‘The Great Buster’

A homage to one of the great stars of the Silent era – Buster Keaton – as celebrated by director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Mask), himself a former renowned critic and film historian.

It’s a glorious entertainment of restored material and interviews from Tarantino to Herzog, Mel Brooks to Johnny Knoxville as the importance of Keaton as actor, producer, comedian is discussed and highlighted. And while Bogdanovich as narrator can occasionally over egg the pudding with film critic commentary on a sight gag that needs no words, The Great Buster dishes out a plethora of delight, from the classic The General to lesser known shorts.

But, in spite of all the slapstick highlights (the stunts of which he did himself), what lets Bogdanovich’s film down is that it’s more concerned with anecdotes and often apocryphal tales more than it is with details of Keaton’s life. Whilst it provides the key events from birth to death, somehow little is learned of Keaton the man.

Rating: 66%

‘The Last Picture Show’

An adaptation of Larry McMurty’s novel, director Peter Bogdanovich, in this whistful black and white, early 1950s set drama, avoids overt sentimentality and melodrama.

Unrealised dreams and small-town desperation pervades the narrative as dust bowl Anarene, Texas slowly dies a quiet death. As the end of school years approach, best mates Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) look to the limits of their futures. And those futures look bleak: trapped older folk and the dead end drudge bear witness.

It’s a (small) world of frustration and disappointment as those who can, get out. Those left behind seem to simply count down the years. Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson), owner of the rundown pool hall, is the boys’ mentor. But even he offers little in the way of hope.

An ensemble of quiet dignity results in an evocative and moving drama. Episodic yet intimate, with a gamut of characters each with their own story, a timeless The Last Picture Show is a gentle yet barbed tale of disillusionment, desolation and futility.

Nominated for 8 Oscars in 1972 including best film, director, supporting actress (Ellen Burstyn), supporting actor (Jeff Bridges), adapted script – won 2 for best supporting actor (Ben Johnson) and supporting actress (Cloris Leachman).

Rating: 79%

Director: Peter Bogdanovich (Mask, What’s Up, Doc?)

Writer: Larry McMurtry (Brokeback Mountain, Terms of Endearment), Peter Bogdanovich (Nickelodeon, What’s Up, Doc?) – based on the novel by Larry McMurtry

Main cast: Timothy Bottoms (The Paper Chase, Elephant), Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart, The Big Lebowski), Cybill Shepherd (Taxi Driver, She’s Funny That Way)

‘Infamous’

A superb central performance by Toby Jones among a cast of luminaries provides a strong foundation for the based-on-truth story of writer Truman Capote researching and writing his classic In Cold Blood.

The murder of a family of four at an isolated Kansas farm sends shock waves through the country. Persuading fellow-scribe Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock) to accompany him, the effeminate, high camp New York socialite descends on 1950s rural America determined to write the story – and rewrite the rule book of how a true crime story is written. The arrest of the two suspects and Capote’s access to Perry Smith (Daniel Craig) in particular provides him with the perfect material: the psychological insight. Only Capote gets emotionally too close.

Infamous was sadly eclipsed by Capote with Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the Oscar-winning role and which came out a few months earlier. The latter was more academic, Infamous certainly ‘gayer’, both in terms of Jones’ performance and the central premise of the relationship between the.writer and the prisoner. Capote took years to have the book published – and he never wrote anything of significance again. Director Douglas McGrath implies that the execution of Smith was a major contributory factor.

Rating: 68%

Director: Douglas McGrath (Emma, Nicholas Nickleby)

Writer: Douglas McGrath (Emma, Bullets Over Broadway) – based on the book by George Plimpton

Main cast: Toby Jones (Captain America: The First Avenger, Happy End), Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side, Gravity), Daniel Craig (Skyfall, Knives Out)

‘She’s Funny That Way’

Farce is not usually my schtick but veteran director Peter Bogdanovich’s latest is, at times, very funny.

Like all farces, the action (and dialogue) is fast, the locations limited (a theatre, a hotel, a restaurant) and the characters move on and off screen as if in a series of revolving doors. It’s hardly original but with an appealing central performance by Imogen Poots and more than ably supported by the likes of Owen Wilson, an extremely funny Jennifer Aniston, Rhys Ifans and Kathryn Hahn, She’s Funny That Way is screwball comedy firmly referencing the 30s Hollywood of Frank Capra, Preston Sturges and Ernst Lubitsch.

Rating: 62%

Director: Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, What’s Up, Doc?)

Writer: Louise Stratten, Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, What’s Up, Doc?)

Main cast: Imogen Poots (Filth, V For Vendetta), Owen Wilson (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Midnight in Paris), Jennifer Aniston (We’re the Millers, The Break Up), Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill, Anonymous), Kathryn Hahn (We’re the Millers, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)

‘While We’re Young’

What should have been an insightful comedy into the generation gap and intellectual and artistic copyright is sadly anything but.

The characters are there, the scenarios are there, the ‘me, me, me’ hipster generation is there, the older, technology motivated generation is also there. Yet somehow it’s laboured telling falls flat – silence in the cinema suggested we were not alone in our thinking.

Neither couple are convincing – Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried (Dear John, Mamma Mia) as the uber-cool, Harlem-living wannabe documentarians: Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as the Apple-product toting childless duo. The chemistry is not there, the timing is not there, the comedy is not there.

Rating: 32%

Director: Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, Margot at the Wedding)

Writer: Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, Margot at the Wedding)

Main cast: Ben Stiller (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Zoolander), Naomi Watts (The Impossible, Birdman),  Adam Driver (Inside Llewyn Davies, Frances Ha), Amanda Seyfried (Dear John, Mamma Mia)