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Reviews
My Old School (2022)
Entertaining and intriguing yet a missed opportunity
That the film maker was a former school mate of this outrageous fraudster gives it its charm and sense of fun, its best parts come from this past and yet it is the source of its weak points. Jono the film maker lazily settles with ''it was a laugh'' ''Oh I was completely taken in, omg''. The viewers would say ''Didn't you wanna do some more digging? We have got more than we want to know about his, Bearden? School days, but how did he manage at Dundee University after successfully duping everyone at school? Did he fool medic students up until he didn't? How did he get caught in the end?
Dundee is only 90 min drive away from Glasgow. Why didn't you go and interview his tutors at the medical school or his university friends, for example, yes, his nemesis Cheryl? Also, a decade previously he allegedly failed at Glasgow medical school. Was he dumb? Then his whole pursuit of medical career seems risible, or was he simply unlucky? Come on, Glasgow University must be a few bus stops away from you, Jono. How it didn't interest you to know more about Brian McKinnon the man, your friend and neighbour, instead of settling down with ''Brandon Lee' what a laugh he was''? The film maker is lacking in curiosity.
In a World... (2013)
Disappointing
I am a fan of low budget indie films, love quirky comedies. I am prejudiced FOR this kind of film. The setting seems right. My expectation was high, and I have to say my verdict for this film in one word is Disappointing
There is something oddly un-engaging about this film. The plot is not strong but there are hundreds of almost plot-less films out there that draw you in. This one doesn't.
There is no character that keeps you interested for 90 minutes. There is nothing wrong with the main character and the actress, but there is nothing right about her, either. To be blunt, she is not attractive, charming or vulnerable enough for me to care about what happens next.
I felt this persistent, ''seen this kind of film before, many times, but better ones'' feel throughout. Shall I say ''tired''? I especially felt this when the heroine goes to a party and got into a conversation with the usual slightly odd but mysteriously wealthy party host and ends up having a one night stand. I simply could not care less.
I left the theatre feeling I wasted my time.
The Serpent (2021)
Visually stunning. Sumptious viewing. Stretched too long.
A 1970s aficionado like me would love this film putting aside everything else. The decade is reacted superbly, cars, dress, etc. Looks sumptuous. Script is well written but this repetitious ''Five months later'' ''Two years previously'' sort of back and forth is irritating and I don't see the point of doing this except that it kills off the momentum. Eight episodes are simply too long to focus on his Bangkok, Kathmandu and bits of India, years. They could cover his entire life and still not a dull moment.
The biggest flaw for me is cutting off almost entirely the narrative about his childhood in which Charles, a born criminal, started his career. The viewer is presented with him as an accomplished killer and we don't where his monstrosity came from.
Great acting from all concerned. A personal special mention goes to this little know, to us, French actress Mathilde Warnier who put in a solid performance as a timid but eventually surprisingly courageous French house wife. She looks pretty from certain angles and dull and plain as a house wife from a provincial town should look from another. An actress like this is valuable to directors and even if she wouldn't achieve a super stardom, and I doubt she would, I predict she has a long life ahead of her as an actress in demand.
Tales of the Unexpected: Scrimshaw (1985)
Great script. A few loose ends. Enigmatic edning.
One of the best scripted episodes of the series. Tight. Slightly too slow and stretched thin to make i25 min or so from a puny story, but rewarding. Small details such as the name of her dead son was Geoffrey with G because her late hubby was an English Lit major is effective.
Some details leave me wonder, however. In a small, gallery/shop that the heroine wanders in, where she is drawn to scrimshaws, the female attendant is noticeably hostile and tries to pull her away from the objects. Is she in the know?
In the very last scene, the trapped heroine, who was desperate to escape, looks back at the camera, and there is a faint smile of, something like a mixture of resignation and relief. What does it mean? Did she have a death wish? Her smile is haunting if you remember Hackett, the actress, died a few months after shooting this very last scene. And the words from the landlord early in the episode to her ''Darling, you don't seem to have much time left'' is equally disturbing.
Speaking of haunting, this tune that goes ''Come into my life'' that plays repeatedly in the first half of the episode will be stuck in your ear for a few days. Who sang this song and the title? No one knows.
Tales of the Unexpected: Galloping Foxley (1980)
Total Ruin in the last schene
In my view one of the most gripping tales by RD probably because as he says, it is based on facts, his painful experience in his youth.
This episode goes swimmingly until the last two minutes. It has the solid acting by Mills and the surprising appearance of the young actor who played Damien the devil boy in Omen II who I thought was American, but was completely ruined at the end, one of the best ending of RD tales, by adding unnecessary extra lines.
In the story, hoping to take the former bully by surprise and see his reaction, the Mills character greets him, only saying his name and school name, and extends his hand. To which, the former bully, or Mills character thought he was, equally tersely answers by name and the school name, Eton, leaving the reader in no doubt about what happened.
In this dramatisation, before introducing himself, Mills character starts to harangue at length how this man made his school days miserable, which make viewers, me at least, think, ''hang on, if you do that, the dude would simply lie and say 'I don't know what you are talking about. I am not who you think I am'' Mr Mills simply believes the dude's denial and looks at camera devastated.
Incidentally, one of my best friends at uni went to Repton, the bullying rife school in question. In his days in the early 1990s, this system, called fagging, of younger pupils serve older pupils persisted.-I don;t know now- although whipping and any physical bullying had been long banned. He said ''yea I had one - the junior pupil who is, in he drama, a ''slave'' to his ''master'' senior student- when I was in the final grade but I didn't want to tell him what to do. I didn;t give him jobs. And I could tell that the young chap was looking down on me, not holding me in high regard, because I am not tough enough to boss him round, tell him what to do what not to do''
Human relationships are never simple. Oh Humanity. But back to my point. This dramatisation is flawed.