A Boy Called Dad (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Director: Brian Percival

Writer: Julie Rutterford

Cinematographer: David Katznelson

Composers: Srdjan Kurpjel, Marios Takoushis

Cast: Kyle Ward, Ian Hart, Charlene McKenna, Louise Delamere

Despite its clichéd, contrived, and occasionally even downright silly screenplay, this tale of a 14-year-old New Brightonian lad, who has recently become a father, reuniting with his own long absent father, is decidedly watchable and even quite moving, mainly thanks to Ian Hart’s excellent performance and some fine work from director Percival and photographer Katznelson. Iain.Stott

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Roxy (2010)

Highly Recommended

USA

Short Film

Writer/Director/Cinematographer: Shirley Petchprapa

Cast: Damien Puckler, Roxy Puckler

There are echoes of J.D. Salinger’s A Perfect Day for Bananafish (1948) in Shirley Petchprapa’s intensely sensual and ethereally beautiful self-financed short film, which wallows in the poetry of the every day, finding the beauty in acts as simple as a man watching television, running a bath, and even just cleaning his teeth, whilst his dog, Roxy – the film’s real star – lolls around with effortless elegance. Iain.Stott

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The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1942)

Not Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Directors: Basil Dearden, Will Hay

Writers: John Dighton, Angus MacPhail

Cinematographers: Eric Cross, Günther Krampf

Cast: Will Hay, John Mills, Basil Sydney, Henry Hewitt, Felix Aylmer, Owen Reynolds, Frank Cellier

Click for review.

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Mammoth (2009)

Recommended

Sweden/Denmark/Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Mammut

Writer/Director: Lukas Moodysson

Cinematographer: Marcel Zyskind

Composers: Linus Gierta, Erik Holmquist, Jesper Kurlandsky

Cast: Gael García Bernal, Michelle Williams, Marife Necesito, Sophie Nyweide, Tom McCarthy, Run Srinikornchot, Jan David G. Nicdao, Martin Delos Santos, Maria Esmeralda del Carmen, Perry Dizon

A games designer travels to Thailand to sign a lucrative contract, and reluctantly becomes involved with a beautiful young prostitute, whilst his sensitive, surgeon wife struggles to come to terms with the circumstances that led to the hospitalisation of one of her patients, and their nanny, who looks after their lively, inquisitive daughter, strives to earn enough money to give her young sons, who still live with their father in the Philippines, a good start in life, in Moodysson’s affectingly acted, multi-stranded critique of globalisation and commodification. Iain.Stott

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Vinyan (2008)

Highly Recommended

France/Belgium/UK

Feature Film

Director: Fabrice Du Welz

Writers: Fabrice Du Welz, David Greig, Oliver Blackburn

Cinematographer: Benoît Debie

Composer: François-Eudes Chanfrault

Cast: Emmanuelle Béart, Rufus Sewell, Petch Osathanugrah, Julie Dreyfus, Amporn Pankratok

Six months after losing their son in the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, a couple of aid-workers set off into a Burmese jungle, accompanied by a pair of Triads, in the vain hope of finding him, believing that they may have seen him in an aid video, in Du Welz’s formally adventurous (but not flashy), bravely acted, and decidedly disquieting examination of fear, guilt, and grief – imagine a hybrid of Don't Look Now (1973) and Apocalypse Now (1979). Iain.Stott

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Back-Room Boy (1942)

Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Director: Herbert Mason

Writers: Marriott Edgar, Val Guest, J.O.C. Orton

Cinematographer: Jack Cox

Composer: Hans May

Cast: Arthur Askey, Moore Marriott, Graham Moffatt, Googie Withers, Vera Frances

Like Ask a Policeman (1939), another Gainsborough rip-off of Arthur Ridley's 1923 play The Ghost Train, this Arthur Askey comedy is quite delightful for its first 40 minutes or so, whilst it concentrates on the comedic dexterity of its diminutive Liverpudlian star and his verbal bouts with the film-stealing 12-year-old Vera Frances, but when the plot finally kicks in, and Marriott, Moffatt, and Withers finally make an appearance (all giving performances far from their best), it all descends into slightly tiresome farce – never the less, it’s still well worth watching, though. Iain.Stott

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Return to Oz (1985)

Recommended

USA/UK

Feature Film

Director: Walter Murch

Writers: Gill Dennis, Walter Murch, L. Frank Baum

Cinematographer: David Watkin

Composer: David Shire

Cast: Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, Matt Clark, Sean Barrett, Denise Bryer, Brian Henson, Lyle Conway, Emma Ridley

