Film Reviews by GI

With a best selling soundtrack album alongside its blockbuster box office Top Gun remains a favourite for many people. It's certainly a key film of the 80s and cemented Tom Cruise's trajectory as a major star for years to follow. It is a highly entertaining piece of pop art really with macho posturing and a really overt gay subtext, which I can't help think was director Tony Scott's sly dig at the flag waving conservative politics of the narrative. Cruise plays Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell, a talented US Navy fighter pilot who has a penchance for rule breaking. He and his partner 'Goose' (Anthony Edwards) earn themselves a place at the navy's elite fighter training school known as Top Gun, but a tragic accident during the course forces Maverick to reconsider his future. There's a cheesy romance thrown into the mix for good measure and the flying scenes are spectacular even more so if seen on a big cinema screen. The bookending combat scenes are exciting and the added comedy makes the film highly quotable. However it's a film of its time but the cast is really good with Val Kilmer as Cruise' rival, Tom Skerritt, Michael Ironside, Kelly McGillis and an early role for Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins. It remains a neat piece of Hollywood hokum and benefits from seeing on a big cinema screen to allow all it's glory to really shine.

A thriller that's trying to say something about the cult of celebrity but eventually falling back on fairly routine horror film territory. Think of The Menu (2022) and Midsommar (2019) and you'll have sort of an idea where this film is pitching itself. A small and select group of music journalists and TV hosts are invited to the remote desert hideaway of Moretti (John Malkovich), a hugely popular singer from the 90s who has been a recluse for many decades and recently announced a new album. One of the guests, junior magazine writer Ariel (Ayo Edebiri), is surprised to have been one of the invitees and doesn't quite hold the awe for Moretti that the others have. She is at first surprised and eventually more suspicious of his motives when she discovers Moretti lives as a sort of cult leader with a host of sycophants around him. Of course Moretti has a devious and nasty plan for the guests that gradually unfolds. There some gory deaths and Malkovich revels in the transition from smiling host to maniacal cult leader. The music, from Nile Rodgers, is good although I smiled in all the wrong places especially with Malkovich performing some of the songs which held the characters in rapture but I thought was mediocre. As the horror thriller this is watchable and it has a clever ending so it's worth checking out.

A rip roaring western that is effectively pure cinema in that there is no attempt to make any sort of revisionist interpretation of the actual events here but simply portray a western like the classic films of old and simply retain myth over fact. In that sense it works brilliantly, is great fun with loads of bloody shoot outs, horseback chases and camera shots and angles homaging many other films. If you were in any doubt the film opens with a shot from the cinematically famous 1903 film, The Great Train Robbery. The principle influence is that of Sergio Leone, which if you're familiar with his westerns are similarly cinematic rather than historically influenced. Whilst Tombstone is based around real characters and events it makes no effort nor claim to be anything other than fiction. The famous Gunfight At The OK Corral has been the subject of numerous films and the events leading up to it, the actual gunfight and thereafter have been portrayed in a variety of ways. Here the first half of the film is about town/frontier taming, a regular subject of westerns, then the iconic gunfight centralises the film and afterwards it's one long, exciting revenge tale. Kurt Russell is former lawman Wyatt Earp who arrives, with his brothers, in the mining town of Tombstone. He shuns requests to put on a badge but eventually is forced back to being Marshall when threatened by a violent gang led by Curly Bill (Powers Boothe) and Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn). Aided by Doc Holliday (a sensational Val Kilmer) they have to bring law & order to the west mainly by killing a lot of people. The cast are exceptional including Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton and Charlton Heston has a cameo with Robert Mitchum providing a short narration. Even if you don't like westerns this is a contemporary example of action cinema that is great from start to finish so it's definitely worth your time if you haven't seen it.

