Lakeview Terrace

A so-so throwback to the kind of "yuppies in peril" movies that were popular in the early 90s.  Chris and Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) are a young interacial couple who have just moved into their first property on the seemingly serene Lakeview Terrace.  They soon receive the attention of Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson), an LAPD officer who has very fixed views on interacial couples, especially when his two kids peek into their neighbours' backyard to see Chris and Lisa having sex in the pool.  Tensions escalate in a believable fashion.  From Abel's security lights that keep the Mattsons awake at night, to an uncomfortable housewarming party and some barbed conversation about the rap music that Chris listens to and the cigarettes that he hides from his wife, all of these confrontations are scary because they feel like they could happen.

Things fall apart in the final act, where Abel's behaviour is explained simplistically and the movie veers into more obvious thriller territory.  Director Neil LaBute is also fond of some rather obvious metaphors, most notable the bush fires that are constantly raging in the background, threatening to destroy the suburbs where Chris and Lisa have made their home.  What's most frustrating, however, is that evidence of a more intelligent film exists here.  Lakeview Terrace flirts with ideas of boundaries (both social and political) and the screenplay does offer some interesting views on racial tensions in the 21st-century.  Jackson offers up a fierce performance, but you can't help but feel that we've seen it all before.  Both Wilson and Washington are impressive but are given precious little to work with.  An intriguing thriller, all the more irritating because it could have been so much better.

Bolt

Ever since Lilo And Stitch, Disney has steadily produced a long list of disappointing films, from Brother Bear to Chicken Little, whilst Pixar was making qualtiy family entertainment such as The Incredibles and Finding Nemo.  The quality of every Western animated movie is measured against that of Pixar's output and finally Disney has come up with something that comes close to delivering the goods.  Bolt (John Travolta) is the adorable canine star of his own TV series, where he's gifted with powers such as laser eyes and a "super bark".  In order to ennsure a realistic performance from Bolt, the TV studio go to great lengths to keep him convinced that he's a real-life super dog.  When Bolt escapes the studio and is mistakenly packed off to New York City, he must find a way back to Hollywood and his owner/co-star Penny (Miley Cyrus) without the aid of his superpowers.

On his journey across America, Bolt meets up with a wisecracking alleycat, Mittens (Susie Essman), and Rhino (Mark Walton), a hamster who also happens to be a big fan of Bolt's TV show.  One of the best things about this movie is that all of the characters are so fully realised, funny, just the right side of cute and performed energetically.  Even the human characters are well-rounded, which is rare for films concerning animals.  The influence of Pixar may loom large (Bolt's story arc isn't dissimilar to Buzz Lightyear's in the first Toy Story film) but, unlike recent Disney efforts like Chicken Little, this never feels like it's trying to hard to be hip.  It's good, simple storytelling.  The action sequences are fun and exciting, the relationship between Bolt and Mittens genuinely touching.  There are no surprises here but this is solid, well-crafted entertainment.

Milk

After four loose, experimental films (Gerry, Elephant, Last Days, Paranoid Park), Gus Van Sant makes a return for the mainstream with his biopic of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the US.  As biopics go it's fairly conventional, detailing Harvey's move to San Francisco, his battle for gay rights, eventual election and assassination.

Despite this conventionality, it's an expertly crafted film.  Van Sant uses real news footage and grainy camerawork to create a verité feel to the endeavour and Dustin Lance Black's empathic screenplay is structured so as to ensure that the audience feels the momentum of Milk's campaign.  Much has been made of Sean Penn's nuanced lead performance, but he's aided by one of 2008's most impressive ensemble casts.  Josh Brolin, rounding out a stellar year after No Country For Old Men and W., plays Supervisor Dan White and brings real pathos to a difficult role.  James Franco is beautiful, heartbreaking even, as Milk's long-term boyfriend Scotty and Emile Hirsch give yet another brilliantly realised turn as Cleve Jones, a young runaway who finds drive and purpose in Milk's campaign for equal rights.

