Classic Oscar bait that now almost seems like the template by which all awards hungry films since have adhered to.
It certainly didn't go unnoticed by me at the time (I'm sure I've seen snatches of it here and there) but I never actually properly sat down to watch it, the only thing prompting me this time was because I heard Hans Zimmer's main theme play on a TV show (it's a great score. Very similar to Black Rain but…
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Rain Man 1988
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The Sixth Commandment 2023
I had seen the excellent channel 4 documentary about this case in their Catching a Killer series and found it to be one of the most unbelievably sad and cruel stories I'd ever heard.
This four part drama faithfully and respectfully dramatises the events of the so called Maids Moreton Murders involving Ben Field (a quietly brilliant psychopathic portrayal from one to watch Éanna Hardwicke, not to mention eerily similar in look) and how he managed to finagle his way…
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Apaches 1977
Probably the most well known/highly regarded public information film is this offering from The Long Good Friday's John Mackenzie.
Despite thinking I'd seen this one (no doubt down to it's notoriety) I honestly don't think I had. Running at a whopping 26 minutes this follows a group of children as they descend upon a very muddy working farm somewhere in a none more cold and overcast England, for a game of cowboys and Indians.
Led by a cheeky little shit… -
Play Safe 1978
This very 70s public information film was totally new to me but at the same time felt very familiar. A slightly gentler approach here using animated, anthropomorphised animals much in the same vein as the iconic cat Charlie, from the "Charlie Says" string of adverts, but in this instance the animation is combined with live action. Here a young and naive Robin (voiced brilliantly by Bernard Cribbins) is being schooled on the dangers of playing near overhead electrical lines and…
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The Swan 2023
I'm not the biggest fan of Was Anderson but I quite enjoyed this. That's probably more due to the fact this is a Roald Dahl story (a typically dark and fanciful tale yet drawn from an actual account apparently) which Anderson wisely puts front and centre, narration over dialogue and his minimalist visual style complementing the story here.
It felt like a rather weird and expensive episode of Jackanory. -
Dog 2001
So after watching Reel Britania the other day and feeling rather shamefaced at the amount of great local produce I've overlooked throughout the years, I thought I should make a concerted effort to rectify this by trying to pepper my viewing habits with more stuff from the UK. Let's call it a soft project though because it will be such a wide ranging selection of films from different decades/genres/production companies etc. that the only unifying theme running through it is…
