And The Winner Isn’t …

The world probably doesn't need yet another podcast about films, but I unexpectedly found myself with a lot of extra time on my hands in recent months (not quite sure how that happened) so what's a girl to do? Together with my good friend Dan Morgan, we decided we would posit the idea that the …

Heat (1995)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. In the DVD extras we learn that Michael Mann and Al Pacino decided that Pacino's character, Vincent Hanna, should dabble in cocaine once in a while. This would result in him being a little over the top on occasion. But by not putting any evidence of this in the …

Two Bits (1995)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. Pacino was 55 when he made this, and I'm guessing the character was supposed to be around 80. If only that were the worst thing about it. These may well be events that genuinely happened to the writer when he was growing up, but presenting everything as a gentle …

Carlito’s Way (1993)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. Watching this for the first time in many, many years, and it suddenly dawned on me how much of a Brian De Palma film this is. For me, not such a good thing. As an example, the female characters don't even merit second names. I like the voice-over a …

My top films of the decade: 2010 – 2019

It seems to be the thing to do – as we enter a new decade, a list of favourite films from the one which is just ending appears to be de rigueur. So here we are. I’ve seen other lists where the writers have selected one film from each year of the decade to provide …

My favourite films of 2019

2019 has been a funny old year as far as my film ratings have gone. There have been a whole bunch of solidly good films, but there’s been nothing which has really taken my breath away or stopped me in my tracks in the manner that, say, Moonlight did a couple of years ago. But …

Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood (2019)

Thank you Quentin Tarantino. Thank you for not making ‘The Sharon Tate Story’. I’m going to err on the side of benevolence and assume that it was Tarantino himself who realised that it was not a good idea to go there. Instead, he has taken those events as a starting point, weaving fictional (but believable) …

Scent of a Woman (1992)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. This is film for which Al Pacino famously won his Academy Award, one which he actually should have won at least twice previously, and which this time around was practically the apologetic life-time achievement win. That's not to say he isn't good in this - it's a fine performance …

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Rewatching for my The Complete Pacino list. This is a film full of angry men. It may be David Mamet, who is apparently to be admired as a writer, but it drove me mad. I can appreciate the performances but this heavy-handed sales environment left me screaming for release. The only woman I saw was the …

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

There is so much going on in this film I actually don't know where to start. Perhaps by saying that I liked it, though I didn't love it. Then, I'm not generally one for animations so it must have been doing something good. I liked the way that it acknowledged what even peripheral audiences know …