I have a confession to make. I’m not very excited about the forthcoming release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, directed by the not-so-amazing Marc Webb. It’s the follow-up to 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, which I also gave a wide berth…. Continue Reading →
Director Jacques Audiard describes Rust and Bone, his widely acclaimed follow-up to A Prophet, as a “gritty melodrama”. I wonder whether something got lost in translation. On paper, there is plenty here that would excite the likes of Pedro Almodóvar… Continue Reading →
If you’ve watched enough Hollywood films, you’ll already know that the 1960s were just one long drug-fuelled odyssey, with semi-improvised plotlines, gratuitous nudity and great music. For those who weren’t lucky enough to be tuning on or dropping out in… Continue Reading →
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan may have been thinking about The Titfield Thunderbolt when he made his often misquoted “never had it so good” speech in 1957. Released four years earlier, Ealing’s first colour film is an unabashed celebration of post-war… Continue Reading →
Animal lovers will be moved to tears by the opening of René Clément’s World War II drama, Forbidden Games (Jeux Interdits). As terrified families flee Paris during the summer of 1940, adorable six-year-old Paulette (Brigitte Fossey) and her parents are… Continue Reading →
Mist rises through the trees in an eerie-looking landscape, as pan pipes play on the soundtrack. Momentarily, I thought I’d dropped in on the action at Picnic at Hanging Rock. But this is the post-credits sequence of René Clément’s And… Continue Reading →
If the definition of a real movie star is that he looks good wearing a plastic bin bag, then Bradley Cooper has definitely made the transition from A Team to A-list. After watching Silver Linings Playbook, it’s also pretty clear… Continue Reading →
"Why can't you scientists leave things alone?" Cinema in the 1950s often focused on the dangers caused by experiments that went horribly wrong. But Ealing's The Man in the White Suit isn't a sci-fi movie about marauding giant ants, or… Continue Reading →
Is this a love triangle or the perfect screen bromance? Either way, César et Rosalie is a witty and sophisticated romantic drama about the ebb and flow of relationships between a divorcée and the two very different men in her… Continue Reading →
The Devil Rides Out (1968) is a fast-moving tale about devil worshippers in the leafy Home Counties, in which the actor best known as Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) goes head to head with the smooth-talker who once played Ernst Stavro… Continue Reading →
© 2024 Notreallyworking — Words by Susannah Straughan
