Kill List (UK 2011)

I commented that Dead Man’s Shoes (UK 2004) unsuccessfully tried to meld realism and genre; Kill List tries to do the same and similarly comes unstuck. Writer-director Ben Wheatley’s film was critically praised so maybe I don’t get it  but I was desperate for it to end. Maybe – see Avengers post below – ennui [...]

The Inbetweeners (UK, 2012)

There is a history of transferring British TV successes onto the big screen only to find they lose the quality that made them popular in the first place. There is a real challenge in turning a 23-minute per episode sitcom into a hour and a half feature. Clearly the box office suggests that The Inbetweeners [...]

Dead Man’s Shoes (UK, 2004)

What happens when you cross a revenge movie with British social realism? In this case you get a not entirely successful, but certainly interesting, film. Co-writer, with star Paddy Considine, and director Shane Meadows is renowned for his slices of working class life on estates, his handheld camerawork and ensemble acting lift a lid on [...]

Deep End (West Germany-UK, 1970)

Deep End is one of those rare treats for an ageing cinephile, a never-seen but much-mentioned movie suddenly available to view. It has been mired in rights issues and needed reconstructing for its re-release last year (see here for more details). And it’s pleasing to report that the film does not disappoint. Made in the [...]

My Week with Marilyn (UK-US, 2011)

Michelle Williams is superb as Marilyn Monroe, as she was when shooting The Prince and the Showgirl (UK-US, 1957); Kenneth Branagh is no slouch as the director-star Laurence Olivier either. The only thing that Williams lacks, as Monroe, is the voluptuous curves; other than that, it is an entirely convincing portrayal. She’s particularly good at [...]

Tyrannosaur (UK, 2010)

Peter Mullan + council estate = it’s bloody grim. This is in the tradition of realist British cinema but I wonder if there’s a tendency to try and make the slice of working class life even grimmer than the last one we’ve seen. To be fair the writer-director Paddy Considine balances the portrayal of class [...]

The Woman in Black (UK-Can-Swe, 2012)

Hammer horror’s back, which will probably only be meaningful to the older reader. Defunct for 25 years, The Woman in Black is a welcome return for this purveyor of British horror movies; interestingly it’s only got a 12A certificate whereas the original Hammer benefited from salacious marketing emphasising the films’ ‘adult’ credentials. In Britain the [...]

The Iron Lady (UK-France, 2011)

Nothing was going to get to me to see this film because Thatcher is one of the few people I’ve truly hated in my life (I still do). However, it dawned on me that as I’m teaching a topic called ‘Thatcher’s Britain’ (Mona Lisa, 1986, and Riff Raff, 1991) I needed to go. My reluctance [...]

Shame (UK-Canada, 2011)

I first came across Michael Fassbender in Hunger, directed like Shame by Steve McQueen. His performance, as hunger-striker Bobby Sands, was extraordinary. His promise has been cemented in numerous films since ranging from X-Men First Class to Fish Tank (UK-Neth, 2009). His performance in Shame is also brilliant; he reminds me of Daniel Day-Lewis in [...]

The Deep Blue Sea (US-UK, 2011)

Melodrama originally meant ‘drama with music’ or, more accurately, ‘music with drama’ as it developed in response to censorship of theatre in 18th century England. Dialogue, in ‘unofficial’ theatres, was banned and so music was used to convey the narrative. Terence Davies is a consummate melodramatist (some critics use the term as one of abuse [...]