Several negative reviews have pointed to the fact that Gus Van Sant seems to reluctant to acknowledge Milk's promiscuity, since the film alludes to only two relationships, with Scotty and, later, with Mexican Jack Lira (played with maniacal energy by Diego Luna).  Yet a catelogue of Milk's hook-ups would, I think, have distracted from the main narrative drive and made for a much more scattershot production.  As it is, Gus Van Sant's return to mainstream cinema is an unmitigated success.  The parallels between California reinstituting Proposition 8 today and Milk's own battle against Proposition 6, an initiative that sought to prohobit all gay men and women (and those that supported them) from working in public schools, are obvious.  Indeed, Dustin Lance Black's moving speech at this year's Oscars as he accepted his award for Best Original Screenplay showed how timely the movie's release was.

Where Are They Now? Part 1

It's been 5 years since Buffy The Vampire Slayer left our TV screens. The cast have had varied degrees of success but what have they got in the pipeline as we speak?

Sarah Michelle Gellar

After a string of so-so horror movies such as The Grudge and The Return, Sarah Michelle Gellar has a different film due out later in the year. Her new role, in Paul Coehlo adaptation Veronika Decides To Die (trailer below), looks like it plays to her strengths, i.e. sad and lonely, rather than scared or ditzy. SMG will also be returning to the small screen sometime next year in The Wonderful Maladys, a new dysfunctional family drama for HBO. An early reviewer of the pilot script claims it's the best thing they've read in years.

Role Models

Very funny comedy about two thirtysomethings, Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Sean William Scott), who are court ordered to work for a big-brother-type charity called Sturdy Wings after running their truck into a school building and obstructing a police officer. Danny, recently dumped by his attorney girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks) for his negative attitude, is given Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a role-playing enthusiast with unsupportive parents. Wheeler is given a ten year-old, Ronnie (Bobb'e J. Thompson), with a particularly foul mouth.

Role Models has the feel of a Judd Apatow comedy in that it successfully mixes vulgarity with sentiment. There might be no surprises here but almost every joke here sticks. After giving scene-stealing performances in everything from Knocked Up to Anchorman, Rudd finally lands his first leading role. He is, unsurprisngly, excellent, affable, amusing, but so is everyone here. Following on from his engimatic performance in Southland Tales, Sean William Scott shows that he's more than capable of restraint. Jane Lynch, as the former cokehead founder of Sturdy Wings, is priceless and gets most of the movie's laughs. Mintz-Plasse's Augie is the film's heart, offering Danny an opportunity to see his own life differently. Yes, it's predictable, corny even, but by the time director David Wain cranks out ELO over a montage of Danny and Wheeler enjoying themselves with the kids all of your cynicism will have disappeared.

Red Sorghum

A masterful 1930s-set debut from Zhang Yimou also featuring the first performance from his muse Gong Li. On the way to meet her new husband, a leper, a young woman is seduced by one of the servants carrying her sedan. After the mysterious death of her husband, the woman takes over his winery and enters a relationship with the servant. The optimism of the film's first half is nicely counterbalanced by the film's sudden shift into a more tragic register when the Japanese invade.

This is an examplary examination of peasant life in China during the 30s and features a typically radiant performance from Gong Li. As with his later films, former cinematographer Zhang makes expressive use of colour here, in particular a couple of beautiful sunsets. Above anything else it's a story of resilience. No-one attempts to understand or explain the barbarism of the Japanese invasion, they react in the only way that feels appropriate. This is a bold, striking movie that shows both director and muse firing on all cylinders.

The House Bunny

Fluffy comedy about a Playboy bunny, Shelley (Anna Faris), who's unceremoniusly kicked out of the Playboy Mansion for being too old. 27 is "like 59 in bunny years", so we're told. Homeless and alone, Shelley stumbles onto a college campus and becomes the sorority mother to a group of misfits (short girl, fat girl, girl with piercings, pregnant girl and girl with glasses are all covered). The girls need 30 pledges to their sorority house if they don't want to be turfed out and Shelley convinces them that she can help. Her mixture of enthusiasm, hair straighteners and pastel-coloured clothing help win the girls popularity but is a new wardrobe and attention from the opposite sex really what they want?

