Brian's Place - The Movie Corner

The Movie Corner

Here is a selection of some of my favourite movies (and a few TV productions such as the BBC's recent Jane Eyre), in various (overlapping) categories, with some indication of what the movie or TV production is about and/or why I like it. The exceptionally fine ones (in my opinion) are marked with a gold cup.

In each section, movies are listed in alphabetical order of movie title. Hyperlinks will tell you more about the movie and/or the director and his or her works.

Categories:
Life is good, after all
Family / animation
High zing factor
Comedy
War time drama
Sci-Fi
Relationships and personal journeys

Life is good, after all

When you are feeling jangled or fed up with the world, or even when you're not, these are excellent medecine!

Click on the movie name to get more information about it.

Enchanted April: One of my family's all-time favourite movies, with an absolutely perfect cast. Particularly effective in miserable English weather! I have it on VHS; if anyone know how to get a legal copy on a Region 2 DVD, please e-mail me - thanks!
Kiki's Delivery Service: An enchanting coming-of-age Japanese animation from Hayao Miyazaki, director of the Oscar-winning Spirited Away. Worth watching just for the beautiful Scandinavian-style landscape and town, a miracle of loving creative genius, but there is much more than that, which is why it is in this category.
My Neighbour Totoro: Another enchanting Japanese animation from Hayao Miyazaki.

Family / Animation

Some blockbuster movies (e.g. Harry Potter) are too well known to be listed here!

Father Goose: One of Cary Grant's best movies, set in the Pacific after the fall of Singapore, a sparkling collision between a self-indulgent batchelor and an up-tight Lesley Caron, who brings a pack of refugee girls of assorted sizes and nationalities into his previously idyllic life.
International Velvet: This is a sequel to (and in my opinion, better than) the much loved "National Velvet". It has a great cast including Tatum O'Neal, Christopher Plummer, Nanette Newman and Anthony Hopkins, and a great music score by Francis Lai.; If you have never known girls who grew up loving horses, if you wouldn't laugh at a Thelwell cartoon, if you think Reality TV is great, then this might not be for you.; I think it is one of the great old-fashioned family movies, of the "they don't make them like this any more" variety. It is hardly ever shown on UK TV, possibly because of a truly nasty review that appeared in the Radio Times (Britain's best selling magazine for TV and radio programmes) some years back. I hope that this redresses the balance.
The Last Mimzy: This was a surprise discovery, a strong recommendation from my (31-year old) daughter, and from my point of view a great find!; The movie (which I have only seen on DVD) might appeal to the same audience that enjoyed E.T.. Set in some beautiful scenery around Vancouver, it centres around extraordinary events that happen to a brother and sister (played excellently by Chris O'Neill and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn). The rest of the cast include Timothy Hutton (who played the foolish man who lost Meg Ryan to Kevin Kline in French Kiss) and Michael Clarke Duncan, the huge black guy who gave such a powerful performance in The Green Mile (which is about as far from The Last Mimzy as you can get).; It is a quieter movie than E.T., with some similarities but many differences. The use of special effects is restrained and well judged (more so than in Bridge To Terabithia, another excellent family movie) - and they are so good that one almost accepts them as real and forgets the art that created them.; A production of New Line Cinema, it has several links with the production of The Lord Of The Rings, including a music score by Howard Shore.
Ratatouille: For me, this was the most enjoyable movie of 2007. Apart from the appealing story and the staggeringly good animation, there was the wry experience of being educated in the enjoyment of good food by a rat!; Like many people, I suspect, I now take great animation like this for granted. I have to keep reminding myself that thinking about the artistry in this movie (or in any good animated or special-effects movie) as “computer generated” is like crediting the artistry of Rembrandt to the hog bristles in his brushes and to the pigments in his paint!; This article gives some idea of what was actually involved in making Ratatouille. It really is a case of art concealing art (I knew the expression but never looked up its origin, hence the link!). Pixar Animation Studios can be justifiably proud of this one.; (I am glad to see that the DVD also has a copy of the hilarious Pixar short Lifted, which was shown with Ratatouille in our local cinema.)
The Muppet Christmas Carol: Huge fun, bringing together the best of Charles Dickens and Jim Henson. We bring it out every Christmas!
The Railway Children (version directed by Lionel Jeffries): Possibly the most loved (and most lovingly made) family movie of all time.

High zing factor

What is "zing"?
"If it ain't got that zing
Then it don't mean a thing..."
... but that's not really it! Maybe it's a crackling script, pacy direction, a feeling of bubbles up your nose... in short, zing.

