The Odyssey (2026): review: 6/10

 *

The tribulations of Odysseus as he returns by sea with his crew and fellow warriors from the Trojan Wars to reunite with his, anxious wife, Penelope.

There are some striking set pieces, particularly featuring the Cyclops Circe, and the Sirens.

 It can be hard to follow the plot, though the long running time passes without longeurs.

The moronically obvious soundtrack consists largely of loud drums: boom! boom! boom! as if created for the hard of hearing.

The script consists largely of solemn pronouncements, without one scintilla of humour. It can be a little hard to follow the plot. 

Anne Hathaway is disgrace as Penelope, grimacing all the time. The rest of the cast are unmemorable except for creepy, clunky Eliot Page.

In short: competent standard-issue macho cinema, with zero subtlety, which has generated more interest than it merits.

*

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.

Creation (2009): review: 6.5/10

Darwin's faith, and that of his wife, become challenged by his conculsions as he works on The Origin of Species in his country home.

He is troubled by sickness and one of his children dies. He is encouraged by friends in the scientific community. His relationship with the Parish Vicar deteriorates.

The directing style is imaginative, but the films themes are probably unfilmable and it drags.

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.

Raising Helen (2004): review: 6/10

There are three sisters: Helen lives in New York and works for a fashion model agency: she is single and works a fair amount, at other times drinking. Her elder sister, who is considerably less attractive, has two children, a settled suburban lifestyle and a superiority complex. The third sister and husband die in a car accident: it is written in the Will that Helen is to take charge of the children, a boy and an adolescent girl, much to the chagrin of the elder sister and to the suprise of Helen herself.

Helen moves from Manhattan to Queens where she is befriended by a kind neighbour. She sends the children to a Lutheran school, where she meets a charming pastor. She has problems keeping up with her work commitments, and fulfilling some of the roles of parent, specifically when the adolescent girl becomes involved with an unpleasant young man who wears a baseball cap the wrong way round.

There's nothing really wrong with this film: it's ok, overlong, well intentioned, but unsurprising.

The Rebound (2009): review: 6/10

An attractive suburban brunette discovers her husband is having an affair: she decamps with her two small children to New York, where she rents an apartment above a coffee shop. She begins a successful career in TV.

The fellow running the coffee shop is an insipid mommy's boy, the ill-dressed, unhaven going-nowhere son of a wealthy, charmless Upper West Side family. His accent is hatefully nasal, and he quite vomit-inducingly, a-sexually nice. His best friend, who aspires to a career on the stage, is a sleazy loser, and a rotten actor.

However, being quite immature, coffee-shop boy gets on well with the children: mother finds this quality sufficient to inspire copulation.

It is dreadful to think that women might really go for men like this.

Entertaining drivel; might be good to watch on a long flight.

The Great Buck Howard (2008): review: 6/10

Against the wishes of is father, a young mans drops out of law school, seeking to become a writer. To earn some money in the meantime, he takes a job as assistant to "mentalist" showman  Buck Howard, who is attempting to revive his career.

The film parallels the career beginnings of the young man with the older, and the plot is handled deftly. The acting is generally good and the film is never dull.

But there is something unimaginative about the direction, so that the film considerably lacks the atmosphere and passionate engagement that the story and characters deserve.

Barfly (1987): review: 6/10

A dissolute writer engages in fist-fights and drinks heavily in the bars he frequents in LA. He meets a woman and moves in with her: they drink a lot and hang about bars.

The film begins very slowly but later picks up thanks to Faye Dunaway's charm.

It can be compared to "Factotum": both feature Charles Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, and the plotlines are fairly similiar.

However, "Factotum" is more beautifully filmed, showing considerable sensitivity to urban locations and interiors. Moreover, the plot of "Factotum" is much more varied, and Dillon's acting is subtler: heis more convincing as a successful writer than Rourke.

3:10 to Yuma (2007): review: 6/10

A poor, one-legged farmer is hired, among others, to escort a gangster to a prison train: they have some difficulties because of the gangster's extraordinary powers and the persistence of his gang.

Everyone is grumpy except for Russell Crowe who tries to be friendly to the farmer and his son.

