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michael-heathcote3
Reviews
Garage (2007)
Nothing short of a masterpiece
Garage is a simple slice of realism that is filmed to perfection. It looks so small, so parochial, so realistic that some may think in the first few minutes that it's pointless making into a film. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, that's for certain. But if you are a cinema lover and love depth and meaning as much as action, then this Irish masterpiece is a must! It is the study of the central character that gives the film its real point, its purpose. It reveals this very slowly, but surely, typically Irish, and the whole thing, the story, the atmosphere, the pace, the acting, the whole lot looks authentic. The central performance by Shortt is Oscar worthy. At times the film is painful to watch because it is so brutally honest in its depiction of Josie and his difficult, empty life.
The film on the surface looks very simple, very small, but you can bet there is a lot of cinematic knowledge that's helped achieve this. The writer and director have undoubtedly watched a lot of world cinema, Mainly French, maybe a bit of German - another reviewer mentioned the similarity of Bresson, I don't know his work well enough, but I thought of Fassbinder when I saw it, that microscopically intense portrait style of a struggler in life. The photography outside is very European in flavour too, with long lingering shots of the location, and using the beauty of the landscape as a piece of art - I suppose this is classically French in technique.
As with all masterpieces, the film's real power only really hits you after it has ended. The humanity of it just tears away at you, and that gives this film its noted pathos. And it is so beautifully done, every scene is perfect, the end of scene shots of Josie looking on when his friend has left, and the minute details like him counting out the biscuits is just cinematic perfection. Yes, if you know your cinema you could say that the film makers have taken a lot of inspiration from elsewhere and constructed the most affecting tragic human portrait, but that they did it so well, chose their subject so well, and got such a great performance from the lead actor, deserves a massive heap of praise. I'm not surprised that the French loved it, I'm just a little bit surprised it didn't win more awards than it did!
Harper (1966)
Noir and humour make an original, sassy classic.
It astounds me that this movie isn't higher rated, talked about more, written about more. It is phenomenal. Funny, satirical, sassy, well cast and acted. It has all the ingredients of noir, the rich bitch with a vendetta, a mean patriarchal crimelord, a complex plot of nefarious goings on, a few homicides along the way, a betrayal by a friend, and a hard boiled and cynical P.I. who knows every trick in the book. Trump card is the L.A. setting, and that's where the satirical edge comes in. Strother Martin as a berobed cult leader is a scream, and there is real satire here aimed at the freakier fringes of California's laid back community. The movie has a cracking script by Goldman, a good score, and is choc full of style. My only very slight quibble with it is that it is almost TOO ambitious and tries to be both great noir and great semi-humorous gumshoe thriller. But it largely succeeds in all things and Newman is sizzling as the humorous, sharp as a razor P.I. I can see its influence in several great films that followed it, including Chinatown, and that's why I am staggered at the lack of attention it gets. Top noir, even topper P.I. semi comic thriller. Outstanding and groundbreaking.
dinnerladies (1998)
Why didn't they just call it The Victoria Wood Show?
I think the writer and star performer was definitely a star act in her day, but her day has long gone. She has kept the same material going for about 30 years now, and personally I am sick of it. She may have influenced a lot of others with her style, especially female comedians who seem to hold her up as a Goddess, but her style and her material looks badly dated to me now. That's just the criticism of the artist, but my biggest problem is with the format of the show itself. This IS NOT A GENUINE SITCOM, it is more a very thinly disguised vehicle for an artist who had been off the air for a long time and obviously wanted to get back into it all.
The plots are thinner than the rich tea biscuits they seem to be eating all the time. Wood's material at its best is very witty and satirical but it has always been self indulgent. This series has a catering size larder full of the same comic staple Ms Wood has been churning out for years. Please read the sell by date on your stale old jokes Victoria. One after another the made to order jokes and references come rolling out of her store cupboard.
Too Many Crooks (1959)
Staggeringly undervalued British comedy
Just watched this again and I am a bit bemused to say the least as to why this film is so overlooked in the catalogue of British comedies of the period, or any period. It is sensationally scripted for a start, this has to be one of the sharpest British screenplays of all time. It is as dark as any of the more celebrated Brit-coms, such as Ladykillers, but unlike that film it doesn't take itself so seriously, being directed and played as a light comedy, almost a theatrical farce. And it is possibly this lightness of touch that has left it sidelined against the others. Terry-Thomas is at his slimiest as the womanising miser who's amassed a fortune by avoiding the dreaded taxman, and George Cole is very nearly as good as the bungling self styled Mr. Big of a hapless criminal gang. The busy plot turns this way and that and has some really funny scenes in it, but the best thing about this film is in the cleverness of the screenplay and the subtle nuances of comedy that are handled very slickly by the cast of expert comedy character actors.
