DIAL M FOR MURDER

1954; directed by Alfred Hitchcock; adapted by Frederick Knott; 105 mins

This is another one of those films you hear about rather in the negative. Apparently Hitchcock knocked this one off having wanted to get out of his contract with Warner but still tied to directing something. For all the director’s disinterest, Dial M for Murder is still a hugely entertaining confection of commodified spousal murder. It’ll never be considered one of his greatest but for a film set almost entirely within one apartment and featuring more chat than should be legal for a feature film, it’s still head and shoulders over the average episode of cut-and-dried detective drama.

NZIFF ’19: KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS

1949; directed by Robert Hamer; adapted by John Dighton and Robert Hamer; 106 mins

Ealing Comedies still hold up to day as well made films and good-hearted, state of the nation addresses but time has withered their hilarity. That’s often just a condition of comedy. Humour can age and no matter it’s intent, through no fault of anybody in particular, it fizzles out. So much has been lauded about Kind Hearts and Coronets, however, that I had to take the opportunity to see it on the big screen and still – 70 years on – it’s really funny.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

1971; adapted and directed by Stanley Kubrick; 137 mins

Being only released on video in 1999 in the UK, A Clockwork Orange was still one of those sacred cows of illicit movies that parents didn’t like us kids seeing. Being the wuss I was, the poster for this terrified me, with Alex’s pin-sharp gleaming knife, single eyelash and the eyeball on his cuff. Alongside the Ludovico imagery and the word “ultra-violence”, this was enough to conjure up images of horrible eye torture in my head and creep me out. That and the poster for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre were important images in my childhood that haunted my dreams.

PARASITE

2019; directed by Bong Joon ho; written by Bong Joon ho and Jin Won Han; 132 mins

Park Chan-wook‘s last movie, The Handmaiden, for me, was the best thing he’d done since 2003’s Oldboy. Bong Joon ho‘s latest, Parasite, is for me, his best since 2003’s Memories of Murder. A worthy Palme d’Or winner from a man who must be arguably the most well-known foreign language film director in the world. Parasite is wholly enjoyable in much the same way as The Handmaiden aswell – a noirish mystery involving con artists trying to ascend the social ladder with added sex and backstabbing but this time with peaches used as deadly weapons!

MIAMI VICE

2006; adapted and directed by Michael Mann; 132 mins

When Miami Vice was released into cinemas in 2006, it sunk big time! Michael Mann, riding on a near-perfect run of movies from Last of the Mohicans to Collateral, was revisiting the TV series that made his name – what could go wrong? Everything. Inflated egos and budgets, hurricanes, shootings and an end product that did not look good. In any sense. In the words of Kenny Everett’s critic character, Fulcrum; “AND YET…!” the film has had a real rehabilitation. As a Mann fan, I wanted to see it anyway and having now done so, I’m gonna throw my hat in the positivity ring. Not only that but Miami Vice has given me cause to wanna re-assess the director’s recent work.

DOGMAN

2018; directed by Matteo Garrone; written by Ugo Chiti, Matteo Garrone and Massimo Gaudioso and Damiano D’Innocenzo, Fabio D’Innocenzo, Marco Perfetti and Giulio Troli; 103 mins

I think it’s safe to say that now Matteo Garrone has become one of my favourite directors and whatever he’s planning with his version of Pinocchio, I am onboard! It’s strange to call such a bleak, violent, oppressive movie a satisfying watch but Dogman is so confidently made that you’re not, at any point, feeling uncomfortable with the filmmaking, only the characters.

ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13

1976; written and directed by John Carpenter; 91 mins

Every time those opening beats come on and that red title glowers onto the screen, I get a real thrill! It may be the greatest theme tune of all time for me – even taking into account The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. John Carpenter’s follow up to sci-fi cult comedy, Dark Star, Assault on Precinct 13 may be my favourite movie of the 1970s. I know I should be saying Barry Lyndon or Taxi Driver or The Godfather and I do love all those movies but this is the one I’ve watched the most. That being said, if you asked me to pick it apart and dissect its relevance to other movies or what it has to say about street crime – I couldn’t tell ya.

M

1931; directed by Fritz Lang; written by Fritz Lang and Thea Von Harbou; 105 mins

[Spoilers, I’m afraid]

“Well, of course, you weren’t born then but you have to understand at the time, it was really shocking.” Ever heard that? Ever thought; “I can’t”? You weren’t there. So, it is nigh-on impossible to understand that. Sometimes, however, an older film gets under your skin. Sometimes, you see an old film and you do understand why people back then – in olden times – were outraged or offended or scared out of their wits. 88 years old, M is one of those films.

HOLD THE DARK

2018; directed by Jeremy Saulnier; adapted by Macon Blair; 125 mins

Well, the reviews seem rather muted. One did hit the nail on the head when it said to go in knowing as little as possible and I did. I hadn’t watched the trailer, or if I did – no memory of it. Jeremy Saulnier and Green Room were the hooks for me. Having belatedly caught up with that film, which I sincerely think is one of the best of the decade, I wanted to check out his other work and where better to go than the readily available new one.

A MAN ESCAPED

1956; adapted and directed by Robert Bresson; 101 mins

Un condamné a mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (to give it it’s snappier title) was the first Bresson I ever saw and was proof positive that I really am not that observant a film buff. A Man Escaped. A man ESCAPED. A Man Escape-d! I spent the entire runtime wondering if he’d get out or not. Regardless of whether or not you know the ending – or even, can read the front of a DVD – this is a remarkable movie and one from a director who defined arthouse filmmaking, who eschewed any form of sensationalism and in doing so, crafted one of the greatest genre movies of all time!