adamblake77 Reviews

Gomorrah (2008)

Surely the most truthful gangster movie yet

[10/10 · 11 October 2008]

Just back from seeing this. Still a bit shell-shocked. First impressions that it's up there with the very best. The last scene in particular was worthy of Bunuel at his most vengeful. Yes, it's in that league. Very tough indeed. Not a trace of sentiment. Entirely plausible performances. Taut and highly original direction, documentary style. Some of the set locations are just jaw dropping - be they natural or man-made. Some brilliant touches - shots panning back to reveal an entirely different context, the camera lingering on facial expressions of those left behind by the action, or on fear, or shock. A devastating commentary on life amongst the poor in modern Italy, this is as far removed from even the best Hollywood gangster movies as it is possible to imagine. The only American comparison might be with Scorsese's "Mean Streets" - but there you are invited to empathise with characters (especially the one played by Harvey Keitel) and it is still possible to romanticise De Niro's depiction of Johnny Boy. There are no such avenues offered here. The traditional gangster movie denouement is contemptuously thrown away in the first five minutes. Not for the fainthearted but if you appreciated Bunuel's "Los Olividados" or "Pixote" or "Salaam Bombay" then this is for you.

Leave All Fair (1985)

Love, death and betrayal

[8/10 · 5 November 2006]

This is a subtle and understated film about big subjects: what constitutes betrayal and weakness in the way the living deal with the legacy of the dead. It's also a true story. The noted New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield died of tuberculosis at the age of 33. Just before she died she wrote to her husband, John Middleton-Murray, and named him her literary executor. In the letter she instructed him in no uncertain terms to destroy as many of her papers as possible and to publish as few as possible. He ignored her instructions, destroyed none, and published virtually all. In doing this he secured himself a comfortable living in royalties from Mansfield's estate until his death some thirty five years later. His excuse and justification was that, in acting as he did, he gained posthumous fame and recognition for his dead wife's writings and that this would have satisfied her desire to be considered a great writer. The fact that she was a great writer anyway is undoubtedly clearer now with the benefit of hindsight than it was then, and it's easy to castigate Murray for being greedy and disingenuous. But he does have a point: He did succeed in focusing attention on her work at a time when it might well have otherwise been forgotten or ignored.

But in creating a "cult of Katherine", and portraying her as a needy, sickly, crushed violet of a woman, he did the true Katherine a grave disservice. As this film points out: "she was tough, and funny." The point of this film is to explore these issues and to dramatise them. In this it succeeds admirably. John Gielgud gives a typically marvellous performance as an ageing weakling troubled by a guilty conscience. Jane Birkin is hardly in his league but she holds her own perfectly adequately. The direction is taut and the script is excellent. It all looks so perfectly chocolate box that the image of a vengeful, tubercular ghost bearing down on Murray is all the more shocking when it occurs. Similarly, the scenes of Mansfield alone in a string of cheap hotels coughing up her lungs are delivered without sensationalism or sentimentality - and are all the more effective for this.

For admirers of Katherine Mansfield, this film is an absolute feast but that doesn't mean that it is irrelevant to anyone else. If you admire fine acting, a good script and an original story about a genuine ethical dilemma, then this film will engage you on all those levels. Too bad it's so unavailable. I taped it off the television in the 1980's. I have made a DVD of my tape but it's not very good quality. It's absurd that such a fine Gielgud performance should languish unseen. Track it down if you can.

Dig! (2004)

Fascinating, Captain.