There's an interesting movie here...somewhere. Rather than present a good looks and popularity vs. intelligence and integrity dichotomy, The House Bunny settles for an uneasy middle ground. In this respect it treads similar ground to Mean Girls, although it's nowhere near as clever. Indeed, nearly all of the laughs come from Anna Faris' inspired redefinition of the dumbe blonde. She's a marvellous comic presence in need of a better movie. Subplots involving a conspiracy inside the Playboy mansion and a romance with Colin Hanks' drippy Oliver don't go anywhere and the influence of Adam Sandler (the movie was produced by Happy Madison productions) hangs heavy over several scenes. This has a few funny moments and is worth seeing for Faris alone, but it's no Legally Blonde.

Cannes Line-Up

It's Auteur Heavyweight Heaven at Cannes this year, with the likes of Michael Haneke, Park Chan-Wook, Lars Von Trier, Pedro Almodovar, Jane Campion and Ang Lee all up against each other. Here's a full line-up of what will be playing at the festival in May.

Opening Film:

Up (dir. Pete Docter and Bob Peterson). Pixar's latest about a 78 year-old man who ties a bunch of balloons to his house and flies to South America, accompanied by an earnest eight year-old who stows along for the ride. Surely one of the most reliable production companies, Pixar are good at turning strange-sounding concepts into cinematic gold.

Closing Film:

Coco Avant Chanel (dir. Anne Fontaine). Biopic of the French fashion designer, starring Audrey Tatou in the lead role. It's nice to see Tatou nab a juicy role as ever since her star-making performance in Amélie, she's struggled to really make much of a mark, which is a pity to anyone who saw her troubling performance in Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things.

In Competition:

Bright Star (dir. Jane Campion). Another biopic, but this time a more focused one. Campion's film will concentrate on the final three years of John Keats' (Ben Whishaw) life and his romance with Fanny Browne (Abby Cornish). Campion previously won the Palme D'Or for The Piano, and although she's been a bit hit-and-miss since then, she's consistently made interesting, challenging movies. Both Whishaw and Cornish have enjoyed Next Big Thing status for some time now; it's be nice to see them break out.

Spring Fever (dir. Lou Ye). Don't know much about this. He's played at Cannes before and is no stranger to controversy. His last film, Summer Palace, a romance set during the time of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, saw him receive a five year ban on filmmaking from the Chinese government.

Antichrist (dir. Lars Von Trier). Willem Defoe stars as a psychologist who takes Charlotte Gainsbourg into a cabin in the woods where spooky things start happening. Billed as a horror film, anyone who's seen the trailer can testify that this looks distinctly bizarre (hopefully in a good way). Trier has his detractors - he can certainly be heavy-handed sometimes - but a return to the same area he pursued in his miniseries The Kingdom has got a lot of people interested.

Enter The Void (Gaspar Noé). Another controversial figure but one that I feel doesn't have much to back it up with. His last film Irreversible, with its brutal eight-minute rape scene, was, to this viewer at least, obvious, almost completely lacking in intelligence and slammed its point home with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. There are plenty of admirers though so maybe this will do well.

Face (dir. Tsai Ming-liang). Malaysian-born Chinese director whose last film, I Don't Want To Sleep Alone, I've been wanting to see for ages (primarily 'cause I love the title but also because the front of the DVD showed people having cuddles). The plot concerns a Taiwanese film director who travels to Paris to shoot a new film about the Salomé myth. Previously won the Golden Lion at Venice for Vive L'Amour in 1994.

Les Herbes Folles (dir. Alain Resnais). New film from the French New Wave director. My "extensive" search of the internet, which basically includes wikipedia and imdb doesn't give much info apart from much-respected director blah blah blah.

In The Beginning (dir. Xavier Giannoli). From the director of The Singer, which did very well at the Césars a couple of years ago. This new film, again, stars Gérard Depardieu, who I've never had much love for but can never put my finger on exactly why that is.

A Prophet (dir. Jacques Audiard). From the director of The Beat That My Heart Skipped, which did good business and won a fair amount of international awards, including a BAFTA for Best Film Not In The English Language. I admired the movie rather than truly liked it - the interplay between violence and art was much better examined in Haneke's The Piano Teacher in my opinion, but it did boast a firecracker of a performance from the not-ugly Romain Duris.

The White Ribbon (dir. Michael Haneke). Bloody love Haneke. He's probably one of the most interesting directors working at the moment, although his own remake of Funny Games into English didn't exactly receive glowing reviews. Set in Germany in 1913, this is said to explore the evolution of fascism. Definitely looking forward to this one.

