Back in 2022, I published a book, Movies for Movie Buffs: 1–100, containing short reviews of films I’ve watched, enjoyed, and recommended if, like me, you are a movie buff. The reviews are not critical. They are more recommendation reviews – that is, I comment briefly on the storyline and then on why I enjoyed the movie. I am working on a Movie for Movie Buffs: 101–200, but it’ll take a while before this follow-up becomes available. When I add another movie to the 101–200 list, I occasionally alert my nomadic son, Mark, also a cineaste, about the movie’s existence. I keep the comments succinct – I call them movie bites – and, where possible, related to somewhere Mark and his wife, Kirsty, have visited or to a particular interest I know of.

Here is a sample of recent movie bites. Most of these recommendations will eventually receive the full treatment in the forthcoming book.

The Promised Land, aka Bastarden, 2033

If you are stuck for a decent movie this evening, try The Promised Land (2023), aka Bastarden. It’s a Danish movie starring Mads Mikkelsen (Le Chiffre in the 2006 James Bond movie, Casino Royale), set in Jutland in the 18th century, and presenting a classic tale of an impoverished but idealistic good guy versus a sadistic, brutal bad guy, damsels in distress (sort of), a land baron versus settlers, has a cute potty-mouthed Roma kid, and in John Ford’s days would have made a superb western. You’ll need subtitles. They are fine. Try the movie.

Saltburn, 2023

The following comments are in response to the question, ‘Have you watched Saltburn? If so, what did you think of it?’

I have watched Saltburn, but I was not impressed. I thought the storyline was okay – reminiscent of Brideshead Revisited, The Talented Mr Ripley, and other movies where a lower-class person gets involved with an upper-class family – but I thought the characterisations of Lady Elspeth (Rosamund Pike) and Sir James (Richard E Grant) were way over the top, almost cartoonish. The role of the daughter, Venetia (Alison Oliver), was understated, and I was unimpressed with Oliver’s (Barry Keoghan) drinking of bathwater flavoured with the results of Felix’s earlier masturbation, and with his naked dance at the end of the movie. That last scene reminded me of Malcolm McDowell’s similar prancing-style dance in the 1979 movie Caligula.

Having read reviews before watching Saltburn, I expected more but was ultimately disappointed. I’m not a fan of Barry Keoghan. His expression rarely changes, a bit like Ryan Gosling and Keanu Reeves.

In my opinion, Saltburn is a mediocre film, hardly worth the controversy over the so-called sex scenes, and certainly inferior to Poor Things, The Holdovers, and even Oppenheimer!

Self Reliance, 2023

IMDb’s synopsis: Given the opportunity to participate in a life-or-death reality game show, one man discovers there’s a lot to live for.

If you want something quirky, off-beat, and comedic to watch this weekend, try Self Reliance, a 2023 movie. I don’t usually watch American comedic movies, but I enjoyed this one. It’s well acted by actors you’ve never heard of except, maybe, Anna Kendrick (Natalie in Up in the Air, 2009)? The lead actor, Jake Johnson, also the director, is outstanding. His attempts to convince members of his family to stay physically nearby to prevent his assassination are hilarious. I have one criticism which I’ll save for after you’ve watched the film.

Spoiler Alert

Here’s the criticism. The ending was very tame. After the build-up to the final revelation in the deserted warehouse, it was like a damp squib—fizzled out and dull. A South Korean scriptwriter would have been far more inventive in the closing scenes of the movie, but that aside, the movie is very entertaining.

Sophie Scholl – The Final Days, 2005

Mark, are you knowledgeable about the White Rose passive resistance movement in Nazi Germany during WW2? It was formed in 1942 by students at Munich University, and they started writing anti-war/Nazism/Hitler pamphlets for distribution to students and academic staff in other German universities. If you are not familiar with the movement and knowing of your interest in WW2, you might want to read about it on Wiki.

I knew nothing of the White Rose underground movement and read up on it before I started watching the film.  If you do the same, concentrate on the story of Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie Scholl, both students at Munich. If their story interests you, watch the 2005 movie Sophie Scholl – The Final Days. It’s a riveting movie. Julia Jentsch, the German actress who plays Sophie, is very impressive. She won many awards for her performance, and the movie was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2006 Oscars but lost out to Tsotsi, a South African movie.

Halima’s Path, 2010

If you are looking for a drama set in Bosnia/Serbia before, during, and after the 1992-95 Bosnian war, look at Halima’s Path, a 2012 movie. It tells the story of Sofija, the unmarried Muslim daughter of a Bosniak father, Avdo. Sofija becomes pregnant by a Christian Serb, Slavomir. Avdo beats his daughter when he finds out, so she flees to her nearby aunt, Halima (Avdo’s sister) and takes refuge there. Halima is barren and desperately wants a baby. When the baby boy is born, Sofija rejects the baby. Consequently, Halima adopts the boy, calls him Mirza, and brings him up as her own. Sofija tells Slavomir the baby was stillborn, and they both run away to a place in Serbia, get married, and live happily ever after. Not quite! A few years later, the Bosnian war intervenes.

I’ll say no more. It’s a good drama, has decent embedded subtitles, and highlights the differences between Muslims and Christians and the damage done during the Bosnian war.

