aethomson Reviews

Butterfly Kiss (1995)

We shall not cease from exploration

[8/10 · 30 January 2024]

There are, it is said, seven basic plots that we can use for creating stories, and "Butterfly Kiss" is clearly in the category "The Quest." In a "Quest" the protagonist will need to make an arduous journey, through difficult and dangerous lands (or across stormy seas), to find the buried treasure, the Holy Grail, the sacred ring, the Golden Fleece, the magic mountain, the Celestial City - or maybe just get back home. It is also likely to be a quest for personal self-fulfilment, the search for a moment of enlightenment, or the completion of one's destiny.

"We shall not cease from exploration, And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started, And know the place for the first time," as T. S. Eliot put it.

Authors (in this case Frank Cottrell Boyce and Michael Winterbottom) make the rules: what is to be the object of the (successful?) quest, what will count as an obstacle or an enemy, which weapons or skills the protagonist will be able to deploy, and whether there will be one or more companions to share the rigours of the journey. And then the authors have to stick to the rules they have made.

That said, you probably won't like the rulebook that drives "Butterfly Kiss." But it has its own horrific logic. Eunice (Amanda Plummer) is searching for "Judith" in an environment all too familiar to us: highways greater and lesser, with their gas stations and truck stops (this time in England's Lancashire). And there is an elusive melody to be played. Like Christian in "The Pilgrim's Progress" Eunice carries a physical burden, some padlocked chains. Dragons will need to be slain along the way, but these turn out to be shop assistants working at gas stations, and their "crime" is to disappoint Eunice, to fail to meet her needs!

But one young woman does not fail her: Miriam (Saskia Reeves) becomes her companion in the quest, abandoning her helpless mother to pursue a greater destiny. At first Eunice is walking, but the pair are able to commandeer a range of vehicles. And guys, you should not mess with these ladies, because retribution can be swift.

This is a film that will divide audiences. Some viewers will try to fit it into a conventional moral framework - but it will not fit, it cannot fit. Other viewers will be prepared to accept (if not embrace) the bizarre. It might be a comfort (but of course it isn't) to know that humans have done much worse things in real life.

Unleash (2022)

"Having children, having a job, having no time for myself."

[8/10 · 23 December 2023]

We live in a visual-media world in which the search for the most perfectly beautiful people is feverishly pursued. But what about people who look ordinary? They are going to miss out in the stampede for like-me and look-at-me. There must for instance be some ordinary-looking women in Adelaide, South Australia. Melony and Mark Cherrett could make a movie about that. With help from the Choo-La-La dance community and the Australian Cultural Fund.

We don't see "behind the scenes" activity, the organising, the choreography. We see some women. Each of the women that we are shown being interviewed (the first hour of "Unleash") has a different set of problems. Double hip replacement, so no more sport. You can have lots of fun friends until you have children, and then they slip away. "It's when you're not connected that you start to feel lost." Putting on a lot of weight after marriage broke up. Struggling with a brain tumour. Recovering from a car crash. Came from a culture where a woman's body is to be kept hidden away. Never felt attractive. Stretch marks. Unable to overcome inhibitions. Mood swings and dark thoughts.

For us the audience, these interviews are not dull stuff - they're quite inspirational. Because we already know that most of these women are going to come together, and work hard, and practise some moves. And then they're going to put on some very frivolous costumes, go out onto a stage, and in front of an audience they are going to do burlesque-fusion. They're going to dance, and wave their bits around. And they're going to love it.

Most women like to dance. It's a physical activity that is satisfying in itself, unlike going to work, feeding the baby, cleaning the house, getting meals ready, doing the laundry, and all those other results-driven chores. "Cognitive therapy didn't work for me, but dance did." Getting together with other women to have fun. Liberating, empowering, getting out of your comfort zone. "Negativity about my body went away." Self-confidence returns. We even see some supportive husbands.

1341 Frames of Love and War (2022)

"I was happy when I took pictures."

[8/10 · 11 December 2023]

This documentary consists almost entirely of the (still) photographs taken by Micha Bar-Am, famous for his work in the New York Times and for the Magnum organisation. He was born in Germany in 1930, and the family moved to Israel in 1936. Many of the images are of Israel's wars, not just the "action" but also faces of onlookers or people taking part. His best pictures are amazing, and should be studied by connoisseurs of the photographic arts.

Mixed in with this "documentation of history" are family photos. The voice-over consists mainly of family members talking to Micha Bar-Am about his pictures, and what their lives together have been like. The English-language sub-titles are usually easy to read.

What exactly is happening in some of these pictures is not clearly explained, but this documentary is only incidentally a history of Israel since 1957. What really counts is the emotional charge conveyed by what a camera can capture, here mostly in black-and-white.

Clean Sweep (2023)

Scrambled eggs, with cup-cakes

[8/10 · 25 October 2023]

Without first clearing it with my physician, I watched all six episodes in one sitting. The creator, Gary Tieche, piles in a plethora of ingredients, and they all cook up together, sort of. But if you're not prepared to cut him some slack and put some effort into snatching up the tasty bits, you might be advised to pass on "Clean Sweep", and select some more conventional cuisine. And if you're planning a life of crime in the Emerald Isle, don't count on the Garda to let so many interesting bits slip through their fingers. Why didn't they get the prints off that book already? And the cops discovered they had a brothel in town full of illegal immigrants - only by accident? "Case solved!" - uh-uh, not convincingly. They oughta promote that gorgeous (and smart) Detective Uba (Jeanne Nicole Ni Aisle), not Sgt. Mohan (Barry Ward).

