Jamie passion and passionfruit!

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Not quite the disaster many critics suggested but not without its serious flaws either (mainly the script), Evening is directed by talented Hungarian Lajos Koltai and features the always fine Vanessa Redgrave, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close and the younger talents of Toni Collette, Claire Danes, very good in a difficult pivotal role and Mamie Gummer (daughter of Meryl).  The men are pretty wet and the women do what they can with this story that has its moments and its message.  Bearable.

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Competent Austrian film, which won the Oscar for Best foreign language film.  There is no denying that it is a well constructed watchable movie with no series gaffes and an interesting story to tell.  Somehow it just never quite takes off for me and does seem somewhat calculated.  Karl Markovics as Sorowitsch does a very good job with satisfactory supporting actors and good photography.  This does not have the same transcendent qualities of Schindler’s List or Fearless but does give us food for thought.  Great tango music too!

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It may not be a masterpiece but Still Life has many features to recommend it.  First, the vision of the director to shoot a film in Feng jie, a town being demolished brick by brick to make way for the massive Three Gorges Valley Dam.  In this desolate landscape of uncertain futures and mass migration of locals, both out to seek a new life and inwards to work on the demolition we see two stories: a man searching for his wife and daughter after 16 years and a woman looking for her husband who came to work on one of the projects.  But the main merit of the movie is not the plot but all that we see – the setting, the humidity in the place, the desperate search to make a living and the sense that progress is somehow chaotic and beyond any real assessment by anyone involved.  It happens and people adapt.  Seeing the real living conditions of many Chinese in this movie may be a shock but this is probably the truth of what goes on in industrialized China and despite the grand splendour of the geography what man has done is not pretty.  The movie is slow moving but generally absorbing though I found parts of the woman’s story dragged.  Zhang-Ke Jia adds in some magic realism for good measure and overall the lyrical photography and music round the film out.

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Not exactly my scene but this action film had some great moments, excellent effects and the inspired casting of Robert Downey Jnr in the lead.  Maybe, at times the plot was a bit convoluted but I was engaged by it.

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Italian award winning drama about two brothers, one communist, one fascist against the backdrop of the social upheavals in the 60’s and 70’s in Italy.  Trouble is, we’ve seen it all before!  And better in Il meglio gioventú.  So, does Daniele Lucchetti have anything to offer in this version?  He is clearly competent enough but after the first hour I got bored and the ending, despite a surprise or two is not so unpredictable either.  The real gems in this film are the actors.  Elio Germano is a star as Accio and Angela Finocchiaro as his mother does a great job.  The rest of the cast do their bit to make this a worthy work but not top class at all.

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The critics love director, Lucrecia Martel in Argentina.  The public are not so sure.  I tend to side with the latter, even if I liked her first effort, La Cienaga.  Martel has produced a film that includes some excellent effects like the car crash which brings about the heroine’s state of confusion and it is true that we get a good idea of her mental condition and sort of get to share it.  Like Darin’s epilepsy in El Aura.  The problem is that all this doesn’t get us very far as there is little real storyline.  Maria Onetto does OK as does Maria Vaner in her last role.  Excellent soundtrack, good photography, natural recreation of Salta society but this left me pretty cold.

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Woody Allen goes serious again and brings us a psychological suspense.  One of his weakest scripts in years which the actors work miracles with – the whole film is watchable but just rather flat.  Colin Farrell does his best work in years. Tom Wilkinson always welcome.

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Argentine documentary by veteran filmmaker Pino Solanas about the selling off and neglect of the national railway network.  A surprisingly upbeat movie for the sombre subject, good tango music from Gerardo Gandini and a slamming critique of the politicians, unions and business interests responsible for this theft of national patrimony.

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