[8/10 · 2 September 2006]

Excellent documentary, ostensibly about the friendship and subsequent rivalry between two West Coast retro rock'n'roll bands: The Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. What it actually turns out to be is a portrait of a borderline psychopath - Anton Newcomb - and his tortured relationship with the rest of the world. Interestingly, for a music documentary, there is hardly any music. What there is - snatches of songs, more often than not aborted by the performers - is incidental rather than central. Although the protagonists are musicians, the story is not about music but rather about a particularly American version of a British myth of a cartoon lifestyle, ie, one where nobody has to take responsibility for behaving like spoiled adolescents on a full-time basis. Tantrums, drugs, violence, grossly dysfunctional attitudes, egomania on a truly epic scale - all of this is excused or positively encouraged because it conforms to some collectively held idea about what rock'n'roll is about. As a film this is a first-class documentary but it raises more questions than it answers. For example, why is Anton's music so conservative? For someone so wild and outrageous (and he IS wild and outrageous) his music never seems to have progressed beyond the most obvious derivations of his 60s idols (The Stones, Velvets etc.) For someone who claims to be able to play 80 instruments he has never bothered to learn to play any one of them beyond the most rudimentary level. Similarly, the Dandy Warhols burning ambition is based on a vision of rock'n'roll which is astonishingly fossilised in 1969. Nothing wrong with pastiches, of course, but surely there's more to musical life than perpetually acting out a cartoon from the late 60s. Why don't they take some risks with their music - in the way that their role models did? Because, one suspects, this is not about music. Music is just an accessory, a prop, or an excuse, to lead completely dysfunctional and irresponsible lives. But why? In the Dandy Warhols case, the answer is obvious: to make lots of money and be famous. Big deal. Anton Newcomb's case is more interesting. He is obviously very talented, but every time he is given an opportunity to reach a wider audience he sabotages it, usually in the most dramatic way possible. He is terrified of success, and at the same time, deeply resents anyone else who has it - especially his former friends the Dandy Warhols. Fascinating movie. Highly recommended.

American Splendor (2003)

A truthful, well made American movie about real life

[10/10 · 21 August 2006]

I have just been scanning the existing comments for this film. Whilst there are many that are very positive, there are some which are astounding in the vehemence of their condemnation. I wonder what these people want from a film. Maybe just escapism and entertainment. Maybe some "movie buffs" should just stick with Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter style movies. Or there's always a formula Rom-Com if action and fantasy aren't your thing. For myself, I like movies about real life. Thank God I'm not alone in this. I also like great acting, an original and engaging script, imaginative direction, an innovatory concept unusually executed, above all TRUTHFULNESS and this wonderful little movie has it all.

The basic premise has been stated over and over already, so let me just recommend that any lover of good cinema see this film. It is that rare thing, a sensitive, touching, truthful American Art-House movie. The lead performance is a marvel and the whole thing is just a joy from to start to finish. Rent it, buy it, but see it.

Wholly Communion (1966)

Historical record of important cultural event

[7/10 · 6 August 2006]

This film is of importance more for its historical value than for its content. What it represents is the only footage of the 1965 Poetry Olympics held at the Albert Hall which turned out to be the catalyst for bringing the hippie counter-culture into being in the UK. Some 5,000 or so freaks, beatniks, hippies and social outcasts of all persuasions turned up en masse, looked at each other, and realised that they were not alone. From this grew the International Times and the whole notion of an underground press, the squatting movement, the re-birth of English Anarchism (as opposed to anarchy) and all sorts of weird and wonderful (or not so wonderful) "happenings" that are nowadays usually lumped under the umbrella of Swinging 60s.

The actual content of the film leaves much to be desired: shaky hand-held camera on poets whose material, although worthy, was perhaps unequal to the task. Poets are by nature a rather sensitive breed, and for them to suddenly find themselves placed in the role of spokesmen for an entirely new and unprecedented cultural phenomenon must have been more than a little unsettling. Allen Ginsberg was the star of the show, but by the time he got to perform he was drunk. Consequently he comes across as a raving, drooling madman. Maybe this was his intention. But his poetry suffers as a consequence. Harry Fainlight is interrupted by a "lovable idiot" - which is a shame, as, visibly shaken, his performance does not recover. Adrian Mitchell rather steals the show with his unforgettable performance of an anti-Vietnam poem. Michael Horowitz also performs well.

For students of the period this is essential viewing.

The Freshman (1990)

"Well, without humour what do we have?"

