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Anything for Her 2008
The French often make excellent thrillers, and this is no exception. It's a taut and exciting ride in which a husband desperately tries to get his wife out of prison after she is convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years. Frankly, the plot has quite a few holes, and doesn't stand up to scrutiny when you think about it later, but the story is so pacy and well told that you don't notice at the time.
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Leaving 2009
I watched this only a couple of weeks after 'I Am Love': another film with a fantastic actress in the leading role, about a woman turning her life upside down after falling deeply in love with an man. However, this is quite a different film. The plot is much tighter with less gloss (although the cinematography is still great) and it feels a lot more believable as a result.
Kristin Scott Thomas is always amazing, and you'll find yourself unable…
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Withnail & I 1987
What can I say? A classic. It's surreal, hilarious, poignant and tragic all at the same time. Somehow it manages not to feel dated. I love it.
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I Am Love 2009
This is an immensely stylish film with impressive cinematography, but the plot is nothing we haven't seen before. I think if it didn't have Tilda Swinton at the centre of it (and a wonderful, John Adams' soundtrack) I might not have stuck with it so happily. But Tilda is always mesmerising, and she holds the film together here.
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Headhunters 2012
This is a properly gripping thriller. I was really on the edge of my seat to find out how things were going to turn even worse for the (anti)-hero Roger. It's interesting that he starts out as a quite a suave, controlled, and rather unlikeable character who is running a double life (as a headhunter for a recruitment company and an art thief, but also cheating on his wife). However, he soon ends up way over his head, and the…
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Scott Pilgrim vs. the World 2010
This film could very easily have slipped across the line from funny, quirky and goofy into just plain irritating, but Edgar Wright's sure hand with wry humour saved it, I think.
I really enjoyed this film, particularly the visual graphic novel elements, and, as I mentioned, the humour, which you have to be quick to catch. Great fun.
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The Angels' Share 2012
I think that Ken Loach is softening as he gets older (not that that's a bad thing!) While this film is certainly very gritty and doesn't shy away from examining the very tough and violent lives of the characters who are at the bottom of life's ladder, it is essentially a feel-good film.
Robbie is a bad boy desperately trying to pull himself out of the mire. He has done terrible things in the past (there's a scene of a…
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Le Havre 2011
This is a kind of deadpan fairy story about a small community of rather hard-up people in the port of Le Havre gently and unquestioningly coming to the aid of young boy called Idrissa from Gabon. Idrissa was one of a group of illegal immigrants found trapped in a shipping container in the port. Idrissa makes a run for it, aiming - somehow - to make it to London to rejoin his mother. Marcel Marx - a shoeshiner - immediately…
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Jeff, Who Lives at Home 2011
Quirky film that's a bit all over the place stylistically, but is warm and engaging, and very funny in parts.
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Seeking a Friend for the End of the World 2012
I liked this: some drama, some sweet stuff about friendship and intimacy, and some very dark humour, this film had a bit of everything. Somehow the mixture worked. Steve Carrell's performance is quite low-key but excellent, and while I'm not a fan of Keira Knightly, I think she did a good job here. I thought that here character was going to be enragingly 'kooky' at first, but luckily it didn't turn out that way.
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Looper 2012
A good film with a great premise, but I was slightly disappointed with it, for reasons that I can't really put my finger on.
The acting was good, and I particularly liked the few scenes between the older and younger Joe. You could tell that 'Old Joe' wanted to give his silly younger self a slap, and frankly, so did I.
The dystopian future thing was quite well done, I thought (though I kept thinking of how it was much…
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Little White Lies 2010
I think that this might be a film that divides people. I love French films, and I have no problem with long films that have little or no plot (I loved Into Great Silence), but this taxed my patience.
I think the main problem with this film is that there's about 90 minutes of a good tight film, but it is spun out to more than 2 hours. There are some lovely moments, and some nice observations about relationships between…
