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Threads (1984) dir Mick Jackson A terrifying and shockingly brutal TV film about a nuclear war in the 1980s. The back story is the USA and USSR both intervene in a civil war in Iran. This then escalates over the course of a few weeks and ultimately leads to all out nuclear war with both countries, and their allies, bombing each others cities into oblivion. It's set in Sheffield, where I now live, a large, industrial city. It was more industrial in the 80s and had an RAF base fairly close, so this is what makes it a target. It's not made completely in the usual narrative style of films, although there is a basic plot following a young couple, expecting a baby, and their parents and friends (at least those who survive the initial attack). Parts of it are more documentary and some bits almost like a public information film explaining what would happen in the event of a nuclear war. Things like who would take control of local government, how would they distribute food and medicine in the aftermath. A lot of it is narrated, explaining things like how there would be no electricity, because early nuclear strikes would be aimed at destroying that sort of infrastructure. And then after the attack, what life would be like for those who were not killed outright. This is when the film is at it's most shocking, making you feel that the people killed instantly when the bombs hit were the lucky ones. It explains how the fallout would kill many of those not killed already; debris blown into the air, with lethal levels of radiation, that gradually falls back to the ground, blown by the wind away from where the bombs fell, so spreading death over an even greater area. It continues the story for many years after the war, showing how other clouds of dust blown into the upper atmosphere by the blast shroud huge parts of the Earth, blocking out the Sun, leading to a “Nuclear Winter” as temperatures plunge and hardly anything can grow for years. And of course this does not just effect the countries who fired their nuclear missiles at each other. So there's no winners in nuclear war, every one loses. I reiterate what Lime said in his review and urge you to watch this if you can. 10 / 10 I'd also recommend another TV film I saw many years ago, on the same basic theme but from a very different angle and without the documentary style. By Dawn's Early Light (looks like it could be available on Youtube), which follows the crew of a US B-52 bomber, armed with nuclear bombs and on patrol when war breaks out, plus other military personal and politicians who survive the initial strikes. No where near as brutal as threads, about the choices these people have to make.

Brief Encounter (1945) dir David Lean A classic British film about two middle class, happily married strangers who fall in love following a chance meeting on a train station. Celia Johnson plays house-wife Laura and Trevor Howard plays Alec, a doctor. It's not really a typical romance film, I wouldn't have watched this the number of times I have if it were. It's more a drama about the relationship between Laura and Alec. The script was adapted from a play by Noel Coward, who also produced the film. The play is called Still Life, which to me sums up the story, describing Laura's situation as a women who has nothing important to do. She has a stereotypical perfect middle class life; two kids and a husband who she is devoted to. He has a well paid job, enough to pay for a maid / cook and the very idea of a woman in her position having a job of her own, at that time, would have probably been unthinkable. So when something different and little bit risky happens to come into her life, she cannot help herself from taking a chance. It really is a great film. The script, direction and Johnson's performance all got worthy Oscar nominations, and it is accompanied by a wonderful score that is mainly a performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No-2 in C Minor (you might recognise bits of that as it's one of those orchestral pieces whose theme got used in a number of more modern songs). The accents are quite funny, but as far as I am aware some people really did talk like that at the time (and some probably still do). 10 / 10 And in-case anyone is wondering, recently I have been watching some of my favourite films that I have not seen in a while.

