paultreloar75 Reviews

Wild Men (2021)

Go wild in the country

[10/10 · 10 May 2022]

Absolutely loved this movie, beautifully shot with some stunning scenery and a story that rolls along and keeps you interested throughout. Although Martin, the main protagonist, is a bit of a giant loser it seems, the film takes him very seriously and his adventures with Musa who he meets by accident (literally) feel entirely within the boundaries of possibility.

It makes you laugh a lot as well as making you wince, the performances are uniformly good and it develops a real Fargo-like feel but without any homage or aping of that production. Even the chocolate box ending made sense in light of everything that goes before it and I came out of the cinema smiling, which is nice in these difficult times.

Another Round (2020)

Cheers ears, here's to one more

[8/10 · 27 July 2021]

Overall I enjoyed this a lot, although that's maybe because I didn't go to watch it intending to pick up any/many deep philosophical points of interest about one of my favorite things, which is having a drink. This is a middle-aged buddy movie in my eyes, with four men in different stages of their lives but who all decide to undertake an experiment with booze that subsequently enables everything that keeps us variously amused or appalled as the drama develops.

Some things good, some things bad, some things funny, some things sad. Bit like life really.

Night of the Kings (2020)

Stay awake

[9/10 · 27 July 2021]

This is a really captivating and endearing drama, far more than the standard prison film that I was thinking that I was going to watch. As someone else mentioned in another review, this felt like it had overtones of Shakspeare, with the plot of the ultimate boss using magic and tradition to try to pass on ownership of the horrific looking prison. The performances of the actors were superb, gripping and authentic, the soundtrack was lovely and the singing, dancing and story telling add to that feeling of theatre.

I loved the way that it jumped in and out of different realities and fantasies and also the way it kept you uncertain and slightly fearful about where it was going to end. It also prompted me to go away and read some more about the history of the Ivory Coast as the historical perspective of the tale added to the story. Well worth 90 minutes of your time.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Early retirement for this one please

[3/10 · 6 October 2017]

Well, let's get the obvious thing to say out of the way and say, "It's not as good as the original" (whichever version of the original you want to take that to refer to). Not even close.

So taking it on it's on terms, is it any good? It's alright is about as far as I can go. It's starts off reasonably promisingly, with Ryan Gosling retiring a replicant on a dusty farm. So we've already left the claustrophobic confines of the smoggy city already and you'd hope that would give the director lots of avenues to explore and unpick. And initially the idea of Rachel and Deckart having produced a successor, along with Joe's virtual affair offer some brief optimism. In a slightly gloomy way.

Ryan Gosling plays a good emotionless cyborg. The problem begins when he's supposed to show that he's also developing emotions, and even potentially, a soul. That's tricky and requires range. Of which he has not a lot. The music crashes as it tries to wash around you but it's all a bit bombastic and overblown. The photography is serviceable but doesn't come close to Ridley Scott's world as in the Final Cut, despite the 10 years have passed since that version. The attempts at homage just feel like cheap and shoddy imitations.

Then the story starts getting preposterous, as Joe finds two crucial characters by some form of laser guided internal radar system or something. Certainly, he manages to locate Deckart simply by finding a horse and then wandering into the desert, something which the evil Corporation hadn't managed in 30 years of trying apparently. We get a stupid diversion into an orphanage that is supposed to be Dickensian but simply serves as a giant PLOT DEVICE!!! Then an even more ludicrous fight scene in so much water I feared Kevin Costner was going to turn up. The finale was toe curlingly cringey.

About half way through, someone at the end of our row started snoring. This went on for about 20 minutes. I don't know how he managed to sleep cos this is about noise and bangs and crashes in general, no subtlety whatsoever. Oh and lots of punching and stabbing or strangling woman mainly. Joe gets stabbed and doesn't flinch cos he's hard. And when the virtual love of his life gets killed, he doesn't flinch, despite this seemingly having been built up into a key strand of the story before. There's some half-arsed "come the revolution" interlude that looks like a Duran Duran video. I'm starting to rant now aren't I. Did I tell you that Bladerunner was my favourite movie ever. This isn't....wake up, time to die.

