MARRIAGE STORY

I always knew Noah Baumbach had it in spades. His first couple of films hinted at it; "The Squid & the Whale" confirmed it and he's never looked back since then. Certainly not as prolific as Woody Allen to whom he's sometimes compared, there's a sadness and depth to his work that only a few Allen pictures captured while at the same time being devastatingly funny and I do think devastating is the most appropriate word for the best of Baumbach.

From "The Squid & the Whale" onwards, everything he's done has been painfully funny but "Marriage Story" is his first masterpiece, (I'm sure there will be others). Apparently autobiographical to a large degree it's a two hour plus dissection of a divorce rather than the marriage that preceded it with nods to both Woody Allen and Ingmar Bergman, most noticeably referenced by a poster for "Scenes from a Marriage", seen early on so as to get it out of the way.



Charlie, (Adam Driver), is a New York Theatre director and Nicole, (Scarlett Johansson), his LA born actress wife who may or may not have given up a lucrative career on the screen to come to New York and act with his mostly experimental theatre group that also includes Wallace Shawn. They have an eight year old son Henry, (an excellent Azhy Robertson), who seems to take their divorce and being shunted from the East to the West Coast with a degree of pragmaticism unusual for a child. Despite tearing emotional strips off each other every now and then Charlie and Nicole still seem to love each other or at least like each other very much and despite divorcing and living on opposite sides of the country they obviously need each other, particularly when there's a power cut.
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And yes, like all of Baumbach's works this is painfully funny; laugh-out-loud funny several times over but also uncomfortable and even painful to watch on occasion and sometimes moving from one extreme to the other in the same scene. It's beautifully written by the always literate Baumbach and magnificently acted by the entire cast. Driver and Johansson have never been better, (his rendition of Sondheim's 'Being Alive is a killer moment), while Laura Dern and Alan Alda are Oscar worthy as two of their lawyers, (Ray Liotta is also superb as the kind of lawyer who just might have stepped out of "Goodfellas"). It's also great to see "Airplane" actress Julie Hagerty in a role worthy of her as Johansson's ditzy mother.

Baumbach also has great fun contrasting the differing lifestyles of artists in New York, (anal retentive), and LA, (vacuous and rich), while one of the film's running gags is that everyone in LA keeps referring to its biggest selling point as 'the space'. That it ends on a note of optimism is testament to Baumbach's overriding belief in humanity and if he sides with Driver it's probably because Driver is just Baumbach with a pout.

TUCKER; THE MAN AND HIS DREAM

One of Francis Ford Coppola's most underrated films; although a hit at the time, it's now largely been forgotten. A biopic of the maverick American car manufacturer might have seemed like the perfect vehicle, (no pun intended), for Coppola and he didn't disappoint. It's a gorgeously stylish movie, (Storaro was again the DoP), looking just as good as the Tucker Sedan and running just as smoothly and it's splendidly cast.

Jeff Bridges brings just the right degree of boyish charm to his part of the Peter Pan-ish Tucker and Joan Allen is excellent as his ballsy, supportive wife while Martin Landau is Oscar-worthy as the man who helps Tucker secure the funds to build his car. Howard Hughes even puts in an appearance in the unlikely form of Dean Stockwell. Of course, in hindsight you could say the film is as much about Coppola as it is about Tucker and maybe even to a lesser extent about George Lucas who was one of the film's producers. Dreamers all, this is a lovely testament to some very talented men.

THE IRISHMAN

It plays for 209 minutes so yes, it could lose around thirty minutes or so towards the end when the pace noticeably slackens and that' it, really, my only criticism of Martin Scorsese's magnificent new movie "The Irishman", a valentine to De Niro and Pesci, Pacino and Keitel and a homage, not just to his own classic "Goodfellas" but also to The Godfather films and the television series "The Sopranos". In many ways it's like an anthology of gangster movies but not in the way you might expect. Yes, there are a lot of 'hits' on view, (Gangster Movies Greatest Hits?), as De Niro goes around despatching, with a few bullets to the head, not his enemies but those of his associates and employers. He is literally a gun for hire, even when the victim is someone he might really care for. In this respect the movie most closely resembles "Goodfellas" but what really makes this a great film rather than merely a very good one are the conversations. This is a movie full of really good talk delivered by some of the greatest actors alive today. There were times when I was wriggling in my seat out of the sheer pleasure of seeing De Niro sit down with the likes of Al Pacino and Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel and simply talk. Indeed, I could have been doing with more of Keitel whose part is really reduced to just one great scene, but what a scene it is.