Shrek (and Shrek 2): Yes, I know that you must have seen it, but this CGI-animated movie (and its sequel, which is every bit as good if not better), is pure "zing", so I couldn't leave it out. If by some strange chance you haven't seen them, then there is no time like the present!
Some Like It Hot: This is one of the zing-iest comedies ever made.; It has Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis all at their comic best.; It has the funniest sinister gangsters (sorry, "Lovers of Italian Opera") ever to appear on screen.; It can make someone who has seen the movie chuckle again if someone just mentions the line: "Nobody's perfect."; What else can I say?
The Devil Wears Prada: This is definitely in the zing category! People will most often mention Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, but personally I particularly liked Emily Blunt as the acerbic senior assistant.
Ugly Betty (Series 1): The popular TV series has many things in common with The Devil Wears Prada, but has much of its own to offer, with snappy editing and a joyous revelling in every soap cliché you can think of.; I particularly enjoy the Dastardly-and-Muttley antics (and sudden manic close-ups) of Marc (Michael Urie) and Amanda (Becki Newton).; The zing factor must be be somewhat watered down by the commercial breaks - we edit them out before watching, which results in episodes only 40 minutes long, not 60!; The jury is still out on Series 2...

Comedy

French Kiss: A sparkling romantic comedy, with delightful performances from Meg Ryan, Kevin Kline and Jean Reno. One of my all-time favourites.; Meg Ryan is a superbly gifted comedienne. Each time I watch this movie I enjoy the wonderful range of comic expressions that transform her face!
Keeping Mum: This is a lovely adult black comedy with Maggie Smith, Rowan Atkinson (in a relatively straight role) and Kristin Scott Thomas.
8 Women (8 Femmes): This French movie could appear in several categories! It is a comedy and a murder mystery, with musical interludes, with a stellar cast including Catherine Deneuve and Emmanuelle Béart.; It is filmed almost exactly in the style of a stage play, probably very similar to the play by Robert Thomas on which it was based.; Great sparkling fun.

War time drama

Empire Of The Sun: This movie, I hope and believe, will eventually be recognized as one of Steven Spielberg's finest works. For me, it is a masterpiece of movie making, and not merely - as it is often described - a stepping stone on the transition to his "serious stuff" like Schindler's List.; The personal journey of the boy Jamie Graham, as terrifying experiences transform him from a spoilt, self-centred prep-school kid in Shanghai (in 1941) to a prematurely adult boy helping others in Soochow Creek Internment Camp (where he is re-christened "Jim"), is an astonishing performance from Christian Bale, who received an Oscar nomination and a special citation from the National Board of Review.; There are many haunting images and uses of sound and music in this movie, and the way in which they are used reflects Jim's personal journey.; Most people who saw it will remember the Welsh lullaby Suo Gân, whose melody recurs several times, perhaps most movingly when Jim salutes the three Kamikaze pilots.; The steel-grey atmosphere of Shanghai is contrasted with the gaudy clothes of the English, dressed for a costume party, making their way in expensive cars through a stream of Chinese. One of these cars will turn up again towards the end of the movie in Nantow stadium...; As Jim's privileged life in Shanghai disintegrates he returns for a while to his English-style house, now deserted, circling its rooms on a bicycle to pass the time, as towards the end of the movie he will circle the deserted Internment Camp. As the days pass and the food runs out, the swimming pool gradually fills with blown leaves as the water slowly drains, until Jim finds the remains of some of that privileged life (a few wine glasses and golf balls) in the last of the water.; Jim's fascination with planes, and his admiration for the Japanese pilots (Jim has never lived in England), are reflected in many scenes. Just before the intermission (the original 70mm theatrical release had one, at least when shown in England), Jim sees someone working on a Japanese plane with an oxy-acetylene torch as a magical image with a fountain of bright sparks (an image that loses most of its impact on a TV screen). As American planes shoot up the airfield next to the internment camp (an extraordinary bit of movie-making in its own right), Jim dances on the block roof, all the sound of battle fades away, and a plane passes him in slow motion, the pilot waving cheerily to him - and Jim, exalted, shouts: "P-51! Cadillac of the sky!"; The internees endure a trek to Nantow stadium, a surreal place where all the flotsam of the privileged lives has been washed up - a white grand piano (which one internee sits down and sadly plays), chandeliers, expensive furniture, even Jim's family car. There is no food there, and the others move off, leaving Jim to cradle the dying Mrs Victor (played by Miranda Richardson) through the night. After the dawn comes up, the morning light suddenly and silently brightens. From a viewpoint above the stadium we see in the very far distance the miniature sun that is the atomic bomb at Nagasaki exploding. Jim sees patterns of light racing silently across the thin clouds above him, and thinks that it is Mrs Victor's soul going up to heaven. Later he learns what he really saw. Speaking slowly in a daze, he says: "I learned a new word today. Atom bomb. It was like a white light in the sky. Like God taking a photograph..."; The eventual reunion scene with his parents must be among the most moving scenes ever filmed, as the hard shell of his traumatized self finally and very slowly starts to dissolve.; There is much else to recommend this movie, including a fine performance by John Malkovich as the amoral American Basie (his appearance surely borrowed at least in part for the Hobo ghost in the movie The Polar Express), and a very fine script by the British playwright Tom Stoppard.; This also seems to me to be one of the most under-rated great movies of all time, although it did receive good reviews like some of these. Spielberg's direction (which included eliciting that marvellous performance from Christian Bale) received no nomination for an award. When the movie came out in England it was over-shadowed by Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, which I regard as a movie with sumptuous photography but (in comparison with Spielberg's movie) very little substance.; Possibly the most crass example of this under-rating, from my point of view, was the 3 (out of 5) star rating that the Radio Times gave it - and still gives it - preferring to award 4 stars to movies like Mrs Doubtfire, which is an enjoyable enough comedy but a much lower achievement than Spielberg's movie. (At which point I tell myself that the world would be a dull place if everyone thought the same way...)
Foyle's War (Detective TV Series): This fine series (ITV's successor to Inspector Morse) combines a convincing portrayal of wartime Britain with the exploits of one of the small screen's great detectives, DCS Christopher Foyle, played magnificently by Michael Kitchen.; I would watch it for no other reason than to enjoy the interplay between Foyle and his ex-MTC driver Samantha Stewart (played by Honeysuckle Weeks). But of course there is much more to it than that!
The Way To The Stars: This classic British movie, derived from Terence Rattigan's play Flare Path, is a simple and moving story of British and American pilots based at an airfield in the Midlands during the Second World War, and the relationships that they form with the local community.; Like most people who have seen it, I suspect, I associate this movie with its use of John Pudney's poem:

Sci-Fi

This is a small selection of my favourite Sci-Fi movies and TV shows, chosen because there is more to them than just technology or special effects.

Aliens: This is one of the all-time great, edge-of-the-seat action movies. The director, James Cameron, has a genius for realistically portraying teams of people under stress (as he did almost equally well in The Abyss).; This type of movie needs to make you believe in what is happening. It also needs to make you care about what happens to the people involved. Special effects aren't enough, although they are superb in this case - the acting also has to be first class, which it is from the entire cast. There are two memorable performances here, one from Sigourney Weaver (Ripley), the other from Carrie Henn (as the small girl Newt who is the sole survivor that the team finds). It is the character of Newt that makes me really care about what happens, just as the battle for Helm's Deep in the movie The Lord Of The Rings depends for its full impact on the presence of the women and children in the caves.; This is also one of those rare cases where the "Director's Cut" or extended version, available on DVD, really adds to the original without sacrificing the pace of the action.
Babylon 5: The hyperlink will take you to a particularly good article on this series - I am unlikely to be able to add much to it!; This is probably the best science fiction series ever made, and is likely to remain so for quite a while. I was always a "Trekkie" and particularly enjoyed Star Trek: The Next Generation, which brought a marked note of dignity to the proceedings, as well as some remarkably good-looking people. However Babylon 5 has much deeper story lines than Star Trek and has a grittier feel to it.

Relationships and personal journeys

Many of my favourite movies and TV shows fall into this category, which includes stories about lives that have been damaged in one way or another and then become fixed, or at least improved.