[10/10 · 25 June 2006]

I must have seen this film twenty times. It's one of my absolute favourites. It's gentle, heartfelt, funny, subtle and delicate. It's also, of course, an absolute delight for movie buffs. I know it's an absurd thing to say, but in many ways this is my favourite Brando performance: he's having such a good time sending himself up. He does it with such obvious relish but, at the same time, he IS Marlon Brando, the greatest actor Hollywood ever produced, and his character has all the regal gravitas that he brought to bear so effectively in "The Godfather". For those of us who thought that the only thing wrong with "The Godfather" was that there wasn't enough of the old man, this film is an unheard of feast.

Of course the story is daft, so what? I LOVE the scenes with the giant lizard - especially the end with Brando walking it and talking to it. There are so many great lines - I suggest that your reviewer who couldn't understand a word Brando said throughout the film cleans his ears out so he can hear gems such as: "So this is college. I didn't miss nothing'", and, "When you get to Hollywood I want you to gimme a call. I could kick a few doors open for ya." And Maximilion Schell: superb as the mad chef. "Carmine said one boy, here are two." There are so few gentle Hollywood comedies, with genuine poignancy, where the "feelgood" factor isn't tacked on, where's there's no sentimental slop, just humanity and warmth. Cherish this beautiful little film and marvel that it even ever came to be made.

The Road to Guantanamo (2006)

Watch this film!

[10/10 · 9 March 2006]

I have just watched this film on TV. I was gripped from beginning to end. It is a stunning piece of work. Very powerful indeed. To say that these three British Muslims were in the wrong place at the wrong time would be an understatement to say the least. I felt so ashamed of the British and American soldiers and interrogators - to behave like Nazis when one is given the power to do so does not excuse that behaviour. No human being should treat others the way these people were treated. The fact that no explanation, apology or compensation has ever been offered by any official body is a scandal in itself. At the end of the film, one of the three says "The world is not a nice place". I felt like screaming at the screen, "the world is a wonderful place. It's PEOPLE who do these things to each other". There is no greater evil than war, or the arms trade that makes it possible.

Swimming with Sharks (1994)

lousy movie, great performance

[3/10 · 31 January 2006]

Ugly, heartless Hollywood crap that expects nothing but ugliness and heartlessness from its audience. The scenes WITHOUT Spacey reveal how truly awful the film really is. But the scenes WITH Spacey are just so entertaining that you hang on in there right to the end. Yes, he could play this part in his sleep but he does it so well, he's such a joy to watch, so believable and marvellously monstrous. Enjoy it for his performance, but don't expect anything else from this movie. If you want to see a great film about the evils of modern Hollywood, check out Robert Altman's "The Player". This sad little potboiler is not remotely in the same league.

Cernobílá v barve (1999)

Excellent music documentary about larger than life personality

[10/10 · 15 January 2006]

I just saw this film at a gypsy film festival here in London. By the end of it I found myself weeping without even knowing why. Normally, I am made of stone but something about this grotesque woman's voice got right under my skin. She's as real as it gets. Almost spherical in shape, cussing and chain-smoking, with an attitude and a voice that Bessie Smith might have been proud of, Vera Bila is a mighty musical force to be reckoned with. The reality of her life, however, as revealed in this excellent documentary, is one of hardship and heartbreak. This is a blues film, about a blues life, and the people featured have blues attitudes - stoical, wry, gallows humour that expects the worst and is rarely disappointed. Tough and truthful, honest and touching, in places depicting humanity at the very bottom of the economic scrap heap of Eastern Europe, this film is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the vitality of the music made by people with nothing to lose but the Romany blues. See it if you can find it. It's very special.

Artemis 81 (1981 TV Movie)

You are the giant in my world

[10/10 · 5 November 2005]

This is the most excruciating, teeth-grindingly slow and incomprehensible piece of television I have ever sat through. It is almost unbelievable that this once received over three hours of Christmas prime-time terrestrial television programming. If anyone out there has seen this and can tell me anything about what was going on at virtually any moment of the proceedings after the author's van blows up, can they please e mail me and enlighten accordingly. I felt that this could have been at least an hour shorter but perhaps the extreme length was part of the makers intention. Certainly there are many striking images and memorable lines of dialogue but I found the pace to be impossible to bear at one sitting. Nevertheless, a very brave piece.