An occasionally bewildering tragicomedy that never quite gels and has a sentimentality the narrative demands but feels misplaced within the main subject matter, the Holocaust. This is a road trip film where a neurotic New York journalist, Ruth (Lena Denham) has travelled to Poland (it's 1991 just at the end of the Cold War) in order to discover some of her jewish family heritage. She is accompanied by her well-intentioned but awkward Dad, Edek (Stephen Fry), who survived the Nazi death camps where the rest of his family died. Ruth can't understand why her father seems intent on sabotaging some of her plans for the trip, for example she fails to grasp why he won't travel on the trains instead preferring to pay for a taxi for the entire journey. Obviously it's during this journey that Ruth and Edek bond over issues that have remained unsolved in their normal lives. The film is a strange confection though with issues left unresolved. For example Ruth indulges in some self harm appearing to periodically tattoo herself with Nazi camp numbers. There is a major scenario where they find the family's original home now occupied by another family who appear to have some of Edek's parents belongings. The culpability of these people in the plight of the jews deported is never realised even though they appear guilty of something! The scenes set in Auschwitz are moving though but overall the film feels unfulfilled. Something feels missing here as if the edit has been a little too ruthless. A shame as there was a film that had promise here.

Made on the back of the success of The Dirty Dozen (1967) director Robert Aldrich toned down his darker edges for this really good yet underrated war film. Set in the Pacific in 1942 and US Navy Lieutenant Sam Lawson (Cliff Robertson) is seconded to a British unit because his ability to speak Japanese is needed for a special mission. He's a reluctant participant in what is a patrol through the jungle to a Japanese radio station. The patrol is led by incompetent Captain Hornsby (Denholm Elliott) and includes a motley bunch of soldiers including Tosh (Michael Caine). The mission goes awry and the patrol is pursued back to their base by the enemy who must kill or capture them to stop the location of their new airbase being revealed. There's a clash of cultures theme here, mainly between the British and the Americans and the film looks into the issues of loyalty and futility of war. It's a gritty story with plenty of action but ultimately it's a well written and performed character piece. The actors are mostly British stalwarts including Ian Bannen, Ronald Fraser and Harry Andrews and in addition Henry Fonda has a cameo. What is especially interesting here is the subversion of stereotypes as each of the characters is tested through their exposure to combat. The jungle scenes are particularly realistic and exciting so this is definitely a Second World War film that deserves to be rediscovered. I highly recommend it.

A delightful, quite charming although a little formulaic romance with a charismatic performance from Emilia Clarke. The trajectory of the story is reasonably predictable but this is still a pleasant love tale with simple humour and expected sadness along the way. Lou (Clarke) is a happy-go-lucky young woman who helps support her parents but suddenly loses her simple cafe job. Desperate she applies for the job to help with the daily care of a rich young man, Will (Sam Claflin) who has been paralysed in a road accident. Lou has no experience but impresses Will's mother by her optimistic outgoing demeanour. Will is depressed and unimpressed by Lou but soon their relationship develops and she decides to try and give him back some zest for life especially after she discovers his plans. Clarke and Claflin are really good together and the film has a good support cast including Charles Dance, Janet McTeer and a cameo from Joanna Lumley. This is a romance that feels genuine and as a consequence it has that feel good vibe such films should have.

Essentially a melodrama that at times feels glib and perfunctory when it moves into historical territory and as it's filmed in a fixed position in the living room of a house in Philadelphia it just feels like a novelty. Because, though, it stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright you sort of feel obliged to ride with it and although the de-aging technology utilised here to have the two stars go from teenagers to old age feels a bit false it's their characters that are the heart of the film. In many ways this is a typical Robert Zemeckis film, syrupy and fairytale in its depictions of everyday life. The film follows the various lives of occupants of the one house and it slips and slides across various times including prehistoric all the way to the modern day with most of it in the one room. Attempts to dip into the loss of Native American land to settlers is dealt with far too quickly and a clever scene where the last occupants, a black family, has the dad giving advice to his young son on how to deal with a police traffic stop is clever but again not given enough prominence. This is because the central story here is of one family staring with parents played by Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly, post Second World War, through to their oldest child and his new girlfriend (Hanks and Wright) who are forced for economic reasons to live with his parents when she becomes unexpectedly pregnant. Their marriage with all its ups and downs is the main story. It's all ok but the constant flitting around with the use of inset panels to change the times is, after awhile, annoying and the film feels static and dull. An interesting experiment perhaps but not very cinematic.