Vengeance (dir. Johnnie To). Thriller from a prolific Hong Kong director. When a hit man for an organised crime syndicate is suspected of being a double agent for the FBI, a kill order is placed, but the hit man survives the attempt on his life.

The Time That Remains (dir. Elia Suleiman). Palestinian-Israeli director who won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2002 for Divine Intevention. His new film is described by imdb as "An examination of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 through to the present day".

Vincere (dir. Marco Bellocchio). Italian movie about Mussolini's secret lover and their son Albino.

Kinatay (dir. Brillante Mendoza). Filipino film of which I know nothing.

Thirst (Park Chan-Wook). The Korean director of the excellent Vengeance trilogy has followed up with a vampire movie. The trailer makes it look immense and after the success of Let The Right One In, bleak films about bloodsuckers definitely have an audience. After an onslaught of American remakes of great Asian horror flicks, I'm hoping that Park Chan-Wook can show everybody how it's really done.

Broken Embraces (dir. Pedro Almodóvar). Always a winner, Almodóvar is reteaming with Penelope Cruz for his latest film, which debuted in Spain a month or so ago. Time Out has a positive review if you're interested, which claims this to be more of an ilk with Bad Education than Volver. This might prove difficult, as international audiences have tended to prefer Almodóvar's human dramas such as Talk To Her more than the Hitchcockian gayness of Bad Education, but I loved the latter so will be looking forward to this.

Maps Of The Sounds Of Tokyo (dir. Isabel Coixet). Another Spanish director, whose last film, Elegy, was almost universally panned. However, anyone who saw her low-key movie My Life Without Me starring the always-reliable Sarah Polley and Mark Ruffalo will surely be keen to see if she can pull another gem out of her hat. Maps Of The Sounds Of Tokyo is a thriller, centered on a contract killer who also moonlights as an employee at a fish market.

Fish Tank (dir. Andrea Arnold). Second feature from the director of Red Road, which I thought was good but over-hyped, although her eye for the grittier side of suburbia is certainly impressive. This new film focuses on a fifteen year-old girl trying to come to terms with her mum's new boyfriend. It stars Michael Fassbender, an actor who is everywhere all of a sudden, and rightly so. This follows on from starring turns in Angel, Hunger and Eden Lake, all in which Fassbender displayed impressive versatility. Rising star + rising director could = win.

Looking For Eric (dir. Ken Loach). Surely the strangest-sounding film on the list, at least on paper. It concerns the friendship between a postman and Eric Cantona. Loach won the Palme D'Or for the ridiculously overrated The Wind That Shakes The Barley but I can't see a movie about a well-known football player doing well at Cannes. Maybe I'm wrong though.

Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino). The amusing/irritating trailer doing the rounds suggest that Tarantino is still going down the Kill Bill/Death Proof route of tongue-in-cheek, intentionally offensive homage to the movies of his youth. Those that love him (and I'm one of those people) will probably love this, but it's got an unusually starry cast for a Tarantino film. Okay, so it's got Brad Pitt, but that is a wee bit odd isn't it? I like Brad Pitt as much as the next homosexual man who saw Thelma and Louise but he's not given a particularly impressive performance in anything for about ten years.

Taking Woodstock (dir. Ang Lee). I'd walk over hot coals for Ang Lee and was wet with anticipation about his new film concerning the origins of Woodstock. Starring an unknown actor in the lead role (Elliot Tiber) has worked wonders before (look at Tang Wei's phenomenal performance in Lust, Caution) and the supporting cast includes Liev Schrieber, Imelda Staunton and Emile Hirsch. Big love for Emile Hirsch. Then I saw the trailer, which is quite possibly one of the most revolting trailers I've ever seen. Horrible. But, The Hulk notwithstanding, Ang Lee has produced one of the most consistent body of films of any director working today. I hope this lives up to the promise.

Out Of Competition:

The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus (dir. Terry Gilliam). This will get less attention because it's a Terry Gilliam film than that it's the last film made by Heath Ledger. The story, involving a travelling theatre group that allows its audience members to enter their own imaginations through a magic mirror sounds a real treat. Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp will all be playing incarnations of Ledger's character.

