JOE KIDD

 Excellent and certainly underrated Clint Eastwood western, this time directed by John Sturges and designed very much to cash in on the Spaghetti Westerns Eastwood made with Sergio Leone; you only have to look at the credits to see the wealth of talent involved including a screenplay by none other than Elmore Leonard. Clint is the titular "Joe Kidd" who finds himself in the middle of a war between cold-blooded landowner Robert Duvall and a group of Mexicans lead by John Saxon. There's nothing very original about the plot but it gallops through its less than ninety minutes running time and makes for a very entertaining Saturday Afternoon Matinee movie. It's also well cast throughout and boasts some beautiful location photography by the great Bruce Surtees.

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

 A knowledge of American history over the last fifty years and, in particular, a knowledge of what went down in the Black Panther Movement would help but is far from essential in getting a great deal out of Shaka King's superb new film "Judas and the Black Messiah" which tells the story of how Black Panther leader Fred Hampton was betrayed by F.B.I. informant Bill O'Neal leading to his assassination by J. Edgar Hoover's thugs supposedly acting in the name of the law. It's a shocking story and since I wasn't aware of these events before I suppose I approached the film like a piece of good fiction, (it's certainly not trying to be a documentary), and it grips like any really good thriller should.

A terrific Daniel Kaluuya, (in Oscar-worthy form), is Hampton and the consistently brilliant LaKeith Stanfield is just as good as his Judas while Jessie Plemons has his best big-screen role to date as the F.B.I. agent who recruits O'Neal. Dominque Fishback is also very good as the activist who falls for Hampton and has his son. This is an actor's piece in the best sense of the term and it's beautifully shot by Sean Bobbitt. Of course, it's also a deeply political film and the audience for political films is limited and without that prior knowledge I spoke of, you might find some of it confusing but as a thriller about betrayal and as an expose of how ruthless governments can be, (nothing new there, of course), it works superbly and ultimately that's all that matters. How much of it actually happened in the way King tells it I have no idea but it certainly feels right and it deserves to be widely seen.

SHIRLEY

 Elisabeth Moss, like Jennifer Jason Leigh before her, is fast becoming one of those 'actresses' actresses', happy to appear in critically successful but commercially ignored movies, usually made independently. Her latest is Josephine Decker's "Shirley" in which she plays the novelist Shirley Jackson, author of 'The Haunting of Hill House' and Decker, as you may know, is one of the newer directors, praised for her ability to draw exceedingly strong performances from her actors. "Shirley", then, is an actor's piece as well as a highly unconventional biopic.

It's also a period piece, (it's set in the 1940's), and thanks to Sturla Brandth Grovien's luminous cinematography and Sue Chan and Kirby Feagan's production design it looks it. Knowing nothing about Shirley Jackson's life I have no idea if any of this happened but Decker's treatment suggests this is a work of pure fiction based on a real person. Moss is, as always, terrific in the title role as is Michael Stuhlbarg as her cheating husband. The plot revolves around a young married couple who become Shirley's initially unwelcome houseguests. As the wife, Odessa Young is outstanding though Logan Lerman is given little to do as her ambitious husband.

Shirley herself is probably alcoholic and clearly has mental issues and she likes to treat her guests in much the same way as Martha did in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", (like George, her husband is a professor), and while she refrains from seducing Lerman she does develop a kind of lesbian attachment to Young's pregnant wife. She also has a morbid fascination with the disappearance of a young female student who becomes the subject of her next book. This is also Decker's most accessible film to date, a perfectly realised psychodrama that could have come from the pen of Jackson herself and hopefully it will attract a larger audience that Decker is used to.

POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES

 For his final film Frank Capra chose to remake his 1933 "Lady for a Day". It might be a long way from his best work but shooting in Panavision and colour and with an all-star cast he conjured up a sumptuous entertainment even if it did feel more than a little old-fashioned by 1961. It's the old Damon Runyon story about an old apple seller, basically a beggar, with a daughter in Europe who thinks her mother is some kind of New York socialite. When the daughter decides to visit, and bring her future husband and his father, (Spanish aristocracy, no less), with her it's left to mum's gangster friend to turn her into that 'lady for a day' or in this case, a week.

