The glorious Joan Collins celebrates ninety years on the planet this very day. A fabulous film career followed by television superstardom have been accompanied by a prolific writing life and regular, uproarious interviews. Quippy, witty and thoughtful, she’s a staple of our entertainment life and we salute her on this great day. Happy birthday!
Irwin. Maurice. Fletcher. Journalist turned private detective Irwin Maurice ‘Fletch’ Fletcher (Jon Hamm) is sent to Boston from Italy by his girlfriend Andy aka Angela di Grassi (Lorenza Izzo) to recover her father Count Clementi’s (Robert Picardo) multi-million-dollar art collection. The paintings were stolen and are in the possession of an American art dealer named Ronald Horan (Kyle MacLachlan). Angela’s father is an Italian billionaire count who was kidnapped by a mob demanding his paintings as ransom. As Fletch arrives in a rented town house in Boston, he finds a dead woman, subsequently identified as barista Laurel Goodwin. Despite being the one who called the police, Fletch becomes the prime suspect in Goodwin’s murder. Sergeant Inspector Monroe (Roy Wood Jr) and his female partner, Junior Detective Griz (Ayden Mayeri) from the Boston Police Department begin tailing Fletch. Fletch meets with Horan under a fake name (his pen name, Ralph Locke) in an attempt to locate the paintings. Fletch learns from his accident-prone neighbor Eve (Annie Mumolo) that Owen Tasserly, the town house owner, has a history of violence and drug abuse and an ex-wife called Tatiana (Lucy Punch) who used to be his business partner. Fletch meets with Tatiana, again using a fake name to carry off his role as an interiors journalist and suspects that she is the killer. Meanwhile, the Contessa Sylvia (Marcia Gay Harden), Angela’s stepmother, invites herself to stay with Fletch. Angela is not happy with this turn of events; she suspects that the Contessa and her criminal brother kidnapped the Count. Angela arrives in Boston and initially appears to be friendly with her stepmother despite the misgivings she expressed to Fletch. At dinner that night, Fletch, the Countess, and Angela are visited by Owen (John Behlmann) who apologises for attacking Fletch when he broke in the previous evening; Tatiana and Eve. Laurel Goodwin’s boyfriend Bart (Eli Neslund) arrives and tries to kill Fletch but is disarmed in every way by the assembled company. Then Fletch finds out that Angela knows and was in contact with Owen … He doesn’t even know what bespoke means. Edgar-winning Gregory McDonald’s beloved character gets a refresh in this reboot which was of course originally brought to the screen in the form of SNL alumnus Chevy Chase whose amiable rambling persona seemed a perfect fit in a couple of outings. Here we find that the handsome Hamm’s Achilles heel is actually his feet because gosh he should have had surgery before performing as the shoe-free Fletch. The most agreeable aspect of this aside from its shaggy dog nature is the loopy nature of all the women – they’re all charmingly eccentric and it’s hapless Hamm’s reactions to each of them that makes this work: his scene with Mumolo is quite hilarious as she practically sets her kitchen on fire, oblivious to the chaos that surrounds her. He even gets to have a Mad Men reunion of sorts with his old drinking buddy John Slattery who plays Frank Jaffe, Fletch’s old boss at The Boston Sentinel. MacLachlan is in his element as the OCD art dealer with a penchant for EDM and Kenneth Kimmins is a hoot as The Commodore at the yacht club. Amusing rather than gut-busting, this is a lovely showcase for both Rome and Boston, photographed wonderfully by Sam Levy, but perhaps the Peter Wolf reference is a little de trop these days. Director Greg Mottola adapted the 1976 novel with Zev Borow. My Italian is very good
A dazzling stylist, caustic commentator and moral historian, novelist and screenwriter Martin Amis has died at the age of 73 just one day after the Cannes premiere of Zone of Interest, the adaptation of his 2015 novel. A child actor and son of author Kingsley, he became the enfant terrible of British letters at the age of 23. From the quasi-autobiographical debut The Rachel Papers to the jaw-dropping satire Money and Holocaust story in reverse Time’s Arrow, he was one of the wittiest and most brilliant writers of a legendary generation, a uniquely recognisable voice and an incisive essayist. A kind of genius has left us. Rest in peace.