Lady Macbeth (2016)

Lords, ladies, and everybody else

[7/10 · 1 May 2017]

Saw it tonight and enjoyed it in general. Florence Pugh is indeed excellent and it does roll along at quite a pace, as the fairly rudimentary story unfolds. If the story is rudimentary, the depth of the possibilities is quite multilayered, as there's minimal dialogue really overall and you're left to work out a lot by yourself.

And in that respect, it's not pretty viewing. Yet half the audience seemed to find it hilarious (apart from when a horse got shot). Lots of the camera-work is central and square on which kind of worked but was kind of distracting too. Strange experience overall which I'm still processing slightly but it's definitely worth a watch.

Free Fire (2016)

Banging!!!!

[8/10 · 3 April 2017]

Sometimes everyone needs a movie set almost entirely inside a deserted and derelict umbrella factory on the edge of town. With lots of guns. And crudely but fantastically drawn characters who tell a lot of the story without you really having to think about it. It's very well done, the music and the moves and the style and the look are all pitch perfect.

From watching the trailer, I was concerned that this was going to be either some down at heels Reservoir Dogs sketch or even worse, a really hilarious pastiche of some blaxploitation movie. In the event, its actually a very cleverly put together piece, lots of good lines and knowing nods, as well as slapstick violence and terrific performances.

It does what it does very well, no messing about, and it also does a bit more besides I reckon. Final shout out for the soundtrack, I did enjoy this, as did I some of the new and inventive ways to injure, maim and otherwise free fire into that were shown in some granular detail. And then a pumpkin moment to squeeze your head a bit more. Ouch.

Personal Shopper (2016)

A hollow vessel

[2/10 · 21 March 2017]

Amongst the things I'm not overly fond of, I'd put shopping and fashion fairly high up the list. However, having read some rave 5-star reviews for Personal Shopper, with comparisons to tension a la Hitchcock (Bradshaw in the Guardian) as well as descriptions of a ghost story to make Lovecraft quail, I decided to give it a go. Oh dear.

To get the good bit out of the way first, Kristen Thomas does give a fairly good performance overall as the central character, a haunted twin searching for her recently deceased brother. Which is a relief because the other characters are so thinly sketched, they might as well not be there. As is the rather confused and unsatisfying plot, if I can be so bold as to call it that. We are treated to a prolonged over-the-shoulder text message exchange fro the second section of the movie which I assume was meant to be gripping when, in fact, it's immediately obvious who is sending the "mystery" texts.

The spooky spiritualism that's been introduced prior is largely forgotten here, as she dashes between Paris and London and back. However, at various points, the supporting characters are given clunky conversations about something really mystical man (clue: they're not, they're really bad "plot" devices that add nothing to the plot). I went from having a mild enthusiasm to a spreading boredom to wondering how a 100 minute movie was starting to feel like a 3-hour ordeal.

The ending makes little sense whatsoever in the context of the movie and people were literally laughing out loud at the apparent presence of the dead brother showing himself by dropping a glass. Twice. The second time in a mountain hut where for completely random reasons, the heroine found herself. This is a sham movie, exactly like the sham seances it homes in on at one point. Very disappointing indeed.

Trespass Against Us (I) (2016)

Proud to be a Pikey

[8/10 · 6 March 2017]

Interesting to see how a movie about some travellers has the capacity and ability to unleash some proper prejudice in some reviews. This isn't without it's flaws but that's almost the idea running through the film in the first place. Family ties and families stifling you and free thought and freedom to live as you want are all themes that percolate just below the surface.

The acting performances are very solid, even if the accents sometimes stray a bit. The vernacular is caught pretty well and the simple details are pretty much spot on. The camera-work is good and the score does the job. This doesn't try to scrub them up as some unrecognisable good ones underneath it all, it's warts and all but with some depth and texture.

In that respect, I have to say that I didn't find it a million miles away from Moonlight, in the sense of people growing into inevitable futures. Different strokes for different blokes of course, but they are both human-led dramas in my opinion. In this one, Fassbender can't escape the cold grip of his family but sometimes, one wonders whether he wants to. Who'd want to live out with the fecking gadjos after all?

Moonlight (I) (2016)

Under the moon of love

[8/10 · 27 February 2017]

This is quite a surprising movie on many levels. Coming to it cold, I knew very little about what it was about, deliberately, as so many reviewers give too much away these days. Boys and the Hood this ain't. Yet the setting is the same. That's what jars initially, because this isn't about the G's and the straps and hoes and the pimps, it's about a little boy who is struggling to find his place in the world.

