Film Reviews by GI

A very very black comedy full of Hieronymus Bosch symbolism this is a brilliantly original film from director Martin McDonagh. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are the two Irish hitmen who are sent to Bruges after botching a job in the most horrendous way. Their charisma together sets the narrative as a bizarre buddy movie with them having completely different reactions to being in the city. However it's Ralph Fiennes as their criminal boss, Harry who is the character you will remember long after the film is over. He's funny, evil, psychopathic and principled all in one very original performance. A great script, very violent and with disturbing scenes that are mixed into a very funny adult comedy. Absolutely superb.

One of the great British war films not only of the 1950s but arguably ever made. Less a combat film and more a survival adventure film set in 1942 with John Mills as the PTSD suffering Captain Anson who along with Harry Andrews as a Sergeant Major, Sylvia Syms as a military nurse are left behind enemy lines and forced to try to make it to safety in a ramshackle ambulance across the North African desert . On the way they pick up a South African officer played by Anthony Quayle. The film is full of intrigue and tension and captures the harshness of the desert (the real enemy as Quayle's character calls it) and the struggles of the characters in crossing it. The war setting simply adds to the sense of ever present danger and risk of failure. This is one of many great performances from Mills arguably his best here and a true British classic film that every film fan should see, and see again. The final bar scene is now iconic. This is one of those films that makes you stay in love with cinema.

The great British counterculture and anti establishment film from director Lindsay Anderson. It remains today an enigmatic, often surreal critique of the British private education system that is mired in privilege from wealth rather than academic ability. There's been much discussion over the years around scenes from this film which for the most part remain mysterious and invite all sorts of textual analysis much of it contradictory. The story focuses on a prestigious all boys boarding school in England where the pupils are all from aristocracy or wealthy families and where the school actively promotes archaic traditions and rituals that result in sadistic punishment if abused. As a new term starts three older boys led by Travis (Malcolm McDowell) begin to challenge the ridiculousness of the system which is overseen by prefects who have the power to punish dissent including vicious canings. Eventually Travis and his band decide to act violently and begin a massacre of staff, parents and other pupils. This has become a cult film with many plaudits and stylistically it opens up lots to discuss including the various changes from colour to black & white and some Pythonesque scenes which will baffle, amuse and may even frustrate. This is a satire that challenges the viewer, a film that defies a description. It certainly caused a furore on release with its nudity and attack on a system much loved in the UK. It's certainly a film to check out if you've never seen it and one to watch a few times to absorb it's unusual narrative, style and structure.

This wartime thriller based on the life and role of Alan Turing is a melancholy yet engrossing and poignant film with a brilliant central performance by Benedict Cumberbatch who gives Turing the level of complexity the film needed. Based on true events the narrative of course takes liberties but does so in the interests of the cinematic and sets up a rollicking good film. Apart from the obvious war drama there's a real human story here too and the narrative weaves the issues of social and establishment upheaval in the role of women, the fact that women can be intelligent, the unrecognised autism condition and attitudes to 'difference' including the criminalising of homosexuality and all without overpowering the main story. Keira Knightley lends her character a sense of warmth and the great Charles Dance and Mark Strong give top support as the bosses. A film about code-breaking, difference and intolerance. It's remarkably good and one that deserves a few viewings to get the full benefits. Absolutely marvellous.

An absorbing romantic drama with a stunning central performance and arguably a very adept, modern take on relationships. Renate Reinsve plays Julia, a gifted, highly intelligent young woman living in Oslo. We join her training to be a doctor but she soon gives this up and in a very short space of time we get to understand that Julia is struggling to find her role and place in life as she flits from one plan to another. Told in 12 chapters with a prologue and epilogue this follows Julia's life through her two main relationships, one with a slight older man and later one her own age. She leaves the first for the second and is continually struggling with her life goals including the thorny issue of whether to have children. I can't exactly point to which character the title refers to as Julia is not by nature a bad person indeed her emotions are pure and often control her actions, but it could be read that the title refers to how she sees herself. The film has some great ideas and two enthralling set pieces one where time stands still as she runs through the city to meet her new lover and the second when she takes a hallucinogenic drug and during the 'trip' confronts her dysfunctional and selfish father. This film has been described by its director, Joachim Trier, as a romcom for those that hate romcoms. There is humour here but it's not a film easily categorised as a romcom and is much more a tragic relationship drama that opens up debate around modern ambition, love and life. An interesting and lovely film well worth checking out.