What I Watched This Week #173 (Apr 21-27) South dir. Chantal Akerman/1999/1h11m This documentary sees Chantal Akerman travel to Jasper, Texas in the aftermath of the brutal lynching of a black man, James Byrd Jr., who was dragged behind a truck for several miles, an act so brutally violent that he was decapitated during it. This is not a crime documentary that seeks to explore what happened, but rather a portrait of a town and the people who live there and how they are trying to process what happened shot in Akerman's distinctive style. Like a typical documentary there are talking heads interviews with people close to Byrd Jr., but Akerman's use of long takes and silences allows us to really absorb what they're saying. These static shots are juxtaposed with extended tracking shots where Akerman drives through the community, filming people going about their lives with this tragedy still hanging over them. This is something she did in News From Home in New York, but the context here makes it feel like a funeral procession. The most effective of these shots is the very last one, the view looking out of the back of a truck as it drives down the road where Byrd Jr. was murdered. It just keeps going and going and forces us to imagine the unimaginable torture he went through. Incredibly powerful filmmaking 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! The Meetings of Anna dir. Chantal Akerman/1978/2h8m Akerman's follow up to her revolutionary Jeanne Dielman, The Meetings of Anna is a deeply personal semi-autobiographical film about a female director, Anna (Aurore Clement), traveling around Europe promoting her latest film. This is a melancholic film about isolation and even when Anna is talking to other people there is a disconnection there that always makes her feel alone. Like Jeanne Dielman this is heavy with repetition and routine, with each different hotel room blending into the next, each conversation being interchangeable with any of the others. This culminates with the ending where Anna returns to a home just as anonymous as any of the other rooms she has inhabited and, lying expressionless in bed, she listens to messages on her answerphone. People are reaching out to her, but she doesn't return the call. Akerman's style really lends itself to this story, with the carefully composed shots feeling almost like a prison trapping her. The feeling also comes through in Clement's performance. Her detachment from other people growing over the course of the film, that is apart from the scene with her mother (Lea Massari) in which she is able to revert to an almost childlike state of vulnerability. 8.5/10 The Black Hole dir. Phillip Sansom, Olly Williams/2008/3m This comedic short film stars Napoleon Ryan as an office worker putting in some overtime when he prints out a black hole (though technically it acts more like a portal than a black hole, as that would immediately destroy the planet). At first he uses it for trivial things like free snacks from the vending machine, but his greed leads him to a darkly comic end. It's very simple with an obvious message, but I thought that the ending moves it up a notch, making it feel like a mini episode of The Twilight Zone. 6/10 The Platform 2 dir. Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia/2024/1h41m This is a prequel to what I thought was a fairly decent dystopian thriller set in a prison where the cells are stacked on top of each other with an open hole in the middle. Every day a platform loaded with food is lowered down cell by cell, with nothing being left for the prisoners at the bottom. This adds nothing to the concept with totally forgettable characters who I didn't care about. There are a few scenes of quite grisly violence but again, it's nothing that the first film didn't do better. I did enjoy the small appearance from Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor), one of the main characters from the original film, memorable because he actually had some character. 4/10 Three short films from Georges Méliès: A Terrible Night 1896/1m The Vanishing Lady 1896/1m The One-Man Band 1900/2m These three shorts from Georges Méliès really highlight his earlier career as a stage magician whilst also showcasing his evolving cinematic techniques. A Terrible Night is the simplest of the three where a sleeping man is harassed by a giant spider. There's really nothing of note here other than the fact that this is the first creature-feature. The other two are much more interesting and entertaining. The Vanishing Lady gives a macabre twist to a classic trick where he makes a woman disappear beneath a sheet, but not before she is transformed into a skeleton. The final film is the most playful and experimental and it sees Méliès using what were at the time cutting edge editing tricks to duplicate himself several times over, creating the titular one-man band. These films, while charming, all feel like Méliès honing his techniques in preparation for his magical longer films starting with 1902's A Trip To The Moon. I'll give these a combined score of 6/10 Inside Out dir. Pete Docter/2015/1h35m Going through all of the Pixar films in order I've finally come to the point where I've not seen hardly any of them going forward, having gotten burnt out by all of the sequels. I knew nothing about