Punk: Attitude (2005)

Well done Don Letts

[8/10 · 19 October 2005]

I watched this last night and was thoroughly hooked from the first moment to almost the very end. As someone old enough to remember walking down Portobello Road in the summer of 1976 and thinking "something really weird is going on", it was a marvellous exercise in nostalgia for ME, but I was wondering what a young person would make of it all. I think they would find it interesting but I don't know if they would necessarily understand just how revolutionary the whole thing was. It would have been good to have included some short clips of contemporary mainstream acts such as Abba, Yes, Fleetwood Mac etc just to provide some reference points for what Punk was rebelling against. As the man who virtually single-handedly introduced reggae to the punk scene, Letts is admirably modest about his own contribution but in a way it would have been more accurate if he had allowed his many interviewees to sing his praises a little more. I thought Chrissie Hynde was the most insightful (as usual) and the women in general gave more interesting interviews than the men. One aspect of Punk was that it was almost completely un-sexist and this was thoroughly recalled and explained. The more unsavoury aspects of Punk: the neo-fascism, the glorification of hard drugs, the violence - these were rather glossed over, I felt. The despicable inhumanity of the hardcore scene in the US in the early 80s was hardly mentioned, nor were the psychotic antics and subsequent suicide of G G Allin. Neither were the abominable Oi bands mentioned, with their extreme right-wing Nazi leanings. Although I can understand Lett's not wanting to give them any publicity, any history of Punk that fails to acknowledge the extremely dark places that some of it led to is incomplete. Although the film suffers from the usual shortcomings of music documentaries - ie. the vintage clips are too short and the interview clips are too long - as an attempt to celebrate the positive aspects of Punk it is completely successful. Too bad Johnny Rotten and Iggy Pop obviously refused to take part, or Lou Reed for that matter. Never mind. This is a very worthwhile film and anyone who is interested in the Punk phenomenon will find it fascinating.

Omnibus: Song of Summer (1968) Season 2, Episode 1

Russell's only really good film?

[9/10 · 16 October 2005]

Happily this beautiful little film is now out on general release thanks to the efforts of the BFI. It's hard to believe this film was made by Ken Russell being, as it is, sensitive and understated! Not being a particular fan of Delius's music, I was more taken by the extraordinary quality of the performances on display here, and of course, the telling of an unusual true story. Suffice to say that the film transcends being merely a biopic primarily through the subtle and poignant portrayal of Delius's long suffering wife, played with such admirable restraint by Maureen Pryor. When the old monster (a tours-de-force performance by Max Adrian) finally dies and she throws handfuls of rose petals over his corpse you realise that it was the purity of her love for his art that allowed her to endure his abominable tyranny for so long, and that her selflessness in enabling him was worth just as much as, if not more, than the music that he created.

A perfect piece. Too bad Russell never made anything half as good again!

Meantime (1983 TV Movie)

A beautiful and truthful film

[10/10 · 16 August 2005]

This is Mike Leigh's finest film.

It's a shame, but inevitable given the climate of the film world, that he has become celebrated for lesser works such as "Secrets And Lies" and the odious "Vera Drake" which I found almost unwatchably patronising. By contrast, "Meantime" is the truth - as anyone who grew up in 80s London will recognise. It's the truth about what Thatcherism did to the working classes, and to human values in general in Britain. It is not by any means, however, a socialist diatribe. It is instead a gentle and touching portrait of lives ruined by forces beyond their control or comprehension. The film's anger at this injustice is all the more powerful and effective for its understatement. Leigh's other great film, "Naked", abandoned this gentleness for brutality and it suffers in comparison accordingly.

