‘The Seven Year Itch’

The iconic billowing white dress over the subway grille, a momentary feature in this silly romantic comedy, along with its star, Marilyn Monroe, ensure that this particular feature will never be lost in the archives.

With the 1950s tradition of (middle class) New York wives and kids leaving the city to escape the heat of the summer months, Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) is ambivalent about his time alone. An overactive imagination (much to the amusement of wife Helen – Evelyn Keyes) masks his fear of beautiful single women. But then the unnamed Marilyn Monroe takes the upstairs apartment whilst the neighbours are away in Europe.

Occasional wry moments and the unique guileless charm of Monroe almost manage to mask the weaknesses of Billy Wilder’s surprisingly sub standard boudoir comedy. Lots of naive misunderstandings that tested the cinematic censorship regulations of its time, The Seven Year Itch never really ignites, teetering at times on the edge of slapstick (a finger stuck in a champagne bottle?). Very disappointing.

Rating: 40%

Director: Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard)

Writer: Billy Wilder (Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard), George Axelroyd (The Manchurian Candidate, Breakfast at Tiffany’s) – based on George Axelroyd’s play

Main cast: Marilyn Monroe (Some Like It Hot, All About Eve), Tom Ewell (Adam’s Rib, State Fair), Evelyn Keyes (Gone with the Wind, The Prowler)

’Reality’

Engrossing profile of an Air Force linguist and NSA contractor arrested for leaking classified material to the press. The point of difference for this true story, adapted from the stage play, is that the dialogue is taken directly from FBI recordings and transcripts.

Arriving home from a grocery shop, Reality Winner (Sydney Sweeney) is confronted by two FBI agents. For several hours, the three stand in her yard or in a private room asking and answering questions whilst other agents search her house. Winner is accused of releasing information relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Initial denial is slowly worn down by the patient agents (Josh Hamilton and Marchánt Davis).

Polite, layered, understated, Reality is an extraordinary experience as the power of the establishment calmly and succinctly wears away the rights and opinions of the individual.

Rating: 71%

Director: Tina Satter

Writer: Tina Satter, James Paul Dallas – adapted from the play by Tina Satter

Main cast: Sydney Sweeney (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, TV’s Euphoria), Josh Hamilton (Manchester by the Sea, TV’s 13 Reasons Why), Marchánt Davis (The Day Shall Come, A Journal For Jordan)

*Interestingly, screened as a documentary at the Jerusalem Film Festival where it won the top award in its category*

’The Son’

An empathetic exploration of teenage mental health, The Son slips too readily into melodrama as the adults involved try to understand and support.

A split family has deeply impacted Nicholas (Zen McGrath). Tired of an over-concerned mother (Laura Dern), he turns to successful lawyer dad (Hugh Jackman) and his new partner, Beth (Vanessa Kirby). But the cramped New York apartment and a new born result in interwoven tensions amidst the good times. Skipping school, switching off mid-conversation, Nicholas is struggling – as are the three adults.

Jackman struggles with the emotional range required for such a role as his anger and frustration gives way to a sense of helplessness. Writer/director Florian Zeller looked to ‘no blame’ in his writing but in its transfer from stage to screen, The Son highlights too readily the existent dysfunctional family.

Rating: 57%

Director: Florian Zeller (The Father)

Writer: Florian Zeller (The Father, The Other Woman), Christopher Hampton (The Father, Atonement)

Main cast: Zen McGrath (Red Dog: True Blue, TV’s Dig), Hugh Jackman (Logan, The Front Runner), Laura Dern (Marriage Story, Jurassic Park), Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman, Mission: Impossible – Fallout)

‘King and Country’

Grim and effectively claustrophobic, a young soldier is accused of desertion from the Passchendaele trenches of World War I and faces a court martial for cowardice.

