Month: February 2021

Good afternoon. I received a letter from a reader this week I would like to share with you all:

Dear Mr Film Man, I would like to write to you regarding your recent blog post “What I Watched This Week 14th February 2001”. During this post, you discussed the film “My Octopus Teacher”, which I am informed is a movie about an octopus. However, what truly concerns me is your pluralisation of the word octopus. You used “octopus” as a plural of octopus. Not only is this factually wrong, but is also gramatically wrong. Due to the missing s, you would need a contraction apostrophe, not to be confused with the possession apostrophe. Due to this kerfuffle, “octopus” simply can not be the plural. Therefore, please don’t refer to a pair of these animals as two octopus or two octopi, a modern incorrect term used by disgusting hipsters. Please call them two octopuses or one hexadecapus. Kind Regards Tod Outbravinghead.

All of the films I watched in this week were all of a good quality. No real stinkers, all of them had some form of quality, therefore don’t take the lowest ranked film to be bad. I really have rated most of Hitchcock’s works. The 39 Steps (1935) is one of his earlier works and in some ways you can tell. The story feels much less polished than the likes of Vertigo and North by Northwest. However, the mystery and noir feel aren’t out of place at all compared to some of his earlier pieces. Richard Hannay has a woman return to his apartment, however she says that she’s in danger from some mysterious men. By the morning, she is murdered in his apartment, so he goes to this mysterious mapped Scottish place to find out who killed her, as the police understandably believe he killed her.

The film feels slower and more meandering than his later films. With only one lead character throughout most of the film it felt much more lonely, especially as we don’t know much about him. The ending was rather fast and anti-climatic. However, it’s still a really good film, with a fun Bond-esque villain which is really well made for the era. With it, you can see the quirks of Hitchcocks which are much more refined later on.

The 39 Steps is on BBC IPlayer and Amazon Prime Video

Welcome to Chechnya (2020) is a documentary about the treatment of LGBT people in Chechnya, an area in Eastern Russia. We are told stories of people being arrested and tortured in a harrowing manner. The film then focuses on this group who attempt to hide and expatriate members of the community who may otherwise be in danger of their own families, the Chechnyan police or the government. There are three main stories, one couple who leave with their family, a second person who is stuck in a Swedish hotel waiting for a visa and a young woman trying to escape to an unspecified country before her family catch on, all helped by this Moscow based charity who are also putting themselves at risk.

One of the longlisted documentaries for the upcoming Oscars, the film is very well made. It sets out the stakes clearly, with a much greater focus on the region, before looking at individual stories. The escapes are full of worry as you know what will happen if things go wrong. It very much reminds me of the TV show Hunted, but with much greater tension. At first, I struggled to follow all of the stories. By the end I knew what was happening and really feared for the characters. There needs to be a special shout-out for the editors who digitally replaced all of the people’s faces to protect their identities. I could hardly tell at all, and it was much better than that of the Irishman, allowing the documentary to feel much more legitimate.

Welcome to Chechnya is available on BBC IPlayer.

On Body And Soul (2017) was a really slow, yet interesting romantic film. Set in a Hungarian abattoir, financial head Endre seems to be in a state of boredom with life. Then along comes new quality inspector Maria, a woman who shows autistic traits and becomes unpopular. Their first communications are uncomfortable. However, soon they discover they’ve been sharing the same dreams. From this, they start forging a spiritual connection and a romance blossoms between two awkward characters.

This film really captivated me. It was late and the film was slow, so it shouldn’t have. However, this mysterious connection intrigued me. Both characters were well acted, with their flaws being prominent. They were understated, but authentic. However, there was one moment around 15 minutes before the end which seemed inconsistent and un-needed which totally took me out of the moment. It reminded me that Endre was able to get away with things freely. He wasn’t nice to Maria at times and didn’t suffer any consequences like she did. This certainly dented my feelings, however for 90% of it, I was intrigued.

On Body And Soul is available on Netflix

Another Oscar Long List documentary, the Romanian film Collective (2020) is one of the most shocking films you’ll see around. Set after a fire in a Romanian club killed and injured many, it was noted that far too many people died in hospitals. A sports newspaper tried to figure out why this was. What they found was diluted disinfectant and widespread corruption. A new health minister comes in to sort this out, however the problem is so much bigger than first feared.

The documentary is shocking and really well put together. We see the fire early on so are aware of the stakes before seeing the impact over the next months. It’s a harrowing, disturbing movie, showing how easy it is to be able to profit from death and health services. It’s essential viewing, well worth looking out for.