Some of it, for me, made for slightly painful viewing, more from personal experience than through the performed sadism or bullying. The three acts flow gently through their parts, although the second finishes with something of a crash. We do, however, see two black boys kiss and love it or hate it, it's been going on for thousands of years, so some of the rather more hysterical commentators on IMDb might want to check themselves slightly.

It's well made, well acted and it holds your attention solidly. However, the third act does sag a bit, the contrition with mom did jar a bit, and out of two sexual scenes, one involved a heterosexual couple which was a bit bizarre to me. These are minor quibbles overall though, in general I thought this was a really solid movie and well worth watching. We had the added treat of the projectionist playing 5 seconds of La La Land at the start of the show, well played the Rio in Dalston.

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

I got mixed up confusion...

[9/10 · 27 February 2017]

Not everything in life is neat and wrapped and happy ever after. And boy, does this movie show that to you in ever increasing lumps of pain (and sometimes joy). Having had a couple of weeks to digest this since watching, I can only say that the memory has grown in brilliance. There is so much going on in this beneath the surface and we intrude upon Casey Affleck's superbly acted grief, rage and despair in such a human way.

I really did find his performance mesmerising and as the story unfolds, the quivering, suppressed fury gives way to happy memories and laughter and a tale told not quite backwards but in fragments of memory. Thankfully without the standard happy ending or reconciliation. Some of this is deeply painful to observe but it is true-to-life, it's a compelling story and the performances and scripting across the piece are top notch.

I really can't recall seeing self worth and self loathing and guilt and blame and redemption and family and time and place and setting and love and hate being done this well for a long time. The story is simple but the circumstances are anything but. Throughout, I found myself feeling moral quandaries and taking sides, only to change allegiance or hope for something else to happen later on. It grabbed my brain and my emotions and made me very quiet for a little while.

And it wasn't set in Manchester either, which was a shock. Although I do acknowledge there's a world outside of England.....

Dheepan (2015)

No place like home

[9/10 · 17 April 2016]

This movie wasn't what I expected at all, to be honest. Whereas I was expecting gritty and tense, the plot is actually very much about the three people who we learn to care so much about. A family uprooted to a foreign land where the only one who can help make sense of it is the child whose dealing with oh so much more.

As a totem for some of the current travails facing the European Union project (tm) it's quite a pertinent and valuable piece that shows how much you need some luck and determination and application to make any progress in life. It makes you care for these simple people, who have similar hopes and dreams and worries and discontents as the rest of us.

A clever use of juxtapositions underpins much of what we see, and whilst some have questioned the explosive climax, I think it ends things very well, although the sugar-coated conclusion did see me mark it down one point. What a movie though, what a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining approach to the modern world. Worth a watch.

Miles Ahead (2015)

Kind of true

[9/10 · 17 April 2016]

Our local cinema showed a preview of Miles Ahead this afternoon, with Q&A and live jazz at the Vortex afterwards. I only stayed for the movie. Not because I wasn't interested in the rest of the entertainment (because we were) but I wanted to watch the football and I wanted to process some of what I'd seen This is a truly magnificently insular vision of a man who made some of the most beautiful music that I've ever heard. And I think Don Cheadle has pulled off a masterstroke of genius to capture that sense of adventure and inspiration that so clearly drives Miles to make music. Or not.

I loved the way that the story unfolded in a Pulp Fiction kind of cut-up, I loved the mixture of past and present day and the way that the story was told in such an intelligent way, I loved the music (of course), and I loved Don Cheadle and didn't even mind Euan McGregor too much. Emayatzy Corinealdi is a strong female lead and shines through as a muse of most harmonious power.

It's funny and furious and outrageous and silly and serious and bonkers. Just like the man himself. Long live Miles, he's made my life happier with his music already, this movie explains some of what that might be? Social music.

Eddie the Eagle (2015)

Flying high like a rocket in the sky

[9/10 · 10 April 2016]

As others have already said, we went along not expecting a great deal. After all, Eddie the Eagle was a bit of a joke really, wasn't he? Not at all. What a fantastic film about a fantastic sportsman. The amount of b/s he had to put up with to realise his dream and get to the Olympics. The way you get to properly appreciate just how dangerous ski jumping really is. This movie plays it up and sucks you into such a sense of joy and positivity, it's almost scary.

