ZATOICHI ***

Ridiculously entertaining and extremely violent, just what you might expect from Takeshi Kitano in fact. "Zatoichi"I is a Samurai picture that owes something of a debt to Kurosawa but I doubt if Kurosawa would have had the tenacity to have made his super swordsman hero Zatoichi blind, as Kitano does here nor would he have introduced the themes of paedophilia and the suggestions of homosexuality nor end his film with a brilliantly choreographed dance sequence.
Kitano won the Best Director prize at Venice and deservedly so; pastiche has seldom felt so original or so much fun. As an actor, Kitano is a mite too laconic for his own good; he coasts through the movie but as a director he keeps things tight and he's a great story-teller. "Zattoichi"
is certainly one of his very best films.

LONELYHEARTS *

Nathanael West's novel "Miss Lonelyhearts" was another of those impossible books you just knew could never be filmed so what audience did producer/writer Dore Schary have in mind when he made this? It's not a total disaster but it is a total mess. Schary keeps West's overtly literate dialogue and no-one on screen feels like a living person, something that isn't helped by some very strange casting.
Montgomery Clift, in the first film after the car accident that somewhat 'disfigured' him, looks older than his years and in pain. Worse, he looks completely disinterested; it's a terrible performance. Dolores Hart, she who wisely gave up 'acting' to become a nun, is equally miscast and equally bad as the 'nice' girl who loves him while Myrna Loy, in an uncustomary bout of hamming, is all wrong as the heavy-drinking wife of Clift's boss. In that role, Robert Ryan almost redeems the picture. His is the most difficult part, (he gets the lion's share of that impossible dialogue), but he carries it off and almost makes the picture worth seeing. (Was Ryan the most underrated actor of them all?). So, too, does Maureen Stapleton, in her screen debut, as the lonely married woman who almost ruins Clift's life. It's a small part, too small for her to make much of it, but she still rightly got an Oscar nomination for it. The director, Vincent J. Donehue, was also new to cinema and he doesn't show any real feeling for the medium. A mess then, but there is just enough here to make you see what it might have been.

ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST **

"Another Part of the Forest" is a prequel to "The Little Foxes" but made seven years later and it feels like an attempt to do a reprise of Wyler's classic with Ann Blyth, Edmond O'Brien and Dan Duryea trying to fill the shoes of Miss Davis, Charles Dingle and Carl Benton Reid. Actually O'Brien is very good and Duryea, who played the son of the character he's playing here in Wyler's film, isn't bad. Only Blyth lets the side down. Their parents are a gruff Fredric March and a dotty (and excellent) Florence Eldridge.

The movie purports to show how the nasty Hubbards got to be so nasty but there really isn't anything here we haven't seen before. This is more like a remake than a prequel and under Michael Gordon's limp direction it's hard to tell if this would have been any good on the stage. What's fairly clear is that this is second-rate Hellman and Gordon does nothing to make it cinematic. Still, in its fevered bad movie kind of way it's actually quite entertaining. No family ever had so many skeletons rattling around in the cupboard and letting skeletons loose can be good fun. Of course, perhaps Hellman intended it all as a joke or maybe the humour was simply unintentional.

DEAD RECKONING **

By the way he talks Humphrey Bogart thinks he's still Sam Spade and that Lizabeth Scott is Mary Astor but "Dead Reckoning" is no "Maltese Falcon". Nevertheless this convoluted film-noir is still extremely enjoyable if a little hard to follow. It was directed by John Cromwell in 1947 and while Mr Cromwell was no John Huston he was no slouch either so the film moves at a fairly professional clip and is never less than entertaining.

If there's a problem it probably lies in the over-egged script and the purple prose, courtesy of no less than five writers and that includes producer Sidney Biddell who came up with the original story. Bogart is excellent as always and there's nice work from Morris Carnovsky as a bad guy but Lizabeth Scott was certainly no Mary Astor and at times you wonder if her 'bad acting' is bad acting or just 'bad acting', if you get my drift. For some reason the film isn't much seen these days which is a pity because, while no classic, it really is a lot of fun.

