Dec 31st  
Amazon Women on the Moon
(US 1986 - released 1987)                                                 
Universal. 85m.

Painfully unfunny series of satirical spoof sketches around TV in the video age(an unofficial sequel to Kentucky Fried Movie): some occasional good moments of movie pastiche - at other times one wonders what the cast and makers were thinking of.

Written by: Michael Barrie, Jim Mulholland.
Producer: Robert K. Weiss.
Directors: Joe Dante, Carl Gottlieb, Peter Horton, John Landis, Robert K. Weiss.
Starring: Arsenio Hall; Lou Jacobi; Michelle Pfeiffer, Griffin Dunne, Peter Horton; Steve Forrest, Sybil Danning, Joey Travolta, Forrest J. Ackerman; David Alan Grier, B.B. King; Rosanna Arquette, Steve Guttenberg; Henry Silva; Archie Hahn, Belinda Balaski, Robert Picardo; William Marshall; Ed Eegley Jnr; Matt Adler, Kelly Preston, Ralph Bellamy; Marc McClure, Russ Meyer; Carrie Fisher, Paul Bartel, and others.
Photography: Daniel Pearl.
Music: Ira Newborn.

Preceded by:
The Assassin
(GB TVM 2015. 2m.; d, ph: Neil Rowe; s: Peregrine Maturin-Baird, Jordan Calver.)

Dec 29th 
Knives Out** (12A) 
(Vue Romford) 

(US 2019)                                 
Lionsgate/Media Rights Capital/T-Street. 130m.

A murder mystery writer dies after disinheriting his family; the chief culprit is known but the family all try to exploit her for their own ends.
Entertaining pastiche murder mystery (set for once in the present day, with one or two socio-political observations) with its director's familiar trait for turning genre conventions on their head, but still commendably Gothic, and as ever, keeping audiences guessing.

Written and Directed by: Rian Johnson.
Producers: Ron Bergman, Rian Johnson.
Starring: Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Katherine Langford, Frank Oz, M. Emmet Walsh.
Photography: Steve Yedlin.
Music: Nathan Johnson.
Production Design: David Crank.

Dec 28th  
Waterfront*

(GB 1950)
Rank/GFD/Conqueror. 80m.

A drunken Liverpool sailor makes a largely unwelcome return home after 14 years to his aspiring family.
Efficiently made dockside melodrama, also quite well capturing its Merseyside locations, with an equally fascinating array of talents old and new - all hampered by an over-the-edge central performance, but with a moving final scene.

Written by: Paul Soskin, John Brophy, from his novel.
Producer: Paul Soskin.
Director: Michael Anderson.
Starring: Robert Newton, Avis Scott, Richard Burton, Kathleen Harrison, Susan Shaw, Kenneth Griffith, Olive Sloane, James Hayter.
Photography: Harry Waxman.
Music: Liszt.

WATERFRONT (1950). The term "larger than life" was never better applied to someone like Robert Newton. James Hayter and Michael Brennan commendably keep their restraint in his presence.

Dec 27th 
Atoll K
aka: Utopia; Robinson Crusoeland

(Fra/Ita 1951)
Sirius/Franco-London/Fortezzo. 82m. bw

Laurel and Hardy inherit an island which turns out to be loaded with uranium, and they soon find themselves overrun with fellow islanders.
Tired last film entry for this beloved duo (although as Stan and Ollie demonstrates, they still had a few active years ahead of them), something of a reversion back to their old style, but in a rag-bag of a European co-production, with an emaciated looking Stan. The end of the line cinematically for the Boys, but still funnier than most of their contemporaries of the time.

Written by: John D. Klorer, Frederick Kohner, Piero Tellini, Rene Wheeler (and others).
Producer: Raymond Eger.
Director: Leo Joamon (and John Berry).
Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Suzy Delair, Max Elloy, Adriano Rimoldi, Luigi Tosi.
Photography: Armand Thirard.
Photography: Paul Misraki.

Preceded by:
Love Me, Love Me, Love Me**
(GB 1962. 8m.; w: Stan Hayward; d, anim: Richard Williams; voice of Kenneth Williams.)

