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Man and Wife – Poem: survival, loss, love, commitment

TweetMan and Wife His unwilling legs have felt such pain his eyes have seen such sorrow his worn down heart such loss his tears have no tomorrow for loves he can’t regain Three dead children haunt his nights their memories ghost his days his survival defies all sense courage shadows all his ways love his […]

The Home At The end Of The World – adult, touching, real

Tweet The Home At The End Of The World – Michael Mayer This is an impressive little film that received a shamefully limited release. With a screenplay by Michael Cunningham (The Hours) of his first novel, director Mayer has fashioned a tender, grown up film about complex relationships. It is about belonging without ownership; ownership […]

Cock and Bull Story (Tristram Shandy) – anarchic, lusty, rambunctious

Tweet A Cock And Bull Story (Tristram Shandy) – Michael Winterbottom Eric Morecombe, Andre Previn’s lapels in hand, responding to the maestro’s accusation that he has just played all the wrong notes, famously replies with mock menace – “No, I played all the right notes….but not necessarily in the right order”. An apt metaphor for […]

The Hours – Kidman 0 – prosthetic nose 1 – the nose has it

Tweet The Hours – Stephen Daldry Oh Ms Kael, where are you when we need you most? The Hours is the kind of meretricious, overblown, overacted, worthy movie for which Pauline Kael kept her sharpest wit and keenest barbs. And just the kind of art-on-its-sleeve literary pretentiousness members of the Academy love to reward with […]

Kill Bill (1) – dressed to kill, well Uma is anyway

Tweet Kill Bill (1) – Quentin Tarantino Kill Bill (1) is like an expensive, super-cool, shiny, intriguing executive toy. Everyone admires and is impressed by its cleverness and design. It is amusing, diverting, conversation stopping – and totally pointless. Its only function is to be what it is. It has no purpose, or value. It […]

Bride and Prejudice – a cultural mishmash. parodying itself

Tweet Bride and Prejudice – Gurinder Chadha For once I’m at a complete loss. I need guidance. Cinematically this film is a cross between Blue Hawaii and an execrable advert for my local Indian restaurant. I loved Bend It Like Beckham which really seemed to explore with humour and perceptiveness the boundaries of assimilated or […]

A Loving Woman – Poem: loving, make love, generosity, failure

TweetA Loving Woman A loving woman is not one who lets a man make love to her whenever he wants A loving woman is one who makes a man still feel whole when he has failed to make love to her

The Hero – oriental in tone, stunning visual style

Tweet The Hero – Zhang Yimou It is rare that one can recommend a film simply because of its stunning visual style. The cinematography (Christopher Doyle), editing and especially vibrant colour throughout create a movie that, irrespective of anything else, is always fascinating to watch. I have not seen a film before where a different […]

Far From Heaven – Douglas Sirk’s form but not his substance

Tweet Far From Heaven – Todd Haynes Spoofs of James Bond movies never seem to work because they play off a genre which itself lives on the very edges of credibility. The problem for me with FFH is similar in that its director, Todd Haynes, tries faithfully and lovingly to recreate the already emotionally florid […]

Lost In Translation – Coppola’s Hollywood movie with European sensibility

Tweet Sadly, the fears I expressed in this review four years ago about Scarlett Johanssen have been realised. Lost In Translation – Sofia Coppola We can categorise films constructively in order to validate aesthetic comparisons. We more often do so lazily in order to file them away in ill-fitting pigeon holes to decide which Oscar […]