The film is nicely shot but goes on and on, becoming enervated, lacking the wit needed to lift it.

Chloe (2009): review: 6/10

Icy Toronto: a woman hires a prostitute to discover if her flirtatious husband is susceptable to having an affair.

This, as we discover during the film, is a very foolish thing to do.

Well acted and swiftly directed, if somewhat formulaic.

Jungle Fever (1991): review: 6/10

A married black architect begins a relationship with his temp, a woman of Italian origins: this annoys both his wife, and his paramours family. He also leaves his job on failing to be promoted to the partnership.

The various narrative lines are slickly knitted together to illustrate the effect of racism on romantic relationships.

But the message of the film is too obvious to form the basis of a feature film , and therefore leaves one with the suspicion that it was made more to provoke debate in secondary schools than to entertain the wider public.

He's Just Not That Into You (2009): review- 6/10

A girl negociates dating: her barman friend advises.

Another anti-rom-com rom-com.

I wasn't bored, the central idea is diverting enough, and the girls are pretty, though I can never really recognise the people in these films, who are lacking in some core fundamentals of personality, as if they were designed by advertising agents for Cosmopoitan magazine readers.

Valdez is Coming (1971): review- 6/10

6/10

An aging sherrif, Valdez, has shot a wrong murder suspect: he approaches an unpleasant landowner for compensation for the suspect's widow.

Though solidly made, the film does not touch as it might because the standoff between Valdez and his landowner counterpart is not perfectly realised.

This might be because the landowner lacks the glamour that wicked characters need, or it could be because they do not mirror each other sufficiently, and the film therefore lacks moral complexity.

Birdman of Alcatraz (1962): review- 6/10

Well paced story of a convict that takes up bird breeding and becomes an aknowledged expert in the matter.

The film is further animated by an ongoing feud between a prison governor and the hero.

The film is nicely filmed, with very characterisitc tics from the time, and Lancaster is excellent, if unlikely, as the convict, being much too good-looking.

The film attempts, clumsily, to introduce a political message about crime. It argues that the prisoners are somehow victims of society- though the director indeed skirts any examination of the convict's crimes, or his motivations for them, nor those of his co-detainees.

A definate superficiality then, is sustained thoughout; this is particularly apparant in the relations with his mother and also his wife.

Crazy Heart (2009): review- 6/10

6/10

Impoverished but charismatic country singing dypsomaniac falls in lurve.

Bridges is good, but lacks shade enough for the role; Maggie Gyllenhaal likewise is bland.

WARNING: Country music, with it's atrocious lyrical and musical cliches, features in many scenes.

The Whole Nine Yards (2000): review- 6/10

In suburban Montreal, a contract killer moves in next door to a dentist who is having maritial difficulties.

Slick farce with good acting and funny scenes: the sort of film that is good to watch on long-haul flights.

Planet of the Apes (1968): review- 6/10

Enjoyable but rather obvious satire, in which apes dominate a planet.

Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008): review- 6/10

In LA, revolting thugs kill each other, usually using guns.

This, in itself, is certainly a good thing: it's hard to be upset about the gang wars- they are highly localised,and the people involved aren't really very nice. Indeed, it's a pity they don't kill each other more as then the rest of society wouldnt have to pay the cost of incarcerating them.

Lively documentary providing some interesting insights into the history of black LA, and interviews with gang members who speak a sort of English. I fear the film skirts some issues about moral breakdown within black communities, advancing the rise of gangs as necessary response to their situation.

Manufacturing Consent (1992): review- 6/10

A documentary that traces (very sympathetically) Noam Chomsky's political work, largely through old footage of TV and radio interviews and lectures.

Chomsky believes the mass media are being controlled, albeit indirectly, by the powers that be which he considers fundamentally malign; he visits an alternative, cooperative publishing firm and some independent radio stations to show alternatives.

The film seems dated, given the explosive effect on conventional media outlets of internet, and could happily be cut by at least 40 minutes.

Burma VJ (2009): review- 6/10

A video-diary account of the popular protests against the millitary dictatorship which were led by Buddhist monks.

This courageous film gives a good sense of the oppression of tyranny but lacks somewhat in necessary detail on the personalities leading the dictatorship.