12. Filth (2013), Director - Jon S. Baird

It is a great testament to the acting skills of James McAvoy that he manages to install some sense of empathy in us for his character in Filth, police detective Bruce Robertson.With a different and lesser actor this could have been an absolute nightmare to watch because watching humanity sink to the lowest depths can make for very uncomfortable viewing. But McAvoy keeps us hoping against ourselves that redemption is possible, that this person doing awful things (and hinting at a dark past as well) could somehow find peace of mind and happiness. 

In typical Irvine Welsh style, Filth is a brutal portrait of a feral Edinburgh where violence, drugs and abuse are everyday occurrences. Bruce plays his games, trying to land a promotion for himself by preying on the weaknesses of his colleagues. There is not a trick too low for him to pull, and no one is safe from them. He keeps at these games as he sinks further and further into hallucinations visualizing himself and everyone around him as nightmarish animals, and struggling with old memories ripe with guilt.

The story hangs together well, the soundtrack is excellent, the edit is slick and the cast has a few names in it, including a coke-snorting Jaime Bell (who played Billy Elliot) and Jim Broadbent who recently just seems to be in everything. For a film like this there are actually also quite a diversity of roles for women, be it Imogeen Poots as the only decent cop in the bunch, Shauna MacDonald as impossibly modelesque wife Carole, Joanne Frogett as the grief-stricken Mary, Kate Dickie as tough-dominatrix-y Chrissie or Shirley Henderson as birdlike dirty-talking Bunty. The film won’t pass the Bechdel test but it is certainly refreshing to see so many women having distinct characters. It is certainly a man’s world being depicted but with a distance where you as a viewer are - we sincerely hope - supposed to be disgusted by this, as well as the police brutality and abuse of authority (and many, many, MANY other things). In contrast, a shout out should go to Eddie Marsan for adding a bit of innocence to the proceedings.

With prejudice of every type to the fore, this story holds no punches and does a great job of deconstructing the bigotry within the characters. A tough guy yob* declaring that “Pussy’s fer faggots!” made us laugh. It is not for the faint of heart, but it does have its merits, and it isn’t quite as depressing as past films we’ve seen (*cough* Killer Joe *cough*). Oh, and don’t read anything about it, not even the back of the box before viewing and it will surprise you more!

Will it make it into the cupboard? No, but we can see people liking it.

* a yob is the antithesis of what a good boy should be - rude, obnoxious, violent and stupid

11. Barney's Version (2010), Director - Richard J. Lewis

Right off the bat, we need to point out that the acting in this film is superb. Mellow yet strong Rosamund Pike; Dustin Hoffman, the sympathetic father; and Minnie Driver, well, she just works in everything she does. And of course Paul Giamatti, who deserves every one of his accolades as the lead, Barney Panofsky. He manages to pull off one of the greatest challenges an actor faces, playing different ages of the same character (kudos must go to the make-up team here too), and he plays a character that is all at once spiteful, charming, confident and vulnerable. He is, above all, human.

It’s beautifully set and the pace is just as serene, but by the end of the film, we were not quite sure how to react. It felt like we had just witnessed a really good film, but we were left wondering, “what was the point?”

The intrigue is presented to us early on. An aging successful, but bitter, TV exec, Barney, has been in the news due to a book written about his role in the murder of one of his best friends. The exposé has been written by the detective in charge of the case where Barney has plainly walked away a free man. “Ahaaa”, one thinks, “we are now going to get ‘Barney’s Version’ of events and find out the truth about this crime!” We are then whisked away, in the first of many flashbacks, to 1970s Rome and Barney hanging out with a group of artists and bohemians. Curiously though, the initial intrigue mainly takes a backseat to what becomes, essentially, just a tableaux of Barney’s life.

On picking this up in the shop, Fraser saw words on the box like “comedy” and “love of his life” and “Paul Giamatti” and thought fondly of Sideways. But this only has gentle, slightly creepy, romance in it and it is a hard push to call it a comedy in any way (the occasional funny remark is surely not enough or everything would be deemed a comedy!).

The characters feel very real, yet there is little to relate to as the vast majority of the film is about a very affluent set of people, and while Barney comes from humble beginnings (his dad was just a “beat-cop”) we only get vague reference to them. He still gets his big break through a family member which hardly makes it a from-rags-to-riches story. This film is based on a novel, and we wonder if possibly the film adaptation suffers from a lack of inner dialogue; something to further explain the motivations of this character and to give us a hint on the meaning of this story.

Fraser was really looking forward to this one, but with no clear defining theme and no real message it just falls flat. It feels like we’ve just sat looking a really pretty picture for two hours. We suppose that it could be seen as something ambiguous, the rambling journey itself is the thing, but unfortunately for us, it is likely to end up being pretty forgettable. Does that mean we will have to keep it in the cupboard to remind us of the events of Barney Panofsky’s life?

