurasComposer: Jean-Michel BernardCast: Mos Def, Jack Black, Danny Glover, Mia Farrow, Melonie DiazThis decidedly light concoction from Gondry – chronicling a young clerk and his eccentric friend’s attempts to remake, with the aid of a camcorder and plenty of naff props, the entire back catalogue of a video rental store after a magnetic accident wipes all of...

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My Kid Could Paint That (2007)

RecommendedUSA/UKFeature DocumentaryDirector: Amir Bar-LevCinematographers: Matt Boyd, Nelson Hume, Bill TurnleyComposers: The Rondo BrothersFeaturing: Marla OlmsteadThis compelling and emotional documentary - chronicling the rise, fall, and sort of rise again of four-year-old, art prodigy, Marla Olmstead, whose abstract paintings became the toast of the New York art world until a television exposé cast doubt on their authenticity - largely sticks to the did she/didn’t she question, whilst rather ignoring the more interesting question of even if...

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The Page Turner (2006)

Cautiously RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: La tourneuse de pagesDirector: Denis DercourtWriters: Denis Dercourt, Jacques SottyCinematographer: Jérôme PeyrebruneComposer: Jérôme LemonnierCast: Déborah François, Catherine Frot, Pascal Greggory, Xavier De Guillebon, Clotilde Mollet, Antoine Martynciow, Julie Richalet, Christine Citti, Jacques BonnafféComing across like an art house version of an erotic thriller, only without the sex, this mildly entertaining revenge flick, in which a young girl’s musical dreams are dashed in a laughably...

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The Baby and the Buddha (2008)

RecommendedUK/France/Denmark/USA/IsraelFeature Documentaryaka Unmistaken ChildDirector: Nati BaratzCinematographer: Yaron OrbachComposer: Cyril MorinDelicately presenting a picture of a process that could easily be seen as anything from mystically beautiful to something akin to child abuse, Baratz’s fascinating documentary chronicles a devoted Nepalese monk’s quest to find the reincarnation of his former Tibetan master, Lama Konchog, a journey that...

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boymeetsgirl (2009)

Cautiously RecommendedUKTelevision Mini-SeriesPublicity Title: Boy Meets GirlDirector: Alrick RileyWriter: David AllisonCinematographer: Sean Van HalesComposer: David A. HughesCast: Rachael Stirling, Martin Freeman, Angela Griffin, Paterson Joseph, Marshall Lancaster, Tamzin Malleson, James LanceThis slight if rather addictive mini-series - in which a brash, working class, conspiracy theory spouting man and a timid, superficial, fashion obsessed woman, through a freak electrical accident, swap bodies, and consequently struggle to come to terms...

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Man on Wire (2008)

RecommendedUK/USAFeature DocumentaryDirector: James MarshWriter: Philippe PetitCinematographer: Igor MartinovicComposer: Michael NymanFeaturing: Philippe Petit, Jean-François Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau, Annie Allix, David FormanUsing archive footage, staged recreations, and new interviews, Marsh – managing to capture the suspense, wonder, and ridiculousness of the event – paints an entertaining portrait of the charismatic Petit’s 1974 World Trade...

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Hunger (2008)

Essential ViewingUK/IrelandFeature FilmDirector: Steve McQueenWriters: Steve McQueen, Enda WalshCinematographer: Sean BobbittComposers: Leo Abrahams, David HolmesCast: Michael Fassbender, Stuart Graham, Liam CunninghamTurner Prize winning artist Steve McQueen’s feature debut – a harrowing, unflinching portrait of IRA member Bobby Sands’s time in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland, chronicling his many abuses at the hands of the guards, as well as...