THE CROODS ***

The animation in THE CROODS is jaw-droppingly good, (Roger Deakins gets a 'visual consultant' credit), and, guess what, the script is pretty darned nifty, too. The Croods are a family of cave people adjusting to the transition from prehistoric times to something, shall we say, a little more modern as daughter Eve finds herself with a boyfriend who isn't just handsome but actually has a brain as well and knows how to make fire. Considering how many animated films these days go in for hi-tech effects this is really quite simplistic without losing any of its considerable visual charm and is all the better for it. It's also very funny in a way that will appeal to both children and their parents; in other words, it's a treat for the entire family.

TOWN ON TRIAL **

With its small town setting, use of a local 'roadhouse' and the casting of Charles Coburn and Barbara Bates it's fairly obvious the British-made crime melodrama "Town on Trial" had its eye on the American market, (even the title sounds more American than British). John Mills is the policeman investigating the murder of local good-time girl Molly, (Magda Miller), and the movie is told in flashback. All we know is that the killer is one of a group of men seen watching Molly bounce around on the tennis court in the opening sequence and director John Guillermin does a fine job of keeping us guessing as to which one it might be. All the performances, particularly Mills and Coburn, are excellent and as murder mysteries go this one is surprisingly intelligent and consistently enjoyable. One of Guillermin's better efforts.

THE HOAX **

Lasse Hallstrom isn't a director whose work I normally enjoy, ("My Life as a Dog" being the brilliant Swedish exception), but his English-language films have always been soft-centred.  "The Hoax"isn't really any better but it is hugely enjoyable. The hoax, of course, is the one perpetrated by Clifford Irving, superbly played by Richard Gere in a career-best performance, when he presented to the world the autobiography of Howard Hughes which Irving supposedly co-wrote with the reclusive billionaire. It's the kind of stuff you couldn't make up, proving that truth really is way stranger than fiction. Let's just say that if this is to be believed Irving must have had balls so big he would have needed a wheelbarrow to push them around in. So, too, would his 'researcher', (a wonderful over-the-top comic performance from Alfred Molina), who went along with the scam. Others involved include Marcia Gay Harden as Irving's wife Edith, Julie Delpy as Nina Van Pallandt and Stanley Tucci, John Carter and Hope Davis as the publishers who would have believed Irving if he had told them Jesus himself was coming to visit. Very funny and totally bizarre.

WALTZ WITH BASHIR ***

Ari Folman's extraordinary film "Waltz with Bashir" is about the conflict in the Middle East; specifically it deals with the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 as director Folman delves into his own past and his memories of, and possible involvement in, the massacres at Sabra and Shatila. It is also an animated film, drawn in gorgeous colours, the cartoon figures and cartoon deaths keeping the audience at a safe distance from the horrors being portrayed. Watching this film, which more or less follows a documentary format, I kept thinking 'Were this live action it would be almost unbearable' and then, at the end, Folman pulls his coup; he switches from animation to actual footage of the aftermaths of the massacres and the result is devastating.

Of course, any film about the Israel/Palestine conflict takes its toll as this is a conflict that seems never ending. It's a war without a name, a war that the rest of the world seems to stand back from, at least in terms of military involvement. Britain and America may send Peace Envoy after Peace Envoy but so far to no real avail and, of course, we need films like "Waltz with Bashir"; we need to have our noses rubbed in it. This is one of the finest films I've ever seen to deal with the subject of war. It is also one one of the best animated films ever made.

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E **

More post-modern twaddle but a fun movie nevertheless, Guy Ritchie;s THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. is his big screen treatment of a now almost forgotten long-running tv series. If the original small screen version tended to take itself a mite too seriously this is an out-and-out pastiche, made very much in Ritchie's trademark slam-bang style. Stepping into the shoes of Robert Vaughan's Napoleon Solo and David McCallum's Ilya Kuryakin are Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer. If Cavill tries too hard to mirror Vaughan's clipped vocal delivery, Hammer is excellent as Kuryakin, creating his character as if from scratch which, of course, is the point as this is really a prequel to the television version. Indeed, the more I see of Hammer the more I like him. Alicia Vikander, too, is very nicely cast as the German girl roped into the bizarre, slightly confusing and really rather inconsequential plot. Is it a good movie? Of course not but it does pass a couple of hours very pleasantly indeed.