The Army Of Crime (dir. Robert Guédiguian). French film starring Virginie Ledoyen, who for some reason I really like, although I'm not exactly sure why. A supporting performance in The Beach and a L'Oreal advert really shouldn't be doing it for me.

Agora (dir. Alejandro Amenábar). This is Amenábar's second English-language movie after The Others, and his last movie, the Javier Bardem-starring The Sea Inside, was well liked so this could get a pretty decent reception. The plot concerns an Egyptian slave (Max Minghella) who falls in love with his mistress, Hypatia of Alexandra (Rachel Weisz). Weisz is luminous, and needs a hit after husband Darren Aronofsky's ridiculous The Fountain. Also, Minghella was hyped to the max about a year ago and then pretty much disappeared. Never seen him in anything but surely pretending that you fall in love with Rachel Weisz can't be much of a stretch for anyone.

Romantic Serial Killer

Although it's got no release date over here yet, Julie Delpy's new film The Countess certainly looks interesting. Billed as a biopic of famed serial killer Elizabeth Bathory, who supposedly bathed in the blood of virgins in an attempt to look young, the trailer makes it seem like a gothic romance. We don't get to see any actual murders, just a rather chaste-seeming affair between Delpy and Daniel Brühl. Could be interesting, although I'm unsure that the "a Julie Delpy film" at the end of the trailer is really warranted. This is only her second feature length film as a director and much as I liked 2 Days In Paris, it seemed impossible to separate from Before Sunrise/Sunset. I'm intrigued by the international cast. Everyone loves William Hurt and after her affecting performance in 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, I'm excited to see Anamaria Marinca in something else.

Anyway, here's the trailer...

State Of Play

Confidently-mounted conspiracy thriller adapted from Paul Abbott's miniseries and relocated to Washington. When Congressman Stephen Collins' (Ben Affleck) mistress and research assistant Sonia Baker is found dead in an apparent suicide, his former college buddy Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe), a grizzled reporter for The Washington Post investigates the circumstances of the death. Along with eager young reporter Della Frye (Rachel McAdams), Cal uncovers a link between Sonia's death and two other murders carried out the night before.

Whilst Kevin Macdonald's follow-up to The Last King Of Scotland doesn't offer any surprises, it delivers of almost every other level. A tight script, excellent cinematography and solid performances all help to make this a solid entry in a crowded genre. There were a few story elements that I'd have prefered to see teased out a little more: the differing reporting styles of oldschool McAffrey and earnest blogger Frye, the friendship between Collins and McAffrey. The score can also be, at times, a little over-insistent. These minor quibbles aside though, this is exciting, pacy stuff.

Doubt

John Patrick Shanley's serious adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play is a complex meditation on Catholic guilt that veers between being tense and compelling in certain scenes to po-faced and obvious in others. Set in a Catholic school in 1964, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) suspects the friendly Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of sexually abusing Donald, a black altar boy. Acting on the shyly-voiced suspicions of the idealistic Sister James (Amy Adams), Aloysius attempts to hound Flynn out of the parish, insisting that she doesn't need proof, all she needs is her "certainty".

There's plenty to admire here but not an awful lot to love. What Doubt excels at is character motivation. We're not sure on why Aloysius pursues Flynn with such vigour or whether Flynn is guilty of what she accuses him of. There's one particularly memorable scene with Viola Davis as Donald's mother. To say any more would rob the scene of its dramatic impact but suffice to say that it's uncomfortable and provocative in the way that good cinema should be. Shanley's direction is unfussy but he's unable to overcome the stagey-ness of his central conceit, and is too reliant on metaphor to get his point across (the storm constantly raging outside, a lamb placed in a Nativity scene with an air of significance). He is, however, ably served by four actors all on the top of their game. Davis and Streep are especially electric, whilst Hoffman and Adams provide nuanced, intelligent riffs on similar roles in their back catelogue. It's a clever film but it's also one that is, for the most part, distant and emotionally uninvolving.

Death Proof

Gloriously offensive on almost every count, Tarantino's sixth film continues in the same vein as Kill Bill. Whilst the latter movie homaged Bruce Lee and Westerns, Death Proof plays as a violent, leery tribute to the grindhouse pictures of the 70s. The story is slim. Three nubile young women go out drinking, pursued by Kurt Russell's Stuntman Mike, an old dude with a "death proof" car that he uses to crash into cars full of pretty Southern gals. The same story is then played out again, only this time the girls fight back, eventually beating Stuntman Mike at his own game.

