Review

The Bribe

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Robert Taylor and Ava Gardner

In Casablanca “everybody comes to Rick’s”, in The Bribe it’s Pedro’s, a sweaty canteen somewhere in venal Central America, around which this messy mix of thriller, romance, exotic adventure and detective story plays out. Robert Taylor and Ava Gardner are the stars, but Charles Laughton is the standout, taking it upon himself – probably not for selfless reasons – to save this odd mishmash from itself with a performance that lifts everything up several rungs. The story centres on a racket dealing in hooky war surplus, which FBI agent Rigby – no first name – has been sent in to sort out. Instantly suspicious characters include alcoholic ex-pilot Tug Hintten (John Hodiak) and … Read more

Pillion

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A topless Alexander Skarsgård lies in the grass

Described bafflingly as arthouse in some quarters, Pillion is much more your seaside-postcard Full Monty-style Britcom of yore sexed up with Alexander Skarsgård in his scanties, in a story about a timid boy-man (Harry Melling) willingly entering into a BDSM relationship with a biker. If you approach it as arthouse, you’ll leave disappointed. But come at it from the cosy comedy direction and it’s quite rewarding, and if you’ve ever wanted to see Skarsgård more or less in the buff – no spoilers – you’ll be doubly happy. Colin is a shy man who sings in a barbershop with his dad, Pete (Douglas Hodge), and has dates with other diffident nerds arranged by his … Read more

The Big Steal

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Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer face to face

Of course The Big Steal is a noir. With a title like that what else could it be? And yet it’s also an undeclared screwball comedy. The IMDb might say crime, film noir and romance, but screwball is the real dynamic, and that’s how Don Siegel directs it and stars Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer play it. It’s a cat and mouser, with Mitchum as Halliday, an army lieutenant trying to clear his name by tracking down the man who really ran off with a huge amount of the military’s money. Along for the journey, in an uneasy alliance, is the man’s fiancée, Joan Graham (Greer), who has has been conned by him … Read more

The Chronology of Water

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Close up of Lidia's lip bleeding

So Kristen Stewart made a movie and, in spite of what the goons hoped, didn’t fall flat on her face. The Chronology of Water will infuriate people who harbour a grudge. Though, on the other hand, surely the twittersphere (Xsphere?) can’t still be hating on Stewart? After all this time? For the RPatz stuff? Or the sulky features and mumbling performances. Or suddenly becoming the highest paid actress in the world – briefly, till she walked away from all that. Who knows? There’s an irrational hellbeast out there for all of us if we look hard enough. Personally, I’m a fan, of Stewart’s “fuck you” attitude but particularly of the sort of films … Read more

The Window

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Tommy, wide-eyed, witnesses the murder

If you like Rear Window you might like The Window, a thriller from 1949 running on the same fuel – impotent voyeurism. Both films are based on short stories by Cornell Woolrich. This one from a “boy who cried wolf” tale called The Boy Who Cried Murder, about a doughty kid who, on a hot summer’s night goes out onto the fire escape of his parents’ New York apartment to sleep, and while out there sees his neighbours killing someone. Tommy (Bobby Driscoll) is a bit of a loner who makes up stories to fill the gaps where friends should be, so when he tells his parents (Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy) what he … Read more

In Cold Light

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Ava head on

Maika Monroe’s lean athleticism – she used to be a professional kiteboarder – suits her to In Cold Light, a grungey thriller in which she plays a drug dealer who goes on the run when things take a “shit got real” turn. It’s a subjective chase movie, very tightly focused on Monroe’s Ava, who we meet in a pre-credits sequence in the middle of a police raid during which she crashes through a window and tries to make a break for it. Post-credits it’s a few years later and Ava is fresh out of prison and trying to take back her drug business from her brother, who now has his feet under the table. … Read more

The Walking Target

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A calm and collected Nick

The Walking Target packs a lot of people and a lot of plot into its brief 74 minutes running time. That is a feature not a bug. It’s a story about a man freshly out of prison who is, as the prison governor tells Nick Harbin (Ron Foster) while reluctantly releasing him, a “walking target”. Because he’s never divulged where the heist money was stashed that got him the jail sentence in the first place. As he heads out through the front gates of the prison there they all are waiting for him. The girlfriend, Susie (Merry Anders), who visited him only once while he did his five-year stretch but now wants to … Read more

Man Finds Tape

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A woman has her throat cut by a mystery man

Like one of those Victorian novels that spends a chunk of time laying out its bona fides, Man Finds Tape does a lot of scene-setting early on, establishing the who and the what and the where. This all really happened, it insists. But this being the 21st century rather than the 19th, its claims to authenticity rest on different foundations. Victorians were happy to be fed a yarn about the narrator being told a tale by a stranger in a coaching inn on a dark stormy night, a tale that purportedly came straight from eye-witness accounts. Fast-forward to now and Man Finds Tape does it with a camera, a voiceover and a welter … Read more

I Love Trouble

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Janet Blair and Franchot Tone publicity shot

I Love Trouble is The Rockford Files, or a dry run at it, give or take. If you don’t know what The Rockford Files is, that means you’re not ancient, so well done you. It’s the TV show where James Garner played a dog-eared detective raising a wounded eyebrow as he got beaten up week after week. Roy Huggins wrote both. I Love Trouble was his screen debut, an adaptation of his own novel, The Double Take, which S Sylvan Simon directs with half an eye on the drawing-room whodunits of yore. Huggins also wrote 77 Sunset Strip, The Fugitive and Maverick (also starring Garner) – so was something of a TV colossus … Read more

Lesbian Space Princess

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Saira and Willow, the goth musician who helps on her quest

So what are you expecting from a film called Lesbian Space Princess? A countercultural screed with a blast of porn maybe? Once upon a time, maybe. But these days things are slightly less urgent. “Real-life girlfriends” (their scare quotes) Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese want to tell us an animated story that’s light and bright and very cute, with swear words and some cultural critique slid in on the downlow. Take “downlow” on advisement because it’s all set on the planet of Clitopolis – “famously hard to find” – where, as things get going, our heroine, Princess Saira (voiced by Shabana Azeez) is being dumped by her girlfriend Kiki (Bernie Van Tiel), … Read more