Dec 20th 
The Rise of Skywalker** (12A)
(Odeon Leicester Square)

(US 2019)
Walt Disney/Lucasfilm/Bad Robot. 142m. ws

The Resistance cause is hampered by the unexpected resurrection of the Emperor and the onset of the Final Order.
Reasonable hotchpotch of Star Wars' old and new: the most preposterous of the nine-part saga, with some of the original older characters crowding out the younger characterisations, but giving less discerning fans the finale they want.

Written by: J.J. Abrams, Chris Terrio, Derek Connolly, Colin Trevorrow.
Producers: Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Michelle Rejwan.
Director: J.J. Abrams.
Starring: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, Ian McDiarmid, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Richard E. Grant, Domhnall Gleeson.
Photography: Dan Mindel.
Music: John Williams (who also plays a bit part).

Dec 19th   
Kramer Vs. Kramer***              
(US 1979)                         
Columbia. 104m.

An advertising executive is too involved with his work and his wife walks out on him, leaving his 7 year old son to deal with before the inevitable custody battle.
Compelling weepie, one of the best ever effective at depicting the difficulty of modern divorce and subsequent legal battles. Fairly elementary in production, shot around autumnal looking New York, but at its best where it matters: in direction, writing and performances.

Written and Directed by: Robert Benton, from the novel by Avery Corman.
Producer: Stanley R. Jaffe.
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Justin Henry, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, Howard Duff, George Coe, JoBeth Williams.
Photography: Nestor Almendros.
Music: Various.

Dec 18th  
The Old Man and the Gun**

(US 2018)                                           
Fox Searchlight/Endgame Entertainment/Conde Nast Entertainment/Sailor Bear/Identity Films. 93m. ws

Adventures of a gentleman thief and multiple bank robber, based on lifelong criminal Forrest Silva Tucker, tailored into a splendidly assured vehicle for the octogenarian Robert Redford with a few nods to his most famous early role in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. While the film is leisurely and overlooks some of its edgier side, it nonetheless comes across as a gloriously matured vintage (in an authentic period 1980s style), and a more benevolent variation on Bonnie and Clyde.

Written and Directed by: David Lowery.
Producers: James D. Stern, David Ostroff, Jeremy Steckler, Anthony Mastromauro, Bill Holderman, Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Robert Redford.
Starring: Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck, Danny Glover, Tom Waits, Tika Sumpter, Elizabeth Moss, Keith Carradine.
Photography: Joe Anderson.
Music: David Hart.

Preceded by:
Happiness*
(GB 2017. 4m.; The rat race (literally) in animation form, not very subtle but gets its point across with good moments of style.; d: Steve Cutts.)

Dec 17th  
49th Parallel**      
(GB 1941)
                               
Rank/GFD. 123m. bw

The survivors of a U-Boat crew attempt to infiltrate Canada to escape across to the still neutral United States.
Rambling propaganda WWII drama which looks pretty ropy nowadays, with variable writing and performances, but individual cameos are compelling and with a splendidly scenic documentary depiction of Canada, and also nurturing talent which went on to bigger things subsequently.

Written by: Rodney Ackland, Emeric Pressburger.
Producer/Director: Michael Powell.
Starring: Eric Portman, Laurence Olivier, Anton Walbrook, Leslie Howard, Raymond Massey, Glynis Johns, Finlay Currie, Raymond Lovell, Niall MacGinnis, Frederick Piper.
Photography: Frederick A. Young.
Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Editing: David Lean.

                 

Dec 16th
Score*

(US 2017)

Epicleff Media. 93m.

Similarly celebratory study (to Making Waves) of modern film music composers, starting out with some interesting insights and brief mention of the original greats from yesteryear, but boiling down to hagiography of the less subtle, more recent orchestral output.

Written and Directed by: Matt Schrader.
Producers: Robert Kraft, Trevor Thompson, Kenny Holmes, Nate Gold, Jonathan Willbanks.
Featuring Mitchell Leib, Hans Zimer, Leonard Maltin, John Debney, David Arnold, Robert Kraft, James Cameron, John Williams (in archive), Danny Elfman, Rachel Portman,Quincy Jones, and others.
Photography: Kenny Holmes, Nate Gold.
Music: Ryan Taubert.
Editing: Matt Schrader, Kenny Holmes.

