SPOTLIGHT ON A MURDERER *

Closer to Agatha Christie than to Boileau-Narcejac who wrote the original story and collaborated with Franju on the screenplay, "Spotlight on a Murderer" is a decidedly minor affair, entertaining for what it is but unlikely to set the cinematic world on fire. For starters, it's got a fairly ridiculous plot, (even Christie would have balked at this one); an old count, about to die, hides himself away in a secret room in his chateau so that his relatives won't find his body and will have to wait 5 years for their inheritance. Naturally the corpses soon start piling up. Poiret or Miss Marple would have sorted it out in no time.

INSERTS no stars

INSERTS is a movie about making movies; well, making stag movies to be exact. It looks and feels like a play since it sticks to the one set, a house in Hollywood where the Boy Wonder, a once potentially great director now down on his luck, has holed up and is making porn pictures. There are only five characters; the Boy Wonder (Richard Dreyfuss), his producer (Bob Hoskins), his producer's floozie (Jessica Harper, excellent), his drug-addicted 'star' (Veronica Cartwright, also very good) and her 'stud' (Stephen Davies). The one character missing from the picture is a youngster called Clark Gable whom they all keep talking about but who never shows up. That was something of a wise move for the young Mr Gable since appearing in crap like this would, I'm sure, have done very little for his career. I'm now ashamed to say that when I first saw this film many years ago I thought it highly original, if not exactly profound, and even went so far as to choose Mr Dreyfuss for my best actor of the year and Cartwright for my best supporting actress. It just goes to show you that even I can be wrong on occasion or maybe we should just blame it on my youth.

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN no stars

Despite being handsomely shot in widescreen black and white "The Abominable Snowman", an early addition to the Hammer studio's 'horror' genre, doesn't really add up to much, It wasn't until they hit on the formula of revisiting the staple creations of Universal, (Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy), that they really hit it off. This is a largely amateurish affair, too talkative and poorly played. Peter Cushing does what he can with the part of the British explorer searching for the Yeti while Forrest Tucker is obviously cast as his gung-ho American counterpart in order to sell the film on the other side of the pond. Val Guest directs this piffle with an uncommon degree of seriousness. It's rubbish and should be treated as such.

FEAR no stars

Although she's perfectly adequate in her role I don't think anyone would have predicted Oscar success for Reese Witherspoon after seeing FEAR. She's a teenage girl who discovers her new boyfriend, (Mark Wahlberg), isn't quite as nice as he first appears. This was an early part for Wahlberg, too and he shows real promise. Unfortunately the script makes him a fairly conventional villain and you can see what's coming a mile off. Nevertheless, he's still the best thing in the film. James Foley directs without much flair or imagination; this is very much a paint-by-numbers kind of psycho thriller but at least it has no pretensions and basically it does exactly what it says on the tin.

APACHE **

Once upon a time it was considered not only acceptable but positively common-place for white men to play Native Americans; why, even that handsome non-entity Jeff Chandler got an Oscar nomination for playing Cochise. In "Apache" it was the turn of Burt Lancaster to grow his hair, wear a bandana and speak in broken English and not only that but his 'squaw' was none other than Jean Peters. Such miscasting virtually kills Robert Aldrich's otherwise fine western about the last Apache to defy capture.

It's a handsome and reasonably intelligent picture that cries out for real Native Americans or at least actors who don't sound like Burt Lancaster. He may vaguely look like an Apache but there's nothing you can do to disguise that distinctive Lancaster voice. It's certainly not an offensive film and I'm sure everyone involved thought they were honoring their Apache hero but a film needs more than just good intentions. It may not be Lancaster's finest hour nor is it Aldrich's but then even second-rate Aldrich is far from negligible.

