A review of the 1944 classic movie “Meet Me In St Louis”
August 9th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
I’m not keen on musicals and I can’t identify with a rich, white family in the America of 1903, but it’s hard not to be caught up in the exuberance of the Smith family of St Louis, as the city prepares to host the Louisiana Purchase Exposition to celebrate the centennial of the acquisition of territory from France which almost doubled the size of the USA. Remember the film was released as the tide of the Second World War was turning. In his book “Have You Seen …?” film critic David Thompson calls this production “the picture which may be the most satisfying story ever told as a musical in the history of the genre”.
Based on a book and told in four seasonal segments, the technicolour is striking, the costumes are flamboyant and the songs and dancing are lively. We have the stories of one grandfather, two parents, a son and four daughters. The leading character, the second oldest daughter Esther, is played by Judy Garland who suffered all sorts of physical and mental problems while shooting the movie. Director Vincente Minnelli became her lover during production and her husband soon after. The most memorable song is “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”, the words of which are sadder than the title.
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A review of the new blockbuster movie “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”
August 9th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Four years have elapsed since the last Spider-Man movie and this film is presented as a reset. A new director, Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”), takes over the franchise in a scenario where, thanks to Dr Strange’s powers in the last film, the identity of Spider-Man (once again played by Tom Holland) is no longer known, even to former love interest MJ (Zendaya, now Holland’s wife) and former friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), both back in New York (location shooting was actually in Glasgow!) after obtaining degrees from MIT.
To spot every allusion in this movie, one should have seen every previous “Spider-Man” film (this is the ninth) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ideally every film in the MCU (this is the 38th segment of that Universe) and perhaps even have read some of the comics, because there are some unexpected appearances here (no spoilers!) which gives the film a rich texture. This time, a more mature but lonely Spider-Man has some new problems: something or somebody is messing with his mind and his web-making powers. The action sequences are genuinely exciting and Holland and Zendaya get to play some emotional scenes (the chemistry enhanced by their real-life marriage) in this splendid adventure.
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A review of the 1948 classic film “Key Largo”
August 9th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
What a great cast for this film noir crime drama. Humphrey Bogart and Edward G Robinson in their fifth and final pairing. Bogart’s wife Lauren Bacall in their fourth and final joint appearance. Lionel Barrymore, probably best known for no less than 15 eponymous roles in the “Dr Kildare” films. But it was Claire Trevor who took the only Academy Award won by the movie (Best Supporting Actress).
Based very loosely on a play, director John Huston and writer Richard Brooks created a script which has elements of theatre: lots of sharp dialogue and a rather static scenario (most of the film was shot on the Warner Brothers site). Robinson is a gangster called Rocco (harking back to his role in “Little Caesar” as Rico), based in Cuba but over in Key Largo to do a deal with another gang. Trevor is his much-abused moll. Barrymore is the wheelchair-bound owner of the small hotel on the key, while Bacall plays his daughter. Bogart is Frank, a veteran of World War Two who was the officer of the deceased son of Barrymore’s character and the husband of Bacall’s character.
While this group – doubled in size by Rocco’s henchmen – await the arrival of the Florida gang, a fierce hurricane is brewing. The pacing of the film is excellent: as the tension between the characters rises, so the strength of the hurricane increases, with explosive outcomes on both scores. The two leading characters are especially well-drawn: Rocco is callous and cruel but afraid of the storm and Frank is no outright hero but cautious and calculating. The ending is deliciously satisfying.
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A review of the 1977 classic movie “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind”
July 31st, 2026 by Roger Darlington
It is a great title but it is never explained. The first kind is a close visual sighting of a UFO, the second kind is a UFO event with a physical effect, and the eponymous third kind is a UFO encounter with an animated entity. The scale was devised by J. Allen Hynek who makes a cameo appearance near the end of the film.
Written and directed by Steven Spielberg, the engaging story starts with a series of bizarre discoveries such as World War Two aircraft and a cargo ship discovered in deserts (both disappearances based on fact), before following the experience of three UFO ‘believers’: blue collar worker Ray Neary (Richard Dreyfuss from Spielberg’s previous blockbuster “Jaws”), a single mother called Jillian whose son is abducted (Melinda Dillon), and French scientist Lacombe (filmmaker François Truffaut selected by Spielberg in homage to the Frenchman’s work). The pacing of the movie is excellent as there are more and more references to a shape which turns out to be Devils Tower butte in Wyoming and to a five-note tune that acts as a communications device between man and alien. The conclusion is a visual sensation as we encounter the mother ship.
