’Breakfast at Tiffany’s’

Loosely based on the 1958 novella by Truman Capote, party girl and Manhattan socialite Holly Golightly is drawn to new neighbour and wannabe writer, Paul Varjak.

Cinderella-like figure steps out of a taxi on to the deserted streets of New York at dawn, her image reflected in the plate glass of Tiffany’s nibbling a croissant from a paper bag. Givenchy clad, the aspiring Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) flirts, fizzes and charms her way into the hearts of many men, including kept-man Paul Varjak (George Peppard). But beneath that superficial party girl surface is a much deeper Holly with her own secrets.

It’s a loose and gentle adaptation of Truman Capote’s hard-hitting novella with a deliciously intoxicating Hepburn truly memorable. A mix of drama and comedy from screenwriter George Axelrod and a lightness of touch from director Blake Edwards (with the exception of the deeply offensive racist portrayal of Holly’s neighbour I.Y. Yunioshi, played by Mickey Rooney) combine to create a feature of enduring, fashionable charm. And it also introduced Henry Mancini’s Moon River to the world.

Nominated for 5 Oscars in 1962 including best actress, adapted script, art direction – won 2 for original score and original song.

Rating: 81%

Director: Blake Edwards (The Pink Panther, Victor/Victoria)

Writer: George Axelrod (The Manchurian Candidate, The Seven Year Itch) – adapted from the novella by Truman Capote

Main cast: Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday, The Nun’s Story), George Peppard (The Blue Max, The Carpetbaggers), Patricia Neal (Hud, The Subject Was Roses)

‘The Last King of Scotland’

Towering central performance by Forest Whitaker captures the unhinged charm and tyrannical threat of Idi Amin, corrupt president of Uganda throughout the 1970s.

A recent medical graduate, the last thing Nic Garrigan (James McAvoy) wants to do is follow in his father’s footsteps with a safe practice in rural Scotland. Volunteering to work in a missionary clinic in Uganda, an unexpected encounter with Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) on the presidential campaign results in a very different direction for the idealist. On Amin’s election victory, Garrigan is summoned to be the president’s personal physician. Bestowed with gifts and favours, he refuses to accept the accusations of violence and corruption levelled at Amin, until his links with the president’s youngest wife Kay (Kerry Washington) puts him in personal danger.

Volatile and at times unquestionably thrilling, The Last King of Scotland is an episodic sweep of recent Ugandan history as Garrigan learns to tread on egg shells around his benefactor. Capturing the exuberance of a country renewed by Amin’s election through by fear at the film’s end, it never quite reaches the same plateau as the fearless Whitaker.

Winner of Oscar for best actor in 2007

Rating: 62%

Director: Kevin Macdonald (The Mauritanian, One Day in September)

Writer: Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon), Jeremy Brock (Here I Live Now, Mrs Brown)

Main cast: Forest Whitaker (The Butler, Respect), James McAvoy (Split, Atonement), Kerry Washington (Django Unchained, TV’s Little Fires Everywhere)

‘Black Swan’

A powerful central performance by Natalie Portman as the stress of being selected to dance the lead in Swan Lake sees an already unstable young ballerina pushed to breaking point.

Living at home with an ambitious mother (Barbara Hershey), Nina (Portman) is pushing for a break in the highly competitive New York Ballet. Technically perfect and an easy choice for the White Swan, artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) demands more grit and passion from Nina for the dual role of the Black Swan. Pushed to the edge, terrified of being replaced by newcomer Lily (Mila Kunis), Nina loses her grip on the world around her.

A riveting, full-on melodrama, lurid in its ambition, intense in its presentation as Nina ultimately battles with herself in director Darren Aronofsky’s powerful and obsessive psychosexual thriller.

Nominated for 5 Oscars in 2011 including best film, director, cinematography – won 1 (best actress)

Rating: 80%

Director: Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, The Whale)

Writer: Mark Heyman (The Wrestler, The Skeleton Twins), Andres Heinz, John J. McLaughlin (Hitchcock, Parker)

Main cast: Natalie Portman (Thor, Jackie), Mila Kunis (Bad Moms, Luckiest Girl Alive), Vincent Cassel (La haine, Gauguin)

‘Barbie’

Pastel-coloured Barbie World sees women in control and men decorative irrelevance. But when Stereotypical Barbie develops flat feet and cellulite, she must travel to the Human World to find out who’s responsible – and is shocked by what she sees.

An idyllic world of Barbies of different body shapes and colour in charge of their destiny. Popular Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) and a love of pink drives along the seafront, tallks to her friends, puts up with the Kens and organises all singing, all dancing choreographed parties. But flat feet and cellulite sends her via Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) to Mattel in the real world of LA – and Beach Ken (Ryan Gosling) has stowed away to accompany her. It’s not what she expects as she hightails it back to Barbie World.

