Film Reviews by PV

Amazing this is made in 1936. That means HG Wells himself visited the set! he died in 1946. Tbh this is based on one of his later, weaker novels.

More a curiosity piece now, the acting very stagey. The theme of the future being the destruction of civilisation and a return to a feudal farming system is not new, and has been used many times since in novels and movies, from Planet of the Apes and more. The Second Sleep novel by Robert Harris and in a way, Harvest by Jim Crace (which SHOULD have won the 2013 Booker prize). So many examples. All the post-nuclear war movies for a start.

Fascinating really the visions of a future with dates on screen, 1940, 1945, 1966/7, 1970 and 2036. And of course there are flying cars or similar - as ever in visions of the future!

In 1936 when the film was made, Fascist rule in Italy was over 12 years old and 3 years old in Germany, so HG Wells used that source material and details of USSR maybe, though Stalin's crimes were yet to be exposed.

One for fans only but an important British scifi film nonetheless. Watch with Fritz Lang's silent masterpieces like Metropolis and more.

THE big problem with this film is that the main story on stage is not what we get to see - the 'Palestinian' terrorists killing Israel athletes and taking hostages.

No, we get to stand in the wings with sports commentators.

Compare with Apollo 13 which had scenes in space and in the control room.

Tbh this was very wordy and annoying in the end, frustrating to watch, and bored me.

Watch Spielberg's MUNICH 2005 instead - this film can be a follow-on to that.

2 stars. Just

i LOVED this - maybe because of my lived experience of the publishing industry.

Remined me of YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER my fave Woody Allen film from 2010.

Honestly, I'd like to watch this film again, it is that good.

The usual tension of a character trying to keep a secret trop, but WHY NOT.

And the house! I'd love to live there. JUST beautiful AND trashes the nonsense-spouters who claim, absurdly, that only England has a class system or 'old money'.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Really excellent, though oddly coy re the sex scenes.

4.5 stars rounded up.

I am no fan of Bob Dylan though recognise him as a good songwriter, Interesting he usually plays in the key of C, on piano, which he played with Bobby Vee in the pre-fame late 1950s days! Some snooty musos mock piano players who do that. I do not,. The key matters not, just has to be in the range of the voice of the singer.

Thank goodness they had permission to use the songs Dylan wrote (unlike that Hendrix Biopic or Midas Man which had to rely on cover versions done by the Beatles).

MUCH of this film is singing and music, more than any other pop star biopic I have seen and not a bad thing - I enjoyed the songs, most I know but not all.

I recommend watching the COEN BROTHERS 'Inside Llewyn Davis' with this (Dylan appears at the end on stage).

What annoyed me? Well this is based on a book so not sure what the focus was there but here, and according to the new #metoo rules of Hollywood, women must be front and centre so we get long lingering focus on the - frankly - tedious love affairs of Dylan with Joan Baez and another girl, Yawn. Very irritating actually, what with all the water works. I shouted GROW UP WOMAN at the screen more than once...

Far more interesting is the portrayal of Bob as a less-then-perfect human being and a liar AKA fantasist, with claims of being in a carnival etc. There is NO mention that he got his name from Dylan Thomas Welsh poet who was massive in the USA and drank himself to death in New York in 1953 aged 39. Robert Zimmerman would have been 12 at the time and a teen in the aftermath so would have admired him.

The folk purist versus rock-n-roll electric clash is done well - and all stories need conflict, Edward Norton nails it as the rather smug, and irritatingly perpetually cheerful and friendly Pete Seeger (posh son of a musicologist and rich family who became a socialist/communist...) Other minor roles played well. Dylan's focused aggressive manager Albert Grossman played well too.

I did now know Dylan visited Woody Guthrie his folk hero in hospital (he was dying from the same inherited Huntingdon's disease which killed his mother and daughters). True though, Not sure if it all is. Yes, he played 3 songs at Newport and was cheered and boos BUT the cry of JUDAS was from a concert in the UK, in Manchester. The man who yelled it was studying teaching and became a teacher trainer, and died a decade or so back.

BUT all movies based on true stories, esp biopics, have to merge and concertina events into a time periods, here stretching from 1961 when Dylan went to New York aged 20 from his home in Minneapolis, and his early fame and probably best songs too. Later events have to be squeezed into that. Going to the UK and later dates would fragment the narrative so I see why the film makers did what they did how they did.

Me, I do not get all the fuss with 'going electric'. The precious puritan mindset of the folkies is deeply conservative and irritating. There are no rules in music or songwriting - you do what you FEEL, electric or not, WHY all the fuss? Songs are songs.

