Review: Fame

Before Britain's Got Talent, before the X-Factor, before Glee - there was Fame - one of the quintessential musicals of the 80s. For some reason, I never managed to see it back then, but remember the iconic theme music dominating the charts.

It traces a number of performing arts students as they progress through school. The dialogue is one of the best bits of it. It's gritty, loaded with appealing slang and seems to perfectly capture the struggles and aspirations of teenagers.  The students and teacher interactions, thanks to strong casting on both sides, are never less than completely believable. The teaching points were some of my favourite parts.

Thematically, it manages to cover most of the bases teens are concerned about.

Where the film struggles is in having too many characters to follow - some of whom I barely managed to connect with before it had moved on.  While Fame does have a structure based around school years, it feels perhaps realistically chaotic.

Verdict: A slice of 80s nostalgia.

Review: Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

I loved idea of this book. Take a simple concept like what does life after death really look like and instead of squeezing the juice out of one idea - produce a few dozen vignettes on the theme and let your reader ponder them instead.  Not taken with one of them? Simply move onto the next.

There's quite a bit of repetition, or at least variations on a theme. Some like the opening story, really make you think - others feel like the denouement of a Twilight Zone episode. 

Verdict: Mind Candy. 

Review: Never Let Me Go

The missus was truly suckered into this one. She took one look at the romantic cover and announced we must watch it. Another score from the 25p bin in my local charity shop I figured, while carefully ignoring her requests to read the back cover to her.

It's not a conventional romance.

If you are able to follow the same advice, it'll be a much more intriguing watch for this is an alt-Britain with a single devastating idea at its core. A horrifying Faustian pact means disease has been near eliminated.

Mulligan, Garfield and Knightly are all a bit too old to truly convince as teens they portray in the middle section of the movie, but they did capture the naive goofiness well. In lesser hands, the film wouldn't half as effective as all three reveal the changing life circumstances of each in an occasionally breathtakingly sad manner.

Verdict: If Britain made the Island or Bladerunner it would probably look something like this. 

Review: Invictus

Sport as a metaphor for unity is a familiar trope, but rarely have the stakes been so high as they are in Invictus.  Here, Freeman's superbly played Mandela sees it as a way to bring the country together - a country which in lesser hands could have easily fallen into civil war.

The story takes a familiar route, but in sporting terms it is a highly effective ones.  Thankfully as someone who hasn't played rugby since school - and didn't particularly comprehend its appeal even then - Eastwood chooses to focus on the human drama. One of the most effective strands follows the presidential bodyguard team.

The only slightly disappointing is that a few pieces of crucial exposition are left out. For example, I don't recall hearing any explanation of Invictus. I'll leave you - as I did - to head on over Wikipedia for that.

Verdict: Eastwood's on less divisive form. 

Review: All the Money in the World

Were All the Money in the World a different movie, there would be a danger of the behind the scenes drama overshadowing the final film.  Reshooting one of the main character's appearances with a different actor in little over a week surely counts as one of the most extraordinary developments in recent filmmaking history.

It was worth it though. It's a taut absorbing thriller. Plummer's Getty is complex and monstrous. Williams stands out as Harris - treading a line between sheer desperation at her son's plight and her determination to ensure his safety.  Only Wahlberg feels a bit underused although he does play a pivotal role towards the end of the drama.

Verdict: Money can't buy you happiness or safety, but it can get a superb piece of eleventh hour casting. 

Review: True Romance

Early and achingly sweet and brutal romance from the pen of Tarantino. In many ways, it feels like a prototype for some of his later movies.  Aficionados of his work will spot familiar lines, tropes and even cast members.

Most of the sweet charm comes from the relationship between Arquette's call girl turned wife and Slater's comic book guy turned wannabe gangster.  It's a testament to what love can do I guess.

Director Scott deftly balances the humour, romance and violence.

Verdict: Proto-tino

Review: Black Panther

Another Marvel superhero outing, but with a bit of a twist. The superhero comes from a highly technologically advanced, but hidden, country in the African continent.

There's a curiously stilted feel to the production at times - and the bright lighting drains it of atmosphere and gives it the feel of an 80s TV show.   Boseman as the titular lead lacks charisma. I'd have much rather have seen Jordan who plays his rival in his place. Nyong'o and Wright provide good support.