Collective can be purchased on DVD or VoD.

Yet again my film of the week was a tough choice between two polar opposite films. However, I have decided to be controversial and A Matter Of Life And Death (1946) will come a very close second. The all time classic movie set in WWII has pilot Peter Carter in an airplane crash. However, he somehow survives after he is not collected for death. In the extra time he has been given, he has fallen in love with June, the last voice he believed he’d hear. He now has a great reason to live, while the strongly accented Conductor 71 tries to get him to return to the afterlife where he belongs. Meanwhile June hopes to look after Peter and believes his communications with the Afterworld to be imaginary.

The film is basically Soul. However, its so much fresher. The acting and the romance is so sweet. It shows the sanctity of life and is innocent and fresh. The Conductor is hilarious and his discussions with Peter are a highlight. The film truly is legendary, getting so much more right than it gets wrong. The only parts that let it down were the slightly odd beginning and the 10+ minute boring sequence of UK vs USA. I just didn’t care for that bit. However, the rest of the movie is a fantastic romantic drama and a timeless classic well worth 100 minutes of your day.

A Matter Of Life And Death is available on BBC iPlayer

Film of the Week

A Matter of Life and Death was a brilliant film. However, this week I watched such a brilliantly unique film and that really is fresh when you see something different, and my word I have no idea where to begin when talking about Sorry To Bother You (2018). Cassius Green (or Cash) starts his new job as a telephone salesman in this dystopian alternate reality where people sign lifetime job contracts with crowded accommodation, a not so subtle slavery metaphor. Soon into his job, Cass is taught to use his “white voice” in order to sell. Soon this succeeds and he rapidly gets promoted, leaving his striking co-workers and friends behind.

This film starts off strange and just gets weirder and weirder. I haven’t spoiled any of the weirdness for you at all as it’s much more fun to go in blind to all of this. I described the whole plot to my sister and she was speechless. I would really like to know what Boots Riley was on when he wrote this film. As well as the content being unique, the style was also different. It was big and colourful. There was so much imagery, some more nuanced than others there to breakdown. The best dystopian societies are those not too far from your own and this certainly was one. A truly unique film which you’ll never see anything similar to.

Sorry To Bother You is available on Netflix

Good afternoon. I have a confession to make. I am a fan of Rebel Wilson. She is the best actor in the world. Forget Frances McDormand and Saoirse Ronan, there is no greater actress than Rebel Wilson. From her role as large, clumsy woman in Cats to her role as large, clumsy woman in Pitch Perfect 2, Rebel Wilson shows a real range of emotions that even Orson Wells wouldn’t have been able to do justice to in his writing. I have written this statement of my own free will and with no threat to my life. Long live Rebel Wilson.

Lets start this week by talking about Peru’s submission for the 2021 Oscars best international film category, Song Without a Name (2019). Honestly, it probably won’t win in, because the film was kind of boring. Set in an era of political unrest, the story follows a woman who has given birth in Lima, however she has done so in a fake clinic and her baby is stolen. She wants to find it and turns to a journalist. Then some things happen. I’m not really sure what as it got really slow and didn’t seem to go anywhere.

Visually, the film was wonderful. The cinematography was great and the use of camera was interesting and reminiscent of Roma. The lead actress Pamela Mendoza was also good. Her grief cut through the screen brilliantly. I wanted her to find her baby and maybe if the plot moved along, she would have had the chance to. Nice to look at, but not especially exciting, I don’t have any huge reason to recommend the film, although I didn’t hate it.

Song Without A Name is available on MUBI

My French Film Festival will be wrapping up very soon, and I used it to tick Central African Republic off my map of films with the movie Camille (2019). The film sees French photographer Camille go to CAR during the conflict to record what is happening and befriend some of the soldiers, while occasionally telling them they were wrong.

The film was well made and the parts that focussed on the CAR citizens was interesting, especially as I have little knowledge of the conflict. The movie felt like a documentary at times and I really wish it was. However, my big issue was Camille. I didn’t care about the character, the outsider saviour narrative or her plot about being a real photographer. You find out in the first scene that she gets shot, and I was waiting for that so we could focus on the interesting parts. Decent film with some good elements.