This movie was a pleasant surprise to me as was the main actor Timotei Chalamet who utterly nails it and probably should have won the best actor Oscar. He will, one day. I hated that film CALL ME BY MY NAME though. The actor has a French name and is bilingual BUT born and raised in New York to well-off parents.

4 stars. A definitive biopic.

I liked this. It's a surprising coy sexually-charged drama based on a real story from 1927. Not sure what has been invented or adapted therefore, as with any films 'based on a true story.

The undercurrent of festering sexual jealously and tension is done well, reflected in the sweltering heat and then the rain breaking. The acting is great. Well-written.

I'll be honest - I found this film a real slog. It is over 3 hours long for goodness sake! Though it does have a dinky interval halfway through (toilet break). In my opinion, only biblical sword-and-sandal epics deserve such length. 3 hours is a LONG time.

I felt this film was flabby, and an hour could have been sliced off this easily.

It tries to pose as a true story but is all fiction not even based on a real person, or a novel - though it feels like it.

The acting of Brody esp is great, and the cinematography, Maybe those into architecture will be in heaven here. I liked the Italian quarry scenes.

Sorry, I did not buy the plot (no spoilers) though the Van Buren patriarch's closeness to his mother meant I though I KNOW WHAT IS COMING HERE.

The music won an Oscar but is forgettable. I have forgotten it, i never remembered it! It's background strings, not a big theme as some old Oscar winners for scores were.

I object to the now-common full frontal nudity for men, with excited prosthetic etc. No need for that. Itis sexist too as the female equivalent is NOT a naked woman seen from the front, but a woman with her legs splayed open and the camera right up there shooting the stimulated genital area. WHY do we have this imbalance? Misandry from #metoo? Seen 3 or 4 examples of it recently. The film does NOT need it - why i object, I am no prude. I do object to sexism though.

So it is a MEH from me. Watchable but expect a numb bum. Over 3 hours for a story that could be told in 2.

Odd they should take the Van Buren name from the 8th president of the USA too.

3 stars. Some parts 4, some parts 2, so 3 average.

Whoever gave this documentary 2 stars should hang their head in shame.

This is a superb documentary, starting with a quite remarkable and genuinely strong woman Anita Lasker-W, who not only smokes like a chimney at the age of 100 but who is wonderfully opinionated and stubborn, which helped keep her alive in the Holocaust.

As a musician she was spared and also she was classed as a criminal, red triangle, not yellow star for Jewish.

The recording of her newly released from Auschwitz and speaking in her native German is remarkable too.

Many other stories here. At the end we learn who survived and who did not.

This should be shown in every single UK school - not the awful 'black people built Stonehenge' racist lies and other woke propaganda.

If you've ever moaned and whinged about a socalled microaggression, watch this and know what REAL trauma and strength is.

5 stars

I am a longtime Beatles fan and have watched all the movies on them. This one is not the best and the budget is obviously limited, with a TV director in charge. The lack of Lennon-McCartney songs is noticeable BUT Sony who own the rights no doubt wanted too much cash to use them, so only songs by others played. The same happened in the 2013 Jimi Hendrix film ALL BY MY SIDE as the family objected to it or maybe wanted too much cash. ALL YOU NEED IS CASH eh? Well it is the music BUSINESS.

The actor playing Epstein is great though as are his parents incl the wonderful Eddie Marsden. The actors playing the Beatles and Pete Best are excellent too.

Dick Rowe is portrayed oddly, though as usual with such biopics, one wonders how much is true ore made up. Did Brian Epstein REALLY have a black servant? In JUDY they made her white Yorkshireman bandleader black. Totally wrong, This is real people and real life and should be respected for what it was.

Not sure if Epstein was really that addicted; some may dislike the tragic gay portrayal but he did die age 32 from an OD and that is the way it is. Some stuff is bang on, like the way Epstein signed away merchandise rights to get just 10% BUT this was a new thing in the music business so I would not blame him - he was an excellent loyal manager and the Beatles would never have happened without him,. He deserves a statue really.

I would recommend other Beatles films, BACKBEAT is great and NOWHERE BOY and especially the 1991 film THE HOURS AND THE TIMES about Epstein and Lennon on a holiday in Spain, which actually happened. There is also a 1970s film I cannot find, called something like THE BEATLE STORY which fictionaises the early years as NOWHERE BOY did later.

of course this has to whizz through the years and uses a TO CAMERA summary technique a couple of times but it has to - the BEATLES story lasted 13 years. 1957-1970 (or Beatles named 1960 so 10 years).

