Film Reviews Blog

This page only shows films that have a review. By default in date order of reading with newest at top

  • All Categories

      Saturday 8th February 2025

      Denmark 2018

      Running time: 85 mins

      The Guilty

      Den skyldige

      Director : Gustav Möller

      Film Summary :
      Polive officer under investigation assigned to a call centre has to deal with a tricky emergency call

      Reviewed by rogerco, DVD proj @ home on 08 Feb 2025

      Review of "The Guilty"

      Almost entirely taking place within the call centre with only one character plus voices on the telephone. 




      Saturday 1st February 2025

      Denmark 2024

      The Girl With The Needle

      Pigen med nålen

      Director : Magnus von Horn

      Film Summary :
      Backstreet baby adoption agency in 1919 Copenhagen

      Reviewed by rogerco, Streamed proj @ home on 01 Feb 2025

      Review of "The Girl With The Needle"

      Good but horrible. B&W photography exactly suited the mood. Performances good. Story unfolds well. Based on true events.




      Sunday 26th January 2025

      USA 2024

      Running time: 141 mins

      A Complete Unknown

      Director : James Mangold

      Film Summary :
      Dylan, the folk years

      Reviewed by rogerco, Carlton Okehampton on 26 Jan 2025

      Review Summary :
      Rings true in all areas, even if the truth might have been bent a little.

      Fantasticly Good

      For anyone older than late 60s you will remember some of these events and the music and this'll take you right back and put you there (where you almost certainly weren't, but were in spirit)

      For anyone over 40 you will know some, or many, of the songs and have heard of some of the events - this will give you a real context for the music and a feel for how it was, and just maybe help you realise that not much has changed and that those 'protest' songs still have real resonance today.

      For anyone under 40 you might think he is just some old singer your grandparents were into - you show definitely see this film in the same spirit as in the open scenes Dylan pays a visit to the dying Woody Guthrie (an even older american folk protest singer). Go to the movie to get inspired by the continuity of history - you are facing the same stuff they were in 61, find your voice and tell the old generation to get out of the way  if they can't lend a hand to change the times. You have the potential power - please rise up and use it.

      The film is excellent as a piece of film making - first class performances, direction, lighting and camerawork, sound, set design - everything seems true.  And then the story is compelling, but not in the starry eyed usual bio-pic way. It moves rapidly through the period 1961 to 1965 and then stops - these are the very years and songs you need to know about to understand why Dylan is so important




      Saturday 18th January 2025

      Korea 2016

      Running time: 118 mins

      Train to Busan

      unlisted director

      Film Summary :
      Zombie apocalypse set largely on a train.
      Film Category
      Film Tags

      Rated by rogerco, DVD proj @ home on 18 Jan 2025

      Review Summary :
      Quite simply dreadful. Makes Snowpiercer look like a masterpiece (which it wasn't being the worst film seen in 2024) this make an early bid for the worst of 2025. Absolutely nothing to like or admire about it.



      Saturday 4th January 2025

      Finland 2023

      Running time: 81 mins

      Fallen Leaves

      Director : Aki Kaurismäki

      Film Summary :
      Ansa works as a shelf stacker, Holappa in a metal factory. They fail to meet and then meet and fail again. Drink, sackings, ennui, shitjobs, life and romance blossoms.

      Reviewed by rogerco, Streamed proj @ home on 04 Jan 2025

      Review Summary :
      Withthe directors unique sparse and allusive style a love story for modern times.

      Review of "Fallen Leaves"

      Excellent acting by Ansa and Holappa and others. Life in the menial class in Helsinki - zero hours shitjobs, propoganda in the media, drinking and movies going, total alienation.

      Shot in the same style as The Other Side of Hope  and is other films