Money doesn’t mind if we say it’s evil, it goes from strength to strength
Aka Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear. Answers without evidence are useless. Nineteenth century London. Young John Watson (Alan Cox) moves from his school in the country to the Brompton Academy, a boarding school where young Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe) immediately befriends him. Holmes’ mentors there include Rupert Waxflatter (Nigel Stock), an eccentric retired professor to whom the school has given a large attic space for his inventions, which include a flying machine. Holmes is in love with Waxflatter’s niece Elizabeth Hardy (Sophie Ward). Elsewhere in the city, a hooded figure with a blowgun shoots two men with thorns that induce nightmarish hallucinations, causing their apparent suicides. Holmes brings his suspicions of foul play to Scotland Yard detective Lestrade (Roger Ashton-Griffiths) who rebuffs him. After a school rival frames him for misconduct, Holmes is expelled. He has one last duel with fencing instructor Professor Rathe (Anthony Higgins). While Holmes says goodbye to Watson, Waxflatter is shot with a thorn and stabs himself. Dying, he whispers the word Eh-Tar to Holmes. Holmes, Watson and Elizabeth secretly investigate the murders, uncovering the existence of Rame-Tep, an ancient Egyptian cult of Osiris worshippers. The trio track the cult to a London paraffin warehouse and a secret underground wooden pyramid where they interrupt the sacrifice of a young girl. The Rame-Tep wound them with thorns and they escape to a graveyard to endure the hallucinations. Back in Waxflatter’s loft, Holmes and Watson find a drawing of six men, including the three victims and a fourth man, Chester Cragwitch (Freddie Jones) who is still alive. Holmes and Watson go to see Cragwitch, who explains that in his youth, he and the other five men were in Egypt, where they looted an underground pyramid containing the tombs of five Egyptian princesses. The resulting protest was violently put down by the British Army. A local boy named Eh-Tar and his sister vowed to seek revenge and replace the bodies of the five princesses. As they return to the school, a chance remark by Watson makes Holmes realise who Eh-Tar is … Never replace discipline with emotion. Termed ‘affectionate speculation’ in the end credits disclaimer, the screenplay by Chris Columbus and the resulting film with sumptuous Victoriana in abundance is playful, knowing, poignant and clever, dovetailing with classic Holmes stories and exploring estoerica. As well as developing the friendship between Holmes and Watson and uncovering the reason why he is alone as an adult, we get a rounded psychological portrait complete with family backstory. We learn how the great detective got his facial scar, his hat, his pipe, his coat, his favourite phrase and his weapon of choice. Such good ideas they surely inspired the text for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, not only produced (as this is) but directed by Steven Spielberg. Susan Fleetwood has a great role as school nurse, Mrs Dribb and a talented cast of veterans with great faces and some with connections with other Holmes productions fill this out with character and brio. A wonderfully atmospheric production with note-perfect design by Norman Reynolds that revels in bringing Conan Doyle’s creation to a young audience complete with the kind of special effects familiar from Spielberg’s own films as well as featuring the first adventures from Pixar who included a young John Lasseter on their visionary team. Stay right until the very end to get a fabulous reveal and a preview of coming attractions that sadly never were. For that we return to the books! Narrated by the venerable Michael Hordern whose dulcet tones also told us the story of Barry Lyndon. Bizarrely, Jeffrey Archer was allegedly brought on board by Spielberg to anglicise the script yet somehow more than once ‘I transferred from another school’ made it into this velly Bwitish film. Directed by Barry Levinson with beautiful cinematography by Stephen Goldblatt. How’s it done – is it some kind of magic trick?