FRANCES HA ****

"Frances Ha" is Noah Baumbach's, and presumably Greta Gerwig's, since she co-wrote the script with real-life partner Baumbach, homage to the French New Wave and the cinema of Woody Allen just as Gerwig's Frances is an "Annie Hall" for the 21st century, even if she is sans her Alvy. She may not be the kind of girl you may want to spend too much time with in reality but on screen she is a monochrome delight, a kooky heroine with a pedigree that goes all the way back to Jean Arthur and Carole Lombard.

Of course, Frances Ha isn't her whole name but less than half of it, (the title is explained in the final frame), though if a simple Ha were her surname it would suit Gerwig perfectly. Her dizzy character is never off the screen and while she can be a pain in the ass at times she finally wins you over and is one screen character you could happily spend a lot more time with. That's all down to Gerwig, recently described as 'the Meryl Streep of mumblecore', superb here and growing better with every role. It's also a movie that confirms Baumbach's status as one of the most likeable and innovative young directors currently working in America and as a team I suspect he and Gerwig could be the Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon of contemporary New York. This is a lovely movie that sent me out of the cinema with the soppiest of grins on my face.

PAY OR DIE no stars

Largely mediocre crime picture, this one dealing with the Black Hand, the early forerunner of the Mafia, and their activities in turn of the 20th century New York, "Pay or Die!" scores on a reasonable plot but falls down in the script department and the lack lustre direction of Richard Wilson. Supposedly based on real events, it tells the story of Joe Petrosino, a real-life New York Italian policeman played by Ernest Borgnine at his most blustering, who almost single-handedly cleaned up the city, at least from the Black Hand. His love interest is that fine and undervalued actress Zohra Lampert who never had a part worthy of her and is no better cast here. Lucien Ballard's black and white cinematography at least adds a modicum of atmosphere.

LESSON OF THE EVIL ***

As psycho-killer movies go "Lesson of the Evil" is up there with the best of them. It's by the Japanese horror maestro Takashi Miike and is set for the most part around a school where handsome young teacher Hasami, (Hideaki Ito), has his own somewhat extreme methods of dealing with rule-breakers. Miike's genius is to treat everything so matter-of-factly the film is almost banal to begin with before letting rip. Although extremely violent, this isn't torture porn but a brilliant slow-burner than builds to a fairly devastating and disturbing climax. I certainly can't see this playing in parts of America where school shootings have become almost common place. By making the villain someone who, in another film. should have been the hero Miike neatly subverts the genre, (think "Dexter"). There's also a nice self-depreciating streak of humour running through the picture, not to mention several great recordings of 'Mack the Knife'. Excellent, if very unnerving.

AMERICAN MOVIE **

"American Movie" is Chris Smith's marvellous documentary about making a film or rather about how not to make a film and it gets by on a surfeit of charm regardless of just how charmless its central character is. He's Mark Borchardt, aspiring writer/director of a horror picture called "Northwestern", whose ambitions and whose love of movies far outweigh his talents. Mark can talk the talk enough to convince his uncle to finance the picture and enough to get a bunch of his friends to work on it. You could say this is a movie about celebrity or at least the dream of it. As a film maker Mark may never achieve that but glimpses of some of the shorts he made show that in a some other time or place or in some alternative universe he could possibly have been Tarantino or Romero and at least Chris Smith has allowed him his fifteen minutes of fame, (not that he deserves it). "Northwestern" could have been the ultimate cult movie; instead "American Movie"
has built up a cult all its own.

THE SEA WALL *

Originally filmed in 1957 by Rene Clement and with an international cast headed by Jo Van Fleet, Silvana Mangano and Anthony Perkins, (I haven't seen it), "The Sea Wall" is based on a novel by Marguerite Duras and is set in Indochina in 1931. This version, directed by the Cambodian director Rithy Panh, is a visually sumptuous epic centred mainly on Isabelle Huppert's fine performance as the matriarch.

The plot is the fairly conventional one of someone fighting both nature and bureaucracy to retain control of their land, a theme common from a number of American based pictures, though the beauty here of the 'exotic' locations gives the film an added dimension while the director's background in documentary adds to the authenticity. Perhaps it could do with a greater sense of urgency, (you tend to be beguiled by the pictures rather than the plot), but it's still a fairly pleasant way to pass a couple of hours, particularly on a wet Saturday afternoon.

WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS ***

There is a nice stench of something resembling corruption at the heart of this Otto Preminger directed noir which followed on from "Laura" and "Fallen Angel" and which continued his collaboration with the actor Dana Andrews. In this one Andrews plays a cop who wants to do good but whose temper gets the better of him. When he kills a suspect things go from bad to worse for him, particularly when he falls in love with the man's widow, (Gene Tierney, who else).

"Where the Sidewalk Ends" may not be the classic that "Laura" was, or indeed "Fallen Angel", but once again Andrews is superb, (he was certainly one of the most underrated of great actors, brilliant at playing heroes with demons to cope with, literally in the case of "Night of the Demon"). There's good work, too, from Karl Malden, Gary Merrill, Tom Tully, Ruth Donnelly and an excellent Bert Freed as Andrews' partner and Ben Hecht did the fine screenplay from a novel by William L Stuart. Unfortunately the film has largely been forgotten and Preminger's star is no longer in the ascendant but this is still well worth seeing.

I LIVE IN FEAR ****

One of Kurosawa's least known films; you can see from the credits why he's considered the most 'western' of Aisian directors and the opening scene, set in a family court, could come from an American film noir. It was an extremely topical subject. Made only ten years after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki it deals with one man's conviction that atomic or nuclear war could happen at any time and the affect this has, not just on him and his family, but on the court advisor called in to help determine the man's sanity. America was making similar films at the time but coating them in the guise of science fiction or anti-communist propaganda. Kurosawa's film was based on genuine fear and real experience and is all the more disquieting for it.

Kurosawa regulars Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura are outstanding as, respectively, the man convinced he has to get his family as far away from Japan as possible and the court official who finds the man's fear contagious while the entire supporting cast are superb. Perhaps it's the uncomfortable nature of the film's topic that has lead it to being shunted aside in any consideration of the director's work. Certainly, of all his contemporary films it is perhaps the most powerful and I think it's a film begging for reassessment.

BLUE BLACK PERMANENT *

The only feature film to be directed by Margaret Tait, made when she was in her seventies, is this memory piece that looks at the lives of three generations of Scottish women. It's a demanding, non-narrative picture as much concerned with buildings, props and landscapes as it is with people. Indeed, with the exception of the superb Gerda Stevenson, the rest of the cast act in a blank, one-dimensional fashion. Tait obviously had no real experience of working with actors and her dialogue is largely banal. It is the look of the film that matters and even that is largely banal, too. Tait photographs everyday objects with an almost fetishistic glee. It might have been a better film had she dispensed with dialogue altogether. Apart from the odd art-house screening at the time of its (very limited) release it hasn't been much seen and has now built up so
mething of an (undeserved) cult reputation.

THE IMMORTAL STORY ***

Certainly not the late masterpiece some people have claimed it to be but Orson Welles' "The Immortal Story" is still extraordinary in ways so many films aren't. It clocks in at under an hour so it really is the perfect miniature. It is a film about the art of story-telling with only four main speaking parts. Welles could just as easily have done this on the radio and yet visually this is extremely beautiful, (it was his first film in colour), and still typically 'Wellesian'.

He adapted it from a novel by Isak Dinesen and he, himself, plays the role of the old merchant in the 'story' of the old merchant who hires a young sailor to sleep with his young wife, (Jeanne Moreau is the woman hired by the merchant to play the wife in the story). The sailor is played by the English actor Norman Eshley and he's painfully wooden but he doesn't upset the flow of the piece; in fact, his banal, robotic diction actually fits it. No masterpiece then, but this short piece, which almost feels thrown together, stands head and shoulders over the best work of many lesser directors.

UPSTREAM COLOR *

Shane Carruth's first film, "Primer", was very highly praised but not by me. I didn't mind that it was 'obscure' but I hated its patronising smart-ass attitude, that we 'get it' even if it wasn't worth getting in the first place. Still, if I actively disliked it I admired its attempt at doing something different and there was always enough there to make me think that Carruth had more to offer. And here we have it; "Upstream Color" may be even more obscure and it certainly won't draw the crowds on a Saturday night but it's bold and imaginative and really quite disturbing. There's hardly a shot in this picture that doesn't earn its place though it is almost impossible to describe. If you had to categorize it, it would probably fall into the cinema of 'body-horror', at least initially, that Cronenberg was so good at but it's even harder to get a handle on what is happening than it was with Cronenberg. Dialogue is virtually non-existent and what cast there is go through the motions rather than actually turn in 'performances' but it is visually extraordinary and I suppose it does represent some kind of great leap forward fort Carruth who not only wrote and directed the film but also was the DoP, co-editor, composer and male lead. In time I would hope that he might start applying his very obvious talents to more conventional narratives. After all, there's nothing wrong with a good story and it is still possible to embrace the mainstream without sacrificing your integrity; it worked for Cronenberg and it worked for Christopher Nolan so there's no reason why it can't work for Carruth should he only try.

