Another Year (2012): review: 6/10

London: a suburban couple nearing retirement entertain friends and family: they are visited by a female alcoholic, brothers, their son and the son`s partner. We see their relationships change over the course of a year.

The film emphasises the importance of blood ties over friendship: this is cruelly illustrated in their unsympathetic treatment of their lonely alchoholic friend Mary when she arrives unexpectedly at their house. She is not really part of the family and her difficulties are coldly treated.

There are many unpleasant aspects to Mike Leigh`s films. One is with the female characters, who seem invariably in stereotypically female  "caring professions"". They are often frumpy, physically unattractive, given to fantasy, anxious, incapable and over-eager to please (here this is illustrated in a plot line about a used car which the unfortunate Mary buys, and which causes her a good degree of nuisance). They are ignorant and speak hideous English. This is conveyed in a mannered style of acting which seems to consist entirely of nervous tics and is grotesque to watch. In this particular film, the female caricature of Mary is contrasted with her opposite: the mother figure and a more emotionally stable black nurse who becomes pregnant.

Leigh`s treatment of vulnerable people is often mocking. There are two scenes in this film in which the characters make sexual advances: both are pitiful, and played in such a way as to invite the condescension of the viewer.

However, despite these moral shortfalls, the film conveys something about the selfish circles of family, and the rejection of outsiders when they place any sort of burden on family: it does so without too much obviousness.

Sleepwalk With Me (2012): review: 7.5/10

New York: an aspiring comedian begins to make sketches based on his indecision about marriage. he becomes increasingly successful as he works better gigs.

 Diverting piece, if occasionally amateurish piece, with something to say about humour as a function of honest confession, and something to say about the way relationships have to move forward towards marriage if they aren't to die, and something to say about building a career.

The Words (2012): review: 6/10

New York: How an ambitious writer wrote his first successful book: a fable.

The themes of this book are ambition  theft, anger,  deception, guilt and shame, and at times it conveys these well, especially in themes featuring Irons.

 However, there is something  overly polished about this film, that makes it less enjoyable and spontaneous than one might desire (in other words, there is an excellent budget film noir lurking inside this somewhere).

 Perhaps this  lack of life is partly due to the obvious New York setting, and perhaps it is also to do with the absence of real passion between the couple at the centre of the film- this largely the fault of the bland wife who reminded me of the models used in mail order catalogues to sell hosiery.

Safety Not Guaranteed (20120: review 5.5/ 10

Washington State: two interns, one a shy Asian, the other a female with no discernible character, are taken by a more experienced journalist to research a small advertisement calling for applicants who wish to return to the past in a time machine.

It transpires that all the major figures in the film have suffered some sort of traumatic experience: the film is about how they reappraise their pasts and form new relationships.

It is well paced, carefully made, occasionally witty, and somewhat smug, as these American slacker films tend to be.

Skyfall (2012): review: 2/10

A list of M15 Agents has been stolen: the thief is publishing the names online. Bond returns from a failed mission in Istanbul and is charged with stopping further publication of the names on the list.

The film includes scenes in Istanbul, Shanghai, Macao, London and the Scottish Highlands. The scenes in Istanbul are exciting, the others less so.

There is no new car but there are two attractive women, one Turkish the other English: neither reveal a great deal of flesh. I am not sure why not.

 Bond himself is quite good, gaunt and serious.

Sadly, however, at the centre of the film is an old  fat grey clucking hen, known as Judi Dench. The director, who has preachy inclinations, plainly wanted to turn the picture into a serious film: hence he attempts to cover such themes as remorse, aging, Britain's role in the world; additionally, Bond's character is implicitly psycho-analysed as that of a orphan. It is implied that he may have had homosexual experiences too. Also his enjoyment of alchohol is tut-tutted.

All this sententiousness would be intolerable even if the the film were competently written. It isn't, and moreover it misses the point about Bond totally, notably that we love Bond not because he as touchy-feely liberal values, but because he doesn't.

Think Like a Man (2012): review: 5.5 /10

A number of couples are affected by the advice in a best-selling self-help book. The couples are generally black, loud and middle-class, at least in terms of earnings: there seems to be a mismatch between their incomes and and their cultural level.

This slickly made film is enjoyable, if unsurprising.

Ted (2012): review: 7/10

Suburban Massachussetts: a young man finds a lover: his teddy bear companion is jealous.

Enjoyable, energetic comic piece about male friendship featuring gross-out humour, slapstick, sentimentality, farce.

Darling Companion (2012): review: 3/10

Mountainous middle class Colorado: two couples and the daughter of one sand a a missing dog. The search for the dog provides a vehicle for portraying their relationships.

All the characters in this film are tedious, the women especially so (the film might usefully be shown to young men as a warning of the perils of marriage) and the film takes itself very seriously indeed.  There is one promising scene featuring a goat, but alas this leads nowhere interesting.

2 Days in New York (2012): review: 3/10

A French photographer lives in New York with her black journalist and radio presenter boyfriend. Her relatives come to visit. There are various farcical culture clashes.

This is a Wood Allen style picture, but one lacking the necessary generosity: Delpy is more shrill than witty, and though there are occasional good individual set pieces overall the film stumbles.

Ruby Sparks (20120: review: 5/10

A young, celebrated writer is frustrated in finding love and in his craft: one of his characters comes to life.

The film drags because of Dano's horribly mannered acting, his drippy facial expression, and the poor pacing of the plot which at most merits a film of twenty minutes.

To Rome With Love (2012): review 2/10

The stories of various characters in Rome, including a young architect and his older correspondent, a music producer and and opera singer played by Benigni.

It feels as if Allen made up this film as he went along, trusting to fate or depending on cliche to guide him. The pacing is awful, the jokes sink.  Allen himself is irritating, as is Benigni and one leaves the film grateful for the end.

The film fails to celebrate Rome, or even American presumptions about it, as Allen's previous Parisian film managed to do.

People Like Us (2012): review: 1/10

In California, the father of a self regarding young salesman dies. The salesman meets his father's illegitimate daughter and despite already having an attractive partner, becomes emotionally embroiled in her life, and that of her son.

The film degenerates rapidly into a soap opera format, with contrived melodramatic exchanges. The lead exudes self satisfaction, as if he would really prefer to be in an advertisment for hair shampoo. The others actors are not much different. The plot is preposterous. No one can act, and they are all too good-looking.

Utterly phoney: avoid.