The World's End, Charlie Chan and old men waving their arms around - Reviews...
I've seen just 11 full-length films since last we met, as I was on my honeymoon for the rest of that time (yes, lovely thank you). Here they are:FEATURES: CINEMA: The World’s End (Edgar Wright, 2013) -...
View ArticleJanet Gaynor, The Whales of August and risible Hemingway - Reviews #170
I've been busy lately: house-hunting, eating my tea, going on holiday, but I also consumed this stuff:FILMS:*SPOILERS*Lucky Star (Frank Borzage, 1929) - An intoxicating romance from the incomparable...
View ArticleThe Way Way Back, Greta Gerwig and hating the moo-er - Reviews #171
I haven't seen many movies over the past three weeks, but the ones I have seen have almost all been fantastic. I think my good film radar must have been fixed. Ratings are out of four, if you weren't...
View ArticleRick tries to write sketch comedy
I write. A lot. Features, reviews, stories, emails to my brother, even the odd poem (not to my brother). But I've never tried to write sketch comedy before a week last Thursday. Here, for reasons of...
View ArticleWhy I love... Remember My Forgotten Man
I wrote the first draft of this piece on spec for the Guardian's fantastic Why I Love... series, but they're not accepting freelance contributions, so I decided to go into a bit more depth and tack it...
View ArticleSergeant York, Andie MacDowell and a really, really bad film - Reviews #172
Nowadays I mostly just watch films on a little computer on the train. Like a boss, as I believe they say. That's how I saw most of these - as the director intended.Sergeant York (Howard Hawks, 1941) -...
View ArticleMyrna Loy, Gaslight, and Toronto's premier downtown mall - Reviews #173
SOME REVIEWS! Also featuring: MGM showing off, Alan Ladd being cool, and Anton Walbrook being mean. Very mean. Evil, even.Test Pilot (Victor Fleming, 1938) is the epitome, if not the apogee, of Old...
View ArticleThe fiendishly difficult Advice to the Lovelorn movie quiz
Fifty questions, each more tricky than the last (except for question seven, that's a doddle if you get number six right). No prizes except for pride, but there's plenty of that available. There are 52...
View ArticleCloudy 2, Joan Blondell and a Faustian folk tale - Reviews #174
Plus: '30s America, Katharine Hepburn and acute disappointment, in the latest batch of reviews of stuff I've just watched.Boring stupidness.CINEMA: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (Cody Cameron and...
View ArticleDennis Potter, Broadway Danny Rose, and the corners of Noah's beard - Reviews...
I got to watch a lot of films this week. These ones:Pennies from Heaven (Herbert Ross, 1981) - A conceptually dazzling musical, adapted by Dennis Potter from his BBC series, which juxtaposes the grim...
View ArticleThe fiendishly difficult Advice to the Lovelorn movie quiz - ANSWERS
#50 Thanks to all those who entered the inaugural Advice to the Lovelorn movie quiz, and congratulations to kirbyapplegate for top-scoring with a staggering 49 out of 52 points. The full leaderboard is...
View ArticleClueless, Sam Rockwell, and Steinbeck done right - Reviews #176
I've been busy trying to finish the first draft of my kids' book (around 7,000 words to go, thanks for asking) and even pitched it to a grown-up (that's me in the tie), so movies have taken a long...
View ArticleSome thoughts on Lulu in Hollywood
Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks (1982) I find Louise Brooks a little over-hyped as an actress. Yes, she was a distinctive, even iconic performer, with her helmet of black hair and that aggressive,...
View ArticleReview: Bob Dylan at the Royal Albert Hall
Thursday, November 28, 2013 Every Dylan gig seems to bring something new: a reggae version of A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall (Manchester, 2005), a bit where Bob does a little dance to Highway 61 Revisited...
View ArticleReview: Napoleon at the Royal Festival Hall
Saturday, November 30, 2013 Yesterday saw a rare screening of Kevin Brownlow's near-mythic five-and-a-half-hour reconstruction of Abel Gance's silent film Napoleon, a labour of love that has dominated...
View ArticleJohn Ford, Romeo and Juliet, and a bawdy grandad - Reviews #177
Plus: Ben Hecht, Maggie Smith and a damp squib of a kung fu film.Romeo and Juliet (George Cukor, 1936) - This is an astonishingly good translation of the Shakespeare play, devised and demanded by the...
View ArticleLucille Ball, The Hunger Games and the strange case of Benny Wilder - Reviews...
Plus: Wes Anderson flailing, and noir icons directing pirate capers, in the latest reviews update. Feel free to argue or agree with me below or on Twitter.CINEMA: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire...
View ArticleJoan Crawford, Nebraska and the B-movie actor, Jack Nicholson - Reviews #179
A mammoth round-up of recent cinema releases, things I watched on a tiny laptop on a train, and a few we had on in the run-up to Christmas.CINEMA: Nebraska (Alexander Payne, 2013) - I saw this in a...
View ArticleReview of 2013: Part one - Best films of this year
This year's review comes in two parts. The first is my top 10 of 2013, taking in everything from indie comedies to animation - and a couple of neat returns to form. The second contains my 20 favourite...
View ArticleReview of 2013: Part two - Crazes and discoveries
Here's the second part of my review of the year, dealing not with new movies, but with the best old ones I came across this year. For the other half, my top 10 of 2013, click here.In brief:The man and...
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