Does it make it into the cupboard? No. Just can’t imagine wanting to watch it again.

10. Den skaldede frisør (2012), Director - Susanne Bier

Ida is a hairdresser battling cancer, living in a box-like house together with her buffoon of a husband Leif. At the airport on the way to her daughter’s wedding in Italy she bumps into Philip, a widower jerk who lives in what looks like an optical illusion. Although this is their first meeting, Ida’s daughter and Philip’s son are set to get married in Italy, and when the two families meet things get explosive in more ways than one. 

This is like a Danish Mamma Mia (the beautiful setting, Pierce Brosnan, drama unfolding at a wedding between two very young people), and as such obviously packs a bit more of a punch than your average American saccharin love story. There will be nudity, booze, a bit of fighting and ample opportunity for Paula to turn on her gaydar.

There is a lot of cringe-worthy humour in the self-centered cruelty of supporting characters Leif (Kim Bodnia) and Benedikte (Paprika Steen), though some of the situations get a bit over the top for us. The children, Astrid and Patrick have a bittersweet story and you can feel their youth, joy and naivety disappearing throughout the film. Apart from the main theme about letting go and choosing life there are themes centering around parents and children, with examples of both healthy relationships and toxic, that gives us, as parents, plenty of inspiration when it comes to what not to do….

But the real star of the film is Trine Dyrholm who gives Ida tons of character and charisma. She has an amazingly expressive face and eyes, and she makes the film watchable whether you like romantic comedies or not. Pierce Brosnan as Philip gets the job done, and once you’ve seen the whole film there are explanations for some of the more jarring acting choices in the beginning. His charm is probably also appealing to some, but Paula is still cringing with the memory of his singing in that other rom-com set by the Med!

Overall a good watch, but does it make it into the cupboard?  No - but it only just fails to cross the finishing line.

The Next Installment!

Well, it’s been a little while since we posted anything, but rest assured, we have still been watching films. However, life, the universe and The Walking Dead can sometimes get in the way.

We’ve had to break the rules a little and shuffle Zero Dark Thirty down the pile as it held us up for a while - we have no time for two and a half hour epics at the moment, unfortunately. A few of our favourite series have started up again too. But our goal of watching all 43 by sometime in the summer remains the same and the next batch of reviews are on their way. We haven’t watched anything quite as cripplingly dire as Revenge for Jolly!, nor anything as savoir faire as All About Eve, but the films we have watched and the remaining pile of DVDs stacked in the corner of the living room remain an eclectic bunch in every way with there likely to be a bit of something for everyone!!

So watch out for the next review coming to a screen near you!

9. Frances Ha (2012), Director - Noah Baumbach

Frances Ha focuses on Frances, a 27 year old dancing apprentice living in various shared apartments in New York. The movie begins with a montage of Frances and Sophie, her flat mate who Frances constantly refers to as “the same person with another haircut”. They are college friends and tell each other stories about how they will conquer the world, only things are starting to happen for Sophie, but not so much for Frances.

This is a very naturalistic film. It felt like a piece of someone’s life laid out in front us and is more character driven than plot driven. A coming of age story for the struggling artists out there, and for everyone approaching 30 without a clear path forward.

Frances, while quirky, never feels over the top, and Greta Gerwig injects a lot of vulnerability and even some self distance into the performance. While Frances makes impulsive decisions and at times seems to shoot herself in the foot she still maintains her optimism and she keeps finding a way forward. The characters around her add to the naturalistic style, although the view of New York you get is one that is full of artists with rich parents or ridiculously successful youngsters - probably much like Frances sees it. One exchange between her and friend Benji (with rich parents) has him calling her out on her self-proclaimed poverty. “You are not poor. It’s insulting to real poor people”, and while he has a point it also shows his lack of compassion when it comes just moments before he talks about getting a maid in “It’s not very expensive. Like 400 dollars a month”.

The film is shot beautifully in black and white. Other than one excruciating dinner party scene, it is also an easy film to watch, that carries you through at a good pace, with some scenes lingering whilst others rush past, like Frances’ visit to her parents over Christmas, a hilarious montage that still feels realistic and warm. In the end this movie has a lot of love for its characters, particularly Frances, and it conveys that love to us.

Fraser and Paula have always had a rift over the “bad things happens to bad people”-genre, but here we agree that neither of us like to see bad things happen to nice people, and we were both eager for Frances to turn things around and reach some sort of happy ending.

Will it make it into the cupboard? Yes

8. L’écume des jours (2013), Director - Michel Gondry

This movie was a complete mind-bender. Michel Gondry takes us on trip (an LSD trip possibly) through the absurd side of his mind in order to tell us a story. The story is simple enough - a man falls in love with a woman, they marry, the woman falls ill and the man turns his life upside down trying to cope with the emotional trauma and crippling costs incurred by his wife’s ill health - but it is its execution that makes it stand out.