For an international audience, the Irish accents would benefit from higher quality sound recording. Shelley (Charlene McKenna) cleans compulsively (yes, you'll find out why), and her husband turns out to have a kitchen-glove fetish. A marriage made in Freud-land? You won't solve crimes in your colleague's bed, detective, you'll just give yourself the guilts, and those guilts will prevent you from... The more he learns, the less he wants to see.

Each relationship (family or otherwise) brings its own sub-plot (here there are too many). Niall (Aidan McCann) is a great kid, but marked out for an early death. For Caitlin (Katelyn Rose Downey) puberty arrives too soon, and too embarrassingly. And Derek (Rhys Mannion) finds that love rejected hurts a lot more than falling off a skateboard.

Charlie Lynch (Adam Fergus) used to be a nasty piece of work, but now he's soul-saving for Jesus. If anyone wants to tell you that it's God's Plan for you to volunteer to spend the rest of your life in jail, it's OK to bring a gun with you. Although I say shooting's too good for 'em.

"Clean Sweep" is far from perfect, but parts of it are excellent.

The Levelling (2016)

Life gets tasteless don't it.

[5/10 · 26 April 2023]

Carson Robison sang it, farming is not for the faint-hearted. "The cow's gone dry and the hens won't lay, troubles pile up day by day. Grief and misery, pains and woes, debts and taxes, and so it goes."

There are parts of the world where farm output is measured in thousands of litres per week, but these rain-soaked acres in England ain't it. The flood of a few months ago made things a lot worse, but was this a viable dairying unit in the first place? Get rid of those cows, cut in some PVC field drainage with geotextile. Barley is used to make alcoholic beverages, muesli contains lots of oats.

Agriculture, emotional attachment, strained relationships and mental health issues - maybe they used to go together, but this combination was coming to rely increasingly on subsidies from the European Union. Is "The Levelling" about farming, or is it about a dysfunctional family who live on a farm? The technology doesn't seem to be much advanced on what was available in the 1930s. In this twenty-first century the cold-blooded business of converting soil fertility and sunshine into milk solids and butterfat entails zapping barcodes on ear-tags, uploading iPad data into laptops, and responding to endless on-line demands from government departments for information. And taxes.

In this film, family is everything, but when members of a family fall out, they're quite likely never to speak to each other again. We're simply expected to accept this dynamic, like it's a raw Scandinavian saga. It's something to do with the unforgiving land, and the malicious weather.

Aubrey the father (David Troughton) hands over the farm to his son to manage. Surely a poisoned chalice. Then the son kills himself. Clover (Ellie Kendrick) is about to complete her university qualifications in veterinary science, but she has to come back - to sort stuff out? Too many things don't make enough sense. The viewer is expected to fill in causes and effects. A cryptic crossword with ambiguous clues.

I hope "The Levelling" doesn't put young Britishers off farming. But you gotta love the land. Love it enough to compensate for the fact that the land does not love you. The land would rather be covered in forest, with squirrels and badgers.

Justine (III) (2020)

When I drink, I feel safe

[8/10 · 5 April 2023]

Tallulah Haddon creates this devastating role. It is scary. It messes with your mind. One thing you know: it's real. It seems inadequate to say, "People like this must actually exist." We have to say, "Justine exists!" Maybe in a street near you. So what are we going to do with her?

We could wash our hands of Justine. Her mother has done just that. "We gave you everything, the best schools, a nice home. You hate yourself. You could have done anything with your life. You are breaking my heart."

What we need is a professional. That therapist goes through the motions, but you can see what she's thinking: "I can't help people who won't help themselves."

Justine has a friend, a black kid (Xavien Russell). He's got survival skills, and he knows when to stand back from a problem, when it gets too big for him.

Vodka, neat, sucked out of a water bottle, is the one thing that can reconcile Justine to herself. But perhaps love can succeed where all else has failed. Rachel (Sophie Reid) gives it her best shot, but she may have taken on more than she can handle.

A powerful film, but enjoyable? You'll need to be prepared to watch, while your attitudes, your empathy, your understandings and your compassion get a thorough churning at the laundromat. And then are you going to come out of it sadder but wiser? This movie doesn't bring with it any guarantees.

Alan Bennett's Talking Heads: Her Big Chance (2020) Season 1, Episode 4

Jodie Comer is very good, but it's a bit sad

[9/10 · 5 March 2023]

Irony and self-deception fit so well together - and they can provide the writer with scope for gratuitous cruelty. Remember Noel Coward's advice to Mrs Worthington about not putting her daughter on the stage: "The width of her seat would surely defeat her chances of success." (In the polite version "seat" becomes "feet".)

Alan Bennett's Lesley (Comer) must have quite a shapely seat, because the male film-makers that she desperately wants to impress try to manoeuvre her into taking off her bikini bottom for this scene on a yacht. Lesley is portraying "Travis", who may or may not be a good-time party girl. Lesley is trying to "develop" the character. Good luck with that, darling.