There are so many elements to this wonderful film that became hallmarks of Spielberg’s canon: the inclusion of children and their toys, clips from old movies, the use of light and shadow, suspicion of the authorities, the music of John Williams and, of course, a lifelong fascination with aliens (“E.T.”in 1983 all the way to “Disclosure Day” in 2026).
In 1980, the film was reissued in a Special Edition which I actually preferred: the building of the replica mountain by Neary was cut back and, at the end, we were taken inside the mother ship. However, if you buy the 1997 Collector’s Edition or watch the movie on television, you’ll see the original version.
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A brief review of a short book, “Narrative” by Amy Jones (2022)
July 31st, 2026 by Roger Darlington
I love storytelling which is why I read so much fiction and see so many films. I’ve even written a book of short stories (“The Rooms In My Mind”). So, I previously read “The Science Of Storytelling” by Will Storr [click here] and “How To Read Literature Like A Professor” by Thomas C Foster [click here]. Now, I really enjoyed reading this slim volume (just 58 pages) subtitled “Telling The Story”.
It summarises the theory of narratology in one diagram headed “WHO tells WHAT story HOW?” The rest of the book proceeds to look at the ‘who?’ (who knew that there are nine types of narration and not just the popular third-person omniscient?), the ‘what?’ (Jones looks at exposition, description, action, dialogue and thoughts), and the “how?’ (she reviews the use of different tenses and the utilisation of a range of narrative structures from framing and Chinese boxes to something called madeleine moments).
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A review of the 1983 film “Educating Rita”
July 27th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
It took me over 60 years to catch up with this starring vehicle for Michael Caine, by which time he had retired at the age of 90 after a career involving over 130 cinematic appearances, this being one of his finest. His co-star, Julie Walters, has done much of her most memorable work on television, but here shines as brightly as any point in her own long career. For their wonderful performances in this film, Caine and Walters both won BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for best actor and best actress.
Caine is Dr Frank Bryant, a disillusioned, hard-drinking university professor of literature. Walters is a 26 year old working class hairdresser who wants to discover herself. These very different characters are brought together when Bryant becomes an Open University tutor to the aspiring Rita. The witty script is by Willy Russell who adapted his own stage play. Lewis Gilbert produced and directed this aeon to the transformative power of education. Alone the way, you’ll learn the meaning assonance.
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A review of the superb 1994 film “Leon”
July 22nd, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Following the success of “Nikita”, the French Luc Besson made this superb and stylish action-thriller in the English language as both writer and director.
Set in New York City, it brings together the eponymous Italian-American ‘cleaner’ aka hitman (Jean Reno who played a similar character in “Nikita”), a grizzled, brilliantly efficient operator who loves milk and his plant, and 12 year old abused American girl next door Mathilda (a remarkably assured Natalie Portman in her feature film debut), who comes to owe her life to him and wants to emulate him. Leon works for local gangster Tony (Danny Aiello) and he and Mathilda are pursued by a corrupt, bloodthirsty, drug-fuelled DEA agent (Gary Oldman).
The film opens with an exciting display of Leon’s professional talents and ends with him taking on a whole battalion of heavily-armed SWAT police. Along the way, Leon and Mathilda develop a kind of romance, not overtly sexual but deep and moving, each giving the other a new purpose in life. This is one of my favourite movies.
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A review of the summer blockbuster movie “The Odyssey”
July 22nd, 2026 by Roger Darlington
A budget of $250 million, 50 boats, 5,000 extras, filming at 20 locations in Greece, Italy, Morocco, Scotland, Iceland and Malta. This was always going to be a massive movie.
After the huge success of “Oppenheimer”, so excited was I in anticipation of the next film – his 13th – from Christopher Nolan, co-writer and director of “The Odyssey”, that I decided to familiarise myself with Homer’s poem of some 2,700 years ago by reading a version of it – actually Stephen Fry’s excellent and accessible interpretation – before the movie’s release. I’m so glad I did because otherwise I would have struggled with the extensive cast of characters and Nolan’s trademark mixture of timelines.