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Son of Rambow (2007)

Cautiously RecommendedUK/France/GermanyFeature FilmWriter/Director: Garth JenningsCinematographer: Jess HallComposer: Joby TalbotCast: Bill Milner, Will Poulter, Jessica Stevenson, Neil Dudgeon, Ed Westwick, Jules SitrukJennings’s follow up to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) never quite lives up to its fantastic sounding premise - two young boys, lonely outsiders, tentatively form a friendship whilst making their own version of First Blood (1982) with a camcorder and plenty of enthusiasm - but the largely unsentimental film is never...

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The Air I Breathe (2007)

Best AvoidedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Jieho LeeWriters: Bob DeRosa, Jieho LeeCinematographer: Walt LloydComposer: Marcelo ZarvosCast: Forest Whitaker, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kevin Bacon, Emile Hirsch, Julie Delpy, Cecilia SuárezDespite relatively accomplished performances and good if over-stylised production values, Lee’s feature debut - based on an ancient Chinese proverb that divides existence into four emotional states (happiness, pleasure, sorrow, and Love) - is a film constantly mired by laughably silly plot details...

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Evil Things (2009)

Cautiously RecommendedUSAFeature FilmWriter/Director: Dominic PerezCinematographers: Laurel Casillo, Moran Hooper, Ryan Maslyn, Elyssa Mersdorf, Dominic Perez, Mario Valdez, Torrey WeissCast: Laurel Casillo, Moran Hooper, Ryan Maslyn, Elyssa Mersdorf, Torrey WeissPerhaps a tad too reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project (1999), right down to its publicity material, to be wholly effective; never the less, Perez’s ultra-low budget debut, following a group of young friends on a trip out into the country to celebrate a 21st birthday, where things begin...

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Woman of the Dunes (1964)

Essential ViewingJapanFeature FilmOriginal Title: 砂の女Director: Teshigahara HiroshiWriter: Abe KōbōCinematographer: Segawa HiroshiComposer: Takemitsu TōruCast: Okada Eiji, Kishida KyōkoTeshigahara’s enigmatic, allegorical magnum opus – chronicling the escape attempts of an insect fancying school teacher, mysteriously imprisoned in a sandy dungeon with a taciturn woman by unscrupulous villagers, and forced into back-breaking manual labour – is, with...

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The Unloved (2009)

Highly RecommendedUKTelevision FilmDirector: Samantha MortonWriters: Tony Grisoni, Samantha MortonCinematographer: Thomas TownendCast: Molly Windsor, Lauren Socha, Robert Carlyle, Susan Lynch, Craig Parkinson, Andrea Lowe, Karl Collins, Johann Myers, Michael Socha, Darren Campbell, Kerry StaceyMorton’s outstanding directorial debut – an ethereally beautiful, achingly sad, and painfully honest look at the life of an abused eleven-year-old girl, who...

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Stick It in Detroit (2008)

Cautiously RecommendedUSADTV FilmDirector: Robert Daniel PhelpsWriters: Gaetano Aprea, Shaun McLean, Robert Daniel Phelps, Justin RoseCinematographer: Stephen TreadwayComposer: Ken JosephCast: John Lutz, Brett Gelman, Jon Daly, Kieran Campion, Matt Chapman, Robert Daniel Phelps, Susan Misner, Gerrit Graham, Sasha Allen, Katharine Leonard, Manuel Cabral, Jessica GoldenAlthough not for all tastes, and certainly not for the more refined palette, this laddish, episodic, blue-collar comedy, a patchily entertaining look at the dysfunctional lives of...

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Das Experiment (2001)

RecommendedGermanyFeature FilmDirector: Oliver HirschbiegelWriters: Don Bohlinger, Christoph Darnstädt, Mario GiordanoCinematographer: Rainer KlausmannComposer: Alexander van BubenheimCast: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel, Maren Eggert, Oliver Stokowski, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Justus von Dohnanyi, Nicki von Tempelhoff, Timo Dierkes, Antoine Monot Jr., Edgar Selge, Andrea Sawatzki, Philipp HochmairInspired by the Stanford University psychological...