One thing we learn from this episode "Her Big Chance": writers hate the movie business. Writers sweat their souls, trying to assemble coherent emotional structures; then they sweat their minds, hoping to discover some interesting ideas; then they sweat the language, eventually resorting to a thesaurus to find some words that are not already debased into drivel. At last, on paper or screen, a "script" appears. Writers love their scripts, as parents can love difficult children. The script is handed over to the movie business... and then complete idiots muck it all about! The film people that Lesley encounters - what a bunch of dopes and frauds.

Young female actors are the raw material at the very bottom of the food chain. But Alan Bennett seems to have made Lesley unnecessarily pathetic. We must assume that the director, Josie Rourke, is well aware of the ambiguities. Yes, we the audience are tricked into condescending to Lesley and laughing at her foibles and naïveté - and then perhaps we realise that we should be ashamed of ourselves.

Exhibition on Screen: Raphael Revealed (2020)

The greatest artist who has ever lived?

[9/10 · 31 December 2022]

This is a documentary for people who are interested in the art of the Italian Renaissance. Raffaello Sanzio lived from 1483 to 1520. The other two big names are: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1510) and Michelangelo (1475-1564).

If you find religious art a turn-off (Madonna and Child or pictures of saints on altar-pieces) you might want to give this 90-minute film "Raphael Revealed" a miss.

In 2020 the Scuderie del Quirinale mounted an exhibition of over 200 masterpieces, many of them on loan from galleries in Europe and America, to commemorate the death of Raphael (6 April 1520). Unfortunately the exhibition ran into a very sixteenth-century sort of problem: the visitation of a plague, in this case Covid-19. However Seventh Arts was able to make this "Exhibition on Screen" doco.

In the fiercely competitive business of producing and marketing art in Renaissance Italy, Raphael needed a huge talent, a distinctive style, a determination to get each commission finished so that he could move on to the next task, considerable personal charm when it came to talking popes and other dignitaries into employing him, and an ability to organise the quite large teams who were working with him. Of his short life (only 37 years) the first half had to be a crash course in learning how to draw and paint. The last third, twelve years in Rome, were a time of phenomenal output: paintings, frescoes, designs for tapestries - along with hundreds of preparatory drawings, architectural work and intense study of the art of ancient Rome, which was being excavated at the time.

Some of what we call "works by Raphael" should be thought of as work by Raphael and his studio. The frescoes in the Papal apartments and staterooms, of which the most famous is "The School of Athens", required a whole team of artists to be working together. Applying pigment to damp plaster is a tricky business. Raphael's frescoes still look amazing - but Leonardo's attempt to "simplify" the process in his "Last Supper" has not survived well the test of time.

For the student specialising in fresco, ENEL produced in 1993 a whole book (text in English) on "Raphael in the Apartments of Julius II and Leo X" (Editor in Chief: Roberto Caravaggi, published by Electa).

"Raphael loved the girls," said Kenneth Clark in his 13-part TV series "Civilisation: A Personal View" (1969). Raphael's madonnas are beautiful young women, serene but with a slight touch of sadness. For the newcomer, it's Raphael's intimate portraiture that is likely to make the initial impact. This documentary "Raphael Revealed" is a splendid attempt to over the whole range of his achievement.

Napoleon: In the Name of Art (2021)

Art as communication and propaganda

[10/10 · 17 December 2022]

Every documentary should be as good as this. (Many do not have such a majestic subject.) First it is a biography of Napoleon. Then it is a tribute to the impetus that he gave to the achievements of intellect, to archeology in Egypt and Rome, the decipherment of hieroglyphics, and much more. There is also of course the ambivalent entanglement of Napoleon and art. And we are shown the recovery and actualisation of music (a Te Deum) performed at one of his coronations (which until recently was thought to have been lost). The narrative deftly blends these elements.

One man, by making himself "consul" of France (later Emperor) brought to the world much of what we now consider indispensable for democracy. The Code Napoleon specified that everyone would be subject to the same laws. It was to be a social system based not on birth but on merit.

Art. Napoleon loved it. And he knew its power: "high" art for the sophisticated Parisians, and derivative versions for the provinces and the masses. So he looted art, lots of it, especially from Italy. Great art must be for the people! It is not to be sequestered by church or nobility. He believed that people should be able to come to Paris (the new Athens), to see the world's greatest art. And that is what we still do today: we go to Paris, and to London, New York, Rome, Madrid, Florence, Vienna, to be moved and to be enriched by the art. Napoleon would approve.

History is the interaction of broad general trends with the intense engagement of remarkable individuals. Napoleon was the towering figure of his age. In these times of frantic virtue signalling, it is therapeutic to celebrate the qualities that make a few individuals more noble and more splendid than ourselves.

Dictators have studied Napoleon, and they've tried to imitate his success. But we need to remember that in France under Napoleon there was no secret police, or torture chambers, concentration camps or mass executions.

The sub-titles, when people are speaking in languages other than English, are usually legible. Jeremy Irons imparts a fine gravitas to his presentation - it's quality work.

State of the Union: Why Quake? (2022) Season 2, Episode 2

Golf is not a world view? Sez who?