Hugh Jackman is great as the faded star but Taron Egerton is the star of the piece. He inhabits the Eagle in a way that is as impressive as the 90m jump. We were walking on sunshine on the way home after this one. Marvelous.

Seven Samurai (1954)

Collective defence

[10/10 · 10 April 2016]

The Rio Cinema in Dalston showed Seven Samurai this afternoon on original 35mm full-length viewing. Have to say, I found it utterly brilliant, really enjoyable sense of mischief to the whole affair. The story line unfolds quite straightforwardly but the way little bits of plot detail are smuggled in are lovely. You like some people more than others, you laugh at some things and wince elsewhere, and the final battle is a muddy onslaught of victory and death.

I absolutely loved it. People behind us said "thought it was a bit slow" during intermission. I think they might have been a bit slow myself. Wonderful movie full of invention and enthusiasm and inspiration and imagination.

this is a rule of war collective defence protects the individual individual defence destroys the individual

Victoria (II) (2015)

Fish Go Deep

[8/10 · 10 April 2016]

This movie seems to have some indefinable thing that makes one rooted to the spot. Ignore the single take trope and immerse yourself in the world for a couple of hours. It feels so natural. So possible. So real.

The performances are vital and vibrant, for improvised dialogue, they do a magnificent job. Unlike the appearance from the trailer, this film has serious amounts of heart and soul and the heist is kind of minor in the end. This about about people and connections and the choices that you make in life.

Really is worth a watch imo. Score stands up, the cinematography is bowling and fast, and the mixture of language and subtitles and confusion feels divine.

Lee Scratch Perry's Vision of Paradise (2015)

One love

[10/10 · 28 February 2016]

So we went to the pub to meet our friends for drinks. Then we came home and I smoked an enormous water pipe of fragrant marijuana. Next we headed to a local Italian restaurant where we ate loads of delicious vegetarian food. Before stopping by a local Irish bar where pints of perfect Guinness were poured down our perfect necks. Then back home for another quick head spacing pipe, before heading to the local moving picture house to settle down and watch some Lee Scratch Perry.

The man is a genius. The man is the creator. The man knows more about the universe and the world and music than most of the rest of us put together.

Glory to The Word, Glory to The Sound and Glory to The Iwah of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie I, Jah RasTafari. Haile Selassie I, Jah RasTafari.

The Hateful Eight (2015)

Yeehaa!!!

[8/10 · 10 February 2016]

Went to see the 70mm extended cut in Leicester Square and very glad we did. Whilst this was never going to trouble his very finest movies, it is a pretty good piece of cowboy shogun all-in-the-room feature. Samuel L Jackson wears the character like a suit, he's as smooth as. Supporting cast are superb all round and the vista and the tension are equally tickled across the pass.

A gentle first half, that draws you into the makings of a H8T-ful 8 are quite intriguing generally. A sinister air of menace tingles as we get to know who is who and what is what. Or not. After the intermission, the claret starts spurting big time. And the 8 are whittled. Yet we 3 enjoyed it muchly. Worth a watch. Gold or silver watch.

Room (I) (2015)

In the room completely.

[10/10 · 10 February 2016]

There's a common saying that goldfish grow to the size of their bowls. This, in turn, is used to describe the limits or extent of a person's world view, often implying one of two things – either that you can have a very narrow and limited view of your environment if you allow it to be that way, or alternatively, that by pulling off someone's blinkers, you can set their mind free into all kinds of untold possibilities.

Room explores, brilliantly, both of these extremes in a way which is touching, tender, emotional, yet also has tension, precision and power. The first section is claustrophobic in the extreme in some respects, the goldfish clearly trying to be kept restricted and contained. Four bleak walls and one distant skylight form the landscape, with tattered crayoned pictures and grubby misshapen items offering little relief.

Yet the creativity and determination of Joy towards her young son Jack lights up much of this segment. At least initially. Things very quickly take a more sinister turn as we're introduced to old Nick, their captor, who is initially a shadowy and ill-formed figure, viewed from the wardrobe.

