I felt like something different, and this deeply strange and haunting 1972 film by Werner Herzog about the doomed 16th-century expedition into the Peruvian rain forest definitely hit the spot. It’s the kind of film that you’re never sure you liked in the conventional sense, but one that gets under your skin.
What to do when you’ve got an NBN outage and can’t stream? Go back to your DVD collection of course. I thought I’d re-watch one of my all-time favourite movies, this witty and brilliantly acted period drama that starts as deliciously wicked and ends as a tragedy.
I’ve been watching a lot of crime drama/comedy recently for some reason. In addition to Hot Fuzz and Leon: The Professional, plus re-visiting Godfather I & II and all five seasons of Breaking Bad, I’ve now watched Martin McDonagh’s 2008 black comedy caper. And yes it made me want to go to Bruges.
Frustratingly superficial but endearing biopic of the 1950s pin-up queen, mostly worth a look for Gretchen Mol’s irresistible and exuberant performance.
I confess that most of my knowledge about A Streetcar Named Desire came from a classic Simpsons episode. But now I finally unwrapped the 1951 adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ stage play, after the DVD sat on my shelves for years.
Somehow I spent the last fifteen years without ever once seeing this high school comedy classic, while still knowing its catchphrases (Stop trying to make Fetch happen). Watching it for the first time now, it still feels fresh and as deceptively effortless as a perfect pop song.
This action comedy from Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright is a little too long (seriously, which comedy from the last few years isn’t overlong?), but the enormously entertaining finale and the winning buddy chemistry between Pegg and Nick Frost more than make up for its flaws.
A stylish and eccentric thriller that feels thoroughly French despite the English-speaking cast and the New York setting, with Natalie Portman in what surely must be one of the most memorable child performances of all time.