Inside Out going in and I can't believe it's taken me ten years to watch this, it's fantastic. It tells the story of 11 year old Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) who has just moved to a new city with her parents, leaving behind all of her friends and everything she loves, stirring up her emotions. These emotions are personified and live inside her head, with Joy (Amy Poehler) doing everything she can to keep Riley happy. But lately it seems like Sadness (Phyllis Smith) keeps making things worse. When the two are accidentally expelled from HQ they have to work together to make it back and save Riley's mental health. This is a brilliantly simple concept well executed with a strong message that's not just for the younger viewers. The fact that it can be unhealthy to want to be happy all of the time and that you need a healthy mix of emotions, even negative ones, for good mental health. This is also a really funny film, with the juxtaposition between Joy and Sadness's personalities making them a great double act. There's also good support from Lewis Black, Bill Hader, and Mindy Kaling as Anger, Fear and Disgust. The instantly recognisable voice of Richard Kind also appears, playing Riley's forgotten imaginary friend Bing b*ng who ended up as my favourite character. I wasn't really looking forward to this run of Pixar films, but if they're even half as good as this I'll be satisfied. 9/10

Bladerunner (1982) dir Ridley Scott For me, this is one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time. It's a film that has be re-released at least twice. I have seen the original theatrical release, the 1992 Director's Cut, and the 2007 Final Cut. The 1992 version, I think, set the trend for other director's to release Director's cuts of their films. It's certainly the first one I ever saw. However, despite the name, Ridley Scott did not have complete control over that version. He did over the 2007 one, and it's that one that I am reviewing. I could not remember the differences to the 1992 one without looking them up, but both of the later ones get rid of a voice over (a bit like a 1940s detective film) and different ending that got added to the original after feedback from test audiences (I think). It's based on the Philip K. d*ck novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”. The basics of the plot is the same as the book, but the specific story is very different in places. I would recommend the book to anyone who is a fan of serious sci-fi, but it's the sort of book you need to really concentrate on. It was written in 1968 and set in 2019 when that seemed a long way in the future. The world the story is set in is way more advanced than we are now. Harrison Ford plays Deckard, a retired LA cop, a Bladerunner, who specialises in tracking down and terminating rogue androids, called replicants. These are indistinguishable from real humans to all but the experts. Even people like Dekard can only tell for sure by lengthy interrogation of suspected replicants that is designed to show up lack of emotions that real humans have. Replicants are banned from Earth, only supposed to be used on off-world space colonies. Any that do get found on Earth can be killed on the spot. Deckard is brought back by his boss Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh) and his assistant Gaff (Edward James Olmos) because a group of replicants hijacked a ship that was later found abandoned on Earth. They are believed to be in LA seeking their creator, Mr. Tyrell (Joe Turkel). The replicants, at least those that have not already been eliminated, are lead by Batty (Rutger Hauer) and others are played by Daryl Hannah, Brion Jones and Joanna Cassidy. William Sanderson plays Sebastian, a lonely man with a premature ageing disease who makes his on androids (not realistic or dangerous enough to be classed as replicants) and Sean Young plays Tyrell's PA Rachel. The cast are, overall, good, but Rutger Hauer gives the best performance I ever saw of him as Batty varies from charming, to psychopathic, to child-like fearful naïvety. There is a big plot element to do with Deckard and Rachel that I won't spoil, and various things thrown in that have kept some fans speculating as to the true nature of the various characters. If you know the film you will probably know what I am referring to here. I will say that I don't see in the film all the things that some claim to clearly see, but I see enough to agree with the consensus. Also some of the theories about that do not apply to all versions of the film. The sets and cinematography are stunning. It still looks to me well ahead of its time, as does Ridely Scott's Alien, so to me it shows what great film makers could achieve well before they had access to sort of CGI and AI tech available today. It also has a pretty good modern score from Vangelis. The best scene is the penultimate one, just with Batty and Deckard and includes the famous “tears in the rain” monologue that, apart from a few hundred years of technological development, would not have been out of place in a Shakespeare play. 10 / 10 The theatrical version I would only give an 8 to because, although I have only ever seen it once, I do remember the voice-over annoying me and the altered ending, a little bit added on, pointlessly changes the story.

