A REAL PAIN

 The first time I remember seeing Jesse Eisenberg was as the teenage nephew of Campbell Scott in an underrated little gem called "Roger Dodger" which he had no trouble in stealing from his co-star and then as the teenage son of divorcing parents in "The Squid and the Whale". I knew then he was a talent to watch. Unfortunately, apart from "Adventureland" the films in which he subsequently found himself cast did little for his career until the dream role of Mark Zuckerberg in "The Social Network" came along.

He was brilliant in the part but by now it also had become clear that Eisenberg was no character or method actor; he was recognizably Eisenberg in every part he played; nerdy, fastidious if always a little challenging. If he has grown as an actor he has also grown as 'Eisenberg', cementing his reputation for nerdy heroes and he's no different in "A Real Pain" but here he's not just playing a variation of Eisenberg created by someone else. This time he's written the film and directed it as well; he's his own 'Eisenberg' and quite frankly he's magnificent.

Pain is the operative word in this picture which is about two youngish American cousins who go on a Holocaust tour of Poland to honor the memory of their deceased grandmother. Eisenberg, naturally, is the nerdy, sensible one and an equally magnificent Kieran Culkin, giving the performance of his life, is the bombastic, extrovert and deeply troubled one; the pain is all his and watching them play off against each other is a masterclass in acting.

Clocking in at around the ninety minute mark this is a film of real depth and says as much about the legacy of the Holocaust as any number of "Schindler's List"s. Who could fail but to be deeply moved by the scenes in the concentration camp or by Culkin's reaction to the visit. This is a film that's profound on so many levels yet nothing in it feels like overkill.

It may seem odd to go as far as to class it as a comedy and yet it's often laugh-out-loud funny. Eisenberg's genius as a writer and director is that he can move from comedy to tragedy in the blink of an eye; he seems to see them simply as the opposite sides of the same coin. Culkin, of course, is the one whose performance will win the Oscar but Eisenberg, too, deserves his place in the sun, (Best Original Screenplay, perhaps). Nerdy he may still appear on the surface but that boy from "Roger Dodger" has definitely come a long way.

JUROR #2

 If "Juror #2" turns out to be the last film Clint Eastwood makes, (quite possible since the man is 94 now), at least he will have gone out in some style. This may not be a late career masterpiece but it's certainly the best thing he's done for awhile and is undoubtedly one of his best non-westerns.

The story-line, (a little far-fetched initially but as it progresses it becomes increasingly more realistic), concerns a juror on a murder trial who from the very start doubts the guilt of the accused because he realizes he himself may be the inadvertent killer so it works both as suspense movie, (who is the killer? Was the killing a tragic accident?), and a well-judged and thought out morality piece.

With an outstanding screenplay from Jonathan A. Abrams, beautifully nuanced direction from Eastwood and first-rate performances from the cast, (Nicholas Hoult is particularly good as the conscience-stricken juror), this is both an excellent entertainment and a film that challenges us to think before rushing to judgement.

DIDI

 

Coming-of-age movies don't come much better than "Didi", the first feature film from Sean Wang, who has clearly a big future ahead of him. This movie, set mostly amongst the Asian American community, is so authentic it feels like a documentary as young Chris Wang, (an excellent Izaac Wang), negotiates the pitfalls of early adolescence. (fighting with his older sister, hanging out with his friends, learning to skateboard, falling for a girl and perhaps most significantly learning how to make videos).

His mom is a luminous Joan Chen and his grandmother the wonderfully expressive Zhang Li Hua, real-life grandmother of the director, who prefer to speak Mandarin at home and live a mostly traditional lifestyle, (dad is away working in Taiwan), and despite the arguments and the squabbling this is as loving a family unit as you will find in the movies. Indeed Wang has nothing but affection for every character in the film which is clearly autobiographical. Funny, very touching and a joy to watch.

CONCLAVE

Robert Harris doesn't do things by halves; he writes far-fetched thrillers and none more far-fetched than "Conclave" so anyone who goes to see the film version expecting to see a documentary-like account of how the Catholic Church elects a pope are in for a shock. "Conclave" is a melodramatic political thriller with the most ridiculous plot anyone could concoct. It's entertaining but in a very bad movie kind of way with more twists than a sailor's knot, each one sillier than the one before with a punchline that would be laugh-out-loud funny if it weren't in such questionable taste.