Perhaps I don’t have a regular soothing influence in my life. In the sleepy little town of Blandley everybody knows everybody else’s business. Any minor incident becomes a major event in their lives, and the biggest stir in recent years is caused by the arrival of the young new district nurse, Joanna Jones (Juliet Mills) who has finally passed her driving test after one hundred and six lessons..Setting out jauntily on her first round of patients, Joanna crashes into the car of Henry Edwards (Ronald Lewis), a handsome single farmer and the largest landowner in the area. Her scatterbrained mother (Esma Cannon) mangles all her phone messages. Before she can even reach her first patient though, Joanna receives an emergency call from the vicarage, and is somewhat surprised to find that the charlady Mrs. Wood (Joan Hickson), has feigned an injury so she can be the first in the village to get a close look at the new nurse! The vicar (Raymond Huntley) is short-tempered and grumpy but his daughter Deborah (Joan Sims) is not much older than Joanna and the two get on well. Local GP Dr Harold Golfrey (Ronald Howard) is oblivious to Deborah’s charms even as she pines for his attention; while Mrs Jones becomes convinced that Joanna must have something going on with him. Elsewhere in the area, Joanna’s patients are more problematic. They all seem to have one complaint in common – that she doesn’t compare very favourably with her predecessor, the retired Nurse Merrick! (Barbara Merrick). The things I’ll do just so you’ll visit me every day! George Judd (Norman Rossington) wants to get a good look at her regularly, grocer Abel Worthy (Noel Purcell) is accident-prone and as for Mr Beacon (George Woodbridge) – he seems to be an impossible case but his wife (Renee Houston) is a rock of brusque common sense. Joanna works hard to win over the locals … You’re very good at making a person feel confident. This apparently bland but breezy romcom has a bit more going on than first appears. Written by Norman Hudis adapting the story Nurse is My Neighbour by ‘Joanna Jones,’ the pseudonym of John Burke and directed by Britcom regular, Gerald Thomas, it’s sweet with a bit of sauce on the side: Nurse Merrick’s notes never said anything about you having a camouflaged puss! Mills is perfectly delightful as the determined ingenue coming of age and her mother isn’t quite as batty as everyone thinks. Her romance with Lewis is nicely played, squaring off with the plight of caravanning couple Tim Taylor (Jim Dale) and his heavily pregnant wife Ann (Amanda Reiss) who park on Edwards’ land in what becomes practically a political issue: British comedies are always about class, you see, beyond the need to resolve the couple. The estimable Athene Seyler makes her final film appearance as Miss Farthingale. When you’re a bit older you’ll have a more subtle understanding of men’s nature
In anticipation of Killers of the Flower Moon premiering Saturday at Cannes, their first time paired together on the big screen for director Martin Scorsese, his muses Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio actually united for him eight years ago in this short promotional film. It’s smooth, rhythmic and good looking – and that’s just the camerawork. De Niro has made eight iconic films with Scorsese but DiCaprio has made four and has been largely responsible for securing the financing, a rare power in an actor who is also quite unique nowadays in being the engine for films that are directed at mature mainstream audiences. (We like his advice to Timothee Chalamet – No hard drugs and no superhero movies). As De Niro and DiCaprio square off for a role with the auteur they realise someone else is also in the frame. Deadpan, droll and self-deprecating. Enjoy!
Do you want to do yourself a bit of good? London, after WW2. Boyhood friends and comrades in the Army, Ted Peters (Richard Attenborough) and Dave Robinson (Bill Owen) are back in civvies.Ted becomes a taxi driver and hopes to marry pretty chorus girl Joy Goodall (Sheila Sim). Dave, seeking easy money, joins a gang which has its headquarters in a suburban Palais-de-Danse, the cover for black marketeering. The gang is headed by Gregory (Barry Jones) and includes Paul Baker (Barry K. Barnes) who’s the Master of Ceremonies in the club. Petty crooks and heavies Sniffy (Cyril Chamberlain) and Pogson (John Salew) are part of the crew. Ted refuses to join them. One night he happens to have his car parked directly opposite the entrance when unbeknownst to him injured Dave crawls into the back seat after Baker has attempted to shoot him dead. Baker sees Ted drive away and assumes he knows what’s happened. Ted and Joy tell the police the story after Dave dies. Detective Inspector Carter (John Warwick) and Sergeant Murray (Garry Marsh) are on the case but Ted doesn’t think they’re taking it seriously. When Joy gets work in the club and hears something that might be of assistance, she tells Ted and he takes matters into his own hands … We don’t know whether he talked before he died. That line is the trigger for everything else in this jet black British post-war film noir, a beguiling mix of soldiers back on civvy