[5/10 · 18 November 2022]

Season 2, Episode 2. By now Ellen (Patricia Clarkson) and Scott (Brendan Gleeson) have had one session of marital counselling. It doesn't seem to have done them much good. Ellen still wants a divorce. But for Scott divorce seems to be unthinkable. What's his problem? Maybe he holds onto the old-fashioned view that for a man to agree to a divorce is an admission of personal failure.

Sure, he fooled around a bit, quite a bit, but that was years ago. And it's been quite a few years since they actually lived together. The audience is getting impatient - these two people don't want marriage guidance counsellors, they need a couple of legal counsellors, lawyers!

Ellen has become part of a Quaker community. So Scott talks stoopid. A Quaker must be someone who "quakes." So let us make a big deal out of that. Really. Yes, you erudite readers, a Justice Bennet at Derby, England, called the members of the Religious Society of Friends "Quakers" because their founder, George Fox (1624-91), told them to quake at the word of the Lord. I looked it up. Something to keep in mind if you're ever visiting the city of William Penn, Philadelphia.

This episode looks too much like a ten-minute lecture on how to be a marital counsellor. But most of us don't want to be marital counsellors, and this dialog in "State of the Union 2" reminds us why we don't.

State of the Union: The Laws of Grammar (2022) Season 2, Episode 1

Alas, Oh America my beloved, what ails thee?

[6/10 · 15 October 2022]

You wish Bill Maher would come in, and bang their heads together. In this first episode we get a ten-minute lecture on what today's America looks like from the outside (the UK f'rinstance). Donald comes into this shop- oops, that was Brendan Gleeson's role in "The Comey Rule."

Here he is Scott, a Trump impersonator who wants a coffee. I'm confused. How does this "specialized" shop make enough money to pay the rent? The humblest entrepreneur can instantly adjust to a customer and close a sale. Adding a sociology seminar at UC Berkeley is not conducive. But it's also unbelievable that Scott could be so obtuse. Or maybe he's just combative.

There are going to be nine more of these brief "preludes to marital counselling sessions" (those take place upstairs). Eventually we may find out more about Scott and Ellen (Patricia Clarkson). We might even find out something interesting about the sweetie behind the counter (Esco Jouley). But in the meantime we have to listen to the Sermon from the bottom of the Canyon - where he-she-him-her fatally fell, and miraculously rose from the dead as they-them.

Pronouns. Thee-thou-thy long since became pluralized into you-your. Now it's high noon for the third person singular. The designation "he" was good enough to kick off 18 paragraphs in the Declaration of Independence. But what if King George was of indeterminate gender?

Two great actors, at the top of their game, battle manfully (oops) with a script overloaded with culture-war. I personally think the actors win, but not by much. However you might decide that the writer (Nick Hornby) has poisoned the coffee. You're allowed to disagree with me - I won't hate you. There are nine more of these spasms of sparring to go, and maybe they'll get better - the only way out of the canyon is up. May the best pronoun win.

Alan Bennett's Talking Heads: Soldiering On (2020) Season 1, Episode 3

After the funeral

[9/10 · 13 August 2022]

Soldiering on, that's what widowed Muriel will need to do - now that Ralph's cardio system has succumbed to all those tasty breakfasts and calorie-rich dinners (not a salad man, was Ralph). But certainly a remarkable man, very good with money, but also participating splendidly in several worthy causes and organizations. A pillar of society.

Alan Bennett plunges with gusto into the rich texture of do-gooder charity and energetic altruism - the earnest benevolence and helpfulness that has rushed in to fill the gaps in Britain's welfare state left by the barbarian demolition crew.

Muriel is resilient, resourceful, self-reliant. Lots of people will be coming round to the house after the funeral, so she's been up half the night cooking some toothsome treats for them to nibble on. It's just a catalogue of food, but Harriet Walter delivers her menu (along with everything else she does) with such relish that the audience is entranced.

Soldier on, old girl, soldier on. But you really could use one of those technically gifted chaps who deactivate booby traps and unexploded munitions - because the malicious Mr Bennett has inserted a few into this exercise in high comedy.

Georgetown (2019)

"As I was saying to Kofi Annan..."

[7/10 · 23 June 2022]

How far might a fantasist get in Washington DC? This, unfortunately, is no longer a merely theoretical question.

"Georgetown" will inevitably be compared with a much better movie on a similar theme, "Reversal of Fortune." (Did Claus von Bulow try to kill his wife Sunny?)

Did Christoph Waltz (as director) choose to make this movie because it gave him scope for his brilliant portrayal (as actor) of the confidence-trick artiste Ulrich Mott? One problem with "Georgetown" is that we can never be sure whether it is drama or dramatized documentary. It's actually divided into themes and phases, with displayed titles, such as "The Intern," "The Butler," and "The Embed." Is this movie a sociological study? Are we to believe that Georgetown, a suburb of Washington (just upstream from Foggy Bottom), is full of important people who can nonetheless be easily fooled into believing that a flashy talker must also be a very important person - like themselves?

Every so often Mott hits a wall: One professional sends him packing. "I'm encouraging you to find a better place to develop your unique set of talents." Does Mott's "NGO", Eminent Persons Group, have credentials from the US State Department? Some Iraqis figure him out - No. Then the State Department figures him out - No again.