THE IRON LADY *

Let's get it straight from the outset, "The Iron Lady" isn't much of a movie. As directed by Phyllida LLoyd it's a kind of 'Maggie's Greatest Hits' (and misses) done in a style that could best be described as a comic-strip. Lloyd's last outing was "Mamma Mia" and wags have suggested that 'Margaret - The Musical' can't be far behind. On the other hand, it might just be worth crossing an ocean to see Meryl Streep's extraordinary performance as Mrs T. Of course, we knew she would get the voice and the mannerisms right but this is no mere impersonation but a deeply intuitive portrayal of a woman at every level of her life down to the finality of Alzheimers. Beginning with Mrs Thatcher as an old woman, (the make-up alone is Oscar worthy), it's a remarkable insight into illness, loss and memory that transcends the one-dimensional script. Perhaps Streep's greatest achievement is in making Mrs Thatcher sympathetic although the attempt to turn her into a tragic heroine out of opera is just plain silly. If she fails to win that elusive third Oscar for this then there really is no justice.

STARRED UP ***

Of all the films made about the British prison system David MacKenzie's "Starred Up" may be the best. It's deeply angry, very violent and totally without sentimentality even if its premiss, (a father and son are banged up together in the same prison), threatens to slide into melodrama. In these roles Ben Mendelsohn and relative newcomer Jack O'Connell are superb. O'Connell, in particular, is extraordinary. From the first moment he appears he's like some frightened but very dangerous animal ready to lash out at anything and everyone, which he frequently does. They are the lynch-pins of a terrific ensemble playing fellow prisoners and various prison staff, none of whom actually appear to be acting, (but for its slightly glossy sheen this could be a documentary).


Even at their worst, most prison films tend to paint their prisons as places of almost romantic camaraderie with prisoners united as one against the brutal screws. Not here; here it's every man for himself in a kill or be killed world where violence isn't so much a daily occurrence but something that seems to be happening on the hour every hour while the screws are seen as mostly venal men and women perpetuating an already corrupt system. The title, by the way, refers to a prisoner who is considered highly dangerous but what this amazing film shows is that, however fouled up that system is, redemption of a kind is still possible. It was filmed in its entirety at the Crumlin Road Gaol, Belfast and at the Maze Prison, Long Kesh and it never moves outside.

THE DELINQUENT SEASON no stars

Half-decent performances from the four principles can in no way disguise the banality of writer Mark O'Rowe's directorial debut "The Delinquent Season". This tale of a couple of couples having marital problems in contemporary Dublin comes across like a bad play in which one character waits for the other character to finish speaking before they speak, not that what they have to say is worth listening to. O'Rowe isn't a bad writer as his previous work testifies but he has no idea of how to direct actors; he makes what potentially might be an interesting situation dull. Worse, he makes it all so unreal. Never once did I get the feeling I was watching anything but a group of actors going through their paces. I certainly never felt I was watching people with blood in their veins. A definite step backwards for Irish cinema.

ANNIHILATION *

I'm all for more good roles for women n the movies; that's just stating the obvious but does re-inventing the roles once played by men in the horror and sci-fi genres really mark a step forward? Surely the talents of the actresses in these films could be better served than in such fare as "Bird Box" or here, in "Annihilation", a kind of feminist take on both "Stalker" and "Predator" from sci-fi aficionado Alex Garland. It ought to be as pretentious as hell and for most of the time it is, (the po-faced performances certainly don't help), although if you accept the film's ridiculous premiss it is quite imaginative at times and even quite beautiful. Of course, I would still prefer to see the likes of Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh in real roles that stretch their dramatic talents rather than simply marching through the jungle as the female alter-egos of Arnie and Vin Deisel but then, hey...if they are enjoying themselves and earning a buck who am I to spoil their fun.

THE PASSION OF ANNA **

The first thing you notice is the look of the picture. Bergman chose to film "The Passion of Anna" in colour and again his DoP was Sven Nykvist. There's nothing as innovative here as in, say, "Cries and Whispers" but the use of colour alleviates the bleakness, both of the landscape and of the emotions on display, (this is certainly not one of Bergman's 'lighter' films). Then there's the style; early in the picture Bergman inserts a cutaway to actor Max Von Sydow talking about his character and later, other actors follow suit. It's only a film, you see.

