Category Archives: Films

I think New Year's resolutions are a bit pointless because they tend to be quickly forgotten but I will make just one and that might be to blog more often. I may even start watching Buffy again. 2011's Hootenanny might … Continue reading →

There is a scene in The Hours where Meryl Streep's Clarissa anxiously discusses the perceived triviality of her life with her daughter and she waves her hands about in a way that is just like Brad Pitt's Jeffrey Goines in … Continue reading →

When will I learn that a film about poverty described with such adjectives as chilling, searing, rawest, gritty, genuine, shabby, grimly and unflinching, is not a film for me? And I'm not sure the poor people of the Ozarks deserve … Continue reading →

My expectations for this were set too high by the general tone that headed my way via the Internet. It is certainly a lovely simple film for children but really it is no more than that. It looked gorgeous and … Continue reading →

This may be the first 18 certificate film I saw at the cinema. I wonder at what cinema I saw it but I can't remember that because it was nearly thirty years ago. It's remarkable just how much I recalled … Continue reading →

I really, really like this film. It's not that it's perfect, far from it: Jerry's sobering up is too neat and his return to Joan comes at a considerable price for her, but the first two thirds of it are … Continue reading →

This could never be one of my favourite films - in fact, I'd be happy not to see it again - because essentially it boils down to a character being mentally (and physically) tortured. The writers of the source material, … Continue reading →

They don't make them like this any more. Times have moved on and what was shocking and exciting and other, simply isn't anymore. We just don't need steamy, overwrought melodramas like this. It is a period piece but didn't feel … Continue reading →

I am conflicted about liking this film. I have taken great exception to The Philadelphia Story because of its sexism and yet I manage to accept the racist attitudes of this film as being a product of its time and … Continue reading →

I wonder what happened to Hazel Wilkinson, the woman who edited The Queen of Spades in 1949? She did move into direction but after 1959 there is nothing.