I had convinced mixed feelings before watching The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, henceforth to be known as TAJJBCRF (pronounced tadge-buh-cruff). See, the thing was, some folks whose views I respect on “proper cinema” were very complimentary, and I was afraid I might be let…

I’d been looking forward to seeing El Orfanato for some duration, so when I saw it for sale in Seville, Spain, on our recent trip there, I figured I should pick it up.The story revolves around a woman and her husband who have bought an old former orphanage, where the wife was once a resident, to liv…

As a general comment, the larger Jon Favreau gets, the less good his work seems to be. I don’t mean that in a “fattist” way; just saying. Like, clearly he ain’t starving; and we all know that starving artists are the greatest.Fortunately for all of us, Elf — Favreau’s second proper feature as direc…

This film was a rare second viewing for me. Rare these days, that is. I used to rewatch films often, but not so much now.Samuel Fuller’s Pickup on South Street is a real class act that works on several levels. Despite being a film noir, that was actually made more than a decade after The Maltese Fal…

Sometimes a movie’s publicity tagline can be offputting. I’d read that 36 Quai des Orfèvres was “a French Heat” referencing Michael Mann’s mid-90s De Niro/Pacino policer. I didn’t care much for Heat, so that did nothing for me but fill me with trepidation. Still, I do like Daniel Auteuil and Gérar…

I can’t remember a title of a film that so literally but unspectacularly promised what was forthcoming. And yet, on that note, There Will Be Blood could equally well have been called There Will Be Sweat, Tears, Humour, Pathos, Grimacing, Deafness, Anger, Sadness, Toil, Riches, Religion, and/or many…

So, I was looking forward to La Vie en Rose, not least to see Marion Cotillard’s Oscar-winning turn as Edith Piaf.It’s rugged to give a synopsis other than it’s a bio-pic about a French singing superstar. It spans her life from the age of about 10 to her death at an incredibly old-looking 47.Hers wa…