Movie review - "Malificent" (2014) ***

 Enjoyable, handsome, with Angelina Jolie having the time of her life. A decent reimagining of the story. The male lead/villain feels a little undercast. Looks terrific. Some uncanny valley with the "little people" sequences. Liked it more than I thought.

Movie review - "Wonder Wheel" (2017) ** (warning: spoilers)

Amazon Studios opened their cheque books for Woody Allen meaning he could make more period pieces. Its a shame he didn't go the full autobiographical route like Neil Simon did with his Biloxi trilogy, and like he did with Radio Days and Annie Hall. I'd love to see accounts of him being a teenager, and working in TV and early stand up.

He's got a lot of money here to recreate Coney Island 1950s - it looks fantastic, with rides and extras and it's beautifully shot.

But instead of anything autobiographical he's come up with what seems to be a first draft attempt to recreate kitchen sink realism plays of the 1950s/60s - the sort of thing that popped up on the Golden Years of Television.

Allen has enough craft to ensure there's at least a story. Maybe he pinched the structure off another play like he did in Blue Jasmine (Streetcar Named Desire) and Play It Again Sam (The Seven Year Itch). Juno Temple visits father Jim Belushi fleeing her gangster husband. Belushi is married to Kate Winslet who starts sleeping with Justin Timberlake who becomes taken with Temple.

There is talk of fate and destiny, with Timberlake acting as a Greek chorus - I didn't mind this.  The dialogue is incredibly self conscious and on the nose, as it would often be in Allen dramas, like it's translated subtitles as opposed to real dialogue, but once I got used to the style I didn't mind.

Modern day Allen films offer their pleasures - production design, cinematography (the colours are amazing), a fine cast. Belushi is a bit self conscious at times, as if acting in a play to the galleys. Winslet is sensational. Timberlake is fine, Temple is extremely good.

And again Allen re-uses tropes and themes - there's a nutty actress character who goes increasingly bonkers (Winslet), a womanising man who rationalises his lust and is self aware about his tendency to change his "heart" so to speak; love scenes in the rain and talking about rain being romantic.

I actually went with this for a bit - I didn't intend to keep watching but I stuck with it, the story proceeded logically and was building towards some good ticking clocks (Belushi's alcholism, Winslet's nuttiness, the kid's pyromania). That is, until the ending which was so damp and nothing. Temple goes missing but we never find out what happened to her - why not see she's killed. We never meet her ex husband - why not? Why no confrontation with him and Belushi. Belushi doesn't find out about Winslet's adultery - why not? Too exciting? Why don't we pay off the kid more? i.e. him setting fire to things. All he really serves is a reason for Winslet to not take off... I thought he'd betray his mother or Belushi or something. Why not have something interesting happen to Timberlake? Really he and Temple should have been killed and Belushi finds out about it and he kills Winsley and the kid burns down the building. That's what should have happened.

Is Woody scared of drama? Did he wanted to be unexpected?

There's a potentially interesting subplot where Winslet hints at Belushi having a weird attraction to his daughter - which would have been dramatically interesting, and fascinating considering the Dylan Farrow-Woody stuff... and also would have worked dramatically as it did in View from a Bridge by Arthur Miller... but nothing much is made of it and I think Woody is saying "oh that sort of thing is just what a crazy jealous actress would say like Mia". It's got Justin Timberlake leaving a woman for her step daughter... and he gets to be self righteous and leave at the end when his character really should die.

Interesting to look at, great look and some fine acting, but flawed.

TV review - "Vinyl Season 1" (2016) **

You want to love it because the credits list Scorsese, Jagger and Terence Winter, it sounds as if it's going to be cool, the cast is great (Bobby Cannavale getting a lead, Ray Romano going indie, Juno Temple), the concept sounds as though it's going to be good, the art direction and music are fabulous, the cameos from 70s stars like David Bowie and Alice Cooper are awesome...

But it's a crap show. 

I liked the pilot, with Cannavale having an epiphany and a murder plot thrown in... but you sense you're in trouble in ep 2 when they're already doing flashbacks and sure enough it's like the series doesn't have anywhere to go. Cannavale is on coke... then more coke... then more... he's obnoxious... then obnoxious... he fails... then fails... and fails again... How did this guy run a record company? He just yells. He doesn't seem to like new music or be good at business or anything.

Juno Temple is introduced in the pilot as an ambitious little thing with a taste for sex and drugs but an ear for music. Once she discovers the new band though, that's it... she just becomes The Girl, hanging around, taking part in a threesome, and watching.

Max Casella is in it and you go "awesome, well done mate - an HBO series". He looks great in those clothes and has this brilliant shimmy he does and a memorable rant talking about guitar. But that's it - that's the end of his character they just rinse and repeat.

Olivia Wilde looks splendid as always, whines about Cannavale never being home, leaves, takes photos... she's not a character. The support players aren't really characters either.  This was a hard slog to get through.

Movie review - "Dirty Girl" (2010) **

A film which sounded good on paper and had many strong elements - 1980s setting, interesting idea (friendship between fat gay teen and slutty girl in Oklahoma), excellent cast. It sold well at Toronto and you can see why - but Glee did all this much better and more often. It's hard to make a road trip movie different and this one fails to do it. It's not a particularly well directed or acted film with too many obvious jokes and vague characterisation - the gay character veers from shy torn up boy to out and out queen. Strong performances from the two leads.

Movie review - "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012) ****

A bit of a mess but mostly great - they've pulled back on the Hans Zimmer, which I found I missed, and there's some very poor casting of the smaller roles - like the guy who plays the CIA agent at the beginning, the unmemorable mayor, the chubby cop, and Bane's soldiers, who all seem like chubby dudes who've strolled in from the pub.

Stuff you think they'd easily ace is poor - Michael Caine overacts in his emotional scenes (is Chris Nolan too intimidated/tired to give him direction?), the continuity is poor, there are big gaps in logic (e.g. unarmed policeman rushing and overpowering men with semi automatics, people are hostages one minute walking free the next) and really lazy screenwriting (an incredibly convenient speech left in a jacket, a foreshadowing-the-ending-scene that would have been laughed at by the writers of Point Break). This is one of the few movies where you feel it might have been better if it ran ten or twenty minutes longer

But it's a great spectacle: plenty of terrific stunts and action sequences; the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman is actually a good one here (this and Batman Begins are the only films in his series you can really say that about). It's ambition is very endearing: a whole city is shut down, parallels are drawn with the French and Russian revolutions, there is an intriguing political subtext. There's some very satisfying emotion - the drive of Bane, comeback of Batman, redemption of Selina Kyle.

Anne Hathaway, who I thought would be lame as Catwoman, is terrific - lithe, sexy, complex. Marion Cotillard is good too, ditto Bale and Freeman, with Thomas Hardy making an excellent villain. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is okay - I don't know if I want to see him as an action hero in anything. The audience applauded spontaneously at the end and for all the movie's faults, it deserved it.