That film was saved from being guilty of the charges of nihilism and point blank bleakness by the extraordinary performances of David Thewlis and the late great Katrin Cartlidge. But the acting in "Meantime" is in many ways even more impressive, as the actors have less material - less BUSINESS - to work with. The nuances of expression, of tones of voice, of body language are an object lesson in how to inject meaning and significance into silences and incoherence. Tim Roth tends to get the plaudits for his unforgettable portrayal of the mentally retarded little brother Colin, but Phil Daniels steals the film for me: his eyes are astonishing in the range of emotional depth they command, and his jerky, uncomfortable movements vividly describe a frustrated intellect driven to despair at the hopelessness surrounding him and the terrible fear that this hopelessness is creeping inside of him. But it is in the way that Daniels's character Mark expresses his love for his helpless and hapless idiot brother that finally secures the film's greatness. This love is fierce and hard-won, and most often manifested in petty abuse. But it is real love, true and unconditional, and the way Roth's character Colin responds to it is immediate and instinctive. The bond between them is the stuff of human dignity itself, and it is this that finally transcends the shuffling pettiness of the life they have had foisted off on them.

The most memorable image may well be Gary Oldman's skinhead Coxy rolling around in a gigantic steel bucket, frantically beating at the sides with a piece of metal - a Beckettian device if ever there was one - but there are so many perfect shots, so much to savour. The crane shot of Daniels aimlessly wandering around Piccadilly Circus, the long shot of Daniels and Oldman disappearing down the canal tow-path, the unexpected close-ups, the sheer range of the camera-work is breathtaking in such a cheaply made film.

If Mike Leigh ever makes a better film, or Phil Daniels ever gives a better performance, it will be a miracle. The fact that the film has gone from almost complete obscurity when it was made (1983) to enjoy a steadily growing cult status is indication that, gradually, more and more people are realising that, far from being a dated curio, this is a very special and precious piece of cinematic art indeed.

Bedazzled (1967)

Rejoice! Rejoice! It's out on DVD as of this week!

[10/10 · 31 July 2005]

Definitely the finest fruit of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's comedy partnership, one of the funniest films ever made, and one of my all-time favourite films ever. It's been unavailable for years, with crappy old commercial VHS copies with the soundtrack hanging off changing hands for silly money (I taped mine off the TV like everyone else.) But now it's out on DVD! As of this week (end of July '05). I haven't bought one yet but I'm sure I will. I hope there are some nice extras. But the film itself is an absolute joy. So it was made on the cheap, so the production values are utterly 60s generic, so the sets were banged together with spit and sawdust - who cares when Peter Cook is just the best devil you could ever imagine, when the jokes are that thick and fast and that good, when Dudley Moore is the perfect hapless foil, when his music is so memorable, when Raquel Welch is such a good sport as Lillian Lust ("pick yer clothes up Lily, you're due down at the Foreign Office").

Now to complete my joy, they have to withdraw and destroy all copies and prints of the hideous Liz Hurley re-make which must NEVER, EVER be confused with this timeless gem which has given me and so many friends and acquaintances so much pleasure for so many years.

Watch it and when you've finished laughing (and thinking - after all, it is a perfectly plausible version of the Faust legend) raise a glass to the genius that was Peter Cook at his best (and this IS Peter Cook at his best) and to the beauty of his absurdly unlikely partnership with a sharp witted, sad-faced jazz piano player who was half his size and who went on to be perhaps the unlikeliest Hollywood movie star of them all. They're both gone, but in this perfect little film they will always be with us to mock us for our absurd vanities and follies, to make us laugh and think and feel.

Hugo and Josephine (1967)

Magical film, why can't we see it?

[10/10 · 18 June 2005]

I saw this film in about 1972 on television. My mother recommended it. She knew a lot about movies. I thought it was the most beautiful film about childhood that I'd ever seen. I saw it again at the National Film Theatre in the mid-80s. If anything, I was even more impressed, perhaps because of seeing it on the big screen for the first time. I was so glad to find this on the database as this film seems to have been almost completely forgotten about. At the NFT, it was shown with a black and white short called "The Carp", hailing from somewhere in Scandinavia, which was about a young boy's friendship with a carp fish that his father has bought for Christmas dinner. He takes it and puts it into the swimming pool that his father is the janitor of, explaining to his father that "he wasn't very well in the bath". That also was a magic film. Does anyone out there know anything about it? But back to "Hugo och Josefin": I remember this film so well. Everything about it is perfect. It is the only film I have ever seen that succeeds in re-creating what it actually feels like to be six or seven years old. It should be mandatory viewing in film schools and it should be recognised universally as a classic. Instead, it's completely unavailable anywhere. If anyone has a copy of it, I would be eternally grateful for a chance to buy a dub of it. I don't care how bad the quality is.