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Somers Town (2008)

RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirector: Shane MeadowsWriter: Paul FraserCinematographer: Natasha BraierCast: Thomas Turgoose, Piotr Jagiello, Ireneusz Czop, Perry Benson, Elisa Lasowski, Kate DickieThis small, gentle film from Meadows – a touching account of a burgeoning friendship between a gobby, homeless, Nottingham teenager and a quiet, sensitive Polish boy in the eponymous area of London, and their brief encounter with an attractive French waitress...

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Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Richard BoleslawskiWriters: Sidney Buchman, Mary McCarthyCinematographer: Joseph Walker Composers: Arthur Morton, William Grant StillCast: Irene Dunne, Melvyn Douglas, Thomas Mitchell, Thurston Hall, Rosalind Keith, Elisabeth Risdon, Margaret McWade, Spring Byington, Nana Bryant, Henry Kolker, Leona Maricle, Robert Greig, Frederick BurtonDunne’s spirited performance as a prim-and-proper, small town girl who, pseudonymously, also happens to be the best-selling author of a racy and controversial novel, forms...

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The Sickie (2006)

RecommendedUKShort FilmDirector: Rupert JonesWriters: Neil Hunter, Rupert JonesCinematographer: Tat RadcliffeCast: Toby Jones, Stuart Goodwin, David Hayler, Martin Hyder, Dominic McHale, Kate SissonsToby Jones’s pleasingly restrained, deadpan portrayal of a put-upon middle-manager, struggling to organise corporate hospitality for the imminent arrival of a VIP from Spain, forms the centre of this entertaining little short, in which the aforementioned stony figure resorts to the titular event when things get on top of him. Iain.St...

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The Boss of It All (2006)

RecommendedDenmark/Iceland/Sweden/Norway/Finland/France/Germany/ItalyFeature FilmOriginal Title: Direktøren for det heleWriter/Director: Lars von TrierCinematographer: AutomavisionCast: Jens Albinus, Peter Gantzler, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Benedikt Erlingsson, Iben Hjejle, Henrik Prip, Mia Lyhne, Casper Christensen, Louise Mieritz, Jean-Marc Barr, Sofie Gråbølvon Trier’s frequently hilarious workplace comedy – employing the “innovative” Automavision...

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Gregory's Girl (1981)

Highly RecommendedUKFeature FilmWriter/Director: Bill ForsythCinematographer: Michael CoulterComposer: Colin TullyCast: John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn, Jake D'Arcy, Clare Grogan, Robert Buchanan, Billy Greenlees, Allan Love, Caroline Guthrie, Carol Macartney, Douglas Sannachan, Allison ForsterForsyth’s typically and delightfully inconsequential look at the lives of a group of small town Scots teenagers – following, in particular, the awkward and...

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Kontroll (2003)

Not RecommendedHungaryFeature FilmDirector: Antal NimródWriters: Jim Adler, Antal NimródCinematographer: Pados GyulaComposer: NeoCast: Csányi Sándor, Mucsi Zoltán, Pindroch Csaba, Badár Sándor, Nagy Zsolt, Mátyássy Bence, Szabó Gyözö, Balla Eszter, Nádasi László, Scherer Péter, Kovács LajosAn opening prologue suggests that Antal’s first feature - a blackly comic look at the working lives of a group of dysfunctional, underground ticket collectors, who put their physical wellbeings on the line on a daily basis - should be read as allegory, but the...

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Chopper (2000)

RecommendedAustraliaFeature FilmDirector: Andrew DominikWriters: Andrew Dominik, Mark Brandon ReadCinematographers: Geoffrey Hall, Kevin HaywardComposer: Mick HarveyCast: Eric Bana, Simon Lyndon, David Field, Dan Wyllie, Bill Young, Vince Colosimo, Kenny Graham, Kate Beahan, Serge LiistroEric Bana’s astonishing performance as the infamous, self-publicising criminal Mark “Chopper” Read, revealing the man to be a worryingly unstable, unpredictably...