As Private Arthur James Hamp (Tom Courtenay) awaits the trial that will determine his immediate future, so Captain Hargreaves (Dirk Bogarde) is assigned to defend him. Initially believing a guilty verdict and execution would be forthcoming, Hargreaves unearths mitigating circumstances of a brave soldier worn down by the horrors of three unrelenting years in the trenches. 

Adapted from the play by John Wilson, King and Country is a quiet, reflective drama highlighting the psychological impact of trench warfare. Filmed exclusively within the wet, mud laden battlefield in muted black and white by director Joseph Losey, the result is a powerful and thoughtful musing.

Rating: 66%

Director: Joseph Losey (The Servant, The Go-Between)

Writer: Evan Jones (Funeral in Berlin, Victory) – adapted from the television play by John Wilson

Main cast: Dirk Bogarde (The Servant, Death in Venice), Tom Courtenay (45 Years, The Dresser)

‘The Night Logan Woke Up’

A slow burn five part dysfunctional family drama from French-Canadian auteur Xavier Dolan working in television for the first time, The Night Logan Woke Up questions the ties that bind as secrets from decades earlier come to the surface.

On the deathbed of the family matriach, Madeleine (Anne Dorval), the four Larouch siblings gather to say their goodbyes. Compounded by pain, guilt, loss and loneliness, they had looked to their mother, a former mayoral candidate for the town, as a bedrock, particularly since the early death of their father. At least the three sons did – an alienated Mireille (Julie LeBreton), living in Montreal, had long fled the family nest. It’s her first visit to Lac Saint-Jean, Québec for more than two decades.

It’s a family full of conflict and each of the characters have their personal stories. Dolan creates time to explore the obsessions and secrets of each, interweaving past and present as the secrets behind the event that led to Madeleine dropping her mayoral candidacy is revealed.

Grainy and a dull, limited palette add to the atmosphere of this layered tale. The friction between Mireille and eldest, Julien (Patrick Hivon), is palpable – both as adults and teenagers. Thirty years ago, Julien and Logan were best friends – but one night changed everything. Anger and obsession coexist as Mireille turns to casual and abusive sex, Julien drugs and alcohol.

With its melodrama and moments of lyrical poetry, The Night Logan Woke Up draws the viewer slowly in as the youngest sibling, Elliot (Xavier Dolan himself), battles with his own substance abuse addiction or the seemingly together Denis (Éric Bruneau) deals with his own issues. And then there’s the fabulous Chantal (Magalie Lépine Blondeau), long suffering wife of Julien. He may well have been clean for more than a decade but he’s no walk in the park.

The Night Logan Woke Up is a dour, claustrophobic slow starter but its an intricate miasma of secrets that have shaped this family irrevocably – and that slowburn is appropriate for the unravelling and reveal.

Rating: 70%

‘The Whale’

A visceral, claustrophobic tale of redemption as a morbidly obese man desperately looks to reconnect with the teenage daughter he has not spoken to in years.

Barely moving from his chair, holding court with his online English literature students, Charlie (an extraordinary Brendan Fraser – The Mummy, Killers of the Flower Moon) struggles with guilt and profound grief. Having walked out of his marriage for a former (male) student, Charlie now finds himself alone with only his nurse, Liz (Hong Chau – Downsizing, The Menu), showing any concern for a man with a blood pressure of 238/134. The arrival of his estranged daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink – The Glass Castle, TV’s Stranger Things) provides Charlie with hope.

Adapted from the stage play by Samuel D. Hunter, The Whale is the perfect companion piece to the alcoholic self destruction of Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler) cautiously explores issues of loneliness, grief, guilt, fat shaming – with the latter undoubtedly the elephant in the room as Charlie slowly eats himself to his death. It’s not always an easy watch – and with Ellie a one-dimensional angry teenager, sometimes grating. But The Whale, if nothing else, confirms the renaissance of Brendan Fraser.

Nominated for 3 Oscars in 2023 including best supporting actress (Hong Chau), won 2 for best actor and makeup/hair.