An entertaining psychological thriller with two solid central performances that has a cracking first half but does drift into absurdity in the second. Set in a wealthy suburb in the early 1960s neighbours and best friends, Alice (Jessica Chastain) and Celine (Anne Hathaway) have a relaxed life as stay-at-home mums of nine year old boys enjoying their social life, with loving husbands although there are hints of past traumas for each of them. When tragedy strikes their lives and relationship turns to guilt, suspicion and eventually paranoia. There's a Hitchcockian vibe to the film's tension and trajectory and the suspense builds gently and moodily until it then goes a bit too far and ends up a trifle daft. The plot turns on the chance finding of an item that by then you would think would've been more carefully hidden. Anyway, it's a solid enough thriller that is an enjoyable watch.

A drama that has two compelling performances from Martin Freeman and Jenny Ortega and one that dances around your expectations without ever actually fulfilling any of them. At times the language feels so ostentatious it struggles to convince but there is a sense of dreaming and of regrets that could be countered with redemption. Jon (Freeman) is a creative writing teacher at a Tennessee college. He's a failed writer who has turned to teaching convincing himself this was a good choice but really he was badly affected by the criticism of his last book. His alcoholic wife (Dagmara Dominczyk - solid performance) niggles him about this constantly. Jon is, however, impressed by new student Cairo (Ortega), the daughter of wealthy parents who are absent so she lives alone in their mansion. She has talent which Jon spots immediately and he's drawn to her by this. Cairo is though an enigmatic character, part child of nature, part narcissist who wants only to ensure she's the smartest person around. Given a writing assignment by Jon Cairo pushes him and the college regime by what she writes which implies an affair between them. It's open to debate as to whether Jon crosses acceptable boundaries with Cairo or whether he simply dreams of doing so. He's sexually frustrated especially as his wife is constantly half dressed and any intimacy between them is always interrupted before satisfying either of them. Whether you read this as a story of a manipulative young woman dominating a weaker man or a man convinced he's a failure dreaming of some other future for himself it's a film that has an unsatisfying conclusion and yet interesting all the same.

Director William Friedkin's forgotten masterpiece. His fall from grace after the breathtaking originality of The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973) was due, possibly, to his over inflated ego, but this hi-octane cop thriller is one of the best in the buddy cop genre. Whereas many films in this category add great dollops of comedy Friedkin effectively deconstructs the buddy cop narrative to create an intricate, gritty and at times enigmatic film that boasts a fantastic seven minute car chase that arguably out 'chases' the one in The French Connection. Influenced heavily by the style of the TV series Miami Vice this is a story of US Secret Service agents investigation into counterfeiting. When his partner is murdered Agent Richard Chance (William Petersen) vows to get the man behind the killing, arch counterfeiter Rick Masters (Willem Dafoe). With a new partner in tow Chance pushes the boundaries of right and wrong when he plans to rob a crooked diamond merchant in order to fund an undercover operation to catch Masters. The violence here comes suddenly and shockingly and the plot has some very big surprises. With the adrenaline filled car chase and a film that twists loyalties and plays with sexuality this is one of the finest crime thrillers of modern times and certainly of the 1980s. Fast paced, exciting and gutsy this is highly recommended if you've never seen it.

A bonkers and off-kilter comedy about a woman who is destined to fall in love with the same unworthy man and die for him before being reincarnated each time to suffer the same fate.....or is she just mentally ill? Alice Lowe's comedy has a bit of Peter Greenaway's storytelling style and the vibe of an early Ben Wheatley feature. She is Agnes who we see in different lives from the mid 1600s and through various later incarnations some fleeting and some in more depth. Each time she becomes besotted with Alex (Aneurin Barnard) even though he's a complete waste of space. Several other characters seem to follow her through these lives including Nick Frost as George, a violent jealous man who often kills her! This could be interpreted as madness through obsession and the film heavily leans in that direction at one point but it's a film that is always slightly unclear as if the themes can't get through the narrative. Either way I has some funny moments but it's a little too bizarre for my taste.