The director of this nonsense is Edward Berger who also made the Oscar-laden and overrated "All Quiet on the Western Front" and to be fair he does bring a certain style to the material. It's also quite well acted by a cast that's far too good for the script they've been saddled with. Ralph Fiennes brings his usual gravitas to the presiding Cardinal Lawrence while, once again, Stanley Tucci steals the movie from his co-stars. If you're Catholic and take any of this rubbish as fact you'll probably run from the Church and set up your own religion but anyone with a modicum of intelligence should see through it twenty minutes in.
 

EMILIA PEREZ

 Musicals come in all shapes and sizes. This year alone we've already had "Joker: Folie a Deux" which certainly broke new ground in the way in which it incorporated its musical numbers into its dark narrative but "Joker: Folie a Deux" feels almost commonplace when set beside Jacques Audiard's extraordinary "Emilia Perez", the tale of a Mexican drug-lord's transition from male to female with the musical numbers so seamlessly woven into the narrative it often feels like an opera with swathes of dialogue sung by its large cast; it really is quite unlike anything else out there.

It's been described as 'a women's picture' in that it is dominated by its mostly female cast, with all four leading actresses taking the Best Actress prize at Cannes, namely the incredible trans actress Karla Sofia Gascon who plays both the male drug-lord Manitas and Emilia, the woman he becomes, Zoe Saldana, the lawyer who helps Emilia on her journey, Selena Gomez as Jessi, Manitas' wife and Adriana Paz as the woman who becomes Emilia's lover.

Indeed this is a work of real brilliance and imagination; if it does have a failing perhaps it lies in its score, (by Camille and Clement Ducol), which doesn't always come off and the treatment, however bold and remarkable, is unlikely to appeal to a mass audience. This is a film for the critics and the awards circuit and I'm sure the prizes will keep coming. In fact, this may even turn out to be a classic.

JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX

 What should a sequel be? More of the same or something radically different? If you go down the radically different route you risk alienating the very audience that perhaps made the first film the hit that spawned the sequel which is exactly what has happened with "Joker: Folie a Deux". Having given us the darkest of dark comic-book villains with "Joker" where was Todd Phillips to go with part two? Down the 'Batman' route with diminishing returns or break the mold and take the risk? Thankfully he chose the latter.

"Joker: Folie a Deux" may be a failure both critically and commercially but artistically it's a triumph. It's also a musical in the same vein as Herbert Ross's masterpiece "Pennies from Heaven" only this time the cast sing the songs which have been brilliantly woven into the plot and which, as with "Pennies from Heaven", explore the feelings of the characters making this one of the very finest American musicals and a sequel superior to the original with Joaquin Phoenix even surpassing his initial outing as Arthur Fleck. This is one of the great performances by an American actor.

This time round he's got a co-conspirator in the form of Lady Gaga's 'Harley Quinn' who he meets in Arkham State Hospital, (in a music class, naturally), and it is she who gives him something to live for but this is no "Bonnie and Clyde", no "Wild at Heart", no boy and girl killers on the lam movie, (about 95% of the film takes place in either the hospital or the courtroom), but a dark psychological study of tortured souls filtered through the gaze of the Hollywood musical. In fact, it's so 'out there' it's almost an art movie. (Did Phillips really expect the same audience who embraced the first film to embrace this one?). Phoenix's Oscar should be in the bag but it's highly unlikely the Academy will embrace this one. It's a downer but it's magnificent.

KNEECAP

 After what seems like decades in the cultural wilderness home-grown Irish cinema has produced three great Irish films in as many years, firstly with "The Quiet Girl" and now, this year, with "That They May Face the Rising Sun" and now "Kneecap", named after the Irish-speaking Hip-Hop band who just happen to brilliantly play themselves.

Fundamentally Rich Peppiatt's instant classic is about how two lads from West Belfast became the highly successful and highly controversial band Kneecap with more than a little help from their Irish teacher who became band member number three with a balaclava and the name DJ Provai but unlike most films about bands or the music industry "Kneecap" is a kaleidoscopic gem of almost surreal sounds and images that blows the cobwebs off the genre with all the force of an exploding bomb.