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Mute Witness (1994)

UK/Russia/USA/GermanyFeature FilmWriter/Director: Anthony WallerCinematographer: Egon WerdinComposer: Wilbert HirschCast: Marina Zudina, Fay Ripley, Evan Richards, Oleg Yankovskiy, Igor Volkov, Sergei Karlenkov, Alec GuinnessA mute SFX/make-up artist gets locked inside a Moscow studio at the end of the day’s shooting, and stumbles upon the filming of a snuff movie, and consequently must flee for her life, in this stylish, entertaining, (silly), and...

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How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989)

Highly RecommendedUKFeature FilmWriter/Director: Bruce RobinsonCinematographer: Peter HannanComposers: David Dundas, Rick WentworthCast: Richard E. Grant, Rachel Ward, Richard Wilson, Jacqueline Tong, John Shrapnel, Susan Wooldridge, Hugh Armstrong, Mick Ford, Jacqueline PearceRobinson’s follow-up to the "cult classic" Withnail & I (1987), an unrelenting satire of the evils of advertising, in which Grant’s successful ad-agent literally grows a second head in order to separate his malignant, professional side from his inner human being, is a...

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White Zombie (1932)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Victor HalperinWriter: Garnett WestonCinematographer: Arthur MartinelliComposer: Xavier CugatCast: Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, Joseph Cawthorn, Robert Frazer, John Harron, Brandon HurstDespite some frankly rather naff dialogue that’s often delivered with all the panache and skill of a cardboard box, this brief horror flick, detailing the nefarious acts of Lugosi’s Haiti based zombie-master, is, thanks mainly to the finesse and ingenuity with which Halperin and Martinelli fill the screen, a creepily memorable...

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Shall We Dance (1937)

Essential ViewingUSAFeature FilmDirector: Mark SandrichWriters: Allan Scott, Ernest Pagano, P.J. Wolfson, Harold Buchman, Lee LoebCinematographer: David AbelComposers: George Gershwin, Ira GershwinCast: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, Jerome Cowan, Ketti Gallian, William BrisbaneThis Astaire-Rogers vehicle, a musical farce with songs by the Gershwins, chronicling two dancers and their managers’ attempts to variously...

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The Father, the Son and the Housekeeper (2009)

RecommendedUK/IrelandShort Television DocumentaryDirector: Alison MillarCinematographers: Seamas McCracken, Michael QuinnComposers: Danny Todd, Jeremy VassFeaturing: Father Michael Cleary, Ross HamiltonDespite a couple of questionable soundtrack choices, Millar’s documentary - a delicate depiction of superstar priest, Father Michael Cleary (coming across like a lost character from Father Ted), and his illegitimate son, Ross Hamilton (a tragically beautiful figure), which also manages to be a damning portrait of the system that forced these two...

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Burn After Reading (2008)

RecommendedUSA/UK/FranceFeature FilmWriter/Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel CoenCinematographer: Emmanuel LubezkiComposer: Carter BurwellCast: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, J.K. SimmonsComing across like one of the Coens’ typical morality tales, only without the moral (a trend continued from No Country for Old Men), this cynical farce, chronicling the path-crossing...

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The Arsenal Stadium Mystery (1940)

Not RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirector: Thorold DickinsonWriters: Donald Bull, Patrick Kirwan, Thorold Dickinson, Alan Hyman, Leonard Reginald GribbleCinematographer: Desmond DickinsonCast: Leslie Banks, Greta Gynt, Ian McLean, Liane Linden, Anthony Bushell, Esmond Knight, Brian Worth, Richard Norris, Wyndham Goldie, Alastair MacIntyre, George AllisonDespite the fantastic title, Dickinson’s mildly diverting murder mystery - chronicling an eccentric police inspector’s investigation of the murder of a famous amateur footballer, killed in the midst...

