Oliver Battershall

From Russia with Love (1963) 4/5
Making a long-ish awaited return to my £15 James Bond box set from Vinted that goes all the way up to Skyfall! (Yes, any excuse to brag about that.) I thought this was a noticeable step up from Dr. No which I’d also thoroughly enjoyed. Bond’s character feels starkly more fleshed out, becoming even more genuinely charming and engaging. His sidekick along the way is also a great guy to root for. The main attraction is the gorgeous technicolour cinematography as Bond traverses the lavish interiors and bustling streets of the city of Istanbul. Having Bond shoot a guy through a billboard for another recently released Eon Studios movie was a great laugh. I was hooked from the very beginning with that absolutely beautiful opening credits sequence, really set the tone for this fun, colourful, flavourful experience.

The Castle of Cagliostro (1979) 4/5
Really enjoyable and cute! Lupin is very charming, the settings were really well utilised (especially in the finale) and the music was effortlessly cool and sexy. The way vivid colours were woven into the gothic aesthetic of the castle was really satisfying and reminded me of that Roger Corman movie Masque of the Red Death.

Goldfinger (1964) 3.5/5
We start off strong with another projection-based opening credits and that iconic Shirley Bassey theme that I have many…many memories of my mum singing in that shrill voice to ragebait me as a kid. From there I was a little more conflicted. Tonally it feels a bit muddled, with more on-screen death than before but goofier moments interspersed and the onset of some of the tropes that we now associate with the more campy side of the franchise. (The laser table being the obvious example.) That said, the set design is still high-quality and Connery’s charm is reliable and crucial as ever. Considerably less polished than its predecessor but the fun of the iconic moments and characters can’t be understated. It’s pretty funny that the character named Pussy Galore happens to be the most dignified Bond Girl yet by quite a margin.

Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001) 4/5
My random movie picking method threw me a corker this evening, a documentary on my all-time favourite director. This doesn’t start out the best, setting itself up as a pretty by-the-numbers Cliffnotes of the man’s life and work, but the talking head contributors get more engaging and insightful throughout to the point where the basic structure doesn’t feel like an issue. Cruise, Nicholson and Scorsese I enjoyed particularly, with the latter pointing out little details only a filmmaker could spot, like Barry Lyndon’s use of zoom lenses flattening its further away subjects much like a painting from the time. I appreciated that there were so many clips used from his movies, its made me want to go back and rewatch pretty much his whole repertoire. Art is subjective and all that but I don’t think you can convince me that anyone pips this guy when it comes to innovation, versatility and depth as a filmmaker.

Thunderball (1965) 2.5/5
Oh dear. What exactly went wrong here? Young is back in the director’s seat, but the usual stylish air of his productions feels gone. Peter R. Hunt’s editing feels considerably more sloppy. Maibaum’s writing also suffers, helping give Connery’s Bond just a fraction of the usual aura. And it looks the cheapest Bond yet despite costing more than its three predecessors combined. Why? Well it doesn’t help that the bare bones of the story just aren’t that interesting. The setting, the gadgets, the girl, the enemy, all so meh. A very dull final battle too. There’s a reason everyone hated the underwater Mario levels. I’ve already forgotten what the actual threat was supposed to be in this one. Oh my GOD I just saw how much money this made, I was sure it’d have flopped.

You Only Live Twice (1967) 3.5/5
A return to form for the franchise in no uncertain terms! This was a great time with maybe the best action of the series so far! The set design is brilliant as I’ve now come to expect, they always seem to make it work for each movie’s setting of choice. Speaking of the setting, it’s handled with a welcome relative lack of exoticism partly as a result of Connery’s sheer ‘commitment to the bit’ as it were. He even almost manages to make that very regrettable “becoming Japanese” scene work. The effects including the space stuff were pretty good! Just don’t Google what other space movie came out that year for the same budget…This really kicks into gear when we get that long awaited Blofeld face reveal, the makeup is brilliant and so is Donald Pleasence (duh) who comes out with a great title drop too.

Rififi (1955) 3/5
Watched this at the cinema after much anticipation but didn’t enjoy this as much as I was hoping. Like many French films of the time there’s a cool detachment from the emotional core but here there felt less of the style that you expect to get alongside that. There are some great moments including the whole heist scene sans dialogue, but I think it struggled to build atmosphere or tension somewhat which is crucial in a film like this. The ending felt quite abrupt and although this was very impressive at points, I was surprised by how little I was moved by it. Please don’t hate me!

Casino Royale (1967) 2.5/5
I was a little torn on whether to include non-Eon films in my chronological James Bond marathon, but I wanted to give this a watch because my lovely girlfriend’s great-granddad wrote the screenplay! Michael Sayers was a bit of a Renaissance man; he wrote articles exposing Nazism in the US and Ireland in the 40s as a flatmate of George Orwell, wrote TV plays for NBC, then after being blacklisted for his evil left-leaning ways he wrote/edited a few screenplays before moving back to Ireland to write poetry until his death. Believe it or not that only scratches the surface of her crazy family tree, but alas this is a movie reviewing app. I’m reminded of just how bad the parody genre used to be, Mel Brooks wasn’t perfect but he really saved us. Bloated and more of a series of asides than an actual story, but there are quite a few genuine laughs in little clusters. It’s pretty bonkers at points which I did appreciate because without all the random cameos and that Blazing Saddles-esque ending I would’ve really been struggling to finish this. Overall not good by any stretch but I’d like to propose a toast to Mr. Sayers for having Woody Allen get sent to hell at the end.

Exotica (1994) 4/5
Seen at the Broadway tonight as their mystery film (always the highlight of my month) in lovely crackly 35mm. This is beautifully atmospheric with great editing that ties all the stories in this hyperlink tale together really well. I loved the set design of the strip club, every gaze deflected by mirrors or shrouded in smoke and plastic foliage. Kinda Lost City Adventure Golf-core (real ones know). I was struck by how maturely and effortlessly this handles the transactional nature of sex and how it links to trauma. The staff member that chose and introduced this said he disliked the ending at first but realised it was just because he didn’t want it to end at all, and that’s exactly how I felt. It was like building up for a sneeze that never came, but I just appreciated how much these winding stories and reveals hooked me in.

The Castle (1997) 4/5
A really rousing comedy with lots of heart. Manages more laughs than expected for a film with such a family-first ethos thanks to its offbeat Aussie sense of humour. As far as films I’ve watched on my birthday go, this is up there with the best!

Black Swan (2010) 4.5/5
Upon rewatch not quite as cerebral throughout as I’d remembered, but the switch from conventional drama to psychological thriller in the third act is expectedly exhilarating and intense. Natalie Portman looks absolutely terrified for 108 minutes which works contextually but gets a little much, give me some range! Cassel is perfectly cast as the slimy antagonist and really carries the movie’s tension during his scenes. I did at first think the Perfect Blue comparisons as a form of complaint were a bit silly because cinema is full of rehashes and retellings of good stories but the fact that Aronofsky is insistent on there being no connection there is odd. I think now that I’m more well-versed in surrealist cinema I was wanting something a bit more out-there but also with more clear and consistent ideas on what was/wasn’t real, what certain characters represented etc. Definitely a good mainstream entry point into your Certified Copy/Mulholland Drive/Stay type movies. shotgun cocks Disregard my previous review my girlfriend is prettier than Mila Kunis and my DMs are verboten.