THE PURGE no stars

The idea behind "The Purge" is so in-your-face simple I'm amazed it hasn't been done before, (well, it has actually, in everything from "The Night of the Living Dead" to "Assault on Precinct 13").  It's set in the America of 2022 when virtually all crime has been eliminated except for one night of the year when the Government allow people to kill whoever they wish without fear of prosecution; in other words, purging themselves of all aggression and releasing the beast within. It's a scary idea but it's not really a scary film as Ethan Hawkes and family find themselves besieged in their well-fortified home as murderous gangs gather outside. There's nothing original here; in one form or another this is a plot that has been flogged to death. It has its moments but they are few; a good idea, badly executed.

SPANKING THE MONKEY **

Anyone seeing "Spanking the Monkey" for the first time might think that David O Russell has since sold out, as this sharp little movie deals with masturbation (hence the title) and more significantly with mother/son incest. The son is an excellent Jeremy Davies and his still very attractive mother is Alberta Watson, who he is tasked with looking after one summer after she falls and fractures her leg.

Despite the potentially 'shocking' subject matter, this is an unusually up-front and darkly comic coming-of-age movie which showed considerable promise. I, for one, have remained a staunch Russell fan. The man may have moved into the mainstream but his films have remained whip-smart and uncompromising and this intelligent, likeable and surprisingly sexy picture makes for a very good introduction to his work.

INFAMOUS **

Sometimes two films dealing with exactly the same subject are made simultaneously, leading to the success of one and the failure of the other. This happened when "Capote" and "Infamous" arrived almost at the same time, "Capote" going on to win Philip Seymour Hoffman an Oscar while "Infamous" virtually disappeared. The subject of both is how Truman Capote came to write "In Cold Blood"with Capote being played here, in a brilliant piece of mimicry, by Toby Jones.

Douglas McGrath wrote and directed the picture and it's got a terrific cast. Sandra Bullock is excellent as Harper Lee, Daniel Craig is the killer Perry Smith, Jeff Daniels is the detective Alvin Dewey and elsewhere we have the likes of Juliet Stevenson, Hope Davis, Sigourney Weaver, Isabella Rossellini and Peter Bogdanovitch addressing the camera as they discuss Truman. Despite the grimness and the seriousness of the subject matter, McGrath does find a good deal of humour in the material, certainly more so than Bennett Miller did in his version.

SUNTAN **

What is it with the Greeks? When they make a film about their own country or their islands, it's usually wet, windy or snowing and set in winter and showing their countrymen up as sexist boors. When outsiders make a film set in Greece it's summer and baking hot. Argyris Papadimitropoulos' "Suntan" starts in the winter on a small island, (population 800), which may make the title seem a little incongrouous. Still, we don't have to wait too long until the suntan lotion comes out and the Greek Tourist Board can start to smile...at least up to a point.

Kostis is the new doctor on the island and he has his fair share of patients for such a small place. However, one look at him and you can see he's not happy. Summer may bring sunshine and the kind of young tourists who give the Greek islands a bad name so it isn't long before Kostis is frequenting the local nudist beach. When he develops a fixation on Anna, a girl he has treated for a motorbike accident, he seems happier but we know his problems are just beginning.

You can tell from the opening shot there's going to be a heart of darkness to Papadimitropoulos' film. Kostis is the kind of sad sack whose very presence seems to conjure up bad vibes and you know that throwing himself into the local party scene can only end in tears. Very soon his reputation and his patients are suffering. Makis Papadimitriou is very good as Kostis but it's an underwritten role and the film itself feels slightly underwhelming. The scenery is fabulous and it will certainly make you want to go to the Greek islands though you may want to choose where and exactly what time of the year. You may also come out of this film in something of a d


owner.