Camille is available on Prime Video and BFI Player

The Wild Goose Lake (2019) is Wuhan’s second most famous export of recent times. Zhou Zhenong has accidentally shot a policeman in a gang related incident and is now on the run. Not sure who he can trust, he meets Liu Aiai, a friend of a friend who tries to help him and his wife get away. The first half of the film is really interesting as Zhenong and Aiai tell their stories through flashbacks, Zhenong describing the incident which lead to here and Aiai describing what she’s witnessed. However, in the second half it slightly goes off the rails and struggles to find itself.

Visually, the film is wonderful. It’s use of lights in night time scenes was great to watch. The characters were all interesting enough, and I was following along enjoying what I was watching. Zhenong’s choices and motives all lead to a really engaging character study, as did Aiai’s as we worked out whether to trust her. However, as everyone turns on one another and we just end up in a violent mess in the second half, it lost that subtlety which worked so well in the first act. If it’s free, then it might be worth a watch. If you have to pay for it, it probably isn’t.

The Wild Goose Lake is available on MUBI

I probably wasn’t awake enough to fully appreciate Frances Ha (2013) when I did watch it. The black and white Noah Baumbach film starring Greta Gerwig follows the titular character struggle in her life in New York. Friendships and relationships all seem to go wrong as she can’t tell the truth about how she’s struggling both career wise and mentally. As a comedy, the film doesn’t work, but much like Marriage Story it’s a really interesting movie.

The film is held well by a decent script and a very good lead performance. As well as Frances, there is an interesting eclectic set of characters around her. The film does frustrate you, but that’s what it looks to do as Frances falls deeper and deeper into a world of disappointment. It felt like a story by Baumbach about his life, yet one that many could relate to. The choice of black and white didn’t really do it for me here, and I don’t know why he did, but it doesn’t bother me too much. Not his best movie, but an interesting and uplifting character study.

Frances Ha is available on Prime

Cartoon Saloon are one of the big upcoming animated film studios, really dominating the hand drawn 2d style, the soulless disney execs have left behind. The last major one of the catalogue which I hadn’t seen was Song Of The Sea (2014). Following the death of their mother, Ben and Saoirse are taken away from their father and want to get back to him. In the meantime, it turns out that Saoirse has some magical powers and needs to save the sea people.

The film, which I watched with the family, was certainly a nice watch for all. It was enchanting and had the Cartoon Saloon trademark interesting style. While not as good as some of the later films they made such as Breadwinner and Wolfwalkers, Song of the Sea was a step up in quality from their first film and a nice watch. It was really nice to look at and a competent, if slightly loose story. “It was good” – Mum.

My second favourite film where a mute person floods a bath and becomes overly obsessed with sea creatures.

Song of the Sea is available on Prime

It was a really close two horse race for film of the week. The one which lost marginally was an intriguing twisting story of power, corruption and revenge, the sort of story that would rival Shakespeare and Kurosawa in script writing, yet in a much more contemporary setting, reflecting the attitudes of a modern society and the issues that cause problems for all of our society. Of course, I am discussing the much acclaimed film Mean Girls (2004).

You may think I jest here as I did in the introduction, but I went into this film with rock bottom expectations, partly curious as to why this film has remained a cult classic over the past 15 years, but now I totally understand why. Cady is new to high school, having previously lived in Africa and been home schooled. Of course, she is totally ignorant to social norms and pop culture. Soon, she meets Janis and Damian who are outcasts and they become friends. They teach her about all of the cliques, including the plastics… This of course doesn’t refer to Chelsea fans, but to the popular girls lead by Regina. Soon they become interested in Cady, leading Cady and Janis to plot how to take Regina down after a party incident. Now inside the plastics gang, Cady starts to take down Regina from within, yet as she grows stronger she becomes more corrupt and soon becomes the very thing she seeks to destroy.

This spy/gang/coming of age drama really did a great job. It was incredibly funny and it gave acros a message about how we shouldn’t beat eachother down in rder to make successes of ourselves. The pacing was fast and interesting, and sure some of the jokes wouldn’t be eternally loved by the woke crowd, but it doesn’t really matter as you kind of just get swept along. Each character transformed throughout and both Cady and Regina were hilariously manipulative. It was also telling that our good person Janis was just as toxic and self-interested as all the plastics. The psychology of the film was fantastic and we could discuss it for hours. Although it’s a bona fide “chick flick”, that shouldn’t matter at all, and everyone should watch it as they’d have a great time.