Rating: 66%

‘Harvey’

A screwball comedy-of-manners from 1950, Harvey sees Elwood P. Dowd gently and politely coast through a boozy life as those around him struggle to deal with his imaginary friend, a six foot rabbit named Harvey.

As Dowd’s (James Stewart – Vertigo, It’s a Wonderful Life) behaviour becomes of increasing concern, sister Veta (a splendidly neurotic Josephine Hull – Arsenic & Old Lace, The Lady From Texas) attempts to have him committed. Yet it’s she who ends up locked up as misunderstanding after midunderstanding follow each other, with Dowd mostly oblivious as he continues to introduce Harvey to all and sundry.

Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Mary Chase and directed by Henry Koster (The Robe, The Bishop’s Wife), Harvey is an odd coast of a narrative with more than a little sting in its tail. Judge that what you do not understand at your peril.

Nominated for 2 Oscars in 1951 including best actor, won 1 for best supporting actress.

Rating: 58%

‘Gaslight’

An epic melodrama whereby a newly married woman returns to the London home where, 10 years earlier, her aunt had been murdered.

On the death of her beloved aunt, a distraught Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman – Casablanca, Stromboli) leaves for Italy vowing never to return. But in training to be an opera singer she falls in love with her coach, the charming Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer – Algeirs, Conquest). Keen to take advantage of the empty property, Anton persuades his wife to return to London. But as paintings disappear and footsteps disturb the peace of the night, Paula begins to question her sanity in the claustrophobia of the oppressive house full of memories.

Adapted from the stage play by Patrick Hamilton and directed by George Cukor (Adam’s Rib, My Fair Lady), Gaslight is an intense, occasionally overwrought, psychological manipulation of a story as Anton attempts to control, deceive and ultimately benefit from the madness of his wife.

Nominated for 7 Oscars in 1945 including best film, actor, supporting actress (Angela Lansbury in her screen debut), won 2 for best actress, set direction (black & white).

Rating: 63%

‘Summertime’

Modest in scale for director David Lean on-location features, a lonely, middle-aged woman finds potential romance whilst vacationing in 1950s Venice.

A long saved-for overseas trip sees an uptight Jane Hudson (Katherine Hepburn – On Golden Pond, The Philadelphia Story) overwhelmed by the beauty of the city of romance. Meeting antiques-dealer Renato de Rossi (Rossano Brazzi – South Pacific, The Italian Job) and the passionate affair that follows adds to a sense of impetuous freedom. Until, that is, she discovers he is a married man.

Summertime is Hepburn’s film all the way as she conveys a mix of vulnerability and sadness beneath a thrilled Jane’s outer excitement. A solid Brazzi is the perfect foil in Lean’s romantic drama that, whilst dated in its technicolour film stock, remains an engaging narrative whilst capturing the beauty of the city.

Nominated for 2 Oscars in 1956 – best director & actress

Rating: 64%

‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’

A Tennessee Williams’ potboiler as emotions run high in the 1950s Mississippi cotton plantation as Big Daddy Pollitt awaits his test results.

Former sports star and favoured son Brick (Paul Newman – Hud, The Hustler) and wife Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor – Cleopatra, Suddenly Last Summer) are not getting on too well, not helped by his love of the bottle. As tensions rise in the heat, older brother Gooper (Jack Carson – A Star Is Born, Mildred Pierce) uses this to his advantage as far as positioning himself in his father’s favour – more than helped by his deeply unpleasant wife, Mae (Madeleine Sherwood – Sweet Bird of Youth, The Changeling) and their six young children.

In the course of one night, the Pollitt family are rent apart by the ambitions of various members of the family with Big Dady (Burl Ives – The Big Country, Our Man in Havana) a towering force responding to each and every one of them. The tension crackles in director Richard Brooks’ (Elmer Gantry, In Cold Blood) adaptation of a humid and suffocating southern birthday celebration.

Nominated for 6 Oscars in 1959 – best film, director, actor, actress, adapted screenplay, cinematography.

Rating: 79%