Based on Baum’s novels The Land of Oz (1904) and Ozma of Oz (1907), which follow on from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), which was loosely adapted as The Wizard of Oz (1939), this well-crafted, creepy, and downbeat film follows Dorothy’s unhappy return to Oz, which in her absense has been taken over by Princess Mombi and The Nome King, with all of her old friends now turned to stone. Iain.Stott

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I Am Slave (2010)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Television Film

Director: Gabriel Range

Writer: Jeremy Brock

Cinematographer: Robbie Ryan

Composers: Harry Escott, Molly Nyman

Cast: Wunmi Mosaku, Isaach De Bankolé, Lubna Azabal, Igal Naor, Natalie Mgmoi, Hiam Abbass

A Sudanese princess, abducted from her small village during the civil war, spends six years living as a slave in North Africa, before being sent to London, where her misery continues; all the while, her devoted father searches tirelessly for her, in this strikingly photographed and well-acted though rather sketchy look at modern day slavery. Iain.Stott

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Dead Man (1995)

Highly Recommended

USA/Germany/Japan

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Jim Jarmusch

Cinematographer: Robby Müller

Composer: Neil Young

Cast: Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Eugene Byrd, Robert Mitchum, John Hurt, Mili Avital

An unassuming accountant from Cleveland kills a man in self-defence, and goes on the run, accompanied by a poetry loving Indian named Nobody, when he is accused of murder by the deceased's powerful industrialist father, who puts up a large reward for his capture, in Jarmusch’s unhurried, stylish, and frequently hilarious existential comedy-western. Iain.Stott

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Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)

Highly Recommended

France

Feature Film

Original Title: Boudu sauvé des eaux

Director: Jean Renoir

Writer: Jean Renoir, Albert Valentin, René Fauchois

Cinematographers: Georges Asselin, Marcel Lucien

Cast: Michel Simon, Charles Granval, Marcelle Hainia, Sévérine Lerczinska, Jean Gehret, Max Dalban, Jean Dasté

After losing his dog, Boudu, an innocent vagrant, jumps suicidally into the Seine, but is saved by a well-meaning bookseller, who, feeling responsible for his life, takes him into his home and becomes his benefactor… chaos subsequently ensues, in Renoir’s hilarious adaptation of Fauchois’s play, filled with excellent comic performances and delicious social commentary. Iain.Stott

René Fauchois's 1919 play was subsequently adapted as Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986).

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King of the Hill (2007)

Not Recommended

Spain

Feature Film

Original Title: El rey de la montaña

Director: Gonzalo López-Gallego

Writers: Javier Gullón, Gonzalo López-Gallego

Cinematographer: José David Montero

Composer: David Crespo

Cast: Leonardo Sbaraglia, María Valverde, Thomas Riordan, Andrés Juste, Pablo Menasanch, Francisco Olmo, Manuel Sánchez Ramos

A man and a woman, who have just met at a country a petrol station, find themselves running for their lives through a leafy wilderness, when a trio of video game enthusiasts start taking pot-shots at them, in López-Gallego’s genuinely unpredictable but generally implausible and illogical thriller. Iain.Stott

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Love + Hate (2005)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Dominic Savage

Cinematographer: Barry Ackroyd

Composer: Rupert Gregson-Williams

Cast: Samina Awan, Tom Hudson, Nichola Burley, Was Zakir, Dean Andrews, Aliya Bhatti, Peter O'Connor, Ryan Leslie

Despite being overly reliant on coincidence, and containing one or two rather trite musical choices, television director Savage’s handsomely photographed big screen debut – a tale of illicit teenaged romance, set against a backdrop of racism and sexism, in a drab northern English town – is surprisingly affecting, mainly due to the assured performances of its attractive young cast. Iain.Stott

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Peppermint Candy (1999)

Recommended

South Korean

Feature Film

Original Title: 박하사탕

Writer/Director: Lee Chang-dong

Cinematographer: Kim Hyeong-Ku

Composer: Lee Jae-Jin

Cast: Sol Kyung-Koo, Kim Yeo-jin, Mun So-Ri, Jung Suh, Park Ji-yeon, Park Se-beom, Lee Dae-yeon, Kim Kyoung-ik

Lee’s visceral, highly affecting little gem, told in reverse order, follows a broken-down, failed businessman (Sol, outstanding) from his booze-sodden, rail track suicide, back through twenty years of pain and suffering filled personal and national history, to his romantic, optimistic (and short-lived) youth. Iain.Stott

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Chéri (2009)