Up n Atomizers and NPC traffic on high. Each frog for themself. 5 min. https://socialclub.rockstargames.com/job/gtav/Ontwci9ufUu7sojP2x-DBg

What I Watched This Week #175 (May 5-11) BlacKkKlansman dir. Spike Lee/2018/2h16m BlacKkKlansman is Spike Lee's biopic of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), who in 1972 became the first black officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Not long after he becomes an undercover officer and is able to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan over the phone, his membership being expedited by the Grand Wizard himself, David Duke (Topher Grace). This is a stylish, impactful film that sees Lee utilising all of his trademark cinematic flourishes to great use. The montage of real world footage at the end, something he's done several times, was especially powerful as it featured footage from the white supremacist rally in Virginia in 2017 along with a speech by Agent Orange. At the same time this is also a very entertaining film with some great 70's fashion and hairstyles as well as a brilliant score by jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard. Washington is a charismatic lead whose personality shines through in every scene, something I didn't get from him in the only other performance I've seen of his in Christopher Nolan's Tenet. Adam Driver is also very good as Stallworth's Jewish partner Flip Zimmerman, who was the in-person half of their Klan infiltrating duo for obvious reasons. One of Lee's best films, and it has me hyped for his remake of the Akira Kurosawa film High and Low, Highest 2 Lowest (starring John David's father, Denzel), out later this year. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Longlegs dir. Osgood Perkins/2024/1h41m This 90's set occult horror thriller stars Maika Monroe as FBI agent Lee Harker who is investigating a series of murder/suicides all involving the father killing his entire family before himself. They are all linked by coded letters left by the mysterious Longlegs (Nicolas Cage). Like a lot of horror films dealing with the occult I find that the setup is always better than the conclusion, the recent Heretic comes to mind, and that's the case here. There's a whole thing here with creepy dolls that didn't really work for me, and the puzzle with the letters just feels like a stretch. The film would have benefitted from being much more ambiguous in the final act. That said, I still really liked the majority of this, with Monroe's performance really carrying the whole thing. Cage is creepy in the little screen time he has, but like the aliens from Aliens, the more you see of him the less scary he becomes. I actually started to notice a slight resemblance to Jackie Stallone, Sly's mother, in his bloated, pale face. But his first few appearances are really effective and had me checking over my shoulder. 7/10 Jazz on a Summer's Day dir. Bert Stern/1959/1h22m The only movie by photographer Bert Stern, this concert film documents the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. There are some incredible performances here, my favourites being Thelonious Monk, Big Maybelle, Dinah Washington, Mahalia Jackson and Louis Armstrong who always steals the show, but what I really liked about this film is the relaxed atmosphere and how the experience of the festival and the people in attendance are just as important to Stern. He often pans away from the stage to capture a random person, and he doesn't just look for people dancing and getting into the music, he just focuses on what interests him like a woman struggling with an ice cream sandwich. I also like how the film progresses through the day chronologically, starting off in the morning with footage of boats taking part in a regatta adjacent to the festival and ending after the sun has set. It really feels like we've spent the day here. Good music, good vibes, good time. 9/10 Film Adventurer Karel Zeman dir. Tomas Hodan/2015/52m (edited from 1h38m) This documentary explores the career of Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman whose innovative use of special effects bought to life some incredible films like Invention for Destruction and The Fabulous Baron Munchausen. Aside from the usual documentary talking heads of people inspired by Zeman like Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton and clips from his films, the best thing about this documentary is watching students in a Czech film school trying to recreate scenes from his films using his techniques. Seeing a new generation get inspired by Zeman and marvelling at the genius of his way of creating new worlds was something I wish there was more of. And there may be more of that as I was watching a heavily edited version on Disney+ which is pretty annoying. I don't know what was edited out, or why, but I feel a little short changed. Despite that, I still enjoyed stepping back into the magical worlds of Karel Zeman, and highly recommend the two films I mentioned above, particularly Invention for Destruction which is also known as The Fabulous World of Jules Verne. 