THE FAR COUNTRY **

Fourth in the series of westerns director Anthony Mann made with James Stewart, "The Far Country", while not the best of them, is still hugely entertaining. Stewart's cattleman is something of a walk in the park for him, (there's nothing here to tax him as an actor despite the taciturn nature of his character), but he's backed by an excellent supporting cast that includes Ruth Roman and Corinne Calvet as the two women vying for Stewart's affection, Walter Brennan and Jay C. Flippen as sidekicks and John McIntire, (excellent) and Robert J. Wilke principal among the villains. The always reliable Borden Chase did the first-rate screenplay and William Daniels was the DoP while the Canadian locations are as much the star of the picture as Mr Stewart.

KEY LARGO ***

One of John Huston's best films and certainly the best film made from a Maxwell Anderson play, (Huston and Richard Brooks did the adaptation). The material is just as tub-thumbingly preachy as we would expect from Anderson; we're still dealing with the struggle between good, (Bogie, Bacall and Lionel Barrymore), and evil (Edward G, Thomas Gomez and various henchmen), set in an hotel in Key Largo during a literal and metaphorical hurricane. Caught in the middle is Claire Trevor's lush Gaye Dawn. She won the film's only Oscar and gets to sing "Moanin' Low".

The difference between this and other Anderson adaptations is in the handling, in the superb cinematography by the great Karl Freund and in most of the casting. Bogart's character is too much a mouth-piece for decency, Bacall is still insipid and Barrymore is still his usual hammy self but Robinson is magnificent as is Gomez and Trevor is simply iconic. Of course, it's "The Petrified Forest" all over again only this time Bogie is on the side of the angels and it's still a second-rate play but thanks to Huston, a second-rate play has become a first-rate film.

QUO VADIS *

"Quo Vadis" is as spectacular as any other mega-buck Roman epic with huge sets and hoards of extras, replete with the requisite howlers in the script but it's a lot more entertaining than most thanks mainly to an Oscar-nominated performance from Peter Ustinov as Nero. Ustinov was sufficiently canny an actor to know he was in a major money-spinner, however terrible, and that it would do his career no harm at all if he hammed it up just a little. The stars were Robert Taylor as a Roman centurion and Deborah Kerr as the Christian girl he falls for; they're decorative in the grand Hollywood style but it's left to Ustinov and Leo Genn, as a decent Roman senator who tries to stand up to Nero without success, to do what acting there is, (and whose demise also prompts Nero to call for 'the weeping vase' so he may collect 'a tear for Petronius'). "The Robe" which came out two years later, went over much the same ground in an even more over-the-top manner than this, and was even more entertaining, (this is a little po-faced). It wasn't really until Wyler got around to "Ben Hur" that this sort of thing perked up and showed some intelligence but as fodder for the masses this will do to be getting on with.

FRONTIER MARSHAL ***

Allan Dwan's "Frontier Marshal" is a classic western, very much of the old school and is one of the least known of all the movies to chronicle the exploits of one, Wyatt Earp, played here by Randolph Scott as his noble best, and that legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral. It's beautifully shot in black and white by Charles Clarke and superbly designed and the cast includes Nancy Kelly, Cesar Romero, (as Doc Halliday), John Carradine and Binnie Barnes with Eddie Foy Jr playing his own father. If the plot feels overly familiar it's because John Ford remade it as "My Darling Clementine" with just a few alterations which may be one reason why this film has been largely forgotten. It may not be quite in the same class but it's still hugely entertaining and a worthy addition to the western genre.

MIX ME A PERSON no stars

Terrible but like a lot of bad films, undeniably entertaining, "Mix Me A Person" was a 'hard-hitting' (for that read, X certificate), British film dealing with crime, punishment, teenage delinquents and what appears to be the IRA. Anne Baxter, whose career was on a somewhat downward spiral at the time, is the psychiatrist trying to prove Adam Faith's innocence on a charge of murder. She also happens to be married to his barrister, Donald Sinden. Lots of flashbacks tell us that Adam is indeed innocent while in the present Anne takes on the role of investigating snoop. The dialogue, by Ian Dalrymple, is laughably bad as is Leslie Norman's insipid direction but it gallops along and it's always fun seeing someone like Baxter slumming it. Needless to say the film wasn't a success and has all but disappeared. Don't seek it out but should it come your way, you could do a lot worse.