street, twinkly nightlife and the criminal spivvery that thrived in wartime eked out with easy violence after the peace. The screenplay by Brock Peters from a story by Peter Fraser is a terrific blend of character development and action with a nice line in viciousness. Of interest not merely for the debut casting together of husband and wife Attenborough and Sim, there are some wonderful roles for women in the ensemble: Judy Kelly as Toni, Baker’s woman scorned; Diana Dors is uncredited in the striking role of a hardheaded dance hostess; while Patricia Dainton (also uncredited) has a small part as Pam; and that’s Dirk Bogarde as a police centre caller. Needless to say it’s a surprise to anyone familiar with TV’s Last of the Summer Wine that this is what Owen was getting up to after the war. This has some lovely location shooting in the opening titles while most of it is made on sets at Cromwell Studios in Southall designed by Andrew Mazzei. A gripping,atmospheric piece of work directed by John Paddy Carstairs (born John Keys), better known for the latter part of his career when he was directing Norman Wisdom forever. Tonight he put it quite plainly that I could join the gang
I’d like to try to tell some story that connects. New York City journalist Ben Manalowitz (B.J. Novak) lives a metropolitan life of casual romantic relationships. Late one night, he receives a phone call from a stranger, Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook), informing him that his ‘girlfriend,’ Abilene ‘Abby’ Shaw (Lio Tipton), Ty’s sister, has died of an apparent drug overdose. In actuality, Abby was one of Ben’s many casual hookups whom Ben barely remembers. At Ty’s insistence, Ben flies to Texas to attend the funeral. He meets Abby’s family: Ty, mother Sharon (J. Smith-Cameron), sisters Paris (Isabella Amara) and Kansas City (Dove Cameron), younger brother Mason (Eli Abrams Bickel) (referred to as ‘El Stupido’) and Granny Carole (Louanne Stephens). Ty informs Ben that he suspects Abby was actually murdered, adamantly maintaining that she never took drugs. He asks Ben to accompany him to find the truth and avenge her. After conferring with his sceptical podcast producer Eloise (Issa Rae), Ben decides to help them as part of a story about grief and denial.Ben and Ty meet Ty’s friend Crawl (Clint Obenchain), who explains that parties often happen at the oil fields and tells Ben of an area nearby the fields dubbed ‘the Afterparty’ – an area between four law enforcement jurisdictions where dead bodies have been reported over time. Crawl and Ty suspect Sancholo (Zach Villa), a local drug dealer, as responsible for Abby’s death. Ben meets Quentin Sellers (Ashton Kutcher), an eccentric record producer with a Gram Parsons suit, who, like Ben, is a college-educated outsider but has come to adopt Texas as his home. Quentin hands Ben a memory stick with recordings of Abby performing. Ben confronts Sancholo who reveals he was in Tulsa on the night Abby died. Ben later goes with the Shaws to a rodeo, where he accidentally makes the crowd’s angry by expressing support for the Texas Longhorns when the crowd overwhelmingly supports the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Ben’s Prius explodes while he’s standing a few feet away, calling Eloise about the latest developments.. When he’s recovering from the shock he receives a call from Eloise, telling him that the story is complete and to return home, much to his dismay. He asks her not to lock it off until he ties up some loose ends. At dinner with the Shaws at a Whataburger, Granny mentions that Abby was, in fact, a drug user and that Ty had lied to Ben to try and get closer to her supposed boyfriend … She will always be a song in our hearts. Written and directed by star B.J. Novak, this darkly comic mystery thriller revels in the conflict between millennial posturing and Texan cliche. What if you were driving a real car – with gas and stuff? Ty asks Ben, apparently without guile as their bromance evolves into something more complex. We know this is written by an actor because there are a lot of scenes with heavy dialogue creating deep dive characterisation – and the opening is an offputting bro chat about sex in NYC and it’s frustrating but creates a character for Novak that must then be opened from outside. He’s surrounded by wonderfully able performers and Kutcher (looking slightly refreshed) is a revelation as the flamboyant producer. As it unravels the knotty reason behind its Dead White Girl podcast story, this fish out of water scenario celebrates the underlying rationale of both culturally dissonant stances and plays its Chekhovian card beautifully. I don’t live in a Liam Neeson movie, protests our stricken and compromised protagonist and you know that because the oft-repeated line Girl wouldn’t even take an Advil is a chorus that has repercussions like a thesis waiting to be proven that’s just what kind of movie this is going to be. It takes a while for Ben to figure out what Sharon really means when she tells him, Bless your heart. When he does, all kinds of reality bite. How this ambitious city slicker who writes for The New Yorker (not New York Magazine, as he pointlessly tells the Shaws) turns into a real-life Texan cowboy is the stuff of pleasure indeed.The scintillating score is by Finneas O’Connell. America isn’t divided by space, America is divided by time