But a remarkable number of people do not see through him. And most remarkably, his wife Elsa Breht (Vanessa Redgrave) is taken for a long, long ride into fantasy land. But finally, in a hotel room (oops!): "I thought you were out shopping." "I thought you were at the United Nations. But there was never a meeting at the UN, was there!"

Promotion comes swiftly in Iraq's armed services. After two years Mott has risen to the rank of Brigadier-General. And he's got the uniform and medals to prove it. We feel sorry for the defense attorney Daniel Volker (Corey Hawkins), who knows less and less, as Mott spins more and more cobwebs.

"As I was saying to Kofi..." That would be Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, wouldn't it? Yeah, right. You've got to admire, and even enjoy, the sheer panache that Christoph Waltz displays in this "make it up as you go along" exercise in opportunism.

Oh Mercy! (2019)

In these Flanders fields the poppies wilt

[6/10 · 15 April 2022]

Roubaix is a real place, but after seeing this movie, you're not going to be packing your bits and moving there. It was once a thriving market town, then a nineteenth century industrial center (near Lille), and now it's a dumping ground for people who are not making it big in the exciting new Lille "Eurometropolis" (with its "Eurolille" business district), which also incorporates urban concentrations in Belgium. If this sounds like a socioeconomic lecture, that's because this movie "Oh Mercy!" looks like fieldwork, someone's research on urban decay. Heavy going? - I think you'll find that it is fairly heavy.

I persevered. Gradually the film developed focus on a particular crime: a murder. This is after we've watched overworked cops checking out a burned-out car, some domestic violence, a robbery, arson, and a serial rapist.

Roschdy Zem is a powerful presence as Commissaire Daoud, a rank about equivalent to detective-inspector (UK) or lieutenant of detectives (US). Lea Seydoux creates Claude, the dominant partner in a relationship. There's some classic "prisoner's dilemma" interplay. Sara Forestier does good work portraying Marie, seen by the detectives as the weak link - she has to try to withstand an unedifying interrogatory pressure. If you got through the first half of this film, you'll probably hang in there to find out how it ends.

These days Hollywood clings to comic book superheroes, video games material, corsetry costuming, and reworking formulas that succeeded last time. They don't make movies like "Oh Mercy!" But the film-financing structures of the EU allow space for a certain amount of "grim seriousness." If you're not sure that grim seriousness is your thing, then it probably isn't.

Alan Bennett's Talking Heads: Bed Among the Lentils (2020) Season 1, Episode 8

"God has no taste"

[8/10 · 11 April 2022]

The Lord of the Christians used to have class. The Church of Santa Sophia in Constantinople (now a mosque) - that's architecture with class. The Lindisfarne Gospels or Handel's "Messiah" - they've got class. Westminster Abbey - you need to be famous to be buried in there, because that has been the imperial church of an Empire on which the sun never used to set.

Susan (a beguiling Lesley Manville) is a vicar's wife, and the aesthetics of faith have dwindled down to flower arranging: on the altar, or in a vase next to the lectern. Some of the other church ladies would like us to know that they've got flair, they've got talent in flower arranging. Susan knows that she herself has no talent with flowers, but she likes to think she does have taste. Sadly, Susan doesn't have much talent for the many other tasks in which a vicar's wife needs to excel: organizing jumble sales, energizing ladies' groups, and, well, everything.

Geoffrey the vicar is always busy, busy. He visits sick parishioners in hospital, and, when the combined resources of prayer and the NHS fail, he conducts their funerals. He delivers sermons (even one on sex!) that are, if not inspiring, at least reassuring. He dashes off to bless a steam locomotive, because today's church is always on the lookout for new avenues of relevance.

Sometimes "Alan Bennett" and "bleak" appear in the same sentence. Where does Susan seek consolation? The hints trickle out, but there could also be a little surprise. It's the warm but dry sympathy for humanity that we find in "Talking Heads."

Jealous (2017)

John Coltrane sounds more real on vinyl

[8/10 · 7 April 2022]

It's a French movie. But not too French. You don't have to be Parisian, and know everything about existentialism and postmodernism in order to understand it. That's good - I only got up to Freud (yes, he comes into the story), and then my brain put out a sign: "Carpark Full." And the English language subtitles are nearly always legible. That's even better.

Being middle-aged ought to be cool. You've passed the exams and got through the job interviews, and now you're a well respected "professeur." Unlike a certain country that shall not be named, France doesn't leave many of its brightest teachers in a rat-race, a dissertation-publishing madhouse, in desperate search of tenure at a good college. Nathalie can afford to be elegant, urbane.

The problem with being middle-aged is that there are people who are younger. Younger people might attract your spouse, and they can look like they're smarter at work, more connected, more relevant. And your own daughter is a younger person, and her sexuality will be fresh and exciting. Nathalie can survive the divorce - it's in the French DNA to be able to handle divorce. And good news, she has a date. And the guy takes a quick glance at the daughter. It was only a couple of seconds, I was watching. But that's it! He's out! And mother yells at daughter. For "flaunting herself"?

They have psychiatrists who specialize in mother-daughter relationships? Does this have anything to do with the transition into menopause? And do you want to know what happens next? Because the film does spell out what happens. And that's good. French title: "Jalouse."