In this enormously ambitious and expensive spectacle of 173 minutes, Nolan has done an excellent job summarising and interpreting this classic text, although the start is somewhat slow and purists will be upset by the omissions (such as the island of the Lotus Eaters) and the changes (especially in the final segment). Nolan famously avoids special effects, so Cyclops and Scylla could have been rendered more effectively and the representation of Hades is poor, but the Trojan Horse is striking, the sea scenes are exciting, and the fighting sequences are thrilling.
It is a starry cast: Matt Damon as the complicated Odysseus, hero of Troy and King of Ithaca; Anne Hathaway as his wife Penelope who waits 20 years for his return; Tom Holland as their son Telemachus; Zendaya (Holland’s wife) as the goddess of war Athena; Charlize Theron as the deity Calypso who keeps Odysseus on her island for seven years; and Robert Pattinson as Antinous, the leading suitor of Penelope. Hathaway and Pattinson are particular impressive.
The cinematography by the Dutch Hoyte van Hoytem and the sound by the Swedish Ludwig Göransson – both regular collaborators with Nolan – are stunning, but the dialogue (by Nolan himself) does not offer any of the sort of memorable lines that we had in “Gladiator”, a even better film set in the classic period. Essentially, “The Odyssey” – indeed like Gladiator” and many other films, books, plays and poems – is about a hero’s struggles to return home. It is worth the journey.
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A review of the 1937 classic French film “La Grande Illusion”
July 18th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
This is famous war, actually anti-war, film that has no battle scenes in it. Instead, most of the action is set in two prisoner of war camps in 1914, the first year of what was then known as the Great War or the war to end wars. The prisoners are French and the film is French, directed and co-written by Jean Renoir, son of the Impressionist painter. The main French characters are a working class man (Jean Gabin), an aristocrat (Pierre Fresnay) and a Jew (Marcel Dalio) who work together on an escape plan, while the lead German character is played by Erich von Stroheim who laments the declining power of the European nobility.
This powerful and moving film was released in 1937, when there were growing expectations that another world war was in the offing. Much of the Great War was on French soil and millions of French lost their lives, so there was a ready audience for a film that challenged the illusion of war and presented a humanist approach with the clear message that class and love are more important than nationality or language. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy banned the film and, after the German invasion of France in 1940, both occupied France and Vichy France withdrew the work in its home nation.
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A review of “Odyssey” by Stephen Fry
July 13th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
As I anticipated the 2026 blockbuster movie “The Odyssey” by Christopher Nolan, I thought that it was about time that I familiarised myself with Homer’s epic work of some 2,700 years ago. The original poem was recited from memory and eventually was set down as a work of 12,109 lines composed in ancient Greek in a form known as dactylic hexameter. There have been many translations and lots of interpretations.
A friend, who is an English teacher, recommended the 1996 translation by the American academic Robert Fagles, but I confess that I immediately felt intimidated by this tome. Instead, I decided to read a simplified 2024 version written by the British actor Stephen Fry, actually the last of four books in his series retelling the Greek myths.
There are numerous characters and many adventures in this tale of the ten-year journey of Odysseus from his victory at Troy to his waiting wife Penelope and son Telemachus on the island of Ithaca, but Fry makes an admirable fist of guiding us through the complicated cast of gods, monsters and mortals and the amazing challenges faced by the returning Greeks. Odysseus himself comes across as a complicated and conflicted character. Certainly, a great fighter and leader who is immensely brave and resourceful, but also a man who is vain, selfish, deceitful and a womaniser.
So many modern plays, novels and films make reference to, or borrow from, “The Odyssey” so, why does it continue to resonate so vividly? Fry highlights that, at its heart, it is the idea of a return home and concludes: “Whether home is a physical or a spiritual, a real or imaginary place, our journeys to find it or return to it will always remain, we can be sure, a proper subject for art, music, drama and entertainment. Homer’s Odyssey will eternally stand as the avatar and exemplar – as appropriate enough, the home of such stories.” This is why we should all have some knowledge of the work.
I can’t wait to see Nolan’s film.
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