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.

Perks of Being a WallFlower (2012): review: 3/10

A young man with literary interests starts high school where, after a humiliating start, he makes some friends and begins his first romantic relationship with a bossy girl, despite a strong attraction to a more charming female member of his set who, alas, seems more interested in men who maltreat her- much like his sister.

The film begins sympathetically enough, but rapidly turns routinous with  stock characters, such as a standard issue flamboyant homosexual and various jocks. The direction is unimaginative and the soundtrack is obvious.

It compares badly to Donnie Darko.

Damsels in Distress (2011): review: 1/10

Three women proffer advice to newcomers in an American campus, running a self-styled Suicide Prevention Centre and trying to initiate a dance craze. There is also a conflict with the campus newspaper`s editor.

With a dead performance from Greta Gerwig as central actor, and a dud script with little plot, the film presents nothing more that a hail of obscure snobberies.

Like many US films, Damsels suffers from a claustrophobic insularity: it is surely pertinent that the villain of the piece is a foreigner, specifically a French sodomite.

I think what made the other Stillman films effective was that excentric and, occasionally snobbish, characters were placed in challenging environments: either abroad as in Barcelona, or in New York. Thus, we could see  them as an outsiders, and feel a certain sympathy for  their individualism. In this film, the outsiders are now insiders: their elitism becomes considerably less likeable as a result.

Wicker Park (2004): review 2/10

Chicago: a man sees a former partner in a cafe and, intrigued, delays an important business trip to China to investigate.


The piece begins well enough, successfully creating suspense, but, gosh!, after that the plot becomes so convoluted it would be quite impossible for any sane person follow it for the rest of the film.

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.

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.

Conviction (2010): review: 5.5/10

In Michigen, a working class mother trains to become a lawyer in order to free her brother, whom she believes has been wrongly convicted for murder.

This is a protracted and earnest picture in which Hilary Swank's unusual lips provide the only light relief.

I Melt with You (2011): review: 2.5/10

Middle class male friends reunite in a remote house in California to drink, take drugs and bear hug.

This goes on for a considerable amount of time until something, inevitably, goes wrong.

Pretentious picture relieved only by good British punk music and Californian scenery.