Mean Girls is available on Netflix

Film of the week

This week, many of the awards shows have been releasing their long lists of film which may be nominated in various subjects, one of which is documentaries. You can see the Oscars list here. While I’ve watched a number of them, one that I had been meaning to get around to was My Octopus teacher (2020). This film was a phenomenal documentary. Craig Foster had been suffering depression, so at home he decides to go diving, as he did when he was a kid. One day he meets an octopus, then he meets it again the next day, the day after and every day for a whole year. You see them build a trusting friendship and how this octopus hunts and avoids predators in the dangerous underwater.

It was an absolutely beautiful film to watch. The light and mysterious world of the underwater were great on the TV and for the first time in a while, I truly wished I could’ve watched this on the big screen. I was engaged for the whole film about both the life of the octopus and the relationship they had. I didn’t care about the director’s issues as much, but they added to an interesting narrative. It really was a unique idea to focus on one single animal as opposed to a whole environment. I knew nothing about octopus lives before hand and now I am basically a marine biologist. It was a fascinating must watch film.

My Octopus Teacher is available on Netflix.

I’m going to tell you a story that I really shouldn’t. Following my calling out of SurbitonRebelWilsonFanClub.org last week, I got called to the meeting of the five families of SW London film blogging to discuss my poor conduct regarding the insulting of other South West London based film blogs. The third of the standing orders of the families is that we don’t insult one another, or else we could end up in full scale war. Of course, the first two standing orders of the five families is that we don’t talk about the five families (whoops). Anyway, the meeting started off with the chairperson, the head of SurbitonRebelWilsonFanClub.Org seeking assurances I wouldn’t kick them out of the meeting… I kicked them out promptly after they questioned my authority. This upset KingstonJamesCordenMovieBlog.com who told me to read and understand our standing orders, so I kicked them out to. Anyway, we are now in a full scale film blog war, so if you don’t hear from me that will be why.

In the mean time, just call me Britney Spears.

All The President’s Men (1976) was a really odd film to watch as a young British person, as it looks at a big historical American event that I don’t know much about. This probably limited my enjoyment somewhat. When two journalists hear of a break in at the Watergate Hotel, they promptly go and investigate. Soon enough, they realise how high it goes, putting themselves in more danger and getting more dead ends. The film is well acted, and rather interesting. Both Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman bring interesting performances and I was engaged for the whole two hours as I tried to piece together what happened.

But this really brings together the limitations of the film. As much as I thought it was a well made film, I just didn’t really understand it. My American politics aren’t great nor is my 20th Century history. All I know about Watergate is that Nixon resigned and Forest Gump called the police. Some wider context in a way similar to The Big Short or Vice would’ve made the film so much more accessible to a new audience today, in the same way it would’ve been when it was released. despite my lack of wider understanding, I did manage to follow who all of the characters were and roughly what their roles were. That is a great credit to the concise well structured story telling this film provided.

All The President’s Men is available on BBC IPlayer

My French Film Festival is running on BFI Player and Amazon Prime. I haven’t seen as much of it as I could, but one film I did see was Felicita (2020). Similar to Kajilionaire and Shoplifters, the film follows this slightly dysfunctional family. An ex-con father, and his wife and daughter live their life in the summer by staying is people’s houses they know are on holiday. In the last day of summer, we stay with them and watch as their life slowly starts untangling.

The plot is well put together with plenty of plot threads somewhat paying off. However, most of these felt more like story devices than symbolic objects. It tried to have some themes about decisions and consequences, but again they weren’t anything more than rather forced in. The characters were generally likable and the whole film was competently made and humorous. At less than 90 minutes, it scratched the surface, but didn’t ever go in depth. An interesting enough film.

Felicita is available on Amazon Prime and BFI Player

Hayao Miyazaki is unquestionably one of the best directors around. With great films such as Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Princess Mononoke, can he do anything wrong? Well, maybe not, although The Wind Rises (2013) didn’t quite feel at the same level as the aforementioned films.

The film is a dramatised tribute to Japanese engineer Jiro Horokoshi, an enthusiastic engineer who ends up designing military aircrafts for WWII. However, the whole tone is rather sad as he would much rather work on passenger aircrafts like his heroes. There is also a love story as he falls for Naoko, who sadly becomes rather ill. The film does have some tragedy and focuses on living life to the fullest and achieving your dreams. It’s not as sad as Grave Of The Fireflies, but it’s more mature than Totoro, Ponyo and Kiki’s Delivery Service.

