Film Reviews by None

If, like so many of us, you feel touched by the damage done in the latter part of Bush's presidency - the lies about WMD, the (arguably) illegal war in Iraq despite global demonstrations on an unprecendented scale against it, the manipulation of the media over the 'war on terror' - watching this movie is an essential catharsis to get the man out of your system now he's out of office. The understanding of his background given by this movie did not earn him one jot of forgiveness from me, but it did help me draw a line under that particular nightmare and start to believe it's really over.

This tale has lots of emotional angst with little of the sassy zip to be found in some of Water's other female characters to bring the energy up. Although the shady worlds of seances and women's prisons exercise a kind of voyeuristic fascination so provide an interesting setting for the story there just wasn't enough in the medium's character for me to understand why our heroine fell for her. The plot's final twist is a shocker, but overall I just wasn't convinced.

I rented this after I'd heard friends in the USA raving about it. Sadly, it didn't do a thing for me. The pretext of the series - forensic guy working with police teams to solve murders but who is a vigilante serial killer himself in his spare time - is original but gets old quickly. What was possibly intended as sophisticated indifference to the bodies in abundance scattered through the plotline just seemed flippant and irritanting to me - I struggled through two episodes before I gave up, and will not be renting more of this series.

It's almost impossible to approach this with an open mind if you're familiar with the TV series, but if you can enjoy it in it's own right it is a gorgeous movie and a fine interpretation of the book. Leaning more heavily on the thread of Catholicism and duty in the book it supports the strength of Lady Marchmain's character (Emma Thompson) and the required visuals - Castle Howard, brilliant tailoring, beautiful young things, golden Oxford - are all in evidence. I found Sebastian's swishiness just a touch irritating (he's more fey than the Anthony Andrews version) but, overall, it's excellent and well worth seeing.

I watched this just because I'd heard so much about it and I'm a Wes Anderson fan already. I enjoyed it, but having stopped watching 30 mins before the end I found that I wasn't bothered enough to go back and finish it off - which speaks volumes. With enough long words and weighty cosmic concepts to alienate a fair percentage of the audience I would imagine, and self-consciously 'whacky' in places which made my toes curl. Hmmm. Worth trying it for the novelty value.

These days, when lots of people are concerned about losing their jobs and money getting tighter, I found this movie both moving and inspirational. Heartwarming stuff - give it a try.

This atmospheric movie will certainly stay with you, even if it's hard to figure out exactly what it's trying to say. I found myself glued to it watching 'our hero' slowly fall to pieces under the influence of his manservant and his 'sister' - like Jeeves and Wooster gone badly wrong, with every confidence abused and every vice exploited, it's a slow-motion exercise in emotional sadism and power abuse with some weird erotic undertones, both gay and straight. Some reviewers have accused it of having less to it than meets the eye, but the number of awards it has garnered surely make it worth a look.A real one-off.

If you're after historical accuracy and period atmosphere it's true - this is not the movie in which to find that view of Marie Antoinette.

But for a sumptuously gorgeous movie with the exuberance of a shopping spree, the style of a fashonista's favourite music video and an eye for ravishing sets and costumes you are in the right place. I found this to be a unique and delightful movie. In essence, it's a film about a teenage girl who just happened to be a queen some time ago, and it covers the issues you'd expect from that - but whatever you think of the storyline this movie looks so delicious, and the much-discussed 80's soundtrack injects such energy into much of the movie (the 'I Want Candy' sequence alone is worth the rental cost) that you can't help catching a buzz from it. See it - have fun!

If you're not already into this highly addictive saga of lesbian friends in LA then this set probably isn't the best place to start. The personalities of the characters and their entwined histories and love-lives provides an extremely rich background to the storyline of this fifth series of the show, so you would miss much of the fun by jumping in at this point. I'd suggest watching Series 1 at least to get some background.

If, however, you have been following this ground-breaking and popular show then by now you'll be longing to hear the latest adventures of Shane (and this does not disappoint!), Tina and Bette (or not?), and the rest of crew. The cast look as good as ever and the storyline doesn't shy away from awkward subjects (e.g. the 'gays in the military' storyline for Alice's lover). We want more!

Either you like Wes Anderson movies (this, The Life Aquatic, Darjeeling Ltd etc), or you don't. In my opinion his movies have such a unique voice and sense of humour - kind of funny but tinged with strangeness and sorrow - that you need to be in the mood for them, and the Tenenbaums is no exception. However, once you've been introduced to the Tenenbaums - surely the poster family for all brilliant but deeply dysfunctional households - it is most unlikely that you will ever forget them. And the style of the characters surely has potential to spawn cult followings for years to come. Give it a go when you're feeling a little weird.

This is a tale of a bad girl ('Ivy', so named after the lurid cross-with-ivy tatoo high on her thigh which she flaunts at every opportunity) who works her way into the heart of a lonely outsider schoolfriend and, from there, into her family's affections. Without giving the game away, Ivy has her own agenda and all does not end well.

This movie has some plot in common with "American Beauty"; if you're a Dad who's ever noticed your daughter's schoolfriends I dare say you'll enjoy it. Drew Barrynore gives a strong performance as Ivy - however the movie is entirely reliant on her role with the surrounding characters being little more than support to that, so if you don't like Drew as an actress don't bother with the movie. Also this was made in 1992 so shows it's age stylistically, although the plot is dealing with etermal themes of seduction and betrayal which haven't dated. The sex scenes are fairly explicit.

Rife with coming-of-age sexual symbolism and gothic fairytale details this film attempts to retell the Little Red Riding Hood fairytale as a girl's right of passage. It has a distinctive atmosphere but is undermined by how dated it looks now - the special effects, especially those where man turns into wolf - look extremely clunky now. One of a kind though, worth a look.