Dec 8th
The Death of Stalin*
(GB/Fra/Belgium 2017) 

Gaumont/Main Journey/Quad Productions/France 3 Cinema/La Cie Cinematographique. 107m. 

Satirical telling of the power struggle in Moscow after the unexpected heart attack of Josef Stalin in 1953 - events that could be hardly less farcical themselves - done in a style familiar to followers of the TV series The Thick of It, with nasty characters and foul language superseding some of the subtler visual satire such as the opening concert scene (where the players are forced to repeat the performance so that Stalin will hear the recording), whilst some of the performances in a varied star cast come through as brief moments of wit and style.

Written by: Armando Iannucci, David Schneider, Ian Martin, from the comic by Fabien Nury, Thierry Robin.
Producers: Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun, Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Kevin Loader.
Director: Armando Iannucci.
Starring: Simon Russell Beale, Steve Buscemi (as Kreuschev), Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin (as Molotov), Andrea Riseborough, Jeffrey Tambor, Paul Whitehouse, Adrian McLoughlin.
Photography: Zac Nicholson.
Music: Chris Willis.

+ partly filmed in the genuine Moscow itself

THE DEATH OF STALIN. Steve Buscemi as Nikita Kreuschev (second from right) looks suspiciously like his modern day successor Vladimir Putin.

Dec 7th
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound* (12A)
(Ipswich Film Theatre)

(US 2019)

Cinetic/Dogwoof/Ain't Heard Nothing Yet Corp. 94m.

A selected history of film sound from some of its expert practitioners since 1965.
Interesting, celebratory compilation of star interviews with some occasional insights about an often overlooked aspect of cinema, and some nostalgic recants to notable films of the 70s onwards, although it also omits to mention how the advent of modern sound has rendered many big films inaudible for some.

Written by: Bobette Buster.
Producers: Bobette Buster, Midge Costin, Karen Johnson.
Director: Midge Costin.
Starring: Walter Murch, Ben Burtt, Gary Rydstrom; and also George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Lasseter, Robert Redford, Barbara Streisand, and others.
Music: Allyson Newman.
Photography: Sandra Chandler.

Dec 4th  
Hamlet**   
(GB 1948)     
Rank/Two Cities. 146m. bw                           

The Prince of Denmark eventually avenges the murder of his father by his usurping uncle.
Boldly stylised black and white film version of Shakespeare's darkest and most famous tragedy, although Olivier on screen is a little too old for the title role, and cannot resist retaining some of the ponderous theatricality of the piece, making it a rather sluggish drama with vivid moments.

Written, Produced and Direted by: Laurence Olivier, from the play by William Shakespeare.
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Basil Sydney, Eileen Herlie, Jean Simmons, Felix Aylmer, Norman Wooland, Terence Morgan, Peter Cushing, Stanley Holloway, Anthony Quayle.
Photography: Desmond Dickinson.
Music: William Walton.
Art Direction: Carmen Dillon.

Dec 1st  
A Wrinkle in Time*  
(US 2018)                                   
Walt Disney/Whitaker Entertainment. 109m. ws

A physicist has discovered the means to travel through outer space by brain and will power. He disappears on his quest, and four years later his children search for him on the same trail.
Reasonably well made if camply over-indulgent fantasy for the Harry Potter and Hunger Games generation, keeping faithful to the realms of its source material and commendably sustaining the human interest, although its imagination seems a little Earthbound.

Written by: Jennifer Lee, Jeff Stockwell, based on the novel by Madeleine L'Engle.
Producers: Jim Whitaker, Jeff Stockwell.
Director: Ava Du Vernay.
Starring: Storm Reid, Levi Miller, Deric McCabe, Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey, Chris Pine, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mindy Kaling, Zach Galifanakis, David Oyelowo (voice only).
Photography: Tobias A. Schliessler.
Music: Ramin Djawadi.
Production Design: Naomi Shahan.