Film Reviews by Steve

Hollywood biopics in the studio era usually straighten out the personal relationships of famous people. This one revels in the naked truth. So the turbulent life and violent death of '60s playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman) concentrates more on his sexual promiscuity than his groundbreaking plays.

There's plenty about his casual hookups with young gay men. While there is something admirable in Orton's impudent provocation at a time when homosexuality could result in a jail sentence (he got sent down for defacing a library book) this is also quite a frank reflection on his narcissism.

Which led to his murder by his longtime partner (Alfred Molina), jealous of Orton's literary and sexual success. Oldman is inspired casting and his irascible, volatile rapport with Molina is a key strength. There is also an impression of permissive London during a decade of social change.

Despite the brutal killing, this is a comedy; something Orton may have appreciated. This is mainly due to the familiar whimsy of Alan Bennett's dialogue (from a biography by John Lahr) which typically gives quality support roles to the female actors. By the way, Wikipedia says 'ears' is an anagram.

Unorthodox classic of British cinema which takes a social realist narrative and then saturates it in weird spectral atmosphere. This looks a lot like folk horror, with the strange isolated figures who play no part in the events but populate the landscape like ghosts.

And the use of historic camera equipment gives this a really unusual look. The lo-def ultra-grainy b&w feels just right for the weathered Cornish locations. This and the minimal camera movement, light pops and psychedelic flourishes plus the rudimentary, muted performances give it a spooky, dreamy allure.

This evokes the avant-garde of early cinema- like Carl Dreyer's Vampyr (1932). And it stirs up a mood of anxiety and suppressed menace. The plot explores the more realistic pressure points between the entitled rich and the disenfranchised. Edward Rowe leads as a local fisherman who has sold out...

While director Mark Jenkin skilfully exploits the ambience of the Cornish scenery, this is about the divisions within the whole nation, which play out in the background noise of radio news bulletins. And then made unique by the craft of the offbeat stylistic approach... One of the standout films of the decade.

Spectacular historical epic loosely based on real-life events during the imperial Spanish and Portuguese expansion through South America. There is an immensely detailed production, led by Roland Joffé's enterprising direction. And the quality in every department led to seven Oscar nominations.

The only win was for Chris Menges' breathtaking location photography. This is elevated by Ennio Morricone's orchestral score, which he considered his best. The purpose is to draw attention to contemporary South American tribes still persecuted today.

This is set in 1750, when their ancestors are coaxed out of the rainforest by Jesuit priests, but then exploited by empire builders for slave labour... until they resist, with tragic consequences. Jeremy Irons is the naive missionary who looks to god to protect the Guarani natives....

Robert De Niro is a former slave trader who switches sides, a sort of proto-white saviour. And there's a huge cast of extras drawn from local people, who admittedly are mostly sidelined. This is an extreme, unorthodox drama made in difficult conditions, which has an imposing, artistic grandeur. 

This contemporary western breaks into two contrasting halves. There's a static first hour heavy with Arthur Miller's dialogue which is neither realistic nor poetic. Then director John Huston wakes up for the later action scenes of macho horse wrangling, with the thematic content stowed away in the subtext. And this is really very good.

The lead role of the hyper-emotional ex-showgirl who gets tangled up with some vagabond cowboys was clearly written for Marilyn Monroe. But she hasn't the necessary gravitas. Problems in her personal life also led to her being photographed (by the great Russell Metty) in such extreme soft focus that she is sometimes oddly blurred.

Clark Gable is plainly too ill to play her rugged, virile lover. Montgomery Clift brings a welcome surge of maverick volatility but in an insubstantial role. This isn't Alex North's most memorable score, though the Nevada desert in b&w is a big bonus. There are so many prestigious names involved, except some were in decline. Including the director.

And then there's the pathos soon to overtake Monroe, Gable and others. So it's a sort of farewell to them, as well as the old west. This has been served as evidence that Marilyn was a great dramatic actor- or unprofessional, depending on the agenda. So there is poignancy and debate, as well as a barnstorming second act.

Slow moving but suspenseful thriller set in a rare screen location; the uninhabited mountains of Tasmania... There is a strand of science fiction in the premise, with Willem Dafoe as a mercenary US biologist hired by a ruthless biotech corporation to forage into the wilderness and capture the final remaining Tasmanian Tiger.

Which is fantasy, as the last one died in a zoo in 1936- though beguilingly preserved on film. They were hunted to extinction and this eco-adventure is a lament for the malign impact of human expansion into the habitat of other species. So loggers are cutting down the rainforest, aggressively protecting their jobs.

The haunting climactic encounter between the stalker and his quarry is a sad, heartbroken elegy. But this pragmatic anti-hero is sidetracked by the tree-huggers who obstruct the deforestation, and in particular a family of offgrid neo-hippies in search of a new Woodstock. And we get some satirical sendup of these stereotypes.

There is value in the dramatic landscapes and Dafoe is convincing in the title role. It's directed with some skill (in Panavision) by Daniel Nettheim, who usually does television. The audience will be divided by their attitude to natural conservation. Yet there's a frisson of Nigel Kneale to be had from its originality and imagination.