As plans are fomented to deal with the situation at hand, the action and acting, accompanied by the music, interplay in quite magnificent ways to ratchet up the dramatic tension. Even then, little moments of tender humanity and humour are allowed to show their faces, making this feel like your peering into their tiny bowl. And when finally the break for freedom happens, you're left almost unable to breathe with fear and hope, as the brave new world swings tantalisingly into view.

The second section, unsurprisingly, takes more than a few blinking moments to come into view. Suddenly the bowl is huge and scary and although we're allowed to breathe again, it's in a short shallow slightly shaky way. We meet more people who we're given to understand in an understated way have also been finding things difficult to cope with. This is in many ways at the crux of what we see unfolding, although there's also a beautifully played subplot about growing up and letting go.

There was one what I felt was a slightly clunky moment during a TV interview, but with hindsight, I can see this was a plot device used to take you deeper into the mindset of Joy, helping to explain subsequent events. The juxtaposition happening before you is unsettling at the same time as it's uplifting and yet the director manages to tie things up and bring closure to the production in a beautiful way. Although certainly elements are harrowing, it is never mawkish or gloom-ridden and it strikes a particular balance between dark and light throughout.

The score, edits and photography are superb, really adding to the piece overall, with the music in particular hitting the sweet spot. I've spent most of the past 24 hours with things from this movie bubbling around in my mind, in particular, picking over details of what we've seen as well as wondering about what happened next (I know I know, it's fiction but that's how engaging and embracing I found this).

One of Jack's little soliloquies towards the end in particular had a resonance that went far wider than the contained events we were presented with – he's outside the bowl looking in now methinks.

5

The Revenant (I) (2015)

Mr Invincible

[8/10 · 19 January 2016]

When we were young, we used to play a word game which we called "Fortunately/Unfortunately". It was quite a straightforward game to play, with one player setting the scene by saying something like "Doris went to the park one day". The next player would respond by saying "Unfortunately, as she was walking to the park, a giant girl-eating lizard jumped out from behind a telephone box". The first player then needed to respond by saying something like "Fortunately, it had just eaten another girl and so it was all full up".

Watching The Revenant reminded me hugely of this game. Leonardo Di Caprio is your classic white man, Glass, who is down with the native Americans, nursing a lost wife and looking to protect his "half-breed" son (as he's charmingly referred to by Tom Hardy's compelling, although somewhat garbled, villain Fitzgerald). To say Glass gets knocked back every time he tries to step forward is underplaying the extent of the trials and tribulations he faces.

He's beaten, battered, shot at and stabbed, dunked in ice cold water, dragged through snow, and yet he still keeps on coming. Strangely though, I felt that the director manages to keep things just about credible and the unfortunate events never dawdled or overstayed their welcome, and despite its length, this movie keeps your interest throughout. The camera-work really is astounding, a dizzying whirl that plonks the viewer right at the epicentre of the action. The landscapes and light are really to die for, it's a gorgeous visceral experience throughout and really is a feast for sore eyes.

Hardy's characterisation of Fitzgerald was, for me, the standout performance, even if some of his dialogue is so broad as to be more or less incoherent. However, the brooding sense of malice and unrestrained anger he transmits with a raised eyebrow or a steely-eyed look is astounding. Di Caprio by comparison says very little, for the very good reason that his throats been slashed, leading to a mild moment of humour when he desperately tries to drink some clean water. Which very quickly then transmutes into yet another gory scene that makes you squirm. And that happens frequently throughout.

The plotting and narrative are probably the weakest elements of the production, however, and some of the events felt slightly too pat and contrived to truly hit the roof. The dream sequences in particular didn't add a great deal to the overall package although I can see why they were included. Especially if you go away and read about the actual Hugo Glass, you wonder why Iñárritu and co needed to invent some of the story in the way that they did when the real-life story sounded quite compelling in the first place. However, those are petty complaints really and I have to say, this is well worth spending two and half hours of your time.

Unfortunately, I had a bad back on the day that I went to see it. Fortunately, I completely forgot about it whilst watching this movie, it was that good.

Phoenix (II) (2014)

Crashing into the flames

[3/10 · 29 July 2015]

This was truly one of the most disappointing movies that I can remember seeing in a long while. The set-up was rather paltry, but then when the plot kicked in, it became pretty preposterous almost straight away. The whole narrative arc was poor, the plotting was terrible, and the acting was as hammy as a leg of pig.