Team America: World Police (2004)

Tasteless puerile arrogance boomed into your ear by megaphone

[1/10 · 11 June 2005]

The first 15 minutes of this film were actually very funny. But after about an hour I realised that this film is actually a subtle piece of propaganda for the very thing it ostensibly satirises, ie: American Fascism. In a world where nothing at all has any value, or any meaning beyond its most obvious use as a source of puerile humour, then absolutely everything is available to be mocked and disrespected. And it is! If something is offensive, then I think it is OK to be offended by it, and not have to be ashamed or embarrassed about it. This film is offensive, in every way possible, to every group of people possible. Apart from anything else, it is offensive because it is such a lousy movie: massively overlong, appallingly badly scripted. Lazy, complacent, endless use of the most obvious obscenities and sexual and toilet humour. The voice characterisations are grating and one-dimensional. I could go on but why bother? Rarely have I felt so insulted by a film. This is the very worst of modern American entertainment and its effect is deadening, stultifying - infinitely worse than the most tired and clichéd action film in that it believes in nothing but its own cleverness and superiority. In cajoling its viewers to find humour in violent death, torture, homosexual rape, cultural vandalism and genocidal despotism this film is an open invitation to revel in apathy, moral decadence, cultural and spiritual bankruptcy - and in that it could not serve the interests of Emperor Bush and his henchmen better if it tried. I hated it.

Look at Me (2004)

Very enjoyable and truthful film about real people

[9/10 · 5 November 2004]

If you like films about real people in real situations then this is for you. Superbly observed dialogue and exceptionally accomplished ensemble performances. Sad, funny, truthful and thought provoking piece, very much in the same mould as Les Gout Des Autres - if you liked that, you'll love this. It's refreshing to see something which isn't at all patronising or sensationalistic but which instead deals in a matter of fact way with the problems of real people who happen to be middle-class literary types who have no confidence in themselves or their abilities. On a deeper level, it is quite a pessimistic film in that none of the characters seem to ever come close to solving any of their problems but the ending is as climactic as could be reasonably expected - at least some definite actions are taken, however futile. The central father-daughter relationship is very sharply drawn, and poignant in that, despite the daughter's exasperation with her father's appalling selfishness, you know that she will grow up to be just like him and also that she will never get the attention she craves from him.

The Corporation (2003)

Terrifying and deeply serious film that everyone should see

[10/10 · 5 November 2004]

A two and a half hour documentary on the history and development of the American corporation and how it achieved its current state of world domination might seem like a recipe for a very dry and dull movie experience. Not at all. I was riveted from beginning to end. I checked my watch a couple of times because I couldn't believe that such a stunning pitch could be maintained for so long. Unfortunately, the people who really need to see this movie (everyone who voted for Bush) almost certainly won't. This is not for the faint-hearted or for those merely looking to be entertained. This is a brutally frank and frequently shocking expose of the moral, spiritual and ethical bankruptcy of the American corporate world. It has not been 'dumbed down', it demands very close attention in order to be fully understood. In this respect, it is not similar to Michael Moore's films with which it has been compared. Michael Moore appears as an interviewee, however, and has many intelligent points to make. There are several strands here, with many digressions: particularly chilling was the sequence on the silencing of two Fox journalists who had had the audacity to question why their attempts to expose a massive public health risk were not being aired. To dismiss this as merely "left-wing scaremongering" is missing the point. What this film presents are facts about who has real power in the modern world, and every citizen who gives a damn about the future of the world we live in has a duty to educate themselves as to what it is being done in the name of enormous financial gains for a very small elite of unbelievably greedy and selfish men.