Welcome to the Wasteland, and a very personal 12 of the Best. These are the best 12 movies I personally watched this Christmas season. Not all of them are Christmassy, but they are all great in their own unique ways! Click on the podcast audio link below the images to listen! Merry Christmas and a … Continue reading 12 of the Best… Xmas Watches in 2024
As part of the period during Covid when watching movies could involve a little more discernment and patience, I decided to finally engage with Ozu's apparent masterpiece and oft cited "best film ever made", Tokyo Story. Intimidatingly, it is rated as the #209th best film of all time on iMDb, with a 100% rating on … Continue reading Tokyo Story
Welcome to Bad Movie Triple Bill's part five, looking today at 3 films from directors notorious for producing a mixed bag of work. None of these three are outright disasters, but all contain enough cinematic sins to condemn them to this part of The Wasteland. Please do comment if you'd like to disagree or defend … Continue reading Bad Movie Triple Bill #5
This is the fifth in the series of films I would recommend to an alien to explain humanity. Not, as posted on the Instagram account, #6 - sorry for the confusion, I think I skipped #4 on there when posting for Schindler's List a few weeks ago. Anyway... today's choice is Ari Folman's extraordinary antiwar … Continue reading Alien Rec’s No.5
If you want your film to have a touch of class, with intelligence, beauty, power and humanity at its heart, who are you gonna call? Whether it is a woman of strength and dignity in a supporting role, or an everywomen figure of hope and sensitivity fighting against an injustice in a dynamic lead role, … Continue reading Hall of Fame Inductee #5 Meryl Streep
The fourth in my series of films you would recommend to an alien to explain humanity dovetails nicely with my Hall of Fame inductee this week. It is Steven Spielberg's seminal anti war epic Shindler's List (1993). This one speaks for itself in many ways. As an exploration of evil and the men behind the … Continue reading Alien Rec’s No.4
Where do you start with Steven Spielberg? In one way or another he has shaped our film watching habits, and controlled what we think of as BIG films for almost 50 years. He may not have reached the artistic pinnacle of Kubrick or Tarkovsky, but he has dominated our idea of Hollywood Blockbusters since 1975, … Continue reading Hall of Fame Inductee #4 Steven Spielberg
Welcome to part 3 of the Bad Movie Triple Bills feature. As I am sure you are getting used to by now, this area is reserved for films I watched that left me palming my forehead in frustration, or puffing out my cheeks in boredom, or gritting my teeth in annoyance. Yes, those little nuggets … Continue reading Bad Movie Triple Bill #3
The third in my series of films you would recommend to a visiting alien to explain humanity is... the harrowing yet utterly brilliant Incendies (2010), directed by Denis Villeneuve, from the play by Wajdi Mouawad. Utilising a French and Arabic speaking cast you have probably never seen before, this brutal drama feels as close to … Continue reading Alien Rec’s No.3
Today's 12 of the Best list celebrates the life and extraordinary career of Christopher Plummer, who has sadly passed away aged 91. Born in Toronto in 1929, he moved to New York to study acting in his early 20s, fast becoming a star on Broadway following his stage debut in 1954. He graduated to movies … Continue reading 12 of the Best… Christopher Plummer Films
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