We saw this a month ago and when I said to her that I was writing a review and what did she think, she couldn't even remember it. It was really that poor. I can't really think of much good to say about this film, it didn't seem to represent Berlin or anything else for that matter. Even the big reveal was deflationary.

Not one for me I'm afraid.

Eden (II) (2014)

Promised Land or Plastic Dreams?

[9/10 · 28 July 2015]

If you can remember the 60's then you weren't there, is a regularly quoted statement apparently made by Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane. In some respects, the era that Eden is set in could well see a similar attitude being taken. However, I can remember much of the 90's and 00's when sweaty underground basements, seedy squatted warehouses, hidden tree lined copses and loads of other weird and wonderful places served as venues for the underground house music scene that I was an active participant in, both as punter, dancer, dj, and crew.

Covering a period of some 15 years, during which our hero Paul remains remarkably ageless, Eden explores a world where French house music was really coming into it's own. The filtered disco beats were certainly prominent in our record boxes and the inexorable rise of Daft Punk was something that I think, with hindsight, we should have all seen coming. However, just like Paul and Stan and Arnaud and the rest, we never really noticed them for a lot of the time, caught up as we were in our own loves and losses and general craziness.

This is certainly a very French movie by anyone's description, moving along at it's own pace, lots of space and moodiness and an ambiance that I found quite deceptive looking back. Initially, events and characters are revealed and unfold in rather a random and slightly disconcerting manner. However, as certain constants start to repeat, we start to make more sense of the world we're immersed in, something which I felt was a deliberate attempt to mimic or mirror how our band of brothers and sisters are forming and norming as they say.

The music and the soundtrack are to die for, utterly spot on and a joy for the ears if you're in a movie house with a decent sound system. We see the dancers enjoying the sounds but strangely, we're mainly apart from them – as everyone knows, DJ's don't dance (often because they can't ironically). Again, I felt this separation was quite deliberate, because that's how a DJ views his audience to some extent, a mass of (hopefully) sweaty gyrating humanity coming together in response to their selection of vinyl. The self-absorption is also true, the inability often to understand others and to be focused intensely on one's self, perhaps from spending so much time listening to repetitive beats again and again and again.....to fade...

The boys are doing well and travel to the US, which causes it 's own stresses but back home, a tragic event happens that really hits like an emotional hammer blow. This is where I thought things got very interesting, as the period of self-reflection, in the context of a long movie, is short, and although there are repercussions, things are soon, it would seem, back largely to how they were. Except of course, they're not and the inevitable slide towards entropy and unhappiness becomes ever more inevitable. The repeated behaviours again show a lack of willingness to grow and develop, preferring the safety and security of the known ecstatic world, despite the obvious signs of decay within, especially compared to the changing external environment.

There's no big bang, there's no final rush, how could there be? Realising your dreams have largely been an illusion isn't going to be a spectacular experience for anyone.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

Bite me...

[9/10 · 8 June 2015]

This movie features a hero who's a bit drippy, if truth be told, and yet who reveals himself to be coldly and cruelly capable of dealing with some truly weird scenes when he bumps into, and gets to know, the girl walking home alone. Or skateboarding. Or accidentally-ing getting a bit stoned prior to meeting said girl. Who knows? I'm not entirely sure I do to be honest, but the confused nature of what we see taking place makes little sense except when it all comes together in brilliant beautiful brash bursts of activity that intersperse the torpid passing of time. B&W rarely looked so sumptuous, downtown Bad City is a spooky ghost town living in the shadows and looking suspiciously like west coast USA rather than the Persian shores of Iran which I'd been led to believe was where we were located.

That particular piece of subterfuge sits well with what you're watching, whereby motives and appearances and intentions are far from straightforward. It's rock'n'roll and it's David Lynch and it's Let The Right One In and it's more than all of these things and has the best proper villain for a short while, before a fangtastic finish of him as a going concern.

Wonderful wonderful cinema, what wide screen was made for, and don't forget your plastic teeth when you're strolling back home afterwards....

Timbuktu (2014)

Without speech

[9/10 · 8 June 2015]

This movie unfolds in a manner that's reminiscent of the music that infuses it throughout, in ways that a western eye and ear may find slightly disconcerting, slightly at odds with what you'd expect, slightly jarring as people do things differently. Set in a parched Timbuktu in Mali, we're dropped gently into a community where the rules have changed and the normal ways of doing things are disrupted to say the least.