Director Greta Gerwig takes on patriarchy in a quirky, Come on Barbie, Let’s go party comic fantasy world of plastic imagination. It’s difficult not to argue with the socio-political premise (the speech from America Ferrara as the owner of the doll causing the problem for Stereotypical Barbie nails it) and the film is fun. But for the most part it’s fragmented and borders on lollypop superficial. The snubbing of director Greta Gerwig and production design come awards time, however, is unexplainable.

Nominated for 8 Oscars in 2024 including best film, supporting actor, supporting actress, adapted screenplay, production design – won 1 for best song (What Was I Made For? – Billie Eilish, Finneas O’Connell)

Rating: 59%

Director: Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird)

Writer: Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird), Noah Baumbach (The Squid & the Whale, Marriage Story)

Main cast: Margot Robbie (Babylon, I Tonya), Ryan Gosling (La La Land, Drive), America Ferrara (End of Watch, TV’s Ugly Betty)

’Joyeux Noël’

A visceral moment in the trenches of World War I as individual opposing British, French and German units lay down their arms on Christmas Eve, 1914 to celebrate together.

Joyeux Noël is a fictionalised account of true events and centred around the Delsaux farm occupied by the German 93rd Infantry under the command of Leutnant Horstmayer (Daniel Brühl). Less than 100 metres away are the French 26th and the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Music brings the nationalities together as night falls on 24 December 1914. As the bagpipes play, a catholic Mass, lead by stretcher bearer and priest Father Palmer (Gary Lewis), is held in no man’s land: tenor Private Nikolaus Sprink (Benno Fürmann) and his wife Anna Sørensen (Diane Kruger), both members of the Berlin State Opera, sing to the troops. Horstmayer is able to find out information about the wife and new born child of the French commanding officer, Le lieutenant Audebert (Guillaume Canet), caught behind enemy lines.

Moving and uplifting with its deep sense of humanity, Joyeux Noël is, admittedly, a neatly packaged emotive tearjerker with its bittersweet consequences. It’s the art of uncomplicated storytelling that wins out.

Nominated for best foreign language film Oscar in 2006.

Rating: 71%

Director: Christian Carion (My Son, Driving Madeleine)

Writer: Christian Carion (My Son, Driving Madeleine)

Main cast: Guillaume Canet (Tell No One, My Son), Daniel Brühl (Rush, All Quiet on the Western Front), Gary Lewis (Billy Elliot, The Keeper)

‘Marshall’

Representing NAACP, Thurgood Marshall, a young, up-and-coming Black lawyer in the 1940s, defends African-Americans across the country unjustly charged of crimes they did not commit. In Bridgeport, Connecticut a chauffeur is accused of raping the society wife of his wealthy employer.

A career defining case for Marshall (Chadwick Boseman), later to become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, Marshall sees insurance lawyer Sam Friedman (Josh Gad) as lead counsellor for Marshall’s client in court. Judge Foster (James Cromwell) reluctantly accepts Marshall into the local Bar – but then refuses to allow him to speak. Inexperienced, Friedman is way out of his depth – and, as a Jew, experiences the same level of race hatred inside and outside the courtroom as Marshall. The case is not helped by the continued lying of the accused, Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown), to his legal team in relation to what happened with Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson) on the night in question.

Compelling as a courtroom drama, directed by Reginald Hudlin, Marshall expertly plays on a sense of justice – race and gender are the victims in this narrative. Interspersing snippets of events from the night into proceedings along with Gad’s home life outside of court, Hudlin creates an engaging and empathic telling – if a little clean and lacking grit.

Nominated for best original song Oscar in 2018 (song by Common, written by Diane Warren)

Rating: 68%

Director: Reginald Hudlin (The Black Godfather, Sidney)

Writer: Michael Koskoff, Jacob Koskoff (The Marc Pease Experience, Macbeth)

Main cast: Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther, Get On Up), Josh Gad (21, Jobs), Kate Hudson (Almost Famous, Bride Wars)

‘Allied’

A straight forward, somewhat stolid tale of a London-based Canadian intelligence officer dealing with accusations that his new wife, a member of the French Resistance, is a German spy.

Shipped into Morocco, Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) makes contact with his ‘wife’ Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard) where the assassination of high ranking Nazi officials is the mission. Intimacy leads to romance and, on his return to London, Vatan awaits her clearance to join him. Marriage, suburban bliss and a child follow – until friend and commanding officer Frank Heslop (Jared Harris) informs Vatan there are suspicions Marianne is a spy. He needs to disprove the suspicions.

