Films Review Catch Up 3

Still more films to catch up with.

1. Joker

 Arthur Fleck is a clown and an aspiring comedian who is being slowly failed by the mental health services of Gotham City. He kills some investment banker yuppies who were hassling a woman and went on to beat him, a clown, on the subway and accidently becomes a folk hero.

It’s the 80s though the film takes its cues from 70s films which is fair as I lived through the 80s and it took until at least 1985 to figure out what the decade was about. There’s a garbage strike, a talk show host, vigilantes, riots and protests, and Arthur Fleck, falling off the bottom of society, finds himself linked to Thomas Wayne, Gotham’s richest man, who is running for mayor.

It’s a pretty good pastiche of a 70s psychological thriller, held together by the central performance of Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck. Perhaps as part of the looking at the ugly side of the 80s, or maybe just because they don’t care, a key scene is enlivened with part of a track by convicted paedophile Gary Glitter*.

Watch This: For a tense thriller in which the slow decay of the city is matched by that of the Joker, and the facade that everything is alright is literalised by the talk show
Don’t Watch This: You could watch some actual 70s thrillers (some are good and hold up!)  and don’t have small amounts of Batman nonsense clogging them up.

* So here’s the thing; Gary Glitter and DJ and rapist Jimmy Saville were EVERYWHERE on the music shows in the 80s when I was growing up. These shows, especially Top of the Pops, get repeated, but of course not the ones with Glitter or hosted by Saville**. This is fine, especially Glitter who is still alive and will presumably get paid for music or appearances, but in our hurry to erase them let’s not forget that these guys were ubiquitous on TV and radio at the time.
** Saville has been slightly awkwardly edited out of the Peter Kay comedy miming video for charity single Is This The Way To Amarillo when it is played on TV

2. Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows

Let’s talk briefly about raising the stakes. In Sherlock Holmes, the initial stakes are that Sherlock might have missed something in a case and Watson might have mis-diagnosed a death. These are quite sufficient with actors of this charisma for us to follow them as things escalate. A secondary plot line in which Holmes and Watson fall out over Watson’s fiancé is a bit under done but does help to put them at odds during a part of the plot when the two of them together would have simplified matters.

Here we start with the fate of Europe and world war in the balance, and Moriarty, a name that the most dilettante of Holmes followers will recognise. The sub plot of Watson and his marriage is dealt with efficiently, tossed out of the film and then... the stakes have nowhere to rise and we’re just along for the ride.

Anyway this is a perfectly fun period-steampunk action adventure, held together by some good setpieces, a few clever tricks and the charm of the protagonists. It suffers in comparison to some other Holmes adaptions in the meantime, and in itself as Holmes does not, of course, actually solve a case.

Watch This: Action, adventure, fun and Victoriana
Don’t Watch This: If you want some real detective work to be honest

3. Murder Most Foul 

Margaret Rutherford is Miss Marple in this 1967 loose adaption of the Agatha Christie novel Mrs McGinty’s Dead. A former actress is hanged and her lodger is found at the scene. Miss Marple is one of the jurors and refuses to find him guilty, and when a mistrial is declared decides to investigate herself. Going through her belongings she discovers a bunch of playbills for the Cosgood Player’s performance of Murder She Said (an Agatha Christie novel, previously adapted for film, starring Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple).

That and some other clues has her joining the Cosgood Players, leading to a little bit of theatre comedy, as well as some investigation in the Westward Ho! Boarding house ("Breakfast 8-30, a shilling in the gas if you're cold, bath days are Friday and Sunday, no cooking in your room, no male callers upstairs and don't waste the light."). Unfortunately another of the players is killed before Miss Marple can solve the case. Obviously they have a packed house for the performance leading to a dramatic confrontation in the theatre.

Watch This: For a light-hearted, fun murder mystery
Don’t Watch This: If an old-fashioned black and white, slightly sordid crime film is not for you

4. Lust For A Vampire

Based loosely on Sheridan LeFanu’s anagrammatic Carmilla, Richard LeStrange, author and heir to an Irish noble title is in 1830s Styria. He stumbles across the ruined castle of the Karnsteins and there meets Giles Barton, teacher at a nearby girl’s finishing school. As the pupils are doing Greco-roman dancing in flimsy gowns on the lawn outside he hangs around and so is in time to meet Mircalla, who he promptly falls in love with. He then arranges to make himself the English tutor.

Mircalla quickly moves into school life – hanging around in her underwear, snogging other girls, going skinny dipping etc. She’s good on 18th century literature but more modern stuff eludes her. Unfortunately there are some mysterious disappearances and the head teacher can’t keep it under wraps (she’s snitched on by Janet Playfair, the gymnastics teacher). Eventually a mob with torches and pitchforks turn up to try and destroy what is obviously the reincarnation of the Karnsteins.

Watch This: For ridiculous vampire action with lots of boobs
Don’t Watch This: It’s not especially good, and the fact the creepy guy joins a school staff to stalk a pupil is not really balanced by her being a vampire who is draining and murdering her classmates.

5. The Informer

A former gangster is working for the FBI on drug imports for the Polish mob. It goes wrong when an undercover cop tries to buy the product and is killed. Unfortunately the FBI operation was off the books so when the informer’s handler tries to sort it out her boss instead decides to sweep it all under the rug, insisting he keep going, knowing that he will inevitably be killed.

The mob boss insists he make up for the cop-killing by going back to prison to take control of the drug trade in there. He threatens his family. It seems there’s no way out that won’t end up with him being killed. Except there’s a NYPD cop who isn’t willing to take the FBI’s cover up at face value and thinks that he, the informer, is the key to breaking it open.

Watch This: For an efficient crime thriller with an occasional nod towards clever mis-directions and plots
Don’t Watch This: For a sceptical look into policing, crime and prisons