MAMA **

"Mama" is an old dark house, B-Movie horror flic given a bright new shiny coat of paint together with a smattering of "L'Enfant Sauvage" psychology amid the, admittedly goose-bump inducing, chills. It also features a couple of surprisingly good performances from Isabelle Nelisse and Morgan McGarry as the two little girls who share a somewhat unhealthy relationship with Mama, the rather malevolent spirit of the title. They are found in a cabin in the woods five years after their father took them there after killing their mother. He would have killed them too only Mama intervened and she's been looking after them ever since. Now they are living with their uncle and his kooky girlfriend, (a superb Jessica Chastain), but Mama has moved in as well and she's certainly not prepared to leave them in the care of a couple of interlopers.

This is a good, old-fashioned ghost story rather than a slasher movie or a tale of demonic possession with a genuinely frightening ghost and director Andy Muschietti certainly knows how to make us jump which marks "Mama" as quite a considerable cut above most run-of-the-mill genre pictures of this kind. If it isn't quite a classic it certainly enough to give you the occasional sleepless night.

STROSZEK ****

"Stroszek" may be Werner Herzog's greatest masterpiece. it's certainly his most humane picture and in casting non-actor Bruno S in the title role he gets so close to the feeling of raw truth we may as well be watching a picture of Bruno S's life, (something he also achieved in "The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser" where Bruno S's performance as Hauser totally transcended acting to become the character). Here he simply becomes Stroszek just as Eva Mattes becomes Eva and Clemens Scheitz becomes Scheitz. Herzog transports them from Germany to America where Stroszek gets a dead-end job in the garage of Scheitz's nephew and Eva becomes a waitress, (in Berlin she turned tricks to earn the money for their trip and doesn't appear too anxious to give up that line of work).

Nothing conventional happens but seldom on film has the mundane existence of ordinary people seemed so fascinating, (and Herzog's use of non-actors throughout only enhances this feeling of reality). Of course, these characters are misfits; they don't fit in and they lead lives of mostly unrelieved misery and this has lead to accusations that Herzog is nothing more than a misanthrope and that, at best, he patronises his characters. His continual casting of actors like Bruno S and Klaus Kinski has lead to a kind of alienation though, in Herzog's case, madness, like beauty may be only in the eye of the beholder with Stroszek no more to be pitied than Cool Hand Luke. If "Stroszek" is a tragedy, it is a comic one and immediately identifiable as the work of its director: you don't mistake a Herzog movie set in America as a Bob Rafelson movie. And yes, before you ask, it's visually superb and with a great soundtrack, too. Essential.

QUEEN OF THE DESERT no stars

The life of the adventuress and explorer Gertrude Bell might just seem like the kind of subject that the director Werner Herzog might embrace but this stately, grandiose epic is more like something James Ivory or even David Lean might have tossed off and which, for over two hours, moves at a snail's pace. Nicole Kidman does what she can with the part of Bell but is defeated by Herzog's own ponderous script and she is surrounded by some very dull men, (Damian Lewis, James Franco and Robert Pattinson as a slightly camp Lawrence of Arabia), and despite the locations it's not even a particularly attractive looking film. If you must spend time with a queen of the desert stick with Priscilla whose adventures were a lot more fun than Gertrude's.

THAT TOUCH OF MINK **

Thoroughly delightful 1930's comedy with Jean Arthur and Cary Grant except that "That Touch of Mink" was made in 1962 and instead of Jean Arthur we had Doris Day. Grant's still in it, though, replacing Day's usual leading man of the period, Rock Hudson. He plays a millionaire who wants to take Doris off to Bermuda for the weekend but she's wearing her professional virgin status on her lapel for all the world to see. It's actually quite a funny film with an excellent Stanley Shapiro/Nate Monaster script and is considerably old-fashioned despite its talk of sex and unmarried mothers. Perhaps the only real surprise is that it was directed by Delbert Mann, whom we normally associate with more social-realist movies. A big hit in its day, it was nominated for three Oscars and won the Golden Globe for the Best Musical or Comedy.