Danny Boy (2021 TV Movie)

"You live in that grey area."

[7/10 · 6 April 2022]

In 1973-74 Thames Television produced a 26-part series, "The World at War" (WW2). It should be compulsory viewing for anyone who wants to be in government. Also for media influencers: editors, bloggers, writers, know-alls, angry shouters and hate-speechifiers. Because what we call "civil society" should be the complete opposite of what modern warfare really is: the organized destruction of civilization and civilized values.

The movie "Danny Boy" introduces us to a fundamental contradiction: how to assess battlefield behaviors using the cultural machinery of the lawyer's office and the wood-paneled courtroom. "It's normal for farmers there to carry guns. Does that make them soldiers?" The answer, I'm afraid, is yes. (Keep this in mind, all you NRA fanatics.)

A democracy tries to train its military personnel to be peace-defenders, but occasionally it sends them on anti-peace operations. A few days as a soldier in Iraq (the Bush and Blair Splendid Military Adventure) and I'd be ready to shoot anyone who wasn't wearing our uniform. But I'm prepared to believe that you, gentle reader, would be capable of more restraint.

Toby Jones dominates every scene he's in. The idealistic lawyer's office looks authentic, but the film's battle environment lacks the terror, the paranoia, and that hallucinatory menace and mania which left so many vets suffering from PTSD.

You want to take sides as you watch this movie? If you do, you're burning up your brain with futile emotion. "Danny Boy" just tells us how things were, how they are, and how they will be next time.

Alan Bennett's Talking Heads: The Shrine (2020) Season 1, Episode 12

Another sneaky Alan Bennett psychological sudoku

[9/10 · 2 April 2022]

Monica Dolan is magnificent. She really makes us believe that she prevents the skid marks from eroding, she kneels at the shrine, she negotiates with the traffic policeman, she wears her hi-viz, she talks to the sheep, she discusses theology with the rev, and there's more. It's a little triumph of life over death.

So what's the gimmick? You want to know, don't you. Yes you do. You won't be disappointed. It's classic Alan Bennett, impeccably presented.

The Rehearsal (2016)

"Acting is a horrible career."

[5/10 · 5 March 2022]

"Acting is not copying real life." OK, we're in drama school. Young people who might have talent (but you've seen the statistics of probability) are creatively(?) bullied and humiliated by their teacher (veteran actor Kerry Fox), in the hope that some spark of the divine might thereby flicker into existence. This is Auckland, New Zealand, and that makes it different. No it doesn't.

Was Stanley (James Rolleston) voted "least likely to be the next Brando"? He's come from some small rural town, where (we can assume) rugby is more highly regarded than the thespian mysteries. We plod through the months, which are announced on the screen, just in case we can't figure this ourselves.

Capable young Kiwi actors pretend that they're starting out from scratch again. Starting a little too young, perhaps? That schoolgirl is still some months short of the age of consent, Mr tennis coach. "She wanted it, you could tell." Try that one on the judge, bro.

"When we're tough on you, it's never personal, you know that." But what if the creative bullying gets too much for one student? Or maybe he was going to crack anyway.

This is cinema naive. Teenage dreams are tested. You remember being a teenager? It was embarrassing, right? This movie avoids embarrassment, but not by much. New Zealanders are a "team of five million." The Prime Minister said so, long, long ago, when the coronavirus was putting civilization on hold. So be patriotic, all you Kiwis, and support your indigenous cinema industry.

The World from Above (2010– )

Stuff I wouldn't get to see, even if I went there

[9/10 · 4 September 2021]

There's a short Youtube feature on how "The World from Above" gets made. Richard Mervyn beside his Skyworks helicopter, showing off his high-tech camera equipment (in order to capture every shade and nuance of a million Vermont maple trees in the fall he needs grunty gear). TV channels that feature travel and history sometimes consign this series to the early hours of the morning, which is a pity. The World from Above caters for a niche audience: people who want to see this planet and see lots of it, but who don't have helicopters of their own. Mervyn is helping to save the planet, by encouraging you to leave the car in the garage, and leave seats on planes empty, and leave money in your bank account. On your screen he'll show you a planet that's worth saving.

What you'll see depends on where you fly. Parts of England have an abundance of stately homes, built by rich guys who had exploited someone - I mean they were enterprising, innovative entrepreneurs. Parts of Europe have castles and cathedrals, lots, and picturesque towns that are picturesque because they were rebuilt after being reduced to rubble and ashes in some war (they had lots of wars). The preservation of the natural environment and the restoration of the human environment are important themes in this series. We don't have to live in the midst of post-industrial wastelands and the detritus of fidgety commerce that came and saw and conquered and moved on! We can make the places where we live useful again, and we can restore their beauty. And so we should, because beauty, Richard Mervyn reminds us, is good.

What we notice about The World from Above is that it moves along at a brisk pace. No dawdling. The voiceover packs in a wealth of information, including (for those who didn't enjoy history in school) plenty of fascinating historical detail. Each "trip" is carefully planned (weather!), and structured around a few themes, and turned into narrative. For a whiff of the ghastliness of civil war fly over Georgia - but also for the celebration of non-violence (Martin Luther King Jr), and also for the sheer vitality and exuberance of Atlanta - an American city looking good, and epitomising America at its best. "The World from Above" can raise the spirits and nourish the soul.