Early reports of the film made much of a new digital process whereby the actors appear as their younger selves. To be honest, I found this hardly noticeable particularly where De Niro is concerned. Only Pesci came as something of a shock, (he looks like he's wearing a rubber mask in his early scenes), but then Joe has been absent from our screens for so long now it's difficult to know what exactly he does look like. To find fault with the process is really a minor quibble; it's just a joy to see this cast in the one movie.

De Niro himself is hardly ever off the screen and his performance is certainly one of his finest in a few decades, (I'd long give up hope of ever seeing him in a part this good again). We also owe Mr. Scorsese an unending debt of gratitude in coaxing Joe Pesci out of retirement. This isn't the Joe Pesci of old, the volatile little firecracker from "Goodfellas" but a measured old man who knows all he has to do is raise his little finger, not his voice, to get what he wants. His character here might be what Tommy DeVito would have become had he not been bumped off, resting on his laurels but a killer to the end. He should win the Oscar for this.

Of course, they and others in the cast, are Scorsese regulars. Pacino, on the other hand, is Coppolla's boy and is working with Marty for the first time and initially he seems out of place, like he's drifted in from another movie altogether and what we are getting here is 'Shouty Al', 'Roaring Al', Al at the top of his lungs and his performance is in marked contrast to the subdued work of De Niro, Pesci and Keitel. For a moment I thought he might unbalance the picture until I realised this is just what we needed. His Jimmy Hoffa is an adrenelin shot in the movie. Like his co-stars he is an actor relishing the best role he's had in years and like them he has his own great little moments, (dancing with Anna Paquin as De Niro's estranged daughter we could be watching an ageing Michael Corleone). Of course, even actors this could would be nothing without the benefit of Steven Zaillian's marvellous script or Scorsese's sublime direction. When the film was over I thought no, it's not one of Scorsese's masterpieces, it needs trimming, but twelve hours later I have revised my opinion; warts and all, this is as good as movies get.

THE KING

A very different take on the story of King Henry V from the one we're used to seeing; you know the one a certain Mr Shakspeare has served up. As might be expected from a director who as already given us "Animal Kingdom" and "The Rover" there's a whiff of the gangster to be found here. These are the courts not of the high born but of the common, men who have fought their way to the throne through muddy fields of blood while Michod's vision of medieval Europe seems wholly accurate without being overdone.

Of course, this is a Henry far removed from the nobility of an Olivier or a Branagh. Chalamet's Henry is certainly noble but he's also much more of a pragmatist, prepared to think first and act later, unlike Robert Pattinson's over-the-top and somewhat camp Dauphin; the contrast between them is beautifully delivered. The other main character is, naturally, Falstaff who, in Joel Edgerton's superb performance, is a much more subdued presence than we have seen before. Indeed the acting throughout is outstanding as is the screenplay co-written by Michod and Edgerton, while the Battle of Agincourt is as fierce and as bloody as any battle ever put on film. In an age of Marvel movies "The King" might seem like a fish out of water but it's unquestionably one of the best films of the year.

