The Hunger Games (US, 2012)

The Hunger Games is a box office phenomenon: it had the highest non-sequel opening weekend ($151m), and this was outside peak season, and is independently produced by Lionsgate. Like the Twilight series (2008-12) an indie company has hit upon a franchise that Hollywood would die for. Summit Entertainment, which produced Twilight, is now owned by Lionsgate. However, [...]

Catfish (US, 2010)

This documentary, that follows the Facebook relationship between a New York photographer and a woman in rural Michigan, starts slowly, as there seems little point in making the film, but ultimately nails a keypoint about the Facebook era. Like Capturing the Friedmans (US, 2003), the documentarists seem to stumble upon something significant; Andrew Jarecki, who [...]

Tabloid (US, 2010)

Errol Morris makes, what  Bill Nichols calls, ‘participatory documentaries’ where talking head interviews offer a variety of, often contradictory, viewpoints on events. Most famously, with The Thin Blue Line (US, 1988), this led to a man on death row being released as the real murderer, apparently inadvertently ‘fessed up’ whilst being interviewed. The subject of this [...]

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 [...]

The Ides of March (US, 2011)

George Clooney’s at it again, co-writing and directing a terrific political movie (see also Good Night, and Good Luck (US, 2005). It’s as if he’s, almost single-handedly, trying to resurrect the political cinema that Hollywood produced in the early 1970s. The Ides of March reminded me of The Candidate (1972); though, as I haven’t seen it [...]

Margin Call (US, 2011)

Imdb says this film cost under $4m to make which suggests its excellent cast (Spacey, Irons, Bettany, Moore, Tucci) made the movie because they wanted to make a statement against the banking system that’s still sending millions into destitution after the 2007 collapse. Writer-director, J.C. Chandor (it’s the first time he’s directed a feature), has [...]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (US, 1956) and The Invasion (US-Aus, 2007)

Jack Finney’s 1955 novel The Invasion of the Body Snatcher, first serialised in Colliers Magazine, has been adapted four times for cinema. The original remains the best, an independent production starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter (both of whom have died in the last couple of years). I read the novel recently and enjoyed it, [...]

The Descendants (US, 2011)

Trailer are often extremely poor as they show far too much of the narrative; despite this are probably the most effective form of marketing as, in cinemas, they show to a captive, target audience. Typically The Descendants‘ trailer (see here) gave far too much away but, it transpired, was also entirely misleading about the tone of [...]

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 [...]

Apocalypse Now (US, 1979)

Having watched a number of ‘classic’ films over the last few years and finding them wanting (not sure whether it’s the film or me that’s ‘dated’, maybe both) it was something of a relief to be ‘blown away’ by Apocalypse Now again. What struck me most was the fact that what we were seeing was [...]