Good evening. Having only had one vote counted, I am pleased to announce my victory in the South West London Film Blogs Read By Less than 10 People award, taking the trophy from WombleFilms.com and ThePutneyPictures.org. I have demanded that the SWLFBRBLT10P folks stop counting the votes and look forward to being able to call myself South West London’s 14th best film blog for the next four years to come.

We all knew it was coming. Let’s not act shocked. Indeed there is a second lockdown, thus the cinemas are closed. With the weather colder and evenings darker, no longer can I enjoy the summer nights making out under the docks or staying out until 10 o’clock. Instead, it’s time to sit by the radiator and get to the films that “I’ll get around to eventually”.

I’ve previously talked about Pride and Train To Busan, so I won’t discuss them again, but I did watch them. I didn’t even mean to watch the latter. It was on TV and I just didn’t tear myself away.

The first film based thing I finally want to talk about is that BFI and BBC are pairing up to show recently released independent films on TV/IPlayer on Saturdays. I haven’t seen many of these, most were released this year. However, if you want to watch something different, I recommend giving them ago. This week’s offering was Make Up (2019), a psycho-sexual thriller set in a Cornish caravan park. I wrote a review on it which you no doubt can’t wait to read right here, so I will only briefly say that the style is fantastic and unpredictable. The slow pace and isolation reminded me of The Shining. However, it took a lot of time to get going and the characters weren’t written brilliantly. A good debut feature, but with plenty to work on.

Make Up is available on BBC IPlayer

As I can’t see any new films, now is as good a time as any to try and tick off all of the best picture films, one of which being American Beauty (1999). The film focuses on a depressed middle aged man called Lester, who falls for his sixteen year old daughter’s cheerleader friend. The whole film is rather uncomfortable. Thankfully, you learn pretty early on that Lester will die, which was enough to keep me watching.

It’s a really well written film. Sam Mendes (1917) has lots of different plot threads going cleanly, while each is affected by another. It has that sort of fight club feel where the whole theme is disaffection from the American Dream. All of the characters are out of love and looking for something to live for, except in this movie the lads don’t think “oh yeah it would be cool to be him”.

It really doesn’t help that the lead character is played by Kevin Spacey, although that can’t be helped. Otherwise, the story was well written, leading to an intense climax. Admittedly, I got a little bit bored with 10 minutes to go, however I was probably just tired. However, it definitely was well written.

American Beauty is available on Netflix.

The second best picture film of the week was Chicago (2002), the last musical to win a best picture (excluding the 30 seconds where La La Land won it). This is the sort of film I want to win the best picture, something really unique. Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) is sent to jail for the murder of her lover at the same time as cabaret singer Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in the American 20’s.

She hires a lawyer to help her get out of jail, however most of this is all about raising her profile in the media. Everything is for show. As well as this entertaining crime story, Roxie imagines a musical in her mind, with a whole set of jazz songs including the famous “All That Jazz” and “Cell Block Tango”, with these big jazz halls contrasting the grey jail she is in.

The performances were all fantastic. Renee and CZJ were both fantastic, as was Queen Latifah and Richard Gere. The structure of the film with the musical nature interjecting provided something different. It showed a dream throughout and a facade of the judicial system. An upbeat film which was real fun.

Chicago is widely available to purchase on digital services/DVD

The Princess Bride (1987) doesn’t seem like an obvious choice to watch. However, it’s by Rob Reiner who directed Stand By Me and When Harry Met Sally and is a rather popular film, so of course I’d watch it. Set in the format of a grandfather reading his unwell grandson a fantasy book (and thus inspiring every unoriginal sitcom to use that trope), the film has Princess Buttercup stolen from the Kingdom by an evil man and his two henchmen, Fezzik and Inigo Montoya (His father is dead). Soon enough, her first love, Westley, goes to get her back, before the evil prince traps him and takes Buttercup back to the castle to marry him.

Seems like a bit of a cliché right? Yeah, it is. The whole film is styled as a comedy. It’s a parody of the classic fairy tale and it made me laugh a few times. The most obvious comparison is to Shrek. While Shrek jumps unapologetically into the parody, undermining tropes, The Princess Bride leans in a but more gently and unfortunately, the big green ogre may have taken away some of the impact of this piece.

However, it still deserves a fair amount of praise. It was new at the time. It’s well written, charming and a generally entertaining movie. Sure, the bad child acting narration thing was slightly irritating, but there was enough charm for me to give it a pass. It also has that famous line that Inigo Montoya says as well as having inspired a whole generation of fencers no doubt.

The Princess Bride is available on Amazon Prime Video

There are some films which are timeless, and it’s difficult to argue that City Lights (1931) is anything but that. The silent film is the oldest film I’ve ever seen. Featuring Charlie Chaplin, it provides a really entertaining harmless form of comedy for the whole family.

Chaplin plays a tramp who falls in love with a blind woman. She think’s he’s rich and Chaplin’s character will do what he can to help her pay her rent and get surgery to see anything. The black and white style doesn’t matter, because the set pieces are fantastic. The scene of him saving the rich man is laugh out loud funny and the boxing scene is absolutely iconic. The body language and facial expressions of Chaplin show why he is regarded as one of the all time greatest actors.

I don’t know what else I can say. It’s brilliant. The story works because it’s simple. The humour is fantastic. The characters are all brilliant in their own rights and distinct. The music is chirpy and upbeat. It’s 89 years old, yet as good as anything you’ll see today. Give it a watch.

City Lights can be found for free on Youtube.

Film Of The Week

Vertigo (1958), simply wow…

What an absolutely brilliant film this was. A fantastic script, two brilliant performances. A wonderful sense of intrigue and then tension. A psychological thriller showing a horribly complicated romance and desire.

Detective Scottie Ferguson has a fear of heights, or vertigo, which he tragically discovers on a police chase gone wrong. As soon as he retires, an old friend asks him to follow their wife, Madeline, who seems to be possessed by her great grandmother, who was suicidal at the same age her wife was at the time. This becomes a chase and a mystery, before the whole film totally transforms half way through.

This is known as one of the all time great films and for good reason. There really isn’t anything I can fault within it. I was totally on board for the whole thing and I can’t wait to watch it again.

Vertigo is available to watch on Netflix.