On the plus side, costume and set design is excellent. I particularly liked the Maasai inspired all-women special forces.  It also deals with themes of inclusion, historical injustice and imperialism intelligently.

Review:  Intriguing Afro-futurist curio

Review: Mission Impossible Fallout

The near ageless and always watchable Cruise leads his ensemble and not quite so ageless team (Pegg looks healthier, but craggier) through a dizzying number of double crosses and twists that deliver on the franchise's name and cement it as...whisper....better than Bond in the action stakes.

Some of set pieces and particularly the climatic helicopter sequence are absolutely thrilling - even gasp worthy (especially given my fear of heights), but remain grounded in something like physical reality unlike many of today's flashily edited CGI fests.  This will be returned to again and again like Mad Max: Fury Road.

If there is a criticism, it is that I could have done with a few more touches of humour to offset the underlying grimness of the premise.  On the strength of this, I hope Cruise and the gang are up for another one.

Verdict: Fallout is much better than the fifth sequel to anything should be.

Review: A Bronx Tale

De Niro's debut as director is a competent coming of age story about acceptance, wasted potential and power. There's the odd, slightly showy, directorial flourish here and there but he rightly puts the focus on the Capra and Brancato - variously playing the main character, Calogero Anello, at nine and seventeen respectively. Both are strong portrayals - and Brancato has more than a touch of De Niro about his look.

Also of note are Hicks (breathtakingly beautiful and heartbreaking performance) and Palminteri (manages to hit exactly the right notes as a unexpectedly thoughtful gangster).

Verdict: Mob story with heart. 

Review: The Illusionist

An old fashioned hallucinatory quality adds significant appeal to this drama of love across the class divide. Production values aside, t's a film that could have plausibly been made in the 1950s and is all the better for the restraint. It doesn't spoon feed you exposition and left speculating whether one character's explanation for the events really happened.

Appreciate Norton's attempt at the accent, but it occasionally took me out of the film especially as Biel, Sewell and Giamatti don't bother.  I always enjoy Giamatti's tortured performances and soulful eyes.

Verdict: A satisfying study of love triumphing over power. 

Review: A Quiet Place

Refreshing take on the alien invasion story. Like the title, the tale is told in near silence as the aliens hunt by sound alone.

Real life couple, Blunt and Krasinski, are convincing on-screen as they try to deal with loss as well as keep their family safe.

The ending and key discovery while satisfying is hard to believe - given that the world's governments appeared not to have sussed it out previously.

Verdict: Strong leads and interesting situation make this better than average monster flick. 

Review: My Legendary Girlfriend

Gayle's My Legendary Girlfriend is my first foray into lad lit courtesy of my local book group. It's well, even compellingly, written. Given when it's set, the main character is a just a few years older than myself meaning that the cultural references are somewhat recognisable. That created a few pangs of nostalgia - and not just for the time, but that period in my life.

The key problem is that the lead character, Will, a 20 something school teacher living in a bedsit in London, while initially sympathetic and occasionally humorous remains irritatingly self-indulgent and from about 100 pages in it became a chore to stay the course as a result.  From the character's perspective, they change a lot in a few hours - but it's near real time for the reader.  It's hard to spend that much time with such an unlikeable character.

The ending when it finally comes is too pat and contrived.

Verdict: Glad I read this, but was happier still when I'd finished.

Review: Moneyball

A film about baseball is not an obvious choice for a non-sport watching Brit. But I had my hopes that this would be less about the sport, and more about innovation within the management of professional baseball teams.

Thankfully, my hopes weren't dashed. My understanding of baseball progressed no further than "it's a bit like rounders". Deepest apologies, baseball fans.

Moneyball answers the question of what to do when your opponent has 4x more resources than you.  The answer is to science the sh*t out of the data and put together a team of misfits who in aggregate should be much better than they are separately.  It's an interesting companion piece to something like Brailsford's aggregation of marginal gains approach.

Pitt, by the way, is really good in this film. He grounds it and his passion for both the game and his team is utterly convincing.

Verdict: When is a baseball film not about baseball?