The Adventures of Juan Quin Quin (Cuba, 1967)

This is bonkers: from the ‘spaghetti western’ opening to the keystone cops chases. We see Christ on the cross announcing, just after dying, that there’ll be another performance later. It’s fascinating to see ‘swinging sixties’ ‘anything goes’ aesthetics recycled in Castro’s Cuba even if it’s often difficult to work out what’s going. Roy’s done the [...]

Milk (US, 2008)

I’m ambivalent about this film: Sean Penn is fabulous (but then he normally is) but I almost fell asleep at one point. It might have been Gus van Sant’s functional direction that made me soporific or it could be the constraints of the biopic genre. To portray a life in two hours you obviously have [...]

24 Hour Party People (UK, 2002)

‘Postmodern playfulness’ is usually simply irritating but with a scene where Tony Wilson’s wife is having revenge sex in a toilet (Tony points out he only got a blow job but that’s full penetration) with Howard Devoto, of the Buzzcocks, and the real Howard Devoto is a playing a cleaner who comments ‘I don’t remember [...]

Teeth (US, 2007)

Exploitation movies have a long history; basically films that seek primarily to titillate and shock cheaply whilst extracting maximum money from thrill-seeking youngsters. They became (more or less) mainstream in the late ’50s, along with the growth of the teen market; producer-directors such as Roger Corman churned out tons of movies independently of Hollywood. Unsurprisingly, [...]

Eureka (UK-US, 1983)

British director Nic Roeg made the classic Don’t Look Now (1973) and followed up with a few interesting films. At the time I thought Eureka was one of them; now… I barely got to the end. What happened? Films obviously can ‘date’; what looks fresh can go stale in comparison with films that follow. The [...]

Key films update

I’ve just gotten around to update the key films list which has been languishing at 2005 for a few years. It’s an attempt to list the best films, and most influential films (which may be merely a box office phenomenon), in each year. I haven’t seen them all. Let me know if you think anything [...]

Stop-loss (US, 2008)

Another Hollywood Iraq movie that did very little business; this one from MTV films. Focusing on the use of the ‘stop-loss’ clause that effectively drafted soldiers about to leave the army back to Iraq, this is not obviously commercial fodder. It’s not Hollywood’s fault, or the film-makers’, but the audience’s, that issue-driven films are rarely [...]

American Graffiti (US, 1973)

How many films have ‘American’ in the title? I don’t know but I’d bet more than any other nation. Is it that Americans believe that they are so distinctive from the rest of us that they need to distinguish between them and us? To be fair, the ‘American’ in George Lucas’ second feature is valid [...]

Slumdog Millionaire (UK-US, 2008)

At the time of writing Slumdog Millionaire has taken $37m at the North American box office – great news for a UK film. This success looks to be replicated in the UK; an opening weekend of nearly £2m. For a film that’s set in India, includes subtitles for some scenes, and depicts the horrendous poverty [...]

The Death of Klinghoffer (UK, 2003)

Klinghoffer was a victim of Palestinean hijackers (a cruise liner the Achille Lauro) in 1985 and this is a film of John Adams opera. Mainly it’s shot in a realist fashion, with handheld camera, interspersing news footage and library footage. Well, ‘realist’ as far as opera can ever be realist. I love Adams’ music, and [...]