Sleuth (1972)
(An almost) perfect parlour thriller
Yes it goes without saying that a project as ambitious as this was bound to have flaws, and Sleuth (1972) does have a few, mostly niggling, but one quite major. But as others have pointed out already, any sort of made up disguise under the bright glare of studio lights and the close scrutiny of cine-cameras is nigh on impossible to pull off, even today, 35 yrs later - just look at all the TV shows that disguise their presenters to fool the public and you will very rarely be fooled as a viewer. The plot demanded that this disguise scene was essential, and so they just got on with it and did the best they could with making it look believable. I thought they did a reasonable job with it, myself, and no it wasn't undetectable, but it was good enough not to look embarrassingly abysmal. Don't forget though, that essentially this was a piece of theatre still, filmed or not, and there were many other clear pointers to this being a stage mystery and not a flat out naturalistic, trying to be real thriller - none more so than the casting of Mr. Olivier, and the wordy script, so the unlikely disguise factor was not alone in pricking viewers' bubbles. When you watch filmed theatre you have to do a certain amount of belief suspending, or at least re-aligning your priorities as to what you want out of the piece. Too many people it seems, who have said it doesn't work, either are not making this necessary allowance for it on credibility terms, or much more sadly really, just do not know that there is a difference between filmed theatre and pure cinema.
That this movie has engrossed so many over the years surely speaks of its overall success, despite the little flaws. And despite a lack of visual credibility being too much for some (seemlingly weened on nothing but Hollywood and TV for visual entertainment), this movie is an outstandingly successful and popular piece of entertainment, unlike many, many realistic thrillers and mysteries. It shows that theatrical writing, theatrical sets, and probably most of all, damned fine theatrical acting can still be as good as anything the grittiest and most worldly, realistic film makers can produce. I believe this is a masterpiece of old fashioned civilised entertainment and I love the OTT acting. Olivier shows off his very best high camp style of acting and proves yet again that it can be very cinematic, and Caine puts in one of his best 'I'll show them I can act' performances to give acting lovers a rare treat here. Lovers of detective novels are also very well catered for in this ever fabulous movie. A rightly acclaimed classic.
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
Woeful gush
This was appalling. So utterly predictable, so facile, so self indulgent, so self-consciously designed for females. I was gagging to get out of that cinema. Same old unreal chocolate box presentation of England with men that unfortunately do exist, but I have met them, they are pitiable. This is empty, manipulative, made to order nonsense to tap a growing market, and I wince when titles like this are released. I sort of knew I wouldn't be a fan of it, but I was going out of a sense of duty so someone else could watch it. Needless to say she seemed to love it, as very clearly did the majority of others there (females are very expressive aren't they).
Bedazzled (1967)
The pure genius of PC on full display
This film has been described as a time capsule by others, and in a way, regarding life in the 60s it is that. But the humour and devastating wit of this piece is as timeless as you can get. Cook was the Oscar Wilde of his day, incredibly witty, clever and arrogant, and his screenplay here is choc-full of devilishly clever and funny lines, together with some alarmingly good visual gags. Not one of them has a hint of overkill, every single one is underplayed and this should be a lesson to all comedy scriptwriters, directors and performers working today, as subtlety is certainly not the byword of 'noughties' comedy. His delivery is spot on, as always, his presence on screen always sparkling. For a laid back performer PC had enormous magnetism that just drew you in to his persona, with his fascinating face always hinting of mystery and naughtiness behind the boyish, arrogant, almost uninterested looking half smirk he seemed to wear, that some people including partner DM thought was a bit superior and demeaning of lesser souls. But lets face it, next to Cook almost everyone was of lesser talent, especially creative talent and wit.
That Moore and Bron even managed not to fade into the background with Peter Cook on such scintillating form would be a tribute to their performances, but as the screenplay dictates, much of the narrative revolves around their scenes together (with Cook coming in as the killjoy raspberry just to prick poor old Stanley Moon's balloon). I've never seen Moore as good as this, and Bron shows what an underused talent she was. Yet at the end of this highly creative masterpiece of film satire it is one person's name that stands out way above the others. This is the very best of a brilliant comedian and still represents the benchmark of film satire and observational wit.