This is a really wasted opportunity, a drama that makes such little sense and tries to be clever that it fails totally. Such a pity too as Daisy Edgar-Jones is such a talent and deserved better. She is the best thing about the film and she is perfect as the doe-eyed loner who becomes a murder suspect. Unfortunately the narrative opens much and explores little with a final twist that is utterly ridiculous and destroys everything that was any good and came before it. This is the story of Kya (JoJo Regina as the child Kya and Edgar-Jones as the adult) who is deserted by her mother and siblings leaving her with a violent and abusive father (Garret Dillahunt) in their small shack in the North Carolina marshlands. Here we have the first glaring flaw in the tale, why would this small child be left in this situation? Anyway eventually Kya ends up alone but survives by collecting mussels and selling them to a local friendly shopkeeping couple. As an adult she is illiterate but a talented wildlife artist, shunned by the suspicious locals who call her Marsh Girl but also being beautiful, shy and sexy she attracts the attention of two boys, one a decent soon-off-to-college lad and the other the stereotypical sports jock who eventually turns out to be a cad. He's found dead in the marsh and Kya is No.1 suspect. This cues a boring courtroom drama section with David Strathairn as a kindly, old lawyer defending her. The evidence against her is so weak that the trial has no drama and the venom from some of the witnesses is inexplicable. And here we have another key issue in that the animosity towards this girl is just not fitting her depiction. Kya is portrayed as a shy, polite, above all clean young woman who causes no problems to anyone so the suspicion in which she is held and drives the push to call her a murderer is not explored properly. The film looks great and the central performance is good but everything is so predictable and clichéd and as I say the finale does not fit in anyway the film's direction. A failure and one that could have been excellent.

Apparently inspired by a real medieval warrior and set in Central Europe in the 15th century this is a Game Of Thrones and/or The Vikings influenced sword and blood film with the usual bone crunching fights and plenty of gory wounds and corpses to satisfy a fan of this stuff. The scenery is all grimy, mud caked forests and castles and there's plenty of confusing intrigue. Indeed the story becomes all a bit muddled but that is really irrelevant after a certain point because it becomes just a basic revenge narrative. In fact the story is essentially a Robin Hood one with all the stock characters in place but lacking the sense of romance and adventure. Ben Foster stars as Jan, a warlord for hire who becomes involved in the kidnap of a princess and fiancée to the bad guy, although there are at least two other bad guys. There's hangings, impalings, limb chop offs etc etc none of which is that exciting or new and even the presence of Michael Caine fails to life the film beyond a standard slash 'em and kill 'em film. They've stuck a bit of female nudity in there and all the men has a big bushy beard for good measure. It's ok but once seen you'll not want to watch it ever again.

A classic British comedy and one of the finest social satires that focuses on post-war industrial relations, class politics, family dynamics and casual racism. With the lovely, endearing Ian Carmichael as the hapless and naïve aristocrat who has to get a job as a normal factory worker and who inadvertently sparks off a General Strike. Peter Sellers won a BAFTA for his definitive take on the Union Shop Steward Mr Kite, and a great supporting cast of Terry-Thomas, Dennis Price, Richard Attenborough and a host of British actors who will be familiar to all fans of 50s British comedy especially the Carry On series. This is a really funny film and one that deserves a modern audience. All film lovers should make sure they see this at least once.

Whilst this British adult romcom is occasionally a little clichéd and there's at least one over-the-top scene that could have been removed this is a very, very funny British comedy of manners. I laughed out loud more or less throughout even when I saw the joke coming and when cringing was necessary. The trajectory of the narrative is way too predictable but this doesn't lessen the sheer fun of the whole thing. Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne are the couple who, after a whirlwind romance, get married much to the surprise of friends and family who don't think the marriage will last and after nine months the cracks are beginning to show! What follows is all a little predictable but with a great cast including Simon Baker, Anna Faris, Stephen Merchant as the best friend (an obnoxious spin on the dopey aristocrat played by James Fleet in 1994's Four Weddings & A Funeral), Minnie Driver (hilariously brilliant), Jason Flemyng and Olivia Colman (so funny here) this just works. If you want a good laugh then this will do the trick.

A gloomy, literally so, thriller about a hitman (Anson Mount) who boringly narrates his way through the narrative telling us how to be ubër professional but managing to basically cock up every hit we get to see. It's a muddled story too with Anthony Hopkins playing the unnamed hitman's boss and how they must have rejoiced at getting Hopkins to agree to do this, he has one soliloquy where he rattles on about a Vietnam massacre he took part in and where he barely attempts an American accent, and we get to see him endlessly sitting in a chair usually cleaning an assortment of guns. The Hitman gets an enigmatic assignment to kill another assassin but for whatever reason he is not told the target only a location and on arrival it becomes one of those mysteries as to who he has to eliminate. Only it's not that mysterious because it's pretty obvious all along. At times the film is quite laughable, an example is the Hitman taking a silenced pistol as he's meant to be stealthy but he also straps on a machine gun too! The whole thing is nonsense and wrought with cliché and silliness. The only light is Abbie Cornish who supports, an actor that we need to see more of and Eddie Marsan cameos but is sadly very underused. One to avoid I'm afraid.