7/10 Yakuza Graveyard dir. Kinji Fukasaku/1976/1h37m Tetsuya Watari stars as renegade cop Kuroiwa in this Japanese crime thriller from a director best known in the west for the incredibly influential film Battle Royale. The plot sees Kuroiwa playing two warring crime families, the Nishidas and the Yamashiros, against each other. When he learns that his superiors are involved he takes matters into his own hands. This is a bleak and gritty film shot using handheld cameras that really adds to the chaotic tone and it matches Kuroiwa's character perfectly. This is a lot like Dirty Harry but with a lead character that's much more intertwined with the world he's trying to bring down. This is represented by his intense relationship with Keiko (Meiko Kaji), the widow of a gangster that he killed. Watari and Kaji are both great in the lead roles, their scenes together conveying a sense of doomed hopelessness. Despite some exciting action scenes this is a film that remains downbeat to the end, but after spending time with Kuroiwa you know that he's only going out one way. 8.5/10 Two short films by Georges Méliès: The Pillar of Fire 1899/1m The Infernal Cakewalk 1903/6m These two films from Georges Méliès see him take on what seems to be his favourite role, a playful, impish devil. The first film sees him as a green skinned demon who conjures an angel. Using her wings she conjures a clous of holy smoke that defeats him, before she herself disappears into thin air. The second, more elaborate, film is set in hell where a big dance party is in full swing, with Méliès as the devil bursting out of a cake to bust some moves of his own. Wanting to know what the title meant I looked it up, and a cakewalk was a dance competition plantation owners would make their sl*ves participate in, with the winner receiving a cake as a prize. This is also where the term "to take the cake" comes from. Racial undertones aside I liked it more than the first film as his use of editing trickery is much more refined, even just a few years later. I'll give them a combined 7/10

The Outrun (2024) dir Nora Fingscheidt Saoirse Ronan plays Rona, a young alcoholic who returns to he native Orkney (a group of islands off the north of Scotland) after living most of her life in London. It's a bit of an unusual film. It does not exactly have the usual narrative plot. A lot of the time it feels more like you are following Rona about and I think she is in every scene. It's also very nonlinear, moving back and forwards from the present, in Orkney, her childhood there too, and then at least two different periods in time in London. Rather like Kate Winslet in The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you can tell which part of the time-line you are watching from the colour of Ronan's hair. But at first it does take a little getting used to. There is a story though. So we see her before she became addicted to drink, then the effects on her relationships as she becomes an addict through to her attempts to get help and then deciding she has to leave London and go back home, where there's less nightlife, but still obviously there is drink available. And there's tensions with her parents, who are separated, with her father also battling his own problems. There is a lot narration from Rona as we hear her thoughts on various bits of Orkney folk-lore, history, natural history and weather, some of which overlap. In particular there is the myth of the Selkie – people who drowned and turned into seals. It's good, and Ronan is great in the lead role with pretty decent support too. There are plenty of easy-on-the eye scenes of the Orkney landscape, sea, sky and the seals. But I did find it a little too long at nearly 2 hours. I have nothing against a film being that long or longer, if that is what is needed to complete a good story, but this felt like it didn't need to be that long. 7 / 10

What I Watched This Week #174 (Apr 28-May 4) The Last Showgirl dir. Gia Coppola/2024/1h29m This gentle drama stars Pamela Anderson in the lead role of Shelley, the fading star of a Las Vegas revue that will be closing soon due to dwindling audience members. She is also trying to reforge a relationship with her estranged daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd). This is a very quiet film that stays clear of melodrama and that makes the characters much more rounded as a result. Anderson gives an excellent performance in the lead, easily the best of her career (as much as I enjoy the insane Casablanca remake Barb Wire), and it reminded me a lot of Marilyn Monroe's performance in her final film The Misfits as a woman dealing with aging in a world that finds the idea of beautiful women getting old offensive and where her place in that world actually is. They both remain positive but there's always a hint of melancholy. There's also great support from Jamie Lee Curtis as Shelley's cocktail waitress best friend Annette and Dave Bautista as the show's stage manager Eddie. The direction, by Francis's granddaughter Gia Coppola, is decent but the constant use of bokeh - a very stylised use of focus that gives a dreamy feel - got distracting after a while, though it does convey that Shelley is still living in a dreamland. 8.5/10 Havoc dir. Gareth Evans/2025/1h47m Tom Hardy stars as a gruff cop trying to stop a gang war when the mayor's son is framed for killing some Triads I think, it's all very convoluted in a way that's trying to emulate classic noir films (as is Hardy's voiceover) but none of it is particularly interesting. This is from the same director as The Raid and its sequel so the action scenes are capably handled and each feel distinct from the other, but aside from that this is the definition of content churned out for Netflix put on their front page for a week or so. As good as Hardy is as an actor he just has nothing to really work with here. I couldn't tell you his name with a gun pointed to my head, my best guess would John Q. Havoc generic as he is. There are some familiar faces in the supporting cast, with Forest Whitaker playing the mayor, Timothy Olyphant as a corrupt cop, and Luis Guzman whose character I don't really remember, but I like Luis Guzman, so that's a net positive in that department I guess. If you're looking for some background noise to not really pay attention to then this is the film for you, not bad, but not much of anything else either. 