The Oak Tree, 2023

Ken Loach has directed another very good movie – The Oak Tree (2023). Written by his I, Daniel Blake conspirator, Paul Laverty, the film explores what happens when a few immigrant Syrian families, fleeing the oppression of Assad’s brutal regime, move into a run-down ex-mining town in County Durham in the north-east of England. The film has everything: prejudice, kindness, pragmatism, authentic dialogue (with lots of swearing), social stigma, bigotry, poverty, and pathos, but, in the end, a typical Loach movie highlighting the social interactions between the immigrants and the local community. At age 87, Loach has said this will be his last movie but with politicians such as Biden and Trump still active in their 80s and old firebrand leftie George Galloway, aged 69, back in Parliament, Ken Loach might decide to stand in the next general election to fire up the far-left side of Starmer’s Labour party. That would be interesting!

Poor Things, 2023

The blog I’ve just posted (1 March 2024) about the movie Poor Things started life this morning as a short email to you recommending the movie. The subject matter may not be to your liking, but if it is, take a look. I suspect the movie will walk off with a reasonable subset of the eleven awards it has been nominated for in next week’s Oscars. Emma Stone gave a remarkable performance, and Mark Ruffalo was the perfect comedic foil for her.

Postscript: The movie excelled at the 2024 Oscars, walking off with four awards out of eleven nominations, including the Best Actress award to Emma Stone.

The Monk and the Gun, 2023

You’ve just got to watch The Monk and the Gun movie! Filmed in Ura, Bhutan and released in 2023, this movie has everything: comedy; a profound statement on democracy in the modern world; a strong theme based on my chosen religion, Buddhism, in its pure no-god form; intrigue (why does the Lama want two guns?); more intrigue (what is the old man carving?); pathos (you’ll know it when it happens); and a great storyline. My knowledge of the origins and teachings of Buddhism and my experiences in the Himalaya helped me enjoy the movie more than most. Your similar expertise and experiences, enhanced by your visits to Bhutan, will help you even more. The film has great depth and yet comes across as a simple story. It’s an incredible movie. I urge you both to set aside two hours and give it a shot. The subtitles are superb. The acting was natural, and I suspect most players were not professional actors.

To quote from Wiki’s entry, The Monk and the Gun ‘was selected as the Bhutanese entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 2024  96th Academy Awards and was one of the 15 finalist films in the December shortlist.

Quite rightly so. Highly recommended.

Double Down South, 2022

Hey moviegoers, I’ve got another one for you – Double Down South, 2022. It’s a nifty little drama about a keno pool hustler, Lili Simmons (ex-Banshee, in sexy crop tops and short skirts), taking on local pool players under the watchful eye of the unscrupulous Pool Master, Nick (Kim Coates, ex-Sons-of-Anarchy). You will revel in Double Down South if you enjoyed Paul Newman’s pool game exploits in The Hustler (1961) and the sequel, The Color of Money (1986). The film is fast-paced, full of interesting side characters, and has a 2-hour storyline that never bores.

A couple of Rotten Tomato critics weren’t too impressed, but with an overall rating of 78%, I took a punt on it and savoured every minute. Give it a shot (pun intended!).

Red Eye, 2005

Here’s another movie for you. Called Red Eye, 2005, Wes Craven directs it in his non-horror period and the movie stars a pre-Peaky Blinders, pre-Oppenheimer Cillian Murphy with big scary eyes and a hairstyle he will live to regret for the rest of his life and hopes none of his grandchildren ever see it, and Brian Cox in his pre-Succession younger, slimmer, less-growly non-swearing days. The heroine is Rachel McAdams, all girly girly but with a steely determination to beat the bad guys. Red Eye is a popcorn if-you’ve-nothing-else-to-do-but-want-to-be entertained 90-minute movie and bowls along at a rollicking pace to keep your interest. I enjoyed it, didn’t doze off, and satisfactorily predicted the ending. Recommended.

A comment on the runtimes of modern movies

This entry was a side comment I made to Mark, stimulated by an article I spotted on the BBC website.

There’s an article on today’s BBC website about the increasing runtime of modern movies.

I had thought of writing a blog about this, but Hugh Grant’s comment and BBC Culture Reporter Alex Taylor’s article beat me to it. These days,I routinely watch movies with runtimes in excess of 2 hours, not just from Hollywood (Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Holdovers, and the French movie Anatomie D’Une Chute (Anatomy of a Fall)) but also from South Korea, Australia, Europe, and elsewhere. On my current watch list there are eleven movies stacked up. Five of them – The Pianist (2002, Europe), The Promised Land (2023, Europe), Remember (2022, S. Korea), About Dry Grasses (2023, Turkey), and Radical (2023, Mexico) – are over 2 hours long. Yesterday’s excellent Korean movie, Next Sohee (2022), was 2 hours 17 minutes. Two other movies I’ve watched recently – Poor Things and Saltburn – are over 2 hours.

It’s okay for me. I can always pause the movie on my tablet and pick it up again later, but in the old days, movies were designed to have a runtime of 90 minutes, plus or minus, say 15 minutes. Not so these days. I wonder about the bladder stamina of those who watch movies in the cinema. We oldies would require regular pee breaks!

(^_^)