I’m tentatively planning, in good company with a whole bunch of other people, I’m sure, to watch the first six Star Wars movies in Machete Order before I see the new one. Machete Order (episodes 4, 5, 2, 3, and 6) does not include episode…
I finally watched The Grand Budapest Hotel. Funny, charming, beautiful — I really enjoyed it. I appreciate its meticulousness, its attention to detail, its stubborn idiosyncrasy and dedication to its own timelessness. I can see nominating it for Best Picture. I can’t see awarding it…
The really remarkable thing about Blue is the Warmest Colour is that it turned out so beautifully given the conditions under which it was reportedly made: [Director Abdellatif Kechiche] was always searching, because he didn’t really know what he wanted. We spent weeks shooting scenes….
One of the things I most appreciated about Blue is the Warmest Colour — about all of the last three films I saw, actually, so Under the Skin and Jodorowsky’s Dune as well — was the sense in all three of intention over cliché. This…
I was about 75% of the way through Under the Skin the novel when I decided I couldn’t wait and needed to see the film. I was spellbound by it, though one scene toward the end bothered me because it seemed gratuitous. And then I…
When I was a kid, I loved The Hobbit and read it over and over. The Lord of the Rings, apart from isolated moments (mostly Shelob and the destruction of the ring at Mount Doom), bored the pants off me — I dragged myself through…
This was my first John le Carré novel, and I listened to it as an audiobook in the car. It was read by Michael Jayston (known to Doctor Who fans as the Valeyard), who was superb at conveying subtle shades of emotion among men trained…
I’d hoped to watch The Spy Who Came In From the Cold as this week’s movie, but I still had about an hour to go on the audiobook and I wanted to wait till I was done. So I looked into Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,…
Anyone who’s heard the title of this film more than once knows the two words that come after it, so when I sat down to watch it earlier this week, I was worried that it would be ruined by knowing the secret from the outset….
Last time I tried to watch this, I really wasn’t in the mood. Today I was. I liked it. The first half hour or so was still a bit rough going. I didn’t particularly like any of the people I was meeting or any of…