5/10 Farewell, My Lovely (Murder, My Sweet) dir. Edward Dmytryk/1944/1h35m This adaptation of Raymond Chandler's noir novel, the second book to feature legendary private detective Philip Marlowe, sees d*ck Powell take on the role and get caught up in a convoluted plot kicked off by getting hired by an ex-con to track down his former girlfriend. This is the second adaptation of this story I've seen, and I do prefer the later version starring Robert Mitchum in the role of Marlowe, his appearance suiting it more, almost matching the crumpled suit he's been sleeping in for several days. Elliot Gould also played the role very well in The Long Goodbye. But none can match up to Humphry Bogart, iconic in The Big Sleep, which was released only a few years later. None of this is Powell's fault obviously, his performance is the earliest out of them all, but I couldn't help but compare him to all of the other Marlowe's I've seen, and I have to say his is the weakest. Not that he's bad, he just doesn't compare favourably. As for the film, it's just like Powell. Not bad, but not as good as what came later. The highlight of the film is Claire Trevor's performance as the femme fatale of the piece, Helen Grayle. If you've not seen any Raymond Chandler adaptations then maybe start with this one, as it will make all of the others even more enjoyable. 7/10 Manivald dir. Chintis Lundgren/2017/13m This animated short is another set in Estonian director Chintis Lundgren's world of anthropomorphic animals exploring their sexualities. This story is about a fox called Manivald (Trevor Boris), a talented musician still living at home with his mother (France Castel). When their washing machine breaks down they call in a repairman, the s*xy wolf Toomas (Drasko Ivezic) - star of another Lundgren film, Toomas Beneath the Valley of the Wild Wolves - who soon starts relationships with both of them. I really like Lundgren's very simple style and limited colour palette, it gives me nostalgic vibes for Nickelodeon cartoons I watched as a child like Doug and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. Obviously the content is much more adult, with this film having a very mature take on s*xual relationships. The fact that it's bizarre and quirky looking animals instead of people makes the message have even more impact. 8/10 F9 dir. Justin Lin/2021/2h23m When I first started watching the Fast and Furious franchise back in January it was all because I heard that they actually travel to space in one of the later films and I just had to see that, but being a completionist I had to start at the beginning when they were just street racers stealing DVD players. And now the time has come, and it was just as glorious as I had hoped it would be. When Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris blasted off into space in a car with a rocket strapped to its roof and then proceeded to drive it through a spy satellite in order to destroy it I could not stop smiling. It's so gloriously stupid and over the top and I loved it. There are even moments when Gibson's character, Roman, almost becomes self aware, commenting on how it's ridiculous how they do all of this secret agent stuff with no training and experience and never die, or even get a scratch. If he had looked right into the camera at that moment I would have stood up and clapped. For a second there I thought the film would become some meta commentary on action films. It doesn't, but the fact that I even thought that could be a possibility is brilliant. As for the actual film, it's the same as ever but bigger and faster and even more furious, with John Cena being added to the cast as Dominic's (Vin Diesel) estranged brother Jakob. The more overblown these films get, the more they hook me in, which is something no other blockbuster franchise has done for me before. I don't know what it is about them because I'm not a car guy at all, but these are just fun and I'm pumped for the next one, where could they possibly go next? 7/10 The Mermaid dir. Georges Méliès/1904/4m Another slice of early movie magic sees Méliès go fishing in a top hat, throwing his catches in a aquarium, which then fills the screen before a mermaid appears. These longer films not only allow Méliès to refine his filmmaking techniques but also to show off his personality, which shines through in every movement and flourish he makes. He is such a recognisable character to me now after watching so many of his films and it makes me wish I could have seen him perform his stage magic show. If you've never watched any of these films before take a few minutes now and check some out, they really do feel like magic. 8/10 Damnation dir. Bela Tarr/1988/1h56m This film from Hungarian master Bela Tarr is the first where he really cements his trademark style of long takes, controlled movement and a perfect utilisation of the elements like Akira Kurosawa, particularly that of the endless, torrential rain which seems to soak this film to its very soul. The story follows Karrer (Szekely B. Miklos), a lonely, depressed man living in a rundown town that seems to consist of not much more than a few houses and a bar, the Titanik. He is in love with the woman who sings at the bar (Vali Kerekes), but she is married, so he must come up with a scheme to get her husband (Gyorgy Cserhalmi) out of the way. There's a sense of pathetic desperation to all of these characters, like the stray dogs scrabbling around in the dirt and the rain that we see throughout the film. They're all on a sinking ship and there's nothing to do but drink. This all sounds very grim and miserable, and it is, but it's also shot in some of the most beautiful black and white photography you could ask for. There's texture in every surface in this film, you don't just watch it, you can feel it. This is also a very quiet film but the emotional impact is devastating. Not quite on the same level as his later masterpieces Werckmeister Harmonies and Satantango (my favourite film of all time) this is still an expertly crafted film that will transport you to another world. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week!