The setting is yet another island in winter and no-one is happy, particularly Von Sydow's Andreas, living alone with his books and getting drunk until he meets Anna, (Liv Ullmann), who moves in with him. He's superb, of course, but then so is everyone and yet we never feel any emotional engagement with any of the characters. Do we need these explanations by the actors? Personally I found these Brechtian devices nothing more than a distraction in a film singularly lacking in passion of any kind, (a subplot involving the killing of animals is more interesting than the relationships on show). For some reason I imagine this is just the kind of Bergman film Woody Allen would worship.

FIRST REFORMED **

Perhaps the only real surprise about Paul Schrader's "First Reformed" is that he didn't make it sooner, considering his Calvinistic background and his penchant for serving up Old Testament sermons in the guise of 20th Century Morality Tales full of the sex, violence, and fury he apparently is railing against. "First Reformed" is no different; near the end there's even a nod towards "Taxi Driver" as Ethan Hawkes' tortured minister drives through his town at night. Actually, the whole second half is a virtual remake of "Taxi Driver", Schrader's first great screenplay, just as the first half is like a remake of both Bergman's "Winter Light" and Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest" and with a very distinct Scandinavian feel to it, (there are a lot of white wooden buildings and a lot of vast rooms, sparsely furnished like the empty spaces in the lives of its protagonists).

Hawkes is the Rev. Toller who has never quite got over the death of his son in Iraq. He may be dying of cancer and spends his nights drinking and recording his doubts in a journal. One day a young woman, (Amanda Seyfried), asks him to speak to her husband who is suffering from depression. The encounter triggers a series of events that turns the film into a kind of ecological thriller, a twist I felt a bit too neat seeing we are in Trump's America.

It's certainly not a bad film, just a very obvious one. I think I would have preferred it had it simply been a remake of "Winter Light" or "Diary of a Country Priest" but by drawing attention to his own work in such a blatant fashion Schrader diminishes the film's effect and yet at the same time part of me quite liked the thriller element he introduces as well as the streak of black humor running through the picture. Hawkes is excellent and all the supporting players are fine but even with these touches of humor this isn't an easy watch nor, sadly, is it one of Schrader's better films.

SECRETS ***

For reasons best known to posterity this thoroughly delightful comedy-drama has been almost totally forgotten despite starring none other than Mary Pickford, (it was her last film), and a young Leslie Howard, (before he grew stiff). It was directed by the great Frank Borzage who already had two best director Oscars under his belt and it was written by Francis Marion who also had two Oscars under her belt by the time this came along. Everyone is at their best here, whether it's in the full-blown comedy of the early sequences or in the melodramatics that follow as the somewhat over-egged plot progresses. Something of an undervalued gem and a well-kept secret.

RUST AND BONE ***

In Jacques Audiard's superb movie"Rust and Bone", Marion Cotillard plays Stephanie, a trainer of killer whales who has lost her legs in an horrific accident. It is a brilliant piece of acting, quite the equal to her Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose" and it should have earned her another Academy Award nomination but mysteriously she was over-looked. Audiard's film is a love story as powerful and as moving as any in cinema in which a couple of broken people find themselves and each other. The man Stephanie meets is Ali, a handsome, caring security guard with a five year old son who finds himself drawn into a crude form of boxing in order to make money. He, too, is beautifully played by Matthias Schoenaerts.

Despite the downbeat subject matter Audiard's film is the very antithesis of sentimental, something an American film dealing with similar material could never be. These are damaged individuals living on the fringe and not always as sympathetic as they might be. Affection doesn't always come easy to them yet this is a love story as real as they come; these are people who need each other first and who only learn to love and to forgive over time. That you will remember them long after you have left the cinema is testament to just how fine Audiard's film and his leading players are. "Rust and Bone" deals one hell of an emotional wallop.