UZAK ****

"Uzak" was Nuri Bilge Ceylan's third film but it was the one that established him internationally and marked him out as a world class director. It's an astonishingly mature and imaginative picture displaying great visual acuity as well as a deep understanding of human nature. It's about two cousins, Mahmut, a photographer whose wife has left him and Yusuf, who has come to stay with him while looking for a job. At first their relationship is cordial and friendly but gradually Yusuf begins to get on Mahmut's nerves. Ceylan tells his tale with great empathy and a good degree of humour, despite the sadness at the centre and draws wonderful performances from Muzaffer Ozdemir as Mahmut and Emin Toprak as Yusuf. Tragically, Toprak was killed in a car accident just after the film was completed and posthumously shared the best actor prize at Cannes with his co-star. Absolutely essential viewing

THE SENTINEL no stars

A fairly dull conspiracy thriller which, despite a first-rate cast, never really did the business and is now largely forgotten. Michael Douglas is the Secret Service agent who is having an affair with the First Lady and is then set up as the prime suspect in a plot to assassinate the President. Other agents involved include Kiefer Sutherland, (very good), Eva Longoria, (totally wasted), and a thoroughly dislikeable Martin Donovan while the President is a barely seen David Rasche and Kim Basinger, the First Lady.

Of course, what's happening in and around the White House at the moment far outweighs the dull shenanigans on display here and if Trump might seem like the Devil Incarnate, at least he is a lot more colourful, (and dangerous), than anyone involved in this picture. As a thriller it's watchable enough though I can just imagine what someone like Brian DePalma might have done with this material.

THE FASTEST GUN ALIVE **

Glenn Ford is "The Fastest Gun Alive" but bad guy Broderick Crawford thinks he is and that's about all you need to know. Russell Rouse's western may be predictable but is also so single-minded, so concerned with nothing other than Ford's ability to draw a gun quicker than anyone else, that it actually exerts quite a grip. It's not particularly well-written or directed, (Rouse was never a name to conjour with), but it has a fine cast, (as well as Ford and Crawford, others involved include Jeanne Crain, Russ Tamblyn, Allyn Joslyn, Leif Erickson and John Dehner), and is superbly photographed in black and white by 13 time Oscar nominee George J. Folsey. It may not be one of the great westerns but it certainly is a good one.

LAWLESS **

John Hillcoat may not be the most prolific of directors, (just 6 feature films in 30 years), but with a John Hillcoat film you know precisely what you are going to get; gritty, extremely violent, male-orientated entertainments that, more likely or not, will be visually stunning and probably with a screenplay by Nick Cave. "Lawless" is archetypal Hillcoat. Apparently based on a true story it's set in Depression-era Virginia and is about a trio of bootlegger brothers , (Tom Hardy, Shia LeBeouf and Jason Clarke), who are targeted by a corrupt Deputy Sheriff, (Guy Pearce), and again Nick Cave wrote the screenplay and again it is almost sickeningly violent which means it's not going to appeal to everyone.

Despite the talent involved, (and that includes cinematographer Benoit Delhomme and composers Cave and Warren Ellis), this is one of Hillcoat's lesser films. There are too many characters and too many star names, (Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain and Mia Waiskowska are also involved), and too meandering a plot but even lesser Hillcoat is a cut above most of what passes for multiplex entertainment these days. Surprisingly, Hillcoat has remained more of a cult director than someone commanding the mainstream and maybe that's for the best. He may not be the most prolific of directors and his films may not bag loads of money but at least he has kept his cinematic dignity.

MYSTERIOUS SKIN ***

Though it was hardly the kind of film that was likely to turn up at your multiplex Gregg Araki's MYSTERIOUS SKIN is probably his most accessible film. It's about two boys linked by a strange, symbiotic relationship that hinges on the fact that they were both sexually abused as children. One, Brady Corbet, has erased the memory of it, choosing instead to believe that he was abducted by aliens; the other, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, taking a much more pragmatic approach to his abuse, acknowledging his homosexuality and choosing the career of a gay hustler.

It's obvious from quite early on that Araki's movie isn't going to be your conventional view of paedophilia. It certainly doesn't condone it, (the abuser is clearly shown as a predator), but, controversially, it also shows how different children react to being abused; Corbet's character by blocking all memory of what was clearly a horrific experience, Levitt's by embracing what he ultimately took to be an act of love. Both actors are extraordinary, particularly Levitt as the boy robbed of his childhood and forced to grow up much too fast.