I'm happy to host this weekend. Planning the playlist right now.

What I Watched This Week #172 (Apr 14-20) Alien dir. Ridley Scott/1979/1h57m One of the greatest sci-fi horror films of all time, Ridley Scott's Alien stars Sigourney Weaver as a member of a deep space mining crew who takes a detour to an SOS message on the long journey back to Earth, finding a crashed ship full of eggs. My favourite thing about this film after seeing it so many times is how worn and lived in the ship is. I totally believe that it's real and functional and that this crew has spent months living in it. The opening sequence where we explore the empty ship while the crew is in cryosleep not only builds tension but allows us to take in the incredible details in the production design. Speaking of design, H.R. Giger's design for the xenomorph is the best in movie history (though the lil guy who bursts out of John Hurt's chest is kinda cute and goofy looking). The aggressively ph*llic look of it works well with the very male perspective fear of r*pe and childbirth. The whole cast is excellent, alongside Weaver and Hurt you have Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto, the latter two making a great comedic double team. 9.5/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Now You See Me dir. Louis Leterrier/2013/1h56m Now You See Me tells the story of a group of Las Vegas magicians known as the Four Horsemen (Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco) who rob banks live during their show, distributing the money to their audience. They are being tracked by Mark Ruffalo's FBI agent Rhodes who is determined to uncover their secrets. Totally forgettable fluff, there are some nice moments in here, and I liked the twist at the end even though you can see it coming a mile away. The big trick showpieces are entertaining in that artificial Vegas way that also feels hollow and meaningless. My biggest gripe here is with the four main characters and that I didn't like any of them. Like real magicians I found them to be annoying and so far up their own *sses that I was actively rooting against them every step of the way. The exception is Harrelson, though he comes close at times. There's solid support from Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, with Ruffalo giving the best performance in the film. This is the definition of inoffensive cinematic background noise. 5/10 Cinderella dir. Georges Méliès/1899/6m Georges Méliès here with some more ground breaking work from the dawn of cinema. Not only is this the first film adaptation of Cinderella, it's also the first film adaptation of any fairy tale and also the first film to use dissolves to transition between scenes (with this being his first film with more than one scene). Watching this is to watch the evolution of film in real time, and, like the rest of his work, it's nothing less than magical. This is Méliès becoming more innovative and inventive with his films becoming more complex and technically demanding. The sets and costumes are beautifully detailed and like illustrations come to life. It's amazing to me that a film from the 19th century can still be so magical. 8/10 How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies dir. Pat Boonnitipat/2024/2h7m This family drama/comedy from Thailand stars Putthipong Assaratanakul as M, a lazy young man who has dropped out of college to try and start a streaming career ("wow four viewers" his mother chides early on). When he learns that his grandmother (Usha Seamkhum) has cancer he thinks that he can weasel his way to the top of her will by moving in with her to care for her. A tender and gentle film that also surprises with some pretty dark humour, I found this to be incredibly charming with two excellent lead performances from Assaratanakul and Seamkhum. Seamkhum is particularly impressive in her late in life film debut as the wily old woman who sees through all the bullsh*t from her grandson, but also sees something of herself in him. The plot is fairly predictable - of course the two will grow closer to each other and form a real bond by the time she dies - but the journey to that point, and the touching epilogue, I really enjoyed. There's a lot of family drama with the grandmother's children but it always feels close to reality and not emotionally manipulative or overly melodramatic at any point. 