The film starts at such an intense level, hurling absurdities and oddities at you at an insane pace - bells that turn to cockroaches, television chefs who hand ingredients out through the screen, unnatural human contortions and, rather disturbingly, eals that come out of taps, to name but a few - that it can feel a little overwhelming. Fraser also found it difficult to absorb all the details at the same time as reading the Swedish subtitles! When the absurd slows down it is easier to find it fun and amusing, but we were still left wondering about the choice of style. It was only really after taking a breath that we could see it for what it was. As the mood changes, so does both the colour palet and the intensity of the abstract, and the fantasy of our leading man gives way to an uncomfortable reality.

While your brain feels like it needs a holiday at the end of the hour and a half, we have here a moving, intense and well executed film. The effects are fun and the ‘50s soundtrack sets a great mood. The actors perform well to provide real characters in an upside-down world - Audrey Tautou, of Amelie fame, obviously revels in the surreal, and Omar Sy is the charming emotional core of the group as chef Nicolas. Somewhere on this journey you start to really care and the subject matter becomes poignant. The darker images in the second half of the film creates strong and moving metaphors for a situation that a lot of people could relate to. The illness of Chloë (Audrey Tautou) is typically strange - a water lilly in the lung - and this lack of a specific condition means the audience focusses on the situation and not the disease. A clever choice and a justification in itself for the crazy style.

In these days of #oscarsowhite it’s worth noting that this is one of the more diverse films we’ve seen on this list so far, even though the two main characters are still white. It is refreshing to see a diverse cast mix and mingle naturally without racial slurs as in Gangster Squad and without trying to kill each other like in The Revenant.

L’écume des jours is a good film. It’s had a strange slow burn effect, as the more we reflect on it, the more fondly we look upon it. Will it make it past the next cut? Who knows, but for now:

Will it make it into the cupboard? Yes

7. Killer Joe (2011), Director - William Friedkin

Wow. This was a hard one to sit out. Not because it’s a crap film, but because so many of the scenes are incredibly uncomfortable to watch.

This is a dark, feral drama about a family in free fall, where the son Chris (Emile Hirsch) sets a plan in motion that threatens to destroy all of them. Chris is a small time dealer, and his stash gets stolen by his mom. Enraged and desperate about not being able to pay his supplier back he enlists his father to get in touch with a hit man, Killer Joe, to dispose of the mother and cash out on her life insurance. Joe (Matthew McConaughey) isn’t too pleased about waiting until after to get paid, but decides to claim Chris’s sister Dottie as a retainer.

Dottie seems like she’s balancing on the edge between psychic and mental disorder, and while Juno Temple does a great job of making nonsensical lines come to life, the whole sexy/crazy young girl thing feels a bit done. Her relationship with Joe offers her a way out, but the start of it made us squirm in our seats as Joe orders her to take her clothes off - he turns away to give her at least the semblance of privacy, though the camera lingers. While we do also get to see McConaughey's bottom, this film this film follows the male gaze, often to a degree that feels gratuitous - a stripper at a strip club is filmed for so long that we expected her to have a part to play in the story.

Dottie, especially, is treated very much like an object, and stays in that status up until the very end, where she does, thankfully, regain some sort of agency. The other woman in the cast, stepmom Sharla (Gina Gershon) is put through one of the most difficult-to-watch scenes in the film. Not sure we’ll ever eat chicken again.

But the cast turns out strong, believable performances. Thomas Haden Church is a favourite as the father who stares his way blankly through the film. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and potentially not even a knife at all but more of a spoon, he delivers throughout the film. Both Juno Temple and Gina Gershon shine their way through their scenes with great chemistry between them and the other characters, providing much of the relationship foundations. Gershon also handles her tough scenes with the right level of defiance and vulnerability. McConaughey does his thing and is quite chilling to watch in his measured wrath. Emile Hirsch might be the weakest link of the actors, but his scenes with Dottie provide much needed humanity for his character, as his desperation threatens to consume him.

It’s shot nicely, and the lights and sounds help create a sometimes almost surreal atmosphere.The script is based on a play by Tracy Letts, and some scenes betray that the lines were originally intended for the stage, but that doesn’t bother us. Some funny scenes echo the claim the film made on the box for being a comedy, particularly the scene with Chris’ supplier offers a few laughs, but in general the film is extremely dark, much to the intention of director William Friedkin, who has previously directed The Excorcist and The French Connection. Killer Joe is a good film, but certainly not for anyone with a weak stomach or tolerance for violence. We’ll just call it Game of Thrones set in a trailer park.

Will it make it into the cupboard? No. Because neither of us actually want to watch it again, or risk either of the kids stumbling over it at home in years to come...



We didn't shuffle the films enough when we put them in the pile, and there has been a lot of gangster action so far - but our next few films will break us into a new field.