You could describe it as return to Capra-corn at its most schmaltzy but with Bette Davis as the apple seller, Glenn Ford as the gangster, an unlikely Hope Lange as Ford's girlfriend and a supporting cast that includes an Oscar-nominated Peter Falk, Arthur O'Connell, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton, (almost walking off with the film), and a newcomer by the name of Ann-Margaret it's hugely entertaining and its two and half hours running time flies by. Davis may be miscast, (we always preferred Bette as a bitch), and her role is never fully developed but everyone else is fine and while it may be no late masterpiece it's still a solid conclusion to a distinguished career.

C/O KANCHARAPALEM

 I'm sure the ghost of Satyajit Ray is looking down from whatever heaven he is in and smiling since his legacy is alive and well here on Earth. "C/o Kancharapalem" is a film Ray could have made in the blink of an eye. By that I mean it oozes Ray's humanity as well as a great deal of the skill he brought to everyone of his projects. Using non-professional actors Venkatesh Maha's marvellous film spins four separate love stories through four different generations in the Indian village of Kancharapalem and it's a charming and heart-breaking film, funny and touching in equal measure. It's also remarkably frank in its portrayal of the way in which women are treated in Indian society.

If the performances don't always hit the mark remember that few of these people are professional actors and yet they handle the intricacies of Maha's multi-layered script with considerable aplomb. It also eschews Bollywood gloss for a much rawer, more naturalistic, feel and is a very hard film to dislike. This is an intimate epic that unfolds like a great novel and confirms its writer and director as a major player. It's also got one of the best codas I've seen in a movie in years.

BLACK PETER

 Anyone who has seen the early films of Milos Forman will know that, contrary to popular belief here in the West, they really did have a sense of humour in Eastern Europe and that "The Loves of a Blonde" and "The Fireman's Ball" are still among his very best films. "Black Peter", which he made in 1964, was his first feature length film and while not quite in the same class as the films that followed it, is still something of a small gem.

Heavily influenced by both the British New Wave and Italian Neo-Realism it's a lovely comedy about a young man starting on his first job as something of a store detective, a job he's woefully not cut out for, as well as a great coming-of-age film, a brilliant satire on bureaucracy and a superb picture of life in the Czech Republic in the 1960's. Peter himself, the boy in question, is beautifully played by 19 year old Ladislav Jakim making his film debut but then Forman gets great performances from all of his largely non-professional cast, (as his Hollywood career showed, he was one of the great actor's directors). This might be a 'small' film in the Forman canon but it's a joy from start to finish.

THE MISSOURI BREAKS

 A realist or revisionist western but then "The Missouri Breaks" is an Arthur Penn movie so you know it was never going to be traditional; you just have to look at the cast. Jack Nicholson is the leader of a gang of outlaws but he's a hippie outlaw more in keeping with the 1970's, when the film was made, than the 1870's and with a gang that includes Randy Quaid, Frederic Forrest and Harry Dean Stanton you know exactly where you're meant to be. John McLiam is the rancher so tired of being robbed he brings in a 'regulator', (a totally over-the-top Marlon Brando in one of his funny voice modes and even dressing up in drag at one point), to put an end to the rustling and to operate with, what became known as, 'extreme prejudice'.

As written by Thomas McGuane it's like a parody of or an antidote to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". It has the same post-modern outlook on the old West but with a much more cynical streak as the gang decide to go straight but aren't allowed to. It's very funny in a way you don't expect Penn to be but it wasn't a success. I'm not sure audiences knew what to make of it but it's as close to a cult movie, ("Bonnie and Clyde" notwithstanding). that Penn ever made. There's also an excellent performance from newcomer Kathleen Lloyd as McLiam's free-thinking daughter who falls for Nicholson. It's a lovely piece of acting but for some reason her career never really went very far afterwards.

THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER

 An eight year old Ron, or as he's called here 'Ronny', Howard gives a phenomenal performance as Eddie, (it's easily the best thing he's ever done, either as an actor or as a director), while Glenn Ford gives what is almost certainly a career-best performance as his father in Vincente Minnelli's late masterpiece "The Courtship of Eddie's Father". It's a comedy, and often a very funny one, but with a dramatic edge to it and a large dollop of sentimentality which Minnelli carries off beautifully.

Ford's a widower with a young son and it's the son who decides it's time his unhappy dad found a new wife. The potential candidates are Stella Stevens, (wonderful), Dina Merrill and Shirley Jones as the next-door neighbour and since it's Jones who gets star billing it isn't too difficult to work out who the new Mrs. Ford is likely to be. There's a housekeeper, too, splendidly played by Roberta Sherwood and a nice supporting turn by Jerry Van Dyke as an associate of Ford's and they are all helped along by John Gay's superb screenplay adapted from Mark Toby's novel. The film was sufficiently successful to spawn a television series which lacked the ingredients that made this a classic of its kind and the last truly great film Minnelli would ever direct.

PALE RIDER

 Clint Eastwood's "Pale Rider" is a cross between Shane and The Man With No Name with a touch of the supernatural thrown in for good measure. This time it isn't ranchers but miners he comes to help like a saviour summoned by a young girl's prayers; he also happens to be a preacher if a somewhat unconventional one just as this is a somewhat unconventional western. If it isn't as popular as some of Eastwood's other westerns it has built up something of a cult following though it's a little too close to a "Shane" remake for my liking. As well as Eastwood the exceptional cast includes Michael Moriarty and Carrie Snodgress, (fine actors whose large screen careers never really took off), Chris Penn, Richard Dysart, John Russell, (in the Jack Palance role), and 'Jaws' himself, Richard Kiel. Bruce Surtees' superb cinematography is also a major bonus.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PRINCESS

 Sometimes it can take three, four or even several hours for a film-maker to tell their tale or sometimes just several minutes and sometimes a director will make a feature that is the cinematic equivalent of a short story. "Autobiography of a Princess" falls very much into this category. It's a Merchant/Ivory picture, again with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and made in 1975. It lasts less than an hour and is basically a two-hander in which an Indian princess living in London, (Madhur Jaffrey) and her father's former tutor, (James Mason), spend an afternoon drinking tea and watching home movies of life in a past India.

It's no masterpiece but it's superbly acted, particularly by Mason who underplays beautifully and, of course, in very little time it says a great deal about India's past and England's present, the class system in both countries and the psychological makeup of the two participants in this annual orgy of nostalgia for bygone days. It's clear the team making this film have no real fondness for the events we see but Merchant/Ivory are too clever to simply attack them. This is a very subtle demolition job captured in Jaffrey's prattling on and in Mason's pained expressions. It makes a perfect companion piece to the later "Heat and Dust" and is an essential part of the Merchant/Ivory canon.

DAMSELS IN DISTRESS

 

If Jane Austen were a man and lived in the 20th century she would be Whit Stillman whose last film was indeed an adaptation of Austen's novella "Lady Susan" and like Austin he isn't prolific. In fact, he's only made five features in the last thirty years and each is an event though his smartly funny and hugely intelligent comedies have never been box-office giants; maybe he's the only director whose entire filmography consists of five cult movies.

"Damsels in Distress", which he made in 2011, is set in an American college where Emma-esque heroine Violet, (a terrific Greta Gerwig), and her band of female followers spend their every waking moment helping (i.e. messing up), the lives of their fellow students and run, God help us, the Suicide Prevention Centre where their main source of therapy is tap-dancing.

While we may be in an American college we are definitely in Austen territory, (any of Stillman's earlier films are much closer to Austen way of thinking than Amy Heckerling's 'Emma' adaptation "Clueless"), and where the battle of the sexes never amounts to more than a ticklish skirmish. This, like everything Stillman's done, is a gem.