Kill Me Three Times (2014)

The moral of the story is that there is no moral

[8/10 · 18 July 2021]

Long ago, movie makers discovered a trick: they could present the same scene twice, from "different points of view." What one character is learning from the scene is not the same as what another character is learning. One (or both) might be "getting the wrong idea" about what they've just seen or experienced. Of course the audience, having been shown both versions, will be in the know. Or maybe not. An example is the Coen Brothers' "Blood Simple" (1985). What would happen if the Coens' dark tale could be transported to the bright, unforgiving sunshine of Western Australia? Thanks to writer James McFarland and director Kriv Stenders, now we know.

Everyone is related to everyone else (in one way or another), according to Bruce Jones (Bryan Brown). So it's going to save on production costs (actors) if each individual in the story is somehow entangled with nearly every other individual - adding to the levels of complication, the ironies, the permutations. Bruce the cop is a professional. Charlie Wolfe (Simon Pegg) is a professional "fixer" - who has arrived to do a simple job. But why not pick up a few extra pineapples while he's here? What could go wrong? Plenty. Trouble is, everyone else is an amateur, and of course they think they're a lot smarter than they really are. There are wads of these pineapples ($50 notes) in a safe - no, they're in a carry-bag - no there's a stack of dental hygiene leaflets in the carry-bag... Some firearms get misused. Vehicles get barbecued.

So are you going to enjoy this movie? It depends. Clever plans that might not go to plan are fertile soil for luxuriant irony. Personally, I'm going to watch this film again. And this time I'm going to take notes. I'm going to keep track of what's going on. I'm going to get on top of all the slippery tricks and teases.

Aussies live on a continent where you can't afford to make too many mistakes. The characters in "Kill Me Three Times" fail to grasp this important fact. The coast road from Broome to Perth is scenic, but it's not short (nearly 1500 miles), and big trucks move along it at a fair clip. Here and there a dead roo by the roadside attracts flies. The folks in this movie attract unintended consequences, and incongruous accidents. For the attentive viewer there is rich entertainment to be found in this tingle-tangle of the bleak and the bizarre, the unexpected and the inevitable.

Saint Frances (2019)

Bothersome biology and bodily fluids

[7/10 · 9 June 2021]

Blessed art thou, O Lord, that I was not born a woman. Being a woman can be so complicated. But if you do have to be a woman, the best age to be is six years old. And another suggestion: it would help if you could be as cute as Shirley Temple. This being the twenty-first century, you don't have to be as pale or as blond as Shirley Temple. But as for cuteness... blessed are the cute, for they shall inherit the earth. The rest of us will have to go to college. And if we drop out of college without a diploma, we'll be picking and packing for an online retailer until we reach 65, in a futile attempt to pay off our student loans. Introducing Ramona Edith Williams, aka Frances at age six. Wow.

There are also some adults in this movie. Bridget (Kelly O'Sullivan) aspired to be a writer. At age 34 still aspiring? But one thing we never see her do: writing. So here's the word. Writers write. You think someone said one day: "I might try being a writer... The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places." Nope, you only get to squeeze out a sentence like that after you've hammered away on your Corona portable for hundreds of hours. And after you've thrown several early drafts into the bin. Movies featuring would-be authors who wait at tables and can't get started on that novel/play/poetry - enough already. And you won't become a writer if you spend your days agonising over how woke you are.

Grown-up girls meet grown-up boys. That does not need to be magic. Plain old textbook biology can do the heavy lifting. But a household where two lesbian women are bringing up their children - that will need to be held together with love, a cobweb made of strong silk. Little Frances will be smarter than the average kid, because she has grown up in a home where no-one has to strive to be "normal" ie conventional. So there it is. The movie dashes about, frantically ticking off the issues. Breast-feeding in a public park, shocking! But when the script allows the actors an opportunity to get on with being human, "Saint Frances" can be rather lovely. And by the way, when you get to seven, you gotta start keeping your room tidy. Magic doesn't last forever.

Say Your Prayers (2020)

Preaching to the Choir

[7/10 · 2 June 2021]

People can get things wrong. And people who are quite sure they're right can get things completely wrong. Beware the certainties of dogma. Roger Allam portrays a public atheist who sounds a bit like Richard Dawkins - except that he brings along some unappetising character flaws. Derek Jacobi is Father Enoch, a cleric who has decided that his God wants to suspend one of His own Commandments (number six, concerning homicide as you may recall). The end justifies the means.

Father Enoch has devoted about twenty years to bringing up two brothers who were abandoned when they were small children: Vic (Tom Brooke) and Tim (Harry Melling). Now he has an important assignment for his boys to do (it's the work of the Lord). Vic looks like he's cut out for this sort of thing, but Tim seems to lack the linear moral clarity of an effective fanatic - and maybe he's not very bright. If this is a story about one character, then that character is Tim, a lamb in wolf-world.