9/10 Shock Treatment dir. Jim Sharman/1981/1h34m Shock Treatment is a sequel to one of my all time favourite films, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and picks up with Brad and Janet (now played by Cliff DeYoung and Jessica Harper) a few years later with their marriage now on the rocks. To rectify this they appear on a TV show with the result being Brad getting committed to a psychiatric hospital run by Dr. Cosmo McKinley (Richard O'Brien) and Janet getting groomed for superstardom. This is perhaps even more bizarre than Rocky Horror, certainly more cynical, with the world now seeming to exists as a series of TV shows, a live studio audience never leaving, sleeping in their seats as the film happens on screens all around them. It's a strange dystopia that seems to predict the dominance TV would have over our lives to an even greater extent in the era of commercialism and Reganomics. If there's not a camera on you then you don't exist, like the antithesis of Rocky Horror's theme of "don't dream it, be it". Many of the Rocky Horror cast returns with the exception of Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick as Janet and Brad (though DeYoung and especially Harper do an excellent job in the roles) and most notably Tim Curry. I kept imagining him in the role played by Barry Humphries (most famous for playing Dame Edna Everage), a garishly sleazy host called Bert Schnick. Humphries is great, but we all know Curry would have been better. Another slight let down for me is the soundtrack. As a musical this doesn't really compare with Rocky Horror, though there are some catchy tunes in there, the main theme still popping into my head occasionally. 9/10 #21xoxo dir. Sine Ozbilge, Imge Ozbilge/2019/9m This animated short from Belgium shows a girl (Indra de Bruyn) and her experiences with online dating, hooking up with several men before finding a genuine connection. The most striking thing about this film are the visuals, with the film being rotoscoped, a process where live action footage is traced over by animators giving it natural movement, a process used by Disney for Snow White back in 1937. Here it's given a thoroughly modern makeover, with the screen bombarded with text and images and memes representing the experience of being chronically online. The aesthetic also calls to mind pop art of the 60's, showing that the digital world may be new but the problems of finding a partner are anything but. It's at times overwhelming, purposefully so, but there's still a cohesion between all these elements. The ending is a bit on the nose but it's well done, wrapping the whole thing up maybe a bit too neatly. 7/10 Toomas Beneath the Valley of the Wild Wolves dir. Chintis Lundgren, Drasko Ivezic/2019/18m Another animated short, this time from Estonia, this tells the story of Toomas (Drasko Ivezic), a wolf who is fired after turning down his boss's advances. With a wife and children to support he turns to prostitution and then gay p*rn. Meanwhile, his wife Viivi (Chintis Lundgren) is learning some things about herself thanks to militant feminist Alexandra Horn-Eye (Lee Delong). This reminded me a lot of Bug Diner, another charming and cheeky animation about sexuality and relationships starring anthropomorphic animals. That was stop motion while this is animated in a simple yet effective style, the linework wobbling between frames like Doug, the 90's cartoon. Like Bug Diner, this is also a very mature film with more human characters than a lot of live action films that tackle the same subjects. 8.5/10 No Home But Cinema: The Spaces of Chantal Akerman dir. Jessica McGoff/2025/14m (no trailer for this, so here's one for a similar film) This short essay film explores the films of Chantal Akerman through her use of space and locations, how she films them, how she moves through them and what they represent. McGoff doesn't narrate this film, rather her essay is presented as text on the screen over clips from films that illustrate her points. I like this approach and how it's executed. The text isn't presented in blocks but line by line and is edited with the rhythm of the film clips so that they're unobtrusive and allow you to fully immerse in the various worlds of Akerman. This doesn't go too in depth with any of her observations as they are things you will pick up on by just watching the films, but it would work as a good introduction to her and what to look out for in her work. 7/10 Hotel Monterey dir. Chantal Akerman/1973/1h3m (no trailer so have an extended clip) Staying with Chantal Akerman, Hotel Monterey is an observational documentary in which she explores the titular hotel, a cheap one in New York where she stayed when she first moved to the city, from the lobby to the roof. It starts off at night where her camera captures people milling about in the lobby, taking the elevators up and down. She then prowls the corridors like a ghost, her very formally structured compositions bringing out the textures of the grimy yellow walls. Methodically we move upwards until we are on the roof, it is day now, and the feeling of escape is palpable. We do this all in silence, and I mean total silence. No music, no background noise, nothing. Not only does this make us even more aware of what we're seeing on screen, but it also makes us aware of our own environment. An exploration of space is happening on the screen and in real life at the same time and it's kind of amazing once you notice that. It's like Akerman speaking out of time saying here I am, where are you? This also feels like a prelude to her masterful film News From Home, in which she takes the same approach but expands it to the whole city, though this time with sound. This totally isn't for everyone, it's not even close to what you'd call entertaining, but if you give it a chance you'll get so much out of it. 8.5/10