Watchmen (US, 2009)

I’ll ignore the question as to whether the film’s as good as the graphic novel and deal with it in isolation. It’s not a typical Hollywood action movie, though the shadow of The Matrix (1999) is still looming for the fight sequences, as it is infused with melancholy and the emotional punch is garnered through [...]

The Good, the Bad, the Weird (Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom, S.Korea, 2008)

Undoubtedly the funniest film I’ve seen in a long time. It stars the man with the maddest hair in contemporary cinema, Song Kang-ho, and some of the best action sequences in any western. Clearly a homage to Leone’s spaghetti westerns the visual style, as you expect, is stunning but director Kim Ji-woon (also A Bittersweet [...]

Aventure Malgache and Bon Voyage (UK, 1944)

It’s not likely anybody, other than historians, would be interested in these short propaganda films if they hadn’t been directed by Alfred Hitchcock. But they are interesting from a historical-cultural perspective, the representation of the colonised Malgache (ie virtually non existent),  as propaganda and as Hitchcock movies.
As propaganda they, as this excellent piece suggests, are [...]

Flame & Citron (Flammen & Citronen, Denmark, Czech Republic, Germany, 2008)

This is a terrific war movie infused with film noir. Based on a true story it portrays Flame and Citron’s fight against the Nazis and, it transpires, the internal politics of the resistance. Usually resistance fighters are presented as noble, self-sacrificing heroes and, no doubt, many were. However, the internecine politics represented here is a [...]

Mesrine: Killer Instinct (L’instinct de mort, France-Canada-Italy, 2008)

I’m not a fan of biopics, the narrative necessarily skips through highlights making the film like some ‘greatest hits’ compilation. If you don’t know the life, then the film can be even worse. However, when your life is scumbag Jacques Mesrine, encompassing the Algerian war against France and Quebec separatists, then the subject’s worth doing. [...]

Germany Year Zero (Germania anno zero, Italy, 1948)

Germany Year Zero was director Roberto Rossellini’s third World War II film and it followed Rome, Open City (1945) and Paisa (1946) in filming, on location, the ‘here and now’ of the end and aftermath of the war. While both use melodrama as much as realism, Germany Year Zero is probably the bleakest, which is [...]

Moon (UK, 2009)

This film has been lauded and is even rated in the top 250 by imdb users; why? I don’t know as I found it  overwhelmingly derivative: 2001: A Space Odyssey (UK-US, 1969), Silent Running (US, 1972), Dark Star (US, 1974), Solaris (USSR, 1971, US, 2002),  Android (US, 1982) and The Truman Show (US, 1999). Of [...]

Los olvidados (The Forgotten Ones, Mexico, 1950)

This is a fascinating film as it’s obviously heavily influenced by neo realism however it was made by a renown surrealist, Luis Bunuel. How to square the two, apparently, disparate forms? Like his (neo realist) Italian counterparts, Bunuel shoots on location ,however he uses professional actors. Also, similarly, we are offered a ’slice of life’ [...]

The Bothersome Man (Den brysomme mannen, Norway-Iceland, 2006)

It will be difficult to blog about this film without spoilers… It most reminded me of Fight Club (US, 1999) in its satire on an  IKEA-built existence but while Fincher’s movie’s ‘in yer face’ this piss-take of bourgeois existence is more muted (and low budget). It effectively uses the mise en scene to present a [...]