Fans of Araki's more off-the-wall, experimental entries in New Queer Cinema may find this a tad too conventional but for what is essentially a film flirting with the mainstream it's certainly brave and prepared to tackle very sensitive issues which mainstream cinema would rather mostly forget. I found it admirable in every respect.

GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE **

Cult movies don't come much 'cultier' than "The Girl on a Motorcycle". This film was British in name only; fundamentally it was French through and through from its source novel, (La Motocyclette by Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues), to its leading actor, Alain Delon. Pop singer Marianne Faithfull, naked but for a black leather jump suit, was really only standing in for Bardot. There's no real plot to speak of but there's a lot of sixties psychedelia, sex, nudity, cheesy dialogue (Your body is like a violin in a velvet case), and, of course, Faithfull tearing along the highways and byways of Europe on a big, phallic motorbike to the bed of her lover, Delon.

The director was a somewhat unlikely Jack Cardiff whose superb cinematography also gives the film its texture. Faithfull's non-performance is really rather appealing while the film itself is ripe for rediscovery. It's not actually very good but it's certainly weird enough to be of more than passing interest.

MARDAN ****

Batin Ghobadi's "Mardan" is a terrifically good film from Iraq that shows movies allocated to the art-house circuit, both in this country and in the West in general, can take on Hollywood at its own game and really deliver the goods. Here is a movie that is highly intelligent, and sufficiently elliptical, for us to bring our brains into the cinema once again while at the same time delivering something edgy, dark and yes, exciting.

Of course, we are in an environment that is alien to most of us and it's a magnificent environment, beautifully photographed by Saba Mazloum. Mardan himself is a corrupt policeman dealing with demons from his childhood and attempting to redeem himself by helping a young woman find the man Mardan presumes is her missing husband. It's the kind of film I can see a good American director like David Fincher remaking or the kind of film the American cinema might have turned out in the seventies.


While the central plot is (relatively) easy for us to follow it's the accumulation of little incidental details that we need to pay attention to. Here is a film that keeps us on the edge of our seats but not in any conventional way. I really do think it is a masterpiece and certainly the best 'new' film I have seen this year. (It hails from 2014).

MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ ***

One of John Cassavetes' greatest films is also one of his least known. He made it in 1971 and over the years it has been largely forgotten. I've seen it described as a romantic comedy and even as a screwball comedy but I found it very disturbing. It's not a comedy and I'm not even sure it's a love story. It's characters are all dysfunctional, unhappy people and Minnie and Moskowitz are the most dysfunctional of all.

She works in a museum and he works as a car-parking attendant and the film charts their hit and miss relationships, with each other and with other people. It is also largely improvised which gives it the feeling of life being lived in front of our eyes rather than simply being played out but these are people you definitely wouldn't want to know or maybe they aren't people at all but just extentions of Cassavetes' off-the-wall imagination.

It is magnificently acted by Cassavetes' repertory company of friends and family though at times it feels more like a series of classes at the Actor's Studio. Gena Rowlands is Minnie and Seymour Cassell is Moskowitz and they are superb as you would expect as indeed are everyone else, particularly Val Avery and Timothy Carey as men having meltdowns in restaurants and an uncredited Cassavetes as an unfaithful husband, while the cinematography of the three credited cinematographers, (Alric Edens, Michael Margulies and Arthur J. Ornitz), gives the film the documentary-like look the director obviously intended. This is independent cinema at its purest and most unrefined; scary, moving, rarely romantic. Just don't call it a comedy.

THE 25TH HOUR no stars

Like so many international co-productions HenriVerneuil's "The 25th Hour" is epic in scale but feeble in execution. A potentially good story about how Anthony Quinn's Romanian peasant finds himself, through some incredibly far-fetched circumstances, in the S.S. after the German invasion, falls very flat as its plot of almost Dickensian complexity gets lost on the widescreen and its cast of many nations struggles to put across its deeply mediocre script, (perhaps three script writers, including Britains Wolf  Mankowitz, was two too many). Quinn himself is totally miscast but then so is everyone else. It has the feel of a poor man's "Dr Zhivago", (the film, not the book), so maybe what it really needed was a David Lean to carry it off. As it stands it is something of a disaster that thankfully isn't much seen today.