As with all Ghibli’s you can really see the passion behind the film. The animation also looks wonderful. You really get a sense of scale and the natural elements behind the aircrafts, which for an animated piece is impressive. At times, it gets a bit slow. It takes a really long time to start and ideally would’ve been 20 mintes shorter than it’s 126 minute run time. However, it wasn’t too shabby.

The Wind Rises is available on Netflix.

Remember when we could go to the cinemas last year? Me to. One of the films which I never quite seemed to find time for was Mogul Mowgli (2020). That is a real shame because it really was a wonderfully interesting film. Zed is a young up and coming rapper with a tour really soon. However, he soon suffers a degenerative illness, with his white blood cells attacking his own body.

This disease fits in to the wider narrative of who Zed is. His disease is hereditary, but he doesn’t embrace his ancestors culture as much as his friends and family do. His father wants him to continue his blood line, risking everything for it. Zed has the same feelings about his rap music. The metaphor of him supressing his heritage is subtle and the themes all intertwine very well. It’s show don’t tell film making. Riz Ahmed, who will soon be in the Sound of Metal put in an electrifying performance and was absolutely wonderful. The film was visually and audibly diverse in it’s style and was all really great to watch. If anything, my main regret is that I didn’t see it in the cinema. This film was a really solid debut from director Bassam Tariq, who co-wrote this screenplay with Ahmed fantastically.

Mogul Mowgli is available to watch on BFI Player

Film of the Week

Having previously dabbled into 1930’s cinema, I took the first plunge into the 1920’s this week. A film which inspired many sci-fis with it’s grand scale and original dystopian thinking, as well as keeping themes of poverty in ways still mirrored today (Even Parasite uses high and low), Metropolis (1927) provides an incredible journey.

A silent, German film, Metropolis focuses on a son of the city’s leader who falls in love with a poor girl and decides to follow her into the lower classes against his father’s wishes. Meanwhile, a mad scientist makes a robot who can look like a person, planning to use this in a form of revenge to take down the whole city. The rich son must then attempt to save the woman he loves and all of those at the bottom of the city who are put in danger from a revoloution.

The whole film is grand. The set pieces of the city make it look huge and diverse in a way that Akira and Blade Runner can only imitate. This is only pushed further by this huge orchestral soundtrack looking to lead us through the emotional moments of the film. Sure the acting is a little bit over-exaggerated, but that’s part and parcel of the films which don’t have dialogue to explain their plots. While towards the middle I was flagging due to general fatigue, I soldiered on and soon forgot about it as I was instantly intrigued as to where the plot would go.

The opening scene of the film with the workers all looking the same, starting work, ending fatigued as one of many showed what a harsh and unforgiving the world was. The contrast with the rich as well as seeing some of the poor die only further pushed the injustices of the inequality we were seeing. Yet amongst all this, the theme that was consistently unifying was love, mainly the parents’ love of their children.

An incredibly important piece of cinema and one of the all time greats, Metropolis is an intriguing and essential watch.

Metropolis is available on BFI Player, although it’s easy to find the full movie for free on Youtube.

Time to blow away the cobwebs. Rather strangely I’ve had a couple of weeks film hiatus. A mix of general fatigue and January blues, compiled with lockdown have somewhat curbed my enthusiasm. Despite the seeming nothing to do, I’ve had a few things going on which have been keeping me busy and my mind switched on, thus the lack of blog writing. Things must change. South West London’s fourth best film blog has started to up their game in the hunt for third and we can’t let SurbitonRebelWilsonFanClub.org get on the podium, anything but that. So to celebrate the end of the month, when you finally go back to eating regular pork sausages and leave my preferred vegetarian options alone (huzzah), I thought I’d share some of my selects for the month, all of which I consider above average. (Note: They’re in alphabetical order)

The Battle of Algiers

The opening frame of The Battle of Algiers is a note which says that all of the shots were not real. The level of effects and set pieces in this film make that a necessary sign, as especially near the end I was fairly convinced this was news footage. Shot very much like a fly on the wall documentary, the film focuses on the rebels against the French in the Algerian war in the 1950s. There are times when both parties do terrible acts, yet the balance of the film showing both sides gives enough to make you empaphise with these characters. It doesn’t try to be melodramatic. Morricone’s understated score adds some tension, but is not used for emotional development and that helps this film feel much more legitimate. Some of the sequences are really very good, such as the point where three women plant bombs. You feel their struggle, then you see where they plant them and are left questioning their actions. It’s a really interesting, fantastically made nuetral recent historical war film which you should definitely check out. It’s available on Amazon Prime, MUBI and BFI Player. (It can also be found on Youtube)

