Category: Film
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‘Story of a Love Affair,’ directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Movie, 1950 Moody, gloomy film about the suspicions, investigations and back story of a bored company man’s wife and a used car salesman. As unpromising as this might sound, the film moves along with a hypnotic pace and feel, mixing illustrations, well to do characters with bleak and increasingly seedy locations, and a story which…
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‘The Night Has Eyes’, directed by Leslie Arliss
Movie, 1942 A really quite effective, creepy, noirish psychological thriller, in which a house on the moors, presided over by a superbly grumpy distant and creepy main character, played by James Mason, isn’t quite what he seems. If the film lacks a little sophistication – both plot and the female characters stranded on the moor…
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‘Save Yourselves!’ directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson
Movie, 2020 A likable, part sci-fi, part-satire kind of whimsical apocalypse movie, in which the main characters combat little furries and a minimal effects budget, to reasonably good effect. Not everyone will get on with the goody-goody dynamic here, but the main problem, for me, was that at some point, rather than let the plot…
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‘Hell’s Half Acre,’ directed by John H Auer
Movie, 1954 A quirky, low-budget suspense film, whose setting, themes and a few plot points seem to reference Casablanca, but do so with, at best, very limited success. While the action feels stretched out, and many production values lacking, here and there, some of the shooting shows some craft and imagination, while the music and…
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‘Dead Men Walk,’ directed by Sam Newfield
Movie, 1943 A rather strange, low-budget horror, in which an evil man walks the world after his death, and through vampiric deeds, tries to wreak havoc on his identical brother – who’s under a vague suspicion of having killed him. A picture which is only very fleetingly effective, with a few creepy moments here and…
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‘No Time To Die,’ directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
Movie, 2021 Last Daniel Craig Bond film. The initial action, which sees a retired Bond happy in love and driving as Aston Martin evoke the 1960s adventures – most specifically, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. This, and other aspects gives the film an elegiac feel at times. As ever, some of the action scenes might…
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‘Amsterdam,’ directed by David O. Russell
Movie, 2022 Light-hearted, in the main, yet this thriller, set during and after the First World War, has enough grit to go with the twists and turns of the plot, which explores the adventures of a group of friends, and their brushes with accusations and risks of jail an internment in a febrile Central Europe.…
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‘Parasite,’ directed by Bong Joon-ho
Movie, 2019 Comedy thriller, in which a poor family ousts a wealthier family from their more affluent surroundings, before various deceits come back at them. The film has a great pace and touch, and while social inequalities aren’t especially dwelt upon, they – like the sometimes savage actions of the characters – form a lively…
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‘Happiness for Beginners,’ directed by Wight
Movie, 2023 Romantic comedy, in which a recently divorced woman is joined, in a rather disparate group of weekend adventurers, by her brother’s best friend. An underwhelming kind of a film with a few moments here and there, but which sets its stall out early and doesn’t deviate too far from it. The action and…