The set up is classic noir, with a stranger  (Markku Peltola) who loses his identity and memory after a violent assault and makes a new life on the fringes of the big city, until... Well curiously, an identical story is told as an anecdote in Dashiell Hammett's novel The Maltese Falcon (1930).

But this is not San Francisco, it's Helsinki, and the events take place within the customary auteurism of writer-director Aki Kaurismäki. So there are ultra-impassive portrayals of the dry, inhibited characters. In fact, the director's own (adorable) dog gives the most animated performance on show....

Kaurismäki deals in the comedy of incongruity, with the numb responses to outrageous fortune. Plus the insidious cultural Americanism set alongside the love of rock & roll. There are the motifs of '40s noir, like the constant smoking and the nocturnal atmospherics... but with a resolute absence of glamour.

This is full of empathy and heavy with compassion and humanism. There is suspicion of the mechanisms of the state and capitalism, but faith in the kindness of strangers. It is the surge of optimism which ultimately makes this sweet parable more of a Kaurismäki picture than pure film noir. 

Australian period epic adapted from Thomas Keneally's outback novel. This in turn is loosely based on the real life murders of settlers by a mixed race Aboriginal at the start of the 20th century. These events are then situated within an undeclared war between the indigenous people and the colonials.

So it's a political film, which couldn't find an audience at home. The cruel, ignorant racism allows the approach to be broadly sympathetic to the oppressed natives, despite the horrifically bloody slaughter. Jimmie Blacksmith (Tommy Lewis) can't get a break, until he cracks, and haphazardly strikes back.

Director Fred Schepisi is a bit of a journeyman and the script isn't skilfully dramatised, though the narrative is compelling and the location photography (in Panavision) spectacular. The most effective scene is when the fugitives repair the wreckage of an ancient Aboriginal meeting place, covered in profane graffiti.

Eventually there's an editorial from a hostage schoolteacher (Peter Carroll) which lists the iniquities of the British conquistadors. Schepisi called this an Aussie western, but it's really more of a historic political drama. In prioritising the perspective of indigenous protagonists, this is ahead of its time.

*there is constant realistic racist language.

Tour de force solo performance from Tom Hardy, strapped into the driver's seat on a car journey in (more or less) real time; we hear him in multiple conversations on his carphone and in soliloquy with his deceased, deadbeat father.

And the impediment of the setup is turned into an asset... Ivan Locke is divided between his responsibilities as a construction manager and to his family. But also to a one night stand, now going into premature labour.

Writer/director Steven Knight creates an anxious, nocturnal voice within a melancholy world of dispute and isolation... loaded with relishable poetic symbolism. Though some may claim this isn't so much cinema as radio.

And yet the visuals assemble an impression of the sadness of the journey and the darkness. This is the story of a flawed man who seeks to overcome his own setbacks, in search of integrity in a country which has lost its way

Sombre character study adapted from a bestseller (by Janet Finch). This is an actors film led by Alison Lohman as a teenager abandoned to the mercy of Californian foster care after her single mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) goes to prison for murder.

The events mostly reflect on the child's attempts to understand and escape from this traumatic maternal relationship. Initial disquiet at the daughter's brattish personality soon falls away under the sincerity and depth of Lohman's portrayal.

Pfeiffer is too impassive as the solipsistic, freethinking mother, but there are some fertile support roles as the parental stand-ins. Renée Zellweger is easily best as a rich, mentally unstable trophy wife about to enter middle age with an errant, unloving husband.

It's voyeuristic, like emotional exploitation. Maybe even tasteful misery porn. But there's a nuanced- if sanitised- impression of what growing up in care may be like, and a nice feel for sunny, suburban Los Angeles... It’s interesting to see the resilient child change within the influence of each family.

Distressing account of male domestic violence, which is mostly in the procedural tradition of social realism, but includes some of the more suspenseful techniques of a mainstream thriller. It is incredibly harrowing, and also skilfully manipulative... Debut feature director Xavier Legrand takes us far from the Nouvelle Vague... 

A marriage breakdown leads to a bitter custody settlement. This is unsatisfactory to the former husband, who has a history of physical cruelty- though he is resolutely defended by his hunting club... He uses his legal access to his son to to maintain control of his traumatised ex-wife and their grown up daughter.

The dialogue is rudimentary and there is no music score. The long edits unravel without haste. There is just the awful tension of slowly intensifying dread. This is maintained by the realistic performances, with Denis Ménochet terrifying as the inexorable monster and Thomas Gioria heartbreaking as the vulnerable boy.

The ultimate conclusion is the mother (Léa Drucker) and her children are unforgivably exposed by a complacent judge, and the law which doesn't go far enough to protect the victims. A warning is appropriate... this is very credible. After the nerve-shredding climax, I cried actual tears. The release is so intense.

