Films I Saw In January

The Wrestler: Brilliant drama, moving without lapsing into sentimentality. Rourke was absolutely robbed at the Oscars last year. Highly, highly recommended.


And When Did You Last See Your Father?: Moving melodrama, Colin Firth again establishing himself as a great dramatic actor. Broadbent superb as always.


Where The Wild Things Are: Looks amazing, soundtrack is beautiful and the whole film is moving in an odd way. The plot is fairly aimless though and lets it down. Still good though.


The Reader: Very worthy Oscar style drama with Kate Winslet acting her heart out. Might be worthwhile if you’ve not read the equally overrated book and want a ‘serious issue film’.


Revolutionary Road: A competent adaptation of an outstanding book. Well directed and emotionally powerful even though Leo & Kate are totally wrong for the parts they’re playing. Good, but not as good as it thinks it is.


Nine: Dan Day Lewis delivers his weakest ever performance in this hugely indulgent misfire. A huge waste of talent from all concerned (except possibly Marion Cotrillard) only saved by some quite good looking clothes. Not worth your time.


My Beautiful Laundrette: How the mighty have fallen. DDL made his name with this excellent 1980’s British classic written by Hanif Khureshi. I’ve been meaning to see this for years and was not disappointed. Ambitiously, but successfully says much about race, class and politics in Britain in 90 minutes.


Avatar 3D: If you can put up with a fairly dull opening 90 minutes and some hypocritical digital tree hugging from Cameron the final battle is an outstanding, epic set piece that only Cameron can pull off and manages to save the whole film. Not entirely convinced by the 3D technology though.


A Single Man: Brilliant directorial debut from fashion designer Tom Ford. Every single frame in this film feels like a feast to the eyes, but beneath it’s (of course) stylish exterior, the film has real heart and depth, and may be the acting high point of Colin Firth’s career.


Synechdochte New York: A superb and totally bizarre film even by Charlie Kauffman’s standards with this, his directing debut. Philip Seymour Hoffman is excellent as always and the film is quirkily funny and emotionally painful at the same time. Very multi-layered and symbolic, I definitely need to see it again but it’s completely worth it.


Vicky Christina Barcelona: Ah, yet another of many ‘returns to form’ for Woody Allen. Actually, this one isn’t too bad especially as ‘Match Point’ was one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. Penelope Cruz was very deserving of her Oscar, and Bardem is very good too, but overall it just feels very slight and throwaway. Not enough of a comedy (not sure I laughed once actually), and didn’t have much in terms of pathos. Still, not bad.


The Hurt Locker: One of the best war films of the last twenty years. Unbearably tense, brilliantly crafted action scenes, intelligent and thought provoking. Ticks all the right boxes, an outstanding film in every way.


1941: Legendary epic folly that gave Spielberg his first dud. Not as bad as its reputation suggests, it is incredibly over the top and ambitious in an almost endearing way. Not a disaster, but not an underappreciated lost gem either.


King of New York: Walken is great in this early 90’s dark crime thriller from Abel Ferrara. Not quite as good as its reputation had led me to believe, its still worth it for its bleak atmospherics and superb turns from Walken and Fishburne.


The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three: Watched the original version for the first time this month. Really enjoyed it, great NY heist film in the vein of Dog Day Afternoon. Good cast, well scripted, well paced and very enjoyable.
Poltergeist: Can’t believe I didn’t see this years ago. Works well as both a family film and a fairly decent popular-horror movie. Great special effects for its time too. Decent.