Not Recommended

UK/Cayman Islands/France/Germany

Feature Film

Director/Narrator: Stephen Frears

Writers: Christopher Hampton, Colette

Cinematographer: Darius Khondji

Composer: Alexandre Desplat

Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Friend, Kathy Bates, Felicity Jones

In Frears’s mildly diverting (in a continental lager advert sort of way) though half-baked and curiously undramatic film, a very wealthy middle-aged prostitute struggles to come to terms with the loss of her young lover, Chéri, the 25-year-old son of a work colleague and friend, who has recently been married off to a beautiful 18-year-old girl. Iain.Stott

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Spiral (2007)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Directors: Adam Green, Joel David Moore

Writers: Jeremy Danial Boreing, Joel David Moore

Cinematographer: Will Barratt

Composers: Todd Caldwell, Michael 'Fish' Herring

Cast: Joel David Moore, Amber Tamblyn, Zachary Levi

After disposing of his current muse (possibly messily), Mason, a shy telesalesman with a passion for jazz and painting, strikes up an unlikely friendship with the bubbly new girl at work, who agrees to be his new model; but his increasingly irrational behaviour ensures that things will end anything but well, in Green and Moore’s painfully convincingly acted and deceptively unpredictable psychological drama-cum-thriller (the incongruous use of Alex Lloyd’s Sometimes on the otherwise jazz filled soundtrack is a curious misstep, though). Iain.Stott

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The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Writer/Director: J Blakeson

Cinematographer: Philipp Blaubach

Composer: Marc Canham

Cast: Gemma Arterton, Martin Compston, Eddie Marsan

A pair of n’er-do-wells kidnap the daughter of a multi-millionaire, and keep her strapped to a bed in a soundproofed flat, whilst they wait for her father to pay the two million pound ransom; but, as hidden motivations are revealed, things begin to go horribly wrong, in Blakeson’s predictably unpredictable and well-acted if vaguely illogical feature debut. Iain.Stott

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Convict 99 (1938)

Highly Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Director: Marcel Varnel

Writers: Jack Davis Jr., Ralph Smart, Marriott Edgar, Val Guest, Cyril Campion

Cinematographer: Arthur Crabtree

Cast: Will Hay, Moore Marriott, Graham Moffatt, Googie Withers, Peter Gawthorne, Basil Radford, Dennis Wyndham, Wilfred Walter, Alf Goddard, Basil McGrail

Click for review.

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Champagne Charlie (1944)

Not Recommended

UK

Feature Film

Director: Alberto Cavalcanti

Writers: John Dighton, Angus MacPhail, Austin Melford

Cinematographer: Wilkie Cooper

Composers: Una Bart, T.E.B. Clarke, Frank Eyton, Noel Gay, Ernest Irving, Billy Mayerl, Lord Berners

Cast: Tommy Trinder, Stanley Holloway, Betty Warren, Jean Kent, Austin Trevor, Peter De Greef, Leslie Clarke, Eddie Phillips

This beautifully crafted if generally lacklustre Ealing musical-comedy provides a highly fictionalised portrait of the mid-Victorian music halls performer, George Leybourne – who is perhaps best remembered for his writing of the popular song, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze – which, though containing a few amusing comic moments, is little more than an excuse to film several old musical numbers of varying appeal and quality. Iain.Stott

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Micmacs (2009)

Not Recommended

France

Feature Film

Original Title: Mic macs à tire-larigot

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Writers: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Guillaume Laurant

Cinematographer: Nagata Tetsuo

Composer: Raphaël Beau

Cast: Dany Boon, André Dussollier, Nicolas Marié, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreau, Julie Ferrier, Omar Sy, Dominique Pinon

A man with a bullet lodged in his brain, with the help of his band of misfit, oddball friends, attempts to gain vengeance upon two unscrupulous arms dealers, who have forever altered his life, in Jeunet’s blandly exuberant, wafer-thin romp, which, but for its delicious final act, would be quite forgettable. Iain.Stott

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Life During Wartime (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Todd Solondz

Cinematographer: Edward Lachman

Cast: Shirley Henderson, Allison Janney, Ally Sheedy, Renée Taylor, Ciarán Hinds, Michael Kenneth Williams, Dylan Riley Snyder, Paul Reubens, Michael Lerner, Rich Pecci

Solondz’s diverting but relatively disappointing film reacquaints us with the Jordans and Maplewoods from Happiness (1999) and the Wieners from Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), as he weaves together another ensemble comedy-drama of the deeply discontented, this time set in a Jewish, Floridian wasteland of entropy and paranoia. Iain.Stott

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