MISS SLOANE **

More dirty politics and particularly prescient in the time of Trump. Elizabeth Sloane is a lobbyist whose failure to get into bed with the NRA seems to be her undoing, especially when she decides to change sides. It may or may not prove to be a smart move but this is a smart movie with a cracker of a script from Jonathan Perera, a typically high-powered performance from the always reliable Jessica Chastain and a terrific supporting cast that includes Mark Strong, John Lithgow, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sam Waterson, Alison Pill and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

It looks good and it sounds good but it's not likely to please the multiplex crowd; no matter how you dress it up, politics just aren't sexy and any plot concerning gun-control means you have to take your brain into the cinema with you, something most people aren't prepared to do these days so while Miss Sloane may be good at her job, and by all accounts no slouch in bed either, she will be fighting a losing battle at the box-office.

ALL THAT JAZZ **

"All that Jazz" shared the Palme d'Or at Cannes with "Kagemusha" and went on to win 4 Oscars yet it's not an easy film nor a particularly likeable one. It is, perhaps, the most shamelessly autobiographical musical ever made but whereas most directors would probably paint 'themselves' in a good light Bob Fosse's alter-ego, Joe Gideon, is a hard-drinking, pill-popping, womanising chauvinist. Roy Scheider is superb in the part but he isn't someone who engenders our sympathy.

Fundamentally this is a 'putting-on-a-show' musical but it's not like any other 'putting-on-a-show' musical you've ever seen. The life of Scheider's Gideon/Fosse is played out in what looks like a giant dressing room presided over by Jessica Lange's Angel of Death and Fosse leaves us in no doubt that the guy up on screen is meant to be him; as he rehearses his new show we see him editing his movie "Lenny" but with Cliff Gorman, Broadway's Lenny, rather than the real movie's Dustin Hoffman.



Of course, it's self-indulgent and there isn't that many musical numbers though the few we do get are brilliantly directed and choreographed, (the 'erotic ballet' is a stunner). It's probably closer to Fellini than to anything else Fosse did, (Fosse's 8 1/2?), so newcomers to the picture may be inclined to think of "Nine" while they're watching it. It's certainly well made but it's a sour and self-critical movie, perhaps too much in love with its own sense of style. As if prefiguring his own early demise Fosse kills off his central character but his death becomes just another production number, (Bye Bye Life). Nothing, it seems, is to be taken seriously. This is a pity because as it stands "All that jazz" feels strangely smart and soulless at one and the same time.

OUT OF THE FURNACE ***

A few weeks ago Christian Bale was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for "American Hustle". The nomination was richly deserved in a very good year for actors yet after seeing "Out of the Furnace" I can't help thinking the nomination should have been for this movie since this is the best performance Bale has given to date. He's Russell Baze, a steel-worker in an economically impoverished American small-town and he's a thoroughly decent human being. Casey Affleck is his younger brother, Rodney, a somewhat disturbed Iraq veteran with a gambling habit who takes up bare-knuckle boxing in an attempt to pay off his debts. Things go seriously wrong for the brothers when Rodney falls foul of Woody Harrelson's truly scary redneck drug-dealer.

This terrific movie is something like a cross between "The Deer Hunter" minus the Vietnam scenes, (there's even a deer hunt in this one, too) and "Hard Times", (not to be confused with the Christian Bale movie"Harsh Times" but the Charles Bronson movie about bare-knuckle boxing that came out in 1975). It's a film that takes its time; we get to know the characters gradually and it's not just Bale and Affleck and Harrelson who are brilliant here. Willem Dafoe, Forrest Whittaker, Sam Shepard and Tom Bower are all totally comfortable in their roles. This is a slow burner of a movie and it's brilliantly directed by Scott Cooper and superbly photographed by Masanobu Takayangi. It's also a powerful and depressing picture of the current state of the American economy where the good guys can no longer hold it together and where the bad guys always seem to have the upper hand.

THE VIOLENT MEN *

Despite a terrific cast and some excellent location work Rudolph Mate's "The Violent Men" isn't much of a western. It's another range-war picture with all the inevitable cliches. It's partly redeemed, as so many films were, by the performances of Edward G as a greedy cattle-baron and Barbara Stanwyck as his scheming wife. Glenn Ford is the hero and he adds a few much needed shades of grey to the part. The two credited DoP's were Burnett Guffey and W. Howard Greene. Perhaps if someone other than Mate had directed it might have felt fresher; maybe it needed someone like Delmer Daves. It's not a total failure, though; this kind of western is basically critic-proof, building as it does to a suitably operatic climax with some decent action scenes along the way.

