Thursday, 9 July 2020
Mélodie en sous-sol (1963)
A sixtyish career criminal fresh out of jail, rejects his wife's plan for a quiet life of bourgeois respectability and enlists a former cellmate to assist him in pulling off one final score, a carefully planned assault on the vault of a Cannes casino.
Highly entertaining heist thriller is both suspenseful and full of dry humour; Jean Gabin is, as always, a joy to watch.
Maltin**1/2: "Some tense climactic moments."
Tuesday, 7 July 2020
McLintock! (1963)
Cattle baron George Washington McLintock fights his wife, his daughter, and political land-grabbers.
Another wildly entertaining John Wayne - Maureen O'Hara variation on The Taming of the Shrew. Not suitable for feminists.
On rewatching: Male-bonding festivity looks like they intended to have as much of fun as possible on set and imagined it would reflect onscreen - unfortunately it does.
Halliwell*: "Sub-Ford Western farce borrowed from The Taming of the Shrew, with much fist-fighting and mud-splattering, and rather too much chat in between."
Maltin***: "Rowdy slapstick seldom stops - a giant mud pit free-for-all and a public spanking for O'Hara are just a few of the stops along the way in this Western version of The Taming of the Shrew. Not recommended for feminists."
Sunday, 5 July 2020
Level 16 (2018)
In a highly regimented boarding school, a pair of students discover that things are not as they seem.
Very good dystopian tale, a bit reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale in its bleak vision of female oppression, successfully conveys an atmosphere of mystery, suppression and dread.
Saturday, 4 July 2020
Chappaquiddick (2017)
Depicting Ted Kennedy's involvement in the fatal 1969 car accident that claims the life of a young campaign strategist, Mary Jo Kopechne.
This movie's slickly made with excellent performances, but such a sober, unexcited depiction of the events, it doesn't reveal more than the facts already known.
Friday, 3 July 2020
Midsommar (2019)
A couple travels to Sweden to visit a rural hometown's fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
While made in top quality with an involving performance by Florence Pugh and some unsettling scenes, the plot is quite muddled and offers a disappointing ending.
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