Blood on the Moon : Robert Wise (1948)
To Have & Have Not : Howard Hawks (1944)
Manchester by the Sea : Kenneth Lonergan (2016)
Red Road : Andrea Arnold (2006)
Parisienne (Peur de Rien): Danielle Arbid (2016)
Cinema Paradiso : Giuseppe Tornatore (1988)
Jackie : Pablo Larrain (2016)
Toni Erdmann : Maren Ade (2016)
Thumbsucker : Mike Mills (2005)
Portrait : Sergei Loznitsa (2002)
Twentieth Century Woman : Mike Mills (2016)
Old Joy : Kelly Reichardt (2006)
Ah but what did you think of them John? in particular “Manchester….” and “20th Century….”(with its interesting soundtrack). We rely on you for a view outside the normal critical orthodoxy so fill us in….no need re the Mitchum because, as we all know, he is The Man. All we’ve caught is “Brown Willy” at Praa Sands Community Centre and it really is the Cornish “Withnail ” catch it if you can…..
Well … I thought “Manchester …” was very good indeed; good performances, well-written, intelligent, interesting way with the narrative. Quite compulsive. We all three went to see “20th Century Woman” and enjoyed that, too, though at a different level. We found ourselves laughing out loud quite a lot then noticed that not everyone around us (the cinema was two-thirds full) was joining in. Got the impression, in fact, that quite a few people agreed with Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian that the film was smug and superficial. (A thumbs down from Bradshaw usually meaning a thumbs up from us.) Also, highly enjoyable and decidedly up lifting is “Hidden Figures”. Just booked for “Moonlight” tomorrow … Oh dear, Bradshaw loves it. But then, so does everyone apparently.