As things get deeper, the events get deeper and the laughter that rippled through the cinema early on at the utterance of a swear word at some of the protagonists by a woman were replaced by gasps of shock at the upshot of not listening to the new rules. Rules imposed by a black flag waving militia force which is clearly modelled on events taking place in various parts of the Middle East and Africa as we watch.

Yet underneath this, is a beautifully paced and wonderfully observed tale of personal values and honour, of quiet resistance and practical intelligence, of respect and values, but most of all, arguments that go tragically wrong and which are caused by pressures outside of the control of the people who you grow to love very quickly. As noted, it's not without humour, and the soundtrack, I felt, was appropriate and absorbing, with some lovely shots that grow rich to the eye - the balance of scripting and sound and sights is difficult to describe, other than as bewitching.

At the conclusion, the credits rolled and the cinema sat in universal stunned silence. No-one got up to leave straightaway, no-one started chattering away, blimey, no-one even got their mobile phone out to start texting!? It really is that powerful and it's wrapped up so delicately and yet so well, the emotional punch is real and effective. There's things that I would still like to go back and watch again, as there are details which seemed important or profound but didn't necessarily seem to go anywhere, and then some other more obvious things which might be clouding the vision somewhat. Who knows? Well worth watching for yourself and making up your own mind - opinions and the ability to form them, to state them, to act upon them, and to do so without fear or favour, are real important freedoms in my humble opinion.

The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)

Aria eel mess

[6/10 · 13 March 2015]

There's been a bit of a boom recently of picture houses like my local emporium showing beamed-back theatrical and operatic performances in a bid to broaden their audience base. The Tales of Hoffman tries to bring opera and ballet to the cinema similarly but instead stuffs the action directly onto the celluloid and invites you to don your theatre binoculars and enjoy. And I tried to enjoy it.

After a slightly heart-sinking moment towards the end of the prologue, when I realised that there was to be no narrative dialogue whatsoever and that everything was going to be sung, in that caterwauly way, I relaxed into the first of the acts and it started to become something that I could appreciate more. The sets are quite deliberately stagey and story lines are simple but there's a nice undertone of humour to what you're seeing and the screeching settles down a little.

However, it has to be said that there are sections still where things feel overlong and the third act in particular just felt drawn out and not in a good way. I've read this piece elsewhere described as being cold and I have to concur. The sets and the camera work are pretty good and even some of the singing, but it's hit or miss in its cohesion.

I'm glad to have gone along to watch and there were elements that worked very well, but as a whole, it wouldn't be something that I would rush to pay to see again.

Love Is Strange (2014)

Slightly moist, not in a good way

[5/10 · 23 February 2015]

Love is Strange wouldn't usually be the kind of movie that I would go and see, to be honest with you. I'd like to think I have my romantic moments but too much schmaltz isn't for me. However, liking Alfred Molina and being persuaded by a Kermode review, I decided to chance it. Hmm, sometimes one needs to go with your first instincts I discovered.

The initial set-up felt slightly rushed, with little chance to do anything than discover our heroes have been married, as a result of that marriage they are now in financial straits due to prejudice and then they take the slightly odd decision to sell up and move out (temporarily). OK so, it's the movies, let that slide and let's get into the meat of the film I think to myself. And initially, I'm starting to be persuaded that I'm glad that I've done so. Molina and Lithgow give sterling performances as the leads and they do start to create some moments of genuine emotion.

However, the set-up problems then return and the supporting casts, for me, never really get their teeth into things. It ebbs to the point whereby you're almost crying for something to happen that isn't either immediately apparent or obviously predictable. We fall into arty shots of NY skylines and streets and redbricks and yadda yadda, I didn't really feel much of an emotional connection with the characters as I never felt they were allowed to grow, and I wasn't really sure where we were headed.

The last half an hour was quite frankly meandering, with plot devices going off all over the shop and managing to pull off a main character departure without troubling my tissues. Which felt strange. Sorry, but this really didn't do it for me, and given the tenderness between George and Ben when the former has walked through the rain to hug his husband also feels slightly unforgiving. I wanted to enjoy this but it just didn't hit the mark for me I'm afraid.