NIGHTCRAWLER

Sitting somewhere in the ether between "Network" and "Taxi Driver", and the equal of either, is Dan Gilroy's terrific "Nightcrawler". The blackest of black comedies and a pulsating thriller, this is the kind of movie that will become legendary just as Jake Gyllenhaal's career-defining performance will become legendary. He's Lou Bloom, (yes, if you want to you can read into Lou's travels through night-time LA something akin to Mr Joyce's Leopold Bloom's journey through Dublin's 'Nighttown', but only if you want to), and Lou's vocation in life is to film the dead and the dying, particularly the victims of violent crime, and share his work with the world on television. Of course, he's an obvious sociopath but he's probably psychopathic as well which makes Gilroy's film very scary as well as very exciting. As a character he's up there with Travis Bickle and, as has already been suggested, Rupert Pumpkin whose delusions of a kind of grandeur, (he keeps spouting the same kind of aphorisms), are both funny and very frightening. Gyllenhaal is never off the screen and should be a front runner in next year's Oscars. In fact, this would have been a one-man show were it not for the brilliant supporting turns of Rene Russo as the TV station's voracious news editor, (she makes Faye Dunaway's Diana Christiansen look like a pussycat), and Riz Ahmed as Lou's greedy and none too bright assistant. I did say that this was the blackest of black comedies and I did chuckle a lot, almost in disbelief, knowing all the time that Gilroy has put nothing on screen that isn't already out there in the public domain. "Nightcrawler" isn't telling us anything new; there are no limits anymore and everything is up for grabs but if there is nothing new under the sun then at least we should be grateful we're getting it as full on as this. I loved every delirious, scary, funny minute of this amazing movie.

I, DANIEL BLAKE

After seeing "I, Daniel Blake" there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Ken Loach isn't just the best director to have come out of Britain in the last 50 years but one of only a small handful of great directors still working today. Of course, his films are not merely 'entertainments'; he is the most unashamedly political director there is and "I, Daniel Blake" is his most unashamedly political film, certainly since "Cathy Come Home". It is also possibly his best.

Once again the writer is Paul Laverty who was worked with Loach numerous times in the past, (theirs is the among the greatest of all cinematic partnerships), and his superb script cuts to the bone. As someone who has sat on both sides of a Benefits Office counter I can honestly say that no-one strikes a false note here. Loach is famous for working with non-professionals or largely unknown actors, (Carol White, a fresh face when she made "Cathy Come Home", David Bradley in "Kes", Crissy Rock in "Ladybird Ladybird"), and "I, Daniel Blake" is no different.

The title character is played by stand-up comic Dave Johns and the young, single mother he befriends is Haley Squires. Add in an extraordinary cast of British character players and you have a film that oozes a documentary-like realism from every pore. Of course, at times it is virtually unwatchable. This is a film about victims and the appalling bureaucracy that sees them slip through the net. You could say it is a film about the failure of the Welfare State. Unlike "Cathy Come Home" however, I can't see it touching the hearts and minds of our present Tory Government which surely is shameful. Brexit, we have been told, is about taking back control but control of what; an appallingly defunct system where to care or show feeling is almost a sackable offence? The film was rightly applauded at the screening I attended and is the best I have seen this year.

SUSPIRIA

Sacrilege I know but I'm not a great fan of Dario Argento's "Suspiria". Yes, I know it's visually dazzling and a boldly executed piece of cinematic horror but its descent into madness feels to me too much like a descent into daftness so I confess I was somewhat surprised when I heard that someone with as distinguished a pedigree as Luca Guadagnino should want to remake it; I thought the territory might be closer to Rob Zombie. Of course, what Guadagnino serves up is nothing like the original. Yes, he keeps the basic plot; young American girl in Europe, (here, 1970's Berlin), enrols at an upmarket dance academy which is really a front for a coven of witches, then adds another hour to the running time and casts Tilda Swinton in a triple role, including that of an aged male doctor then makes it even more extreme and violent than the original as he equates dance with body horror in all its forms.


While Argento's film was Grand Guignol silly, this is genuinely disturbing. There's a real sense of evil here that transcends mere shock tactics. It's also got a terrific performance from Swinton that again transcends the mere novelty value of prosthetic make-up, particularly when she's playing the head of the dance academy and number one witch. It's also nice to see Angela Winkler in the meaty role of her opposite number. Indeed Guadagnino's handling of his mostly female cast is sublime. This is a horror movie for our time but it's also a work of art and a very worthy addition to its director's canon.