BOY'S TOWN no stars

Another biopic and another Oscar winner for Best Actor. This time it was the turn of Spencer Tracy as the legendary Father Flanagan, who founded "Boy's Town", a camp for homeless boys. I'm sure everyone's heart was in the right place but it's still sick-makingly sentimental, the kind of pious claptrap that Hollywood was expert in making back in the day. This was Tracy's second Best Actor Oscar in a row and he's the best thing about the film, even if neither Oscar-winning performance represented anything like his best work. A young Mickey Rooney pulls out all the stops as one of the boys who comes his way and proves to be a tough nut to crack. He also picked up a Special Juvenile Oscar that year and he probably cries more than any other male in the history of movies; I wonder what Taroug did to the kid this time round? Tell him he massacred his whole family? Watch it if you must but only if you are in desperate need of a sugar rush.

BERSERK! no stars

Yes, it's dreadful but then you seriously didn't think it would be anything else? "Berserk" was Joan Crawford's penultimate cinema release and at least she gets her name above the credits. She's the owner of a circus where the performers are dropping like flies and she made the film in the UK so the cast includes the likes of Diana Dors, Michael Gough, Robert Hardy and Judy Geeson. The male lead is a mostly shirtless Ty Hardin who probably needed the money to pay for his alimony. Indeed, this may well be a camp classic; it's certainly impossible to watch it with anything like a straight face and while Joan may be stiffer than a poker, at least you can't take your eyes off her.

ACROSS THE BRIDGE **

Of all the films made from the novels and stories of Graham Greene, "Across the Bridge" is probably the least known and least appreciated which is a pity as it's actually very good, (it's much, much better than John Ford's "The Fugitive", his feeble attempt to film "The Power and the Glory"). Of course, with a better director than Ken Annakin and a better supporting cast it might have been perfect. As it is, it's entirely reliant on its plot, which is gripping, and a sterling performance from Rod Steiger, to hold our interest.

He's Carl Schaffner, a crooked businessman who, in an attempt to escape justice, assumes the identity of the man he thinks he's killed and who just happens to be a murderer. It's a plot not dissimilar to that of Antonioni's later "The Passenger" and if this film is never in that class, neither does it deserve to be overlooked. Worth seeking out.

LURED no stars

Very strange; Douglas Sirk's "Lured" is a serial killer thriller, somewhat lacking in thrills but full of little eccentricities of plot that, at least, marks it out as different. It's set in a foggy London where New York showgirl Lucille Ball finds herself working for the police trying to track down a killer who meets his victims by putting ads in the personal column. Ball is surprisingly good and the first-rate cast also includes George Sanders, Boris Karloff, Charles Coburn, (as a very unlikely policeman), George Zucco, (as another very unlikely policeman), Cedric Hardwicke, Joseph Calleia and Alan Mowbray. Unfortunately, they are mostly just coasting along given the lackluster script. Almost everyone, except Coburn and Zucco, are suspects and there are more red herrings on display than in Billingsgate Fish Market. It's not very good, (in fact, it's pretty terrible), and you should be able to pick out the killer quite early on but it's certainly weird.

THE ROVER ***

David Michod's remarkable "The Rover" is like an episode from the 'Mad Max' franchise shorn of about 90% of the action. We are back in another futuristic post-apocalyptic Australia where cars and guns seem to be more valued than human life. One must assume Guy Pearce is the rover of the title who gets very pissed off when is car is stolen by a wounded Scoot McNairy and his associates. He certainly doesn't take it lying down, setting off in pursuit and picking up McNairy's brother, Robert Pattinson, on the way.

In Michod's world, life is short and brutal, (he also made "Animal Kingdom"), and while there are long stretches in which nothing happens, when something does you can rest assured it will be violent and often unexpected. If the premiss isn't particularly original, (most post-apocalyptic pictures tend to go down similar roads), Michod ensures that, even in its quietest moments, our interest never flags.
Both Pearce and Pattinson, acting for the most part without benefit of either dialogue or established character, are outstanding, (even if Pattinson seems to have seen too many Earl Holliman pictures), while DoP Natasha Braier makes the vast landscapes both beautiful and menacing. With this and "Animal Kingdom" under his belt Michod is now a name to look out for.