The Celebration/Festen

Another Round is one of my most anticipated films this year due to Thomas Vinterberg & Mads Mikklesen’s The Hunt being fantastic. Another star of that film, Thomas Bo Larsen starred in an earleir work of Vinterberg’s being Festen. Over the course of a rich man’s birthday party night, this dysfunctional family and their guests are thrown into chaos once one of the sons, now grown up, makes an allegation against their father, which links to his sister’s suicide the year before. Alongside this, other things unravel as we get this fascinating and very dark character study. This film was part of the Dogme 95 Movement, which required no music, no special effects, handheld cameras and no actions which wouldn’t happen in real life. This required the script and acting to be the main focus, and both of those elements were absolutely incredible. The film is available on MUBI and BFI Player and you can find it for free on Youtube.

Life Is Beautiful

After Jojo Rabbit received a best picture nomination last year, there was a debate around whether you could have humour and joy in a film around WWII and the holocaust. While at times, I felt Jojo fell flat, Roberto Benigni’s masterpiece used humour as a brilliant tool for many reasons. The first half of the film is set in a small Italian town where Jewish goofball Guido (played by Benigni) falls in love with his Princess and ends up in a funny set of scenarios as he tries to win her heart. However, in the background there are murmurs of anti-semitism which increase as this act goes on. The primary story is really sweet and funny and is one of the best rom-coms you could see.

The second act however takes a darker turn, as Guido, his son and his wife are transported to a concentration camp. This is where the humour becomes somewhat more experimental. As Guido has a young child, he tells him that this is a game and the first one to 1,000 points will get a tank. He is using his optimistic spirit to protect his child from the horrors that go on around him. You fear for the whole family as you, like Guido, know exactly what’s going on and understand why everyone is acting like they are. It’s not humour for humour’s sake. It is there for a reason. The film is wonderful. Sadly, it’s not on any streaming services, however the DVD will probably be cheap at this point and it’s worth picking up.

Moolaade

One of my side film projects is to tick off a film from each country in the world, much easier said than done. This month, I ticked off Lesotho, Algeria and Tanzania amongst others. However, the one I want to discuss the most is my Burkina Faso entry. The drama focuses on a woman who takes 4 girls under her protection who have ran away from a female genital mutilation ritual. Soon their mothers come along and demand them back, however the protagonist Colle casts a spell which will not allow them in. The religious men of the village all soon band together and take away women’s radios and make life difficult for Colle. However, she remains determined that these girls will be safe. It’s a film which looks at religion, the influence of the outside world and politcs, negatively shining a light on a barbaric practice. It’s a strong emotional watch which becomes a battle between men and women. It’s fascinating and well worth a watch. I couldn’t find many streaming offers, but you can find the film with English subtitles on Youtube.

North By Northwest

There are very few directors who can come up with such a mind bending and intriguing story as Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho is brilliant, Vertigo was incredible and North By Northwest is just as well made. Roger Thornhill, unsurprisingly played by Cary Grant, is mistaken for another individual and is abducted before a gang try to kill him. He is later framed for murder and is stuck running away from gangsters and intertwined with the FBI. While running away, he meets and falls in love with the mysterious Eve Kendall (Eva Saint Marie). Thronhill must work out what is going on and try to save himself and Eve before it’s too late.

This film really was iconic. The plot was intriguing and full of twists as most Hitchcock films are. The soundtrack transcends time and you get to see that iconic airplane scene. A true masterpiece. It’s currently not available for free on streaming services, but as a 60 year old film, it should be fairly easy to find cheap.

Yojimbo

This isn’t me shouting to one of the Simpsons bullies, but it’s the name of one of Kurosawa’s masterpieces. The black and white Japanese film focuses on a town ruined by two crime lords hell bent on using their gangs to destroy one another. Both try to recruit the Samurai who remains largely neutral, although his conscience makes him want to help the victims of this gang war. The film is really helped by the characters and the plot. Kurosawa really helps give a sense of the environment and of each character’s motivations. Not his greatest work, but this samurai piece remains a really interesting watch. Yojimbo is available to watch on BFI Player.

Honourable Mentions: Boy, Departures, The Big Sick, This is Not a Burial It’s a Resurrection, Pili, One Night In Miami, The Secrets Of Kells, All the Presidents Men are all good films worth your time