September 2018 film review

THE HATEFUL EIGHT (2015) D- Quentin Tarantino
A traveller (Samuel L Jackson) on foot in the the American north west hails a passing stage coach, but once on board finds himself caught up in a sticky situation. The coach is already occupied by a bounty hunter of some sort (Kurt Russell) and his captive (Jennifer Jason Leigh) en route to a nearby township. But the coach is forced to seek shelter in a lonely trading post, inhabited, it seems, by an even more motley crew of bad people. Cut off from the outside world by a blizzard, our drama plays itself out inside this rundown shack that is all that separates the players from an icy death. And as this is a Tarantino film, we know there will be blood. But when, and whose?
           Tarantino’s films are always worth watching, his obsession with violence notwithstanding, and this is no exception. The atmosphere of threat and paranoia builds up nicely to a climax which disguises itself expertly, and all the players, especially Jennifer Jason Leigh are very strong. I always love it when an extravagantly beautiful woman such as JJL is happy, when the occasion demands it, to be made up to look like a hideous old hag. Chapeau!

HARD EIGHT (1997) D- P.T. Anderson
An obvious loser (a very youthful John C Reilly) is offered a helping hand by a much older man (an absolutely brilliant Phillip Baker Hall). At first the loser suspects this must be a gay thing, but it soon emerges the older man’s offer of help is genuine, though the reasons for his apparently spontaneous charity are not made clear. The two go to Vegas, where they operate a couple of scams to clip the casinos of some of their cash. Then the young guy meets and falls for cocktail waitress Gwyneth Paltrow. And once a woman is introduced into the mix, everything gets complicated, as it always does...
          This movie is terrific. With the dialogue pared to the bone, it comes over almost like a Raymond Carver short story, complete with the mystery and pathos which is so characteristic of that writer’s method. This was director PT Anderson’s debut feature film, and promised well for the future, though I’m not sure he has made a better film than this first effort. Brilliant.

RING OF BRIGHT WATER (1969) D- Jack Couffer
A writer (Bill Travers) sees an otter for sale in a pet shop and decides to take it with him to a remote crofter’s cottage in northern Scotland, where he plans to write a book about the Marsh Arabs. Soon, he and Mij, for lo that is the otter’s name, are getting on famously in the wilds of nowheresville. Enter Virginia McKenna, as the local GP to whom Bill takes a shine.
          One of the most celebrated British films of the 1960s, based on the book by Gavin Maxwell, and following the book fairly closely, this film was almost universally loved. It’s easy to see why. Although it has dated somewhat, the charm is all up there on the screen for us to enjoy even today.

WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (1961) D- Bryan Forbes
A young girl (Hayley Mills) growing up on a farm in the north of England discovers a stranger in a barn. When she surprises him and asks who he is, the man (Alan Bates in a minimalist, but nonetheless brilliant display of acting) exclaims “Jesus Christ!”
          What happens next is written into the folklore of British cinema, as Mills, her siblings and a growing band of credulous schoolfriends convince themselves they are witnessing the Second Coming.
           I may have seen this film before, but if so it is probably 50 years or more since I did. Hence I was able to watch is afresh, and be quite stunned by the skill displayed all round - from the writing (the screenplay is by the renowned pair Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, from the book written by Mills’s mother, Mary Hayley Bell) to the highly skilled direction of Bryan Forbes, and then the acting, by both children and adults, which make the whole utterly convincing and deeply moving. I cried.