Bridge to Terabithia: People going to see this (very good) movie might reasonably expect it to be a special-effects children's movie along the lines of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, given the trailers and the fact that it also comes from Walden Media.; In fact the special effects here are on a much smaller scale, and are far less important to the story, than is the case with the Narnia movie. This reflects the fact that the story is set mostly in the real world, with the real world's painful (as well as uplifting) experiences. In a way I would have preferred even fewer special effects, keeping only the more subtle ones that suggest what the children are imagining rather than showing it explicitly. However I can see that the result would probably have been less successful at the box office - unfortunately.; The performances of the two children are very good indeed, but for me it is AnnaSophia Robb, playing Leslie, who really makes the movie.; Although this is a family movie, it is more than that, which is why I have included it in this category.; I agree entirely with this review, so I'll let you go read it!
Grey's Anatomy: I was a great fan of the early series of ER, but Grey's Anatomy is even better - at least as far as series 2, which is where we are in May 2007 on free-to-air UK TV.; The personal journeys of a group of young interns at the Seattle Grace Hospital make an engrossing, tightly-woven and very well told story, revolving around the character of Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo). The developing relationships between the interns and the "attendings" (within and between these two groups) make for fascinating viewing. The entire cast is excellent, and the varied characters that they play strike a continual shower of sparks off each other. It's wonderful stuff.; If you missed the first two series, do yourself a favour and catch up with them on DVD!
Moonlight Mile: This is a simple, well told story about a young man recovering from the death of his fiancée. It has a fine set of actors (Jake Gyllenhaal, Ellen Pompeo, Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon and Holly Hunter).; This was the first time that I saw Ellen Pompeo (now perhaps better known from the TV show Grey's Anatomy), as the girl who brings Jake Gyllenhaal back to life (as in a different way, he brings her back to life).; My favourite scene is probably the one where Jake Gyllenhaal finally loses his restraint when in the company of a particularly insensitive couple, and tells them exactly what he thinks of them. He does this without raising his voice, in an entirely polite manner, with an effect that is quite devastating (and which makes the day of the understandably sulky teenage daughter of this ghastly pair).
Nell: This is the story of the discovery of an apparently speech-impaired "wild child" (Jodie Foster), raised in isolation in the woods of North Carolina, and the relationships that develop between her, the local doctor (Liam Neeson), and the psychologist who is called in to study her (Natasha Richardson).; As the story develops, several preconceptions and assumptions are overturned, the most interesting of which concern exactly who is helping whom.; The story features a virtuoso performance from Jodie Foster (the expressions that cross her face in the last few seconds of the movie are probably worth an academy award in themselves), and some very beautiful scenery. The script has one or two clunky moments, but they don't spoil the movie.; When I saw it in the cinema, there were two marks of respect that are very rare nowadays: you could have heard a pin drop in the audience throughout, and nobody moved from their seats until the end of the credits.
Pay It Forward: This movie features some fine actors: Haley Joel Osment as the boy Trevor, growing up in a far-from-posh area of Las Vegas; Kevin Spacey as the boy's social studies teacher, physically and mentally scarred by a horrific episode of child abuse that he suffered in his past; Helen Hunt as the boy's recovering-alcoholic mother; and Angie Dickinson as the estranged alcoholic grandmother (in a role far removed from those that she played in movies like Rio Bravo and Point Blank).; Trevor receives an assignment from his teacher to come up with a way of changing the world. He comes up with his own version of the concept of "pay it forward", a scheme to do something big for each of three other people, something that they can't do for themselves, on condition that each of those people do the same thing for three more people, and so on.; Although the results are often painful, the lives of many people, including those close to him, are greatly changed for the better.; One of my favourite light moments in the movie is where Sidney, a black rogue with a cheerful disposition, finds himself in an A & E ward where an asthmatic girl in considerable distress is being totally ignored, in spite of pleas from the girl's parent. Sidney adds his arguments to the case (in terms somewhat more forceful than those used by the parent), and when this doesn't produce immediate results, empties several rounds from his handgun into the floor next to person doing the obstructing - which presumably clears the obstruction but lands him (still cheerful) in prison. Exactly where this episode fits into the Pay It Forward chains you don't discover until later.; The movie has, perhaps, only one flaw: the choice of music (the song "Calling All Angels") for the last scene, which gives the ending a flavour that some people find over-sweet, particularly in contrast to the gritty flavour of the other two hours of the movie.
Shirley Valentine: Shirley Valentine is a (one-woman) play and a movie, both written by Willy Russell. I haven't seen the play, but the movie starring Pauline Collins, Tom Conti and Bernard Hill (King Théoden in the movie of The Lord Of The Rings) is a pure joy.; Shirley is a middle-aged working-class housewife leading a depressing boxed-in existence in Liverpool, reduced to holding conversations with the kitchen wall and wondering how she ended up where she is. In the movie she talks a lot to the camera, with sharp Scouse humour, recounting what has been happening to her, interspersed with scenes where the described action (sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching, often both) takes place with other actors. In these scenes she sometimes just looks at the camera in a glance that speaks volumes!; Eventually Shirley breaks free and departs for what starts out as a two-week holiday in Greece, on the island of Mykenos, accompanied by the girlfriend from hell and a truly cringe-making collection of other Ugly Brits (notably "Jeanette and Duggie from Manchester") on the same package holiday. Shirley finds herself alone again on the beach, still not really free, holding conversations with a rock, and soon decides she has had enough!; Shirley finally finds happiness, romance and her own self, and the plane going home leaves without her... but that isn't quite the end of the story.