This is at once a history of a band and of the Northern Ireland Troubles unlike any other and it's very funny in a way no other film that's dealt with the Troubles has been before. Of course there are people in Northern Ireland who would ban the film or just maybe flush it down the toilet, (a recent concert by the band had to be rescheduled after protests that the venue, on the East Bank of Derry's River Foyle, would prove problematic), but then that's their loss since both the film "Kneecap" and the band Kneecap are just about as good as movies and music can get.

BEYOND THERAPY

 Proof that even Robert Altman can cook a rancid turkey. "Beyond Therapy", which he co-wrote with Christopher Durang from Durang's play and which, to Durang's dismay, he proceeded to change radically, is about the kind of New Yorker's who read 'The New Yorker' or are just found between the pages of 'The New Yorker' and who spend half their lives on the psychiatrist's couch.

It's clearly meant to be a comedy but it's one in which every joke has been drained of humor making it hard to believe that this was made by the man who gave us "Nashville" or that actors as talented as Glenda Jackson, Jeff Goldblum, Julie Hagerty, Tom Conti, Christopher Guest and Genevieve Page would lower themselves to appear in it. Surely everyone involved must have realized what a crock they were involved in. Shockingly bad.

STAGE DOOR

 Some of the best dialogue ever heard in an American movie delivered by a mostly female cast all of them at the top of their form. The setting is a theatrical rooming house populated by wannabe actresses. There's Katharine Hepburn, (the high-brow Vasser type), Ginger Rogers, (the low-brow chorus-girl type), and the others, (Lucille Ball, Constance Collier, Eve Arden, Ann Miller and Andrea Leeds who was Oscar-nominated as the tragic Kay).

Amongst the men are Adolphe Menjou, (a big producer, what else!), Jack Carson, Grady Sutton and Franklin Pangborn, none of them a match for the girls. Of course, the source material was a play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman which might account for the sharp wit though this cast certainly helped. The director was the great and undervalued Gregory La Cava who won the New York Film Critics' Best Director prize for his work. Something of a classic, in fact, that deserves to be better known.

THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC

 Bresson at his most austere with a subject in keeping with that austerity, "The Trial of Joan of Arc" may lack the formal beauty of Dryer's film and Florence Delay may not be Falconetti but what Bresson's film has are Joan's words spoken directly from the manuscripts of the trial so this is probably as close we are likely to get to what actually happened.

Of course, with no wider backstory, other than what history has told us, it is difficult to place these events in a broader context which isn't to say the film doesn't work on its own terms. What we are seeing is a fragment of the tapestry rather than the tapestry itself while both Delay and Jean-Claude Fourneau as Bishop Cauchon are perfectly cast. Not one of Bresson's masterpieces, then, but quite extraordinary nevertheless.

7 WOMEN

 Now considered in some quarters to be a masterpiece and one of his finest films, John Ford's final film "7 Women" was neither a critical nor a commercial success at the time, (though the magazine Cahiers Du Cinema did name it as one of the ten best films of the year). The 7 women of the title are missionaries in 1935 China; at least six of them are, the seventh, played by Anne Bancroft, is the new doctor who joins them. The only man, outside of a few Chinese servants, is teacher Eddie Albert, that is until warlord Mike Mazurki comes calling with rape and pillage on his mind.

In many respects this is just another Ford western albeit with a Far Eastern setting and a very fine one it is if not quite the masterpiece some people think it is. For Ford it's also quite explicit in its attitude to sex particularly in its barely hidden lesbian subplot with head missionary Margaret Leighton lusting after young teacher Sue Lyon, seemingly unable to live down "Lolita". Bancroft, when she arrives, isn't just a breath of fresh air but a smoking, swearing, sexually liberated outsider who proves to be more than a match for the invaders.

Like "The Man who Shot Liberty Valance" it's clearly shot on sound stages and like that earlier classic is redeemed by an old man's experience of the world at large as well as an ambivalent attitude towards organized religion with each of the characters beautifully sketched and played. Add plague to the proceedings and you have one of Ford's most unlikely films but one as deserving of our attention as any that preceded it.