This was released around the start of the slow decline of the Hollywood western, and its development problems suggest reasons why they went out of favour. It was made by Burt Lancaster's production company who wanted a traditional action adventure- shot in Panavision and Technicolor.

But director-for-hire John Huston made the plot about the conflict between the settlers and indigenous tribes into a parable about the emerging civil rights movement. And it seems they undermine each other. It's neither a quality classic western, nor the work of an auteur filmmaker.

Huston intended the kind of progressive, revisionist western which became standard in the '60s, but it is compromised. What mostly remains is an abundance of tiresome, melodramatic chat divided by the usual stunts; like breaking in the wild horses and fighting off an 'Indian' attack.

There's also a problem with Audrey Hepburn- a Belgian aristocrat- playing a foundling who may be a Kiowa native; plus she goes missing after breaking her spine falling off a horse... Still Lancaster as her cattleman step-brother brings some star charisma and it's a buzz to see Lillian Gish as the matriarch. 

Offbeat comedy-drama which is more concerned with the thematic content than prompting any laughter. Viggo Mortenson gives an Oscar nominated performance as a fearless/hubristic liberal intellectual who elects to rear his six children off-grid rather than within the conformity of mainstream society.

Only when their estranged wife/mother dies, they leave the arboreal wilderness for the funeral and the kids are exposed to the epidemic of obesity and materialism which is modern life. There is some fun to be had with this culture clash comedy which soon vanishes when dad starts to re-evaluate.

They whimsically celebrate Noam Chomsky day rather than Christmas, and find solutions in dogmatic socialism, which will probably prove divisive... Personally, these are rational conclusions... And surely, the analysis of lifestyle and childrearing for causes of the surge in mental illness is topical?

And that's without writer/director Matt Ross taking on social media. The narrative runs a little wild in the last third, and becomes more of a fantasy. But the impression of an actual family bound together by unorthodox values and experiences is really quite palpable. I'd happily watch their further adventures....

* the frequent swearing means this may not be family viewing.

The message is the whole reason this film got made; it is agitprop which promotes the objectives of radical eco-activists who engage in newsworthy and disruptive direct action to hi-jack public debate.  But it is also a well made and suspenseful thriller with interesting plot twists.

The title tells the story, which conforms to the standard heist narrative: a gang of contrasting personalities evolve a criminal plan; and then we observe the  enterprise come into contact with reality. Usually the caper falls apart in the third act. But this holds back a few surprises for the exciting climax.

There's a skilfully assembled script  with realistic dialogue. While it ostentatiously supports the aims of the green movement, it isn't dogmatic. There's a lo-fi aesthetic and no stars, but it doesn't look homemade. The young ensemble cast make the activists feel authentic, and the many flashbacks give them depth.

This is also about a generation which is angry, but has lost faith in party politics. These issues are emotive and will divide the audience subject to their own convictions. But it is more than a conveyance for a manifesto and isn't actual guerrilla film making. It is a compelling political thriller, but with a message. 

Harrowing account of slavery in 19th century Louisiana, USA, adapted from a contemporary memoir by Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York State who was kidnapped and sold into bondage. This is as much a historic record as a screen drama and on both terms, it is a significant success.

It was also a huge box office hit and major award winner, including the Oscar for Best Film and a well deserved nomination for Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northup; his long gaze into the camera might be a challenge for us not to look away. The strong support cast is led by Lupita Nyong'o as the sexual chattel of the landowner.

And there are cameos from familiar Hollywood names. The narrative doesn't deliver any surprises. Apparently slave memoirs were mostly documentation. This is a more psychological approach which deals in the religious hypocrisy, the greed and the sheer bullheaded ignorance which kept the system rolling.

And the horrific trauma. Including how cruelty degrades those on either end of the lash. These themes clearly relate to bigotry for political and commercial reward in our present time. So it is topical. There is also a detailed production with a fine (Oscar winning) script. Sure, it's a history lesson, but also a quality film.

Outstanding nocturnal neo-noir set in Los Angeles, about an unscrupulous freelance who sells footage from crime scenes to a news station which broadcasts an agenda of urban violence expanding into fearful white suburbs... And then debut director Dan Gilroy draws back to present a broader vision of post-ethics America.

This includes the growth of commercial news, which outsources to rapaciously competitive providers. What we see is a society deregulated back into a Darwinist jungle. Gilroy also wrote the pessimistic script which provides a signature role for Jake Gyllenhaal- who is astonishing as the rootless sociopath with a video camera.

He is a hollow man, who talks like the internet business modules he assimilates; a cadaverous ghoul- like Weegee for the digital age. And he's absolutely hypnotically repellant. The support cast is also unsettling, led by Riz Ahmed as the homeless, browbeaten assistant, and Rene Russo as an extremely pragmatic head of news.

But Gyllenhaal dominates. The script was nominated for an Oscar. It's a puzzle that the star was not... The atmosphere of the neon lit mean streets and the urban fatalism is pure film noir. This is deepened by a deliciously gloomy score. It's a harrowing- yet still comic- satire on the free market, and one of the great US films of the decade.