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.