They go to work. But small mistakes can have unfortunate consequences. Now it looks as if the assignment is going to be more challenging than originally planned. The police are aware of death threats and are taking the usual precautions to protect Prof Huxley (Allam) at the Ilkley Literature Festival (yes, Ilkley, a town in Yorkshire, really does do these get-togethers for lit-lovers). Two guys of "middle-eastern" appearance have turned up to hear the keynote speaker - better keep an eye on them...

Life can be a muddle of sweet and sweat, pathos and pathetic, cliche and claptrap, hypocrisy and hypothetical, love and lewd. But will all these elements play together nicely to make a movie? Jamie Fraser (writer) and Harry Michell (writer and director) give it their best shot (some very nice touches, and also ingenious twists and turns), and they depend on the audience to not get too fidgety about how they're supposed to feel - is this tragedy, or comedic? We've seen plenty of work-worn cops on the screen (Anna Maxwell Martin on this occasion), but a splendid male choir - now that's different, and it really adds its own dimension of commentary to this film.

The Thirteenth Tale (2013 TV Movie)

Deadlier than the male

[6/10 · 15 May 2021]

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito were twins. One inherited all the noble qualities, and the other... didn't. The twins in "The Thirteenth Tale" are rather less amusing. Madeleine Power is brilliant as the nine-year-old girls Emmeline and Adeline (Ella-Rose Wood skilfully doubles). One of these twins (under that cascade of gorgeous red hair) has the makings of a sociopath. You wouldn't want to be governess to this difficult duo, but Hester Barrow (Alexandra Roach) comes from the school of no-nonsense firmness. Also from a school of too clever by half rationality, leading to this "scientific" procedure - which you just know will not end well.

It's English Gothic. There's a whiff, nay, a stench of corruption within the tainted aristocratic blood, yea, in the befouled DNA. So mental instability is always going to be on the menu. The stolid servants (Janet Amsden as The Missus and Robert Pugh as John The Dig) ought to be secure enough - unless they get drawn into the cesspool.

If you want to enjoy this film, you'll need to accept the conventions. Some elements of the story are super-credible, other elements look cliched or artificially engineered. Is dying author Vida Winter (Vanessa Redgrave) trying to absolve some collective guilt by "confessing" to her chosen biographer Margaret Lea (Olivia Colman)? Lea doesn't come across as tough enough to be a professional biographer. But maybe it's Lea's vulnerability that keeps Winter talking, spilling the beans and spilling them in the right order for her fantastical narrative to keep us watching. A movie like this draws you in with its well made beginning; but whether you'll say at the end, "This was time well spent" is not specified on the manufacturer's warranty card.

Hope Gap (2019)

There were these three unhappy people, and then...

[8/10 · 23 April 2021]

Unfair, isn't it. Well, isn't it? It's a movie about a woman. So first we have to ask: Is this just a "women's movie"? Annette Bening (as Grace) delivers a towering performance, and let's face it, some women are going to watch this portrayal of a relationship, and say, "Yes! Yes, that is (or was or has been) my own marriage!"

Blokes. What's the problem with blokes? Blokes are not good at expressing their feelings. In fact they're not good at coping with their feelings, or even understanding feelings. Sometimes they're ashamed of their feelings, because apparently blokes are not supposed to have feelings. Husband Edward (Bill Nighy) is behaving like a bloke, even though, as a schoolteacher, he must know lots of words for articulating emotion. And the house is full of books, including lots of poetry books. Grace is collecting up this "anthology" of all the poems that can bring comfort to the human soul, as we struggle with life and difficulties and the inevitability of death. As a good catholic, Grace is confident about her afterlife, an afterlife in which there will be the rich fulfilment of love and hope and meaning.

They've been married for nearly 29 years. A problem with a movie like this is that we have to plunge into a "typical day" and try to reconstruct ten thousand previous days from a couple of conversations. This relationship must have once been young and fresh, but now it is...? Nighy is doing this "dry old stick" schtick:

She: "Do you have something in mind (i.e. For the forthcoming anniversary)?" "What do you mean?" "Well, we could go out for dinner..." "If that's what you want..."

She: "Say something." "What do you want me to say?" "Anything!" "Whatever I say, it always puts me in the wrong."

Et cetera. How long has this dyscommunication been going on? And Grace is worried about their son Jamie (Josh O'Connor). He lives in the city, doing this IT job. And he lives in this little flat... by himself! Surely he must be emotionally deprived, poor boy. His mum is concerned: perhaps Jamie is turning into a "dry young stick", becoming too much like his father. We the audience don't worry about Jamie. Sure, he isn't getting far with his current love interest, but we see him in perfectly sensible conversation with these two work colleagues. Later we see him as mature, caring, sensitive and kind.

The writing and directing (both by William Nicholson) Is of very high quality. Bening gets some great lines, and she pounces on them to create this powerful portrayal of a woman. Sometimes a bloke doesn't know what to do with a woman, not with this much woman. So much joyful potential, and yet it has drifted into such minimal compatibility. Maybe Edward could find love with someone else, someone more down-to-earth, someone who makes fewer emotional demands. But maybe he's left it too late! Are things going to come to a head? The relationship looks depressing, but the experience for the audience can be exhilarating. Does this complex human dilemma need an audience of "been there, done that"? I don't think so. Plenty of younger people will be able to recognise aspects of family life that we see in "Hope Gap".