I would recommend watching documentaries on the Beatles like EIGHT DAYS A WEEK which shows the real footage of the Beatles 1964 whistlestop tour of America.

It fizzles out at the end, no spoilers.

So in conclusion, not perfect and there is a Lennon-McCartney song-shaped hole in this film for sure BUT worth a watch, especially for the way the story does not shy away from Brian Epsteins sexuality or neurotic personality or drug use or Jewishness.

4 stars

Others seem to have enjoyed this more than I did.

I found it old-fashioned, dated and creaky, with not much going on. Fine to call it brooding and atmospheric, but that did not sustain interest for 90 minutes for me. It is of its time I suppose.

Based on a novel by Nicholas Mosley posh son of Oswald the fascist, who also appears in a role.

Love Dirk Bogarde but this is not his best; also love Stanley Baker, the Welshman who got Zulu (1964) made.

I sat there thinking "these days those academic men would get suspended and quite possibly arrested for fancying a young student" and also marvelled at the massive houses which these days would cost maybe £1-2 million, multiple bedrooms, huge grounds, riverside location,. £3 million! DONE!

A curiosity only. 2 stars

I do not usually watch movie documentaries, as they bore me. BUT occasionally one comes along which engages and this is in that camp.

BE AWARE that this is the same film as the one called MILLI VANILLI which is an alternative title.

It is a cautionary tale really. A bit like Faust, a deal with the devil done and the rewards so tempting that you just cannot stop...

Amazing no-one spotted Milli Vanilli were lipsynching as Svengali producer Frank Farian (fascinating character) had created Boney M on the same model - Bobby the dancer just danced, his voice on RASPUTIN etc was Frank F. It was a formula that worked so Farian did it again with Milli Vanilli. Why were the latter shunned then? WHY no criticism for Frank Farian or all the US record company executives WHO KNEW they were lipsynching?

This film claims it is racism but I am not buying that very race-fixated American view of the world. Fact is, the music businesss exploits EVERYONE< black, white, any colour. As a young wannabe you are powerless and have a choice - sign the contract and try to make it; or say NO and go back to working in some deadend job for the rest of your life (as the woman here who was Frank F's partner makes clear). No racism. Americans always project that onto everythinbg, see the entire world through a racist lens, Just wrong. Not accurate at all. ALL musical artists and pop stars get ripped off - the Beatles,the Stones, George Michael tried and failed to overturn the contract he signed age 19. Plus many record companies run by 'people of colour', esp now. It is a POWER game, nothing to do with race.

But enjoy this. Tragic in some ways and one wonders what the lives of Rob and Fab would have been like without Milli Vanilli. Better? Worse? Would drugs destroy - well they do for many unfamous people, so...

Fascinating backstories here which made me research these people more online.

The end is touching and satisfying (no spoilers).

And the thing is, THEY COULD SING AFTER ALL.

4 stars

I do not usually watch documentary movies. I do watch some on the music business because I have had connections with it.

We all know the music biz is a shark-infested ocean, and new artists have to sign contracts which are often pretty exploitative - the alternative is walking away and going back to working in MaccyD's or whatever. So you sign. Then later, if successful, you regret it. Some try to make it good and fail (George Michael). Contracts are contracts.

Frank Farian is a fascinating character. Born 1941 (died 2024) his father was killed in the war. He was a small-time pop star in Germany in 1960s THEN blossomed as a svengali figure, the brains behind Boney M in 1970s who sang on several of their massive hits (I have a soft spot for Ra ra Rasputin). he created the band from dancers who did not sing on the records. I hear reports a couple of the women sang but here it says they did not, so not sure.

Anyway, amazing no-one wondered re Milli Vanilli lip-synching considering the Boney M history. This cautionary tale is tragic indeed for some (though how much they were damaged anyway before joining one will never know) though I liked the end of this film and story, which was full of hope.

Some great old film and TV clips here. And this is ALL pre internet in late 80s of course - kids now think life without it is impossible, but there was TV and MTV, and magazines. so no need for smartphones or the internet to create hype. This made me research the story and characters further, the 2 band members and Frank Farian and Boney M.

One sore point: some here make the claim it is black artists who are exploited by white record companies and producers. That is a typical race-fixated American take on things. The fact is EVERYBODY is exploited and manipulated by record companies and producers - the skin colour does not matter (and more a socio-economic class issue anyway).

4 stars.