What do you think we are, The Three Houdinis? ‘Dodger’ Lane (Peter Sellers), ‘Jelly’ Knight (David Lodge) and Lennie ‘The Dip’ Price (Bernard Cribbins), are on the verge of being released from prison after serving time for robbery. They are visited by a vicar (Wilfrid Hyde-White) seeking to find employment for them. He is actually veteran conman ‘Soapy’ Stevens who proposes a large-scale diamond robbery from a visiting . They will all have alibis because they will break out, commit the robbery and then break back into prison, with only a few days of their sentences left. With the help of Dodger’s girlfriend Ethel (Liz Fraser) and Lennie’s mother (Irene Handl) the trio smuggle themselves out in a prison van. The operation is almost foiled by the disciplinarian ‘Sour’ Crout (Lionel Jeffries) the new chief prison officer. Everything goes to plan and the trio hide the diamonds in the Governor’s office until they are released and can take them away … Well this is about the nastiest collection of villainy I’ve seen in a cell in a long time. One of those reliably robust British satirical comedies that made a regular appearance in the era, drily humorous with not a little idiomatic swagger, pace Sellers’ What’ve you got going on in that disease-ridden bonce of yours? Sellers is sympathetic and easily charismatic while the chippy Lodge (in real life a good friend of Sellers’) and hapless Cribbins make for great cellmates. These crims may be inside but the imaginary and the escape are very real. With a cat called Strangeways, an innocent and unwittingly helpful prison guard and Hyde-White as a very persuasive vicar so-called, we can only titter about the running joke concerning the size of the Guv’nor’s marrow. The supporting cast are recognisable, pleasurable and often hilarious – such as when the redoubtable Handl berates useless son Cribbins, Three years you’ve been in here and you’ve never even tried to escape! Jeffries (only 34 but looking a great deal older) is a fantastic antagonist and the antics are well staged and amusingly executed. Warren Mitchell has a nice bit and watch out for Arthur Mullard. Written by John Warren and Len Heath, from their original story with additional dialogue by Alan Hackney and an uncredited contribution by Vivian Cox, this was the fourth biggest box office hit in the UK in 1960. Directed by Robert Day. The illustrated title sequence is ace. You’ve got the perfect alibi
I didn’t want to do this without you. Northern Ireland, 1975. Retired IRA paramilitary Micheal O’Hara (Colin Morgan) witnesses the fatal shooting of his pregnant wife Carol (Mairead Tyers) by black British soldier Tempest (Aml Ameen) in a border ambush gone wrong. O’Hara swears revenge despite his departure from his terrorist cell run by Keenan (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) and asks for assistance from an associate Twomey (Dara Devaney) whom he knows to be an excellent shot. He goes to London where he tracks Tempest. However Tempest has been recruited by shadowy police handler Holland (Mark Strong) to join an elite assassination unit in MI5 and starts hunting O’Hara and the IRA cell he has joined on the ground. Meanwhile, O’Hara’s contact Catherine (Felicity Jones) assists him in logistics on the ground in London. But there’s something else going on – a plan to create a ‘spectacular’ at Paddington Station and O’Hara’s personal plan is immediately complicated … I could use a dead shot like you. Written and directed by Tom and Charles Guard from an original screenplay by Ronan Bennett, this has echoes of other films, The Crying Game among them, with its black soldier an easy signifier of Empire and consequently complicated issues of loyalty. That establishes the parameters of what transpires to be a fairly schematic cat and mouse thriller with few surprises other than a short running time (under 90 minutes) and vague intimations of the Balcombe Street bombers. Morgan’s sacrificial role is tipped early on and he plays O’Hara with nothing to lose after being pulled into violence in the early 1970s and now unable to leave. There’s a kind of equivalence with Ameen who hides out with his old girlfriend Ruth (Sophia Brown) in Notting Hill, a district notable for its cultural apartness within the city. Jones’ connection with Ireland is surprising and she plays the role well but in the end becomes perfunctory in the gloomy if meticulously recreated period setting.Vaughan-Lawlor is creepy as O’Hara’s Provo chief: a fanatical schoolteacher with a hint of De Valera or Pearse about him – merciless, cold and far from the action yet ruthlessly dictating terms. That’s in contrast to the moral questions raised by O’Hara’s awareness of the devastating nature of the shrapnel-loaded bomb being planned and even ultimately his willingness to kill off the man who killed his wife while she was in labour. The concluding sequence is overloaded with symbolism. The path to freedom has rules
mondomovies 