Film Reviews by CD

I was really impressed with this film which kept my attention throughout.  It’s very well acted and skilfully directed.  The relationship that builds between the death row prisoner and the prison visitor is very moving but the film also shows the tensions that build within the prison visitor’s family.  The relationship that the prisoner builds with the guards is also poignant. The finale is very powerful and thought provoking.    Highly recommended. 

Mads Mikkelsen is very impressive as the main actor in this Arctic drama.  The landscape is captured brilliantly by the wide lens camera work and Mikkelsen brings humanity to the role, especially when confronted with ethical dilemmas.  The lack of context and relationships makes this more of a genuine survival film.  Well worth a watch.

This is the second time I have seen this film.  It excels on many different aspects - the characterisation, acting, the brooding context of the Spanish civil war, the quality of performance brought out from the children in the cast, and the emotional range of the film which covers unrequited love, greed , sexual desire and murderous intent.  The tension and quality of this film is sustained to the end and there are some great chilling moments throughout.

The actors are very strong and the characters in this drama are well brought out.  The scenery is great and the the overall pace of the film is skilfully directed.  It will be interesting to see how this film is perceived in 20 years time, but I found the sex scenes a bit gratuitous, and felt that the sexual aspects of the relationship could have been more subtly conveyed.  It would have been interesting to have brought the husband of the young woman back into the drama and also to explored more  (by flashback perhaps) some of the principal character’s earlier life.  I found it slightly ironic that there was actually very little diversity in this film in spite of its credentials. Still, a good film and well worth a watch.

The cast and acting in this film is very good and it is interesting to see the Icelandic (?) context.  It starts well and establishes a good balance between a more serious theme of relationship break-up and the more comic dispute between neighbours.  Unfortunately it goes in a steadily darker and more violent direction.  The characters in the film start reaching for the hard liquor and many viewers might need some reinforcement to get through the final part of the film.  Not really a comedy in my view.

I really enjoyed this film.  Don’t expect fast action but Tom Berenger’s performance is excellent and holds the whole film together.  He is a complex character and his personality shifts once he encounters the robbers, harking back to his army training.  The supporting roles are well acted and the film convincingly shows from his earlier tragedies how Berenger gets tipped over the edge.  The Maine scenery and skilful filming are interesting and add to the atmosphere.  The money becomes a side issue and at the end it is all about Berenger’s destructive behaviour.  Worth 4 stars and very much recommended.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the stories.  The background artwork is stunning and the attention to detail and the careful pacing of each story is a relief after the directness  of western films.  A few of the actors are familiar from other Japanese epics such as the Seven Samurai 

I really enjoyed this vintage film. A stellar cast and a very positive film in its strong anti racist message, extremely impressive for the late 1960s and very relevant now.  The way that racism is covered from many different angles in a very human way makes this a thought provoking film, but it is also a very enjoyable film for the locale and the quality of acting.

I very much enjoyed this film in spite of the mixed reviews. The cast and acting are strong with two excellent lead characters, and I liked the Spanish setting.  It’s not a pure horror film but it is quite unnerving at times and is a lot more sophisticated that most recent examples in the genre.  It is fairly short and the tension is better for it. Recommended if you like a bit of subtlety.

I was attracted to seeing Kevin Bacon in a new role.  Unfortunately the plot is not sufficient to create any real suspense or tension, in spite of the efforts of the cast.  You know that the film is going an unadventurous route when Kevin keeps having nightmares.  It could have done with a lot more real manifestations and perhaps a few more sinister external characters than the man in the grocery store.  

Definitely one of the most interesting music documentaries of the late 1960s and early 1970s I have seen.  All the great LA bands, good footage, fascinating anecdotes and superb music excerpts and photos.  Bonus of seeing their lifestyles in Laurel Canyon. Highly recommended!

This is a difficult and unsettling film showing the destructive impact of abuse as a child on the main character’s life.  It is hard to see where it is going for the first 30 mins and the flashbacks only become meaningful later in the film.  There is little on the trading floors, a bit more about wild lifestyles - but the strength of the film is in the quality of the acting leads, the father-mother-son relationships,  and the way the film shows the impact of the abuse on the main character’s behaviour as an adult. 

This film is very different from “Get Out” but is impressive and enjoyable.  The cast and acting are great and there is a decent twist to it.  There is also some clever humour - I particularly enjoyed the use of a discordant version of Henry Mancini’s Lujon in the soundtrack towards the end of the film.  The film can be enjoyed at several levels and for me really sparked off after about 20 mins.

I quite enjoyed this film and would rate it between a 3 and 4 star.  The dialogue is a bit awkward but forgivable given the assumed intention to recreate some of the more formal speech patterns in the 19th century.  The acting is generally good and the scenery is a definite positive.  The plot is the main weakness and the action sequences seem rather thrown together, but this is compensated by the second half of the film where the pace slows a bit and the personalities are brought out more.  It is a bit frustrating that the lead characters never really question the wrong they are doing under the cover of war.  Definitely worth a watch, especially if you enjoyed the director’s Jane Austen work by way of comparison.

In its own way, this film is impressive and hard hitting.  The lead actor Betty Gilpin is very good and the tempo is kept at a high level.  It is all rather gory but there is some dark humour as well.  Well worth a watch but don’t expect a sophisticated plot!