I watched the first movie of this director - RAW - and gave it 2 stars. I give this the same. Not sure why she gets such praise. Or that tedious Hollywood film THE SUBSTANCE.

Watch SICK OF MYSELF - Norwegian film about similar themes.

This is so pretentious, confused, like some director with too much funding and not enough editing could do whatever they want. It ends up being boring.

It starts well. The first act is great. Until the car bit...

No spoilers BUT if you want to watch a great film on genderbending and trans, watch GIRL (Flemish film from the director of CLOSE).

But if you like firemen, then you'll be in heaven. I have not seen to many firefighters since I watched LONDON'D BURNING on TV in the 1990s.

I am not even slightly offended by repulsive, violent, gruesome scenes - I liked them in seriously excellent disturbing movie UNDER THE SKIN. The scifi element in this was surprising and just went on TOO long in a confused random way. Meandering is the word. Self-indulgent is another.

There are some gruesome bodyshock scenes BUT I was not shocked or moved by them. Nope. Rather, as I watched I thought to myself "they're gonna have a heck of a job getting that stain out of the carpet..." But that's just me.

2 stars, JUST. Really, watch SICK OF MYSELF (2022 Norway film) or UNDER THE SKIN (2013 UK film). Avoid the awful 2022 film MEN, yet another birthing carpet stain drama...

This film starts so well - I'd give the first half 4 or even 5 stars. Apparently based on a non-fiction book of a true story, so one can forgive the plot, I suppose as it is all true (or BASED on a true story - how much, I do not know).

Sadly then, especially in the third at, it seems to morph into a bit of a pc lecture - about how all men are monsters (and responsible for any violence/murder a tiny % of awful men to) and all women are angels (yeah right). This sort of stuff is on trend now, just see what gets nominated for Oscars, but it is tedious in the extreme, and sexist, bare misandry. More importantly, in storytelling and film-making terms, it is BORING. Preachy sermons and lectures always are.

So a shame this very watchable French crime thriller turns into that. The last part of the film wilts, and risks becoming boring - and the ending (NO SPOILERS) will not satisfy (but if based on a true story, so be it). Watchable nonetheless.

I really enjoyed the banter between the male cops, confidence, insecurity and trauma dripping from every word and laugh. I yawned at the rather predictable scenes on sexism/racism in the police all told through the cipher of the 2-D tickbox woman of colour...

I am glad though that many of the characters including the locals and suspects as well as the police officers are well-fleshed-out three-dimensional characters, not cartoon characters, so that is well done.

And if you like cycling you'll probably like this. I do not. I would have cut all those scenes BUT the mountainous landscape is glorious to look at anyway! Not sure precisely where it is set, but it all looks lovely anyway,. I may well pay visit sometime...

For those who do not know France, understand that they have 3 police forces - the gendarmes (local police, traffic etc); the city police (criminal stuff) and the CRS (riot police, skinheads. wear blue jumps suits).

Anyway, overall, I would recommend it. 3.5 stars rounded down.

This reminds me a bit of MEMENTO (2000) in its often baffling, confusing, swerving plot, and dark themes of memory and identity.

It also reminds me of the classic 2009 Argentinian film THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES (do not bother with the later US remake).

Very violent, often sexually explicit, sometimes confusing, even repulsive in the famous octopus scene (I am no seafood fan but know that in the Far East they can and do eat some things I just could not - see the videos online....)

It is certainly unforgettable, and many people (esp men) seem to love it and rate it as one of their all-time fave films. It is almost fantasy really, a Mafia drama, a Far East Sopranos redone as a cheese dream...

Me, not so much, but I am glad I watched it. A well made movie which requires commitment and concentration from the viewer, and even then some things may confuse (like MEMENTO which has websites explaining the plot, even now).

So 4 stars.

This got some pretty mediocre reviews on release but I actually really liked it. Not perfect, for sure, but 3.5 stars.

A great cast including Michael Sheen and of course Simon Pegg & Nick Frost whose film company made it. The film does remind me a lot of their SHAUN OF THE DEAD.

Filmed at Stowe School where posh director and co-writer Crispian Mills went (mum Hayley Mills, grand-dad Sir John Mills, and Crispian's father was on of the Boulting brothers, film directors). He later formed pop band Kula Shaker. Also filmed at Windsor Great Park and Chislehurst Caves.

Yes, silly in bits, but some fun lines, OTT monster horror - but why not? A good budget here. Watch CANARIES (Welsh low-budget film) to see how comedy horror can be done on a fraction of this budget.

3.5 stars rounded down.