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Les Amants (1958)

Highly RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: Les amantsDirector: Louis MalleWriters: Louise de Vilmorin, Dominique VivantCinematographer: Henri DecaëCast: Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Marc Bory, Judith Magre, José Villalonga, Alain CunyWith an extraordinary performance from Moreau, exquisite photography from Decaë, and a delightful soundtrack of Brahms, Malle’s second feature, the depiction of a love story simultaneously as alluring and repulsive as...

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Water Lilies (2007)

Cautiously RecommendedFranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: Naissance des pieuvresWriter/Director: Céline SciammaCinematographer: Crystel FournierComposer: Para OneCast: Pauline Acquart, Adele Haenel, Louise Blachère, Warren JacquinAlthough it pales in comparison to Lukas Moodysson’s similarly plotted Show Me Love (1998), and Sciamma’s talents seem to lay behind the camera rather than the typewriter, and some of the performances are a little uneven (although Acquart is fantastic), this tale of adolescent longing and sexual exploration, set amongst...

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The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)

Not RecommendedUK/USA/CanadaFeature FilmDirector: Tony RichardsonWriters: Tony Richardson, John IrvingCinematographer: David WatkinCast: Rob Lowe, Jodie Foster, Paul McCrane, Beau Bridges, Lisa Banes, Jennie Dundas, Seth Green, Wally Aspell, Nastassja Kinski, Joely Richardson, Wallace Shawn, Matthew Modine, Wilford Brimley, Cali Timmins, Dorsey WrightRichardson’s brave/foolish adaptation of Irving’s meandering novel – a sprawling, idiosyncratic examination...

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Compulsion (2009)

Best AvoidedUKTelevision FilmDirector: Sarah HardingWriters: Joshua St Johnston, Thomas Middleton, William RowleyComposer: Jennie MuskettCast: Parminder Nagra, Ray Winstone, Ben Aldridge, James Floyd, Sargon Yelda, Bhasker Patel, Veena Sood, Emma Campbell-WebsterNagra’s recent Cambridge graduate begins a torrid affair with her father’s odious chauffeur (Winstone), progressing from revulsion to compulsion and conspiracy to murder, in this rather disagreeable tale about unpleasant people doing unpleasant things unpleasantly, and, if that isn‘t enough,...

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Endgame (2009)

RecommendedUK/USATelevision FilmDirector: Pete TravisWriter: Paula MilneCinematographer: David OddCast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, William Hurt, Jonny Lee Miller, Clarke Peters, Derek Jacobi, Mark Strong, Grant Swanby, Lihle Bangani, Mike Huff, Timothy WestDespite the incongruous visual style (all crash zooms, whip pans, and awkward cuts), this uncompromising drama - chronicling the secret UK based talks between representatives of the ANC and the South African Government that helped to lead to the abolition of Apartheid - is compelling viewing, and (and...

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The Gold Rush (1942)

Not RecommendedUSAFeature FilmWriter/Director/Composer: Charles ChaplinCinematographer: Roland TotherohCast: Charles Chaplin, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Georgia Hale, Henry Bergman, Malcolm WaiteThis 1942 re-release, complete with horribly literal and rather camp narration from Chaplin himself, is something of a disaster, and should really be avoided if at all possible, but is still a mildly entertaining experience, as there are some wonderful sequences...

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Alien (1979)

RecommendedUK/USAFeature FilmDirector: Ridley ScottWriters: Dan O'Bannon, Ronald ShusettCinematographer: Derek VanlintComposer: Jerry GoldsmithCast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet KottoWith its elegant camera work, unhurried pacing, convincing effects, sumptuous sets, and impressive performances, this painfully suspenseful science-fiction/horror film, a tale of a killer alien let...