A bizarre and somewhat enigmatic film from a Stephen King short story and I suspect not one of his best. It feels like a story half baked with ideas that are unfulfilled as if the author and latterly the director of the film, Mike Flanagan have struggled to nail down. It leaves the film with a feeling of vague disappointment. It's a difficult narrative to summarise but it's a film divided into three acts which are shown in reverse order. Act 3 mostly follows a humble high school teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor) in a small US town as the world begins to crumble, first with California falling into the sea, then the internet going down and it seems the end of the world is nigh. Annoyingly for the teacher despite the potential end of humanity the town has a series of posters and messages pop up that permeate through the terrifying news and simply announce congratulations to Charles 'Chuck' Krantz for 39 years. No-one seems to know who Chuck is or what he's achieved but it's soon made clear he's a nobody who is dying. This then gives the film its structure as a study of how one man's life holds a universe unique to him and at his death that universe is destroyed. Acts 2 and 1 show Chuck's earlier years principally around his love of dancing and his relationship with his grandparents. The film is sort of celebrating life as uniquely wonderful for each individual. There's a magical vibe to it and yet it feels abstract and incomplete. Tom Hiddleston plays the adult Chuck although he only has about 20 minutes of screen time and his role is mainly centred around a big dance number. Mark Hamill costars as his grandfather who hides a secret in his old house (another vague mystery that is a bit of a let down). This is a film that tries for that feel good thing that better films have created with more assuredness such Field Of Dreams (1989) or The Truman Show (1998). I wasn't convinced by it, it has some interesting moments but as a whole it lacks depth.

One of the greatest films about childhood and a moving story of injustice, racism and hatred. Set in a small town in Alabama during the Great Depression and local lawyer, Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck - who won an Oscar for his performance) takes on the case of Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), a black man accused of raping a white woman. The story is told through the eyes of his two young children Jem (Philip Alford) and Scout (Mary Badham) who spend their days playing and fantasising about the locals including the scary Radley house where they believe a maniac lives. This is a wonderful film, despite it's dark condemnation on American societal and endemic racism it also has a heart warming and feel good quality that makes it such a lovely viewing experience. Both the classic novel by Harper Lee (a book everyone should read) from which this film is adapted and the film itself captures the magical way that children view the world and in this case that racism and hatred are indoctrinated and learnt behaviours because here the children are blissfully ignorant of the bias over race and colour. There is so much that can be analysed and discussed in this film but enough to say here that it is one of the finest motion pictures you will ever see and it's definitely a film to be enjoyed time and time again. Watching the courtroom scene and Peck's soliloquy (shot in one take) is incredibly moving and a tour de force in screen acting and direction. A film everyone must see, it is simply a masterpiece. (NB also the first film for Robert Duvall who plays 'Boo' Radley)

Lily Gladstone excels in this tale of stoicism and family, a drama that highlights the still existing ambivalence of the authorities to the Native American population. It's structured as a mystery and road movie although this is about relationships as much as anything else. Gladstone is Jax, who lives on an Oklahoma reservation, caring for her teenage niece, Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) since her sister and Roki's mother has disappeared. The police have treated the disappearance lightly and Jax, who still hustles and deals drugs, is ever trying to find some clue to her disappearance. When her white father (Shea Whigham) files for custody of Roki they head out on the road to reach an Indian festival, a powwow, where they hope Roki's mum will turn up. This theme of disappearance reflects the American tendency to be blind to its Native Americans and treat them as less worthy of support and aid as others. It's a moving film that has the odd misstep but its strong performances and thoughtfulness make it a serious and interesting drama.

Adapting the complex spy novel by John Le Carré and turning it into a two hour film was no mean feat. Along with adept direction, a remarkable recreation of the grimy London of the early 1970s and a topnotch cast and you have a really clever, intelligent and realistic espionage film. This is no James Bond film this is a thriller that takes its story straight from the experiences of real agents in the British Secret Service. A twist and turn plot that requires careful watching and what you have is really very gripping. If you are expecting an action film you will be disappointed because, despite some very gruesome murders, this is a drama that concerns itself with mystery and a convoluted plot to unmask a double agent. When an unsanctioned mission goes wrong in Hungary the Head of MI6 (John Hurt) is forced to retire along with his No2 George Smiley (Gary Oldman). But the mission was an attempt to uncover a traitor, believed to be one of five department heads running the Secret Service. Smiley is bought back in secret by the Government to investigate whether there is any truth to the suspicions. Oldman is magnificent here receiving both Oscar and BAFTA nominations for best actor; and with the addition of Hurt, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Kathy Bates and Ciarán Hinds the cast is faultless. The director drops tiny hints throughout the film as the plot goes deeper into trying to identify who is the traitor, and even when you know the ending this remains a riveting drama. Not only is the book on which this is based excellent but this is one of the best films about the real world of spies that's been made in a very long while. If you haven't seen this then it's a must see.