With its mix of war time adventure and romance, Allied as directed by Robert Zemeckis is as solid as it comes in its storytelling. But there’s limited suspense, resulting in sluggishness. The zip of the opening adventure becomes bogged down in a strange domesticity in spite of the levels Pitt goes to prove his wife’s innocence.

Nominated for best costume Oscar in 2017 (Joanna Johnston)

Rating: 48%

Director: Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, The Walk)

Writer: Steven Knight (Locke, Eastern Promises)

Main cast: Brad Pitt (Thelma & Louise, Bullet Train), Marion Cotillard (La vie en rose, Inception), Jared Harris (TV’s Chernobyl, Mad Men)

’A Room with a View’

A brief romance in early 20th century Florence leaves Lucy Honeychurch uncertain of her inevitable marriage to the somewhat staid and dull Cecil Vyse.

Chaperoned by cousin Charlotte (a splendid Maggie Smith), Lucy (Helena Bonham Carter) comes into contact with the father/son Emersons at the hotel. Dismissed by Charlotte as ‘beneath them’, the Emersons exchange their better rooms (and one with a view) with the two women. This simple act of kindness piques Charlotte’s interest in the young, romantic George Emerson (Julian Sands). A brief romance ensues before Lucy’s return to England and her acceptance of marriage to Cecil Vyse (Daniel Day Lewis).

The Midas touch of James Ivory, Ismail Merchant and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala once more prevails with this sumptuous costume drama of romanticised love, privilege and class. It can get a little bogged down in its respect of E.M. Forster’s source novel but it remains an exquisite piece of storytelling.

Nominated for 8 Oscars in 1987 including best film, director, supporting actor (Denholm Elliot), supporting actress (Maggie Smith), art direction, costume – won 1 for best adapted script

Rating: 74%

Director: James Ivory (Heat and Dust, Maurice)

Writer: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Heat and Dust, Howards End) – adapted from the script by E.M. Forster

Main cast: Helena Bonham Carter (Fight Club, The King’s Speech), Julian Sands (Gothic, Ocean’s 13), Maggie Smith (Gosford Park, The Lady in the Van)

’Hester Street’

Russian and Polish Jewish migrants find different levels of success in assimilating into 1890s New York.

Living in the tenements on the Lower East Side, Jake (Steven Keats) finds himself perfectly content, working, fluent in English, flirtatious, spending time with seamstress Mamie (Dorrie Kavenaugh). But things are about to change when his wife and young son arrive from the shtetls of Europe. The wide-eyed, observant Gitl (Carol Kane) struggles with the challenge of a new life and turns to the lodger, former yeshiva student Bernstein (Mel Howard), for insight into the change in her once traditional husband.

Simple in its construction, Hester Street, as directed by Joan Micklin Silver in her feature film debut, is a sensitive portrayal of the microcosm of Jewish and immigrant life at the end of the 19th century. Tradition, religious observance and the old way of life clash with modern America in Silver’s authentic bittersweet slice of life that alternates between Yiddish and English.

Nominated for 1976 best actress Oscar

Rating: 70%

Director: Joan Micklin Silver (Crossing Delancey, Chilly Scenes in Winter)

Writer: Joan Micklin Silver (Limbo, Chilly Scenes in Winter) – based on the novel by Abraham Cahan

Main cast: Carol Kane (Annie Hall, TV’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Steven Keats (Death Wish, The Friends of Eddie Coyle), Mel Howard (Buffalo Heart, The Washington Affair)

’Million Dollar Baby’

Oscar winner for best film in 2005, the Clint Eastwood directed drama is a powerfully visceral narrative built around the determined performance by Hilary Swank as a wannabe successful boxer.

Maggie Fitzgerald (Swank) comes from nothing but has personal ambition to succeed in the one thing she wants to do – box. Convincing experienced coach Frankie Dunn (Eastwood) to take her on takes wile – and support from gym manager Eddie (Morgan Freeman), the closest Dunn has to a friend. But relent he eventually does and so the two go on a personal journey that results in success and tragedy.

Million Dollar Baby oozes quality in all its raw, profound sincerity and unassuming naturalism. Its central triage provide stripped down naturalism and poignancy that perfectly evokes the rough and ready world in which it’s set.

Rating: 80%

Nominated for 7 Oscars in 2005 including best actor, adapted screenplay, editing, won 4 – best film, director, actress, supporting actor

Director: Clint Eastwood (Mystic River, Gran Torino)

Writer: Paul Haggis (Crash, Quantum of Solace)

Main cast: Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry, Amelia), Clint Eastwood (Play Misty For Me, The Mule), Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption, Now You See Me)