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Amelie (2001)

RecommendedFrance/GermanyFeature FilmOriginal Title: Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie PoulainDirector: Jean-Pierre JeunetWriters: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Guillaume LaurantCinematographer: Bruno DelbonnelComposer: Yann TiersenCast: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Lorella Cravotta, Serge Merlin, Jamel Debbouze, Clotilde Mollet, Claire Maurier, Isabelle Nanty, Dominique PinonShould you be in the right frame of mind, this whimsical, child’s-eye view...

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Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Highly RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Otto PremingerWriters: Wendell Mayes, Robert TraverCinematographer: Sam LeavittComposer: Duke EllingtonCast: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant, George C. ScottWith Leavitt’s photography and Ellington’s score being every bit as sexy as the provocative turn from Cinema’s Sexiest Actress Lee Remick, Preminger’s languorously paced court-room drama, following a...

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The Full Monty (1997)

Cautiously RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirector: Peter CattaneoWriter: Simon BeaufoyCinematographer: John de BormanComposer: Anne DudleyCast: Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, William Snape, Steve Huison, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Barber, Hugo Speer, Lesley Sharp, Emily WoofAlthough the sanitised dialogue never quite convinces, and there’s a general lack of credibility to much of the action, there’s no denying that Cattaneo’s heartfelt tale of six unemployed steel-workers forming a stripping act in order to avoid the blues of the dole queue, is never anything...

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A Room with a View (1985)

RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirector: James IvoryWriters: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, E.M. ForsterCinematographer: Tony Pierce-RobertsComposer: Richard RobbinsCast: Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands, Daniel Day-Lewis, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Simon Callow, Judi Dench, Rosemary Leach, Rupert GravesThis episodic Merchant/Ivory production, an adaptation of Forster’s acclaimed novel, chronicling an ingénue’s romantic awakening against a number of idyllic backdrops in Italy and England, is a gently comic, swooningly enchanting, and beautifully observed...

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L.A. Confidential (1997)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Curtis HansonWriters: Curtis Hanson, Brian Helgeland, James EllroyCinematographer: Dante SpinottiComposer: Jerry GoldsmithCast: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, David Strathairn, Ron Rifkin, John MahonJames Cromwell’s baffling accent aside, this cracking thriller - a tale of corruption, sleaze, and the Hollywood nightmare - is, with its strong performances, attractive...

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Superbad (2007)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Greg MottolaWriters: Evan Goldberg, Seth RogenCinematographer: Russ AlsobrookComposer: Lyle WorkmanCast: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, Seth Rogen, Martha MacIsaac, Emma StoneA pair of socially inept best-friends manage to snag an invite to a party, and set off into the night in search of alcohol, hoping beyond hope to finally shed their virginity, in Mottola’s riotously funny and surprisingly tender journey down well ridden roads. Iain.St...

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The Devil's Rejects (2005)

Best AvoidedUSA/GermanyFeature FilmWriter/Director: Rob ZombieCinematographer: Phil ParmetComposers: Tyler Bates, Terry Reid, Rob ZombieCast: Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie, William Forsythe, Ken Foree, Matthew McGrory, Leslie Easterbrook, Geoffrey Lewis, Priscilla Barnes, Dave Sheridan, Kate Norby, Lew Temple, Danny Trejo, Dallas PageZombie’s sequel to House of 1000 Corpses (2003), chronicling a small town sheriff’s pursuit of a family of murderous loons, made with more skill and poetry than is typical of the genre, is a nevertheless...

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The Muppet Movie (1979)

RecommendedUSA/UKFeature FilmDirector: James FrawleyWriters: Jack Burns, Jerry JuhlCinematographer: Isidore MankofskyComposer: Paul WilliamsCast: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Charles Durning, Austin PendletonBy turns knowingly naff, brilliantly inspired, and quietly subversive, the Muppets’ big screen debut - a post-modern road movie filled with cracking musical numbers, starry cameos, and some fantastic gags - is a thoroughly entertaining film and is guaranteed to put a smile on the face of just about anybody....

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