Being a long standing fan of the novel by Richard Matheson I wanted great things from this adaptation and I'll be honest when I say I was disappointed. The story having been filmed twice before I was hopeful that the novel's unique twist would be at last properly captured on film. However having viewed the film more objectively since it's initial release I have come to appreciate what an interesting science fiction/horror film it actually turned out to be. It only loosely follows the book so once I put aside my views on the novel I found myself really enjoying the film. The story is a post apocalyptic tale where a virus wipes out most of humanity and the story of a lone survivor and adding in the danger from the monsters that the virus has created. Here we have a basic zombie type narrative with aspects of the vampire film thrown in. Admittedly the creatures, realised through CGI, are slightly disappointing and I suspect the scares were turned down to encourage a younger audience. But the film is more interesting in Will Smith's depiction of the survivor and his coping with long term loneliness and the constant stress of surviving. Here Smith does an excellent job and the script concentrates on his fall into despair. The ending of the theatrical release does allow a stab at why the book and of course this film version has the title 'I Am Legend' which is commendable. There is an alternate ending, which while of interest, is somewhat less in keeping although it takes another aspect of the novel and inserts it into the film. The theatrical release is the better of the two. If you saw this and were not that impressed I urge you to give it another shot, you maybe surprised the next time. (On a final note I would have loved to have seen the Ridley Scott directed version with Arnold Schwarzenegger, which was going to be made but sadly abandoned)

Kathryn Bigelow's powerful anti-war action film remains the best of the genre that is set in Iraq. The story of Will James an adrenaline junkie bomb disposal soldier who behaves increasingly recklessly endangering the lives of his team. Jeremy Renner gives a career best as James, aided by Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty as his increasingly worried team mates. The film has some great cameos including Guy Pearce, David Morse, Ralph Fiennes and Evangeline Lilly. It's tense story, utterly compelling and cleverly written so you never quite know if James is becoming totally unhinged or if he's still enough in control. There are some shocking scenes and the unpretentious clarity of the film is a refreshing change, there are no gung-ho heroics here and no flag waving either. This is about the sheer agony and terror of war and it's futile position in the modern world. It's a modern masterpiece and well worth repeated viewings.

This is an intense study of passion and love set in Brittany in the late 18th Century. Despite being a slow burner it's very gripping too and surprisingly engrossing with the director, Céline Sciamma, bringing a cinematic classical style whilst adding aspects of social realism and the film has a rhythm that flows pulling the viewer along with it. The sparse scenery and mis èn scene along with the absence of a music soundtrack adds, in an almost surreal way, to the films power. Noémie Merlant plays Marianne, a skilled artist and portrait painter hired by a wealthy woman to paint a portrait of her enigmatic daughter, Héloïse (Adèle Haenel). Knowing the painting is to be used to lure a rich man to marry her Héloise refuses to sit for a portrait having sabotaged a previous effort to paint her. So Marianne has to pretend to be just a hired companion furtively studying her subject whenever she can and painting in secret. Héloise is well aware of the continual glances that Marianne is making and equally Marianne becomes fascinated and obsessed with Héloise and the two become lovers. At times the film almost tips into something disturbing especially in Marianne's ghost like visions of Héloise in her wedding dress and when she witnesses an incident that evokes the films title. But all the time it's the vivid and deep love that forms between the two that draws you into the narrative. The themes are bold here and there's something to do with the breaking of inequality that resonates today and is most clearly seen in how the two women help the house servant girl, Sophie (Luàna Bajrami) with a personal problem. I found the film to be quite mesmerising and rather beautiful in a strange way. I certainly highly recommend it.

A romantic drama that is full of eroticism, strong on character and weaker on plot with an unfulfilling and unconvincing conclusion. Ruth Wilson is excellent as Kate, a lowly benefits office worker in a seaside town. She's bored with the work, a bit of a loner and arguably depressed until one of her claimants asks her out for lunch. He is a charismatic ex con she names Blond played with obvious relish by Tom Burke. Against the office rules she goes out with him and is soon infatuated but he remains a mystery telling her nothing much about himself whilst she reveals all. Soon he begins to treat her very casually but then reappears and expects her to drop everything. It takes a trip to Spain for Kate to realise what she really needs from her life. The two leads give compelling performances and Wilson especially captures the central issue of a deep yearning for love that never quite arrives. It's an interesting film but ultimately feels like a bit of a let down in the finale.

This adventure comedy is a buddy movie about a most mismatched pair. What's great is that the film is a big hearted charming film without any pretensions. It's a simple enough story of Ricky, an orphaned city kid who has a history of petty crime, loves rap and wants to be a gangster who is fostered with Bella & Heck, a pair of simple country folk who live on the edge of the New Zealand bush. It's Ricky's relationship with Heck that is the centre of the narrative. Sam Neill is perfect as the grumpy, down-to-earth Heck. Taika Waititi, the director, clearly has a need to show off the magnificence of the New Zealand wilds with some beautiful panoramic shots of the mountains and forests but it's in the intimate confined bush where the characters make the film so warm and hilarious. Admittedly the narrative veers almost into zany territory as the story progresses but this is all part of the fun and the emotional punch of the film is never lost. Highly recommended viewing.