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See How They Run (2022)
The greatest murder ever staged
Filmmaker(s): Tom George

In the West End of 1950s London, plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal member of the crew is murdered. When world-weary Inspector Stoppard and eager rookie Constable Stalker take on the case, the two find themselves thrown into a puzzling whodunit within the glamorously sordid theater underground, investigating the mysterious homicide at their own peril.

More Layers The film itself is lovely, after the style of Anderson but with softer edges and more welcome split screens. The use of the splits is cinematically reflective of the story. That’s the real star here, though most folks focus on the comedic cops. So,...


Published November 9, 2022
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Family Guy (1999- )
Parental Discretion Advised, that's how you know it's good.

Sick, twisted, politically incorrect and Freakin' Sweet animated series featuring the adventures of the dysfunctional Griffin family. Bumbling Peter and long-suffering Lois have three kids. Stewie (a brilliant but sadistic baby bent on killing his mother and taking over the world), Meg (the oldest, and is the most unpopular girl in town) and Chris (the middle kid, he's not very bright but has a passion for movies). The final member of the family is Brian - a talking dog and much more than a pet, he keeps Stewie in check whilst sipping Martinis and sorting through his own life issues.

Formulas It all started with “The Flintstones”, I suppose. In its time, it was novel. Since then we’ve had a number of versions of the dumb dad cartoon. This one was recommended to me by a reader because it is edgier than the others. Here’s the formula...


Published November 8, 2022
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Just a Little Harmless Sex (1998)
Filmmaker(s): Rick Rosenthal

A young married couple faces a serious break-up when the husband is caught committing adultery with a prostitute.

Prophylactic Intolerance We all want to be teenagers and some films are built to pander to that drive. The teenage condition is one in which all things are subservient to sex, but sex isn’t something you do. It isn’t something that is a component of a relationship...


Published November 7, 2022
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Paris, je t’aime (2006)
Stories of Love From the City of Love

Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to chose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.

Tombstones, Subways Recently, I walked through a Japanese cemetery that is several hundred years old. There is in this place a variety of tombstones, a very wide variety. There are stylistic similarities, weaving through eras, religious traditions (which are remarkably complex and subtle). The place is...


Published November 7, 2022
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The Great Wall (2016)
1700 years to build. 5500 miles long. What were they trying to keep out?
Filmmaker(s): Zhang Yimou

European mercenaries searching for black powder become embroiled in the defense of the Great Wall of China against a horde of monstrous creatures.

Jump! I am an admirer of this filmmaker, and he does better when he gets closer to a single soul or small collection of them. But for large projects he seems to be able to understand how to group extras and their CG equivalent for...


Published November 6, 2022
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The Outfit (2022)
Everyone has something up their sleeve.
Filmmaker(s): Graham Moore

Leonard is an English tailor who used to craft suits on London’s world-famous Savile Row. After a personal tragedy, he’s ended up in Chicago, operating a small tailor shop in a rough part of town where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them: a family of vicious gangsters.

Patterned Don’t read until after seeing this. Very likely, the effectiveness of this comes from a few key people with deep experience in the stage, plus possibly one person with a sensitive philosophy of blocking. So if you talked to them, you’d get a bunch of very...


Published November 2, 2022
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Fatty’s Spooning Days (1915)
Filmmaker(s): Roscoe Arbuckle

When Mabel catches her husband flirting with their maid, it leads to a sharp dispute. As part of making up, the couple decide to take a walk to the park. Nearby, another married couple have just had a similar domestic squabble, and they too go to the park together. But at the park, all parties involved find it difficult to avoid getting themselves into further trouble.

Wife-swapping As a comedy, this one is poor in the things that seemed to matter, the physical bits, the comic takes when the situation turns sour. But its amazing in what it chooses as its story. Remember, film was young, younger in those days that the web...


Published November 2, 2022
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Sex and Lucia (2001)
Filmmaker(s): Julio Medem

Various lives converge on an isolated island, all connected by an author whose novel has become inextricably entwined with his own life.

And the Story Starts Again Halfway Written reality. I had the unexpected pleasure of seeing this soon after Ruiz's Proust. Both about writers creating a life. Time folding. Narrative layers. The three sisters from 'Alice in Wonderland,' here named Alsi/Elana, Lucia (the Alice, an anagram, in fact...


Published October 31, 2022
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Elvira Madigan (1967)
Filmmaker(s): Bo Widerberg

Hedvig Jensen is a famous ropewalker and is known to her public as Elvira Madigan. She meets Lieutenant Sixten Sparre, a Swedish officer who is married and has two children. They both decide to run away, but since Sixten deserted the army, he cannot find any job and the couple encounters many hardships. Moreover, while on the run, Sixten meets a friend who tries to convince him to come back to his country and family.

Love is When You Borrow Someone Else's Eyes One of the simple pleasures of life is to sit in a darkened theatre and have a film capture your soul, not as a single person, but as the whole sigh of the room. I saw this in...


Published October 31, 2022
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Bilitis (1977)
A boarding school teenager on the verge of full erotic awakening.
Filmmaker(s): David Hamilton

A coming of age story centering on the exploits of a young girl during summer vacation.

Wonder In collecting my old IMDB comments for moving to this site, I find a few hundred missing — possibly a thousand. There was an era in IMDB history — before Facebook and Twitter — where IMDB was a social media hub. My comments were an...


Published October 31, 2022
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