The dialogue couldn't have come from anyone other than Tarantino; it's sweary, sassy and full of pop culture references. The violence is, predictably, a mixture of the cartoonish and the gory, and the crash sequence in the film's mid-section is particularly shocking, even by QT's standards. Death Proof's mysogyny is underlined with tongue-in-cheek humour and larger-than-life turns from the likes of Rosario Dawson, Rose McGowan (especially memorable in a small supporting role) and real-life stuntwoman Zoe Bell. It's likely to offend several viewers and offers further proof that Tarantino is a one-trick pony, endlessly recycling old ideas and offering up sexism and hyper-violence as irony. However, the movie's sheer relentlessness, dynamic stunts, staccato dialogue and sense of unadulterated glee are often exhilirating and fans of Tarantino's previous films are sure to lap this up. As they should.

Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle's assured adaptation of Vikas Swarup's Q & A is his best since Trainspotting. Dev Patel of Skins fame plays Jamal, a boy from the slums who wins the top prize of 20 million rupees on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The smarmy host, believing Jamal to have cheated, turns him over to the police, where he is tortured extensively before being given an opportunity to explain how he knows for the questions he was asked.

It's a solid concept from which to hang a movie, as we witness Jamal's difficult childhood living in the slums of Mumbai, his fractious relationship with brother Salim and love for his friend Latika. The choreography, editing and sound design are peerless, fully deserving of the various technical awards the film has won. It's a colourful, vibrant vision of India and one that doesn't shy away from the harsher realities of poverty, be it police brutality, prostitution or gang warfare. Broadly, Slumdog Millionaire could be said to be about the part that chance has to play in life, and how chance can sometimes present itself as something more profound. Whether you buy into this will depend upon how much you can stomach the finale's lurch into absurdly optimism as Jamal and Latika are reunited and the cast partake in an out-of-the-blue Bollywood-style dance number.

Thankfully, due to Simon Beaufoy's smart screenplay and some great performances from Boyle's young cast (Jamal, Salim and Latika are all played by three separate actors through their childhood and adolescense), the optimism on display in the film's final third feels grounded in the rest of the movie through Jamal's make-the-best-of-it attitude. Moving, lively cinema.

Eden Lake

Genuinely scary, thought-provoking Brit horror. Nursery school teacher Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and her outdoorsy boyfriend Steve (Michael Fassbender) go on a romantic weekend break camping by an isolated lake. Not long after arriving they are disturbed by a group of teenagers, their loud music and angry-looking Rottweiler. Through a series of all-too-believable confrontations, friction between the two groups escalates to such a level that Jenny and Steve find themselves being hunted as they desperately attempt to make it back into town.

Eden Lake follows much the same pattern of other recent successful horror movies such as The Descent or The Strangers in using its first half hour or so getting to know its protagonists, thus making the inevitable nasty ending all the more effective. Plot-wise, it's not hard to see where this going, but James Watkins' intelligent script asks some pertinent questions of his audience. At several points during the movie we hear characters maintain that the antagonists are "only children" and Jenny's first act of retalliation against her tormentors is one filled with tears and remonstrance. Watkins is also careful to demonstrate the bullying and peer pressure that goes on within the young gang.

Once the chase begins, the pace is relentless. Reilly gives a shivery performance as Jenny, emerging at the end caked in blood and slime. The ending may not be hugely convincing but it's effective, as is the whole movie. Lean, tight and terrifying.

The Aviator

A complicated biopic of Howard Hughes, here presented as a crackpot genius. Scorsese's movie covers Hughes' (Leonardo DiCaprio) life from the troubled production of Hell's Angels through affairs with Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett, firing on all cylinders) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale) to his decline into paranoia and obsessive compulsive behaviour.

The tone of the movie changes constantly. When we first meet Howard he's the underdog entrepeneur who's laughed at by his contemporaries. After whipping through his feisty relationship with Hepburn, Scorsese touches briefly on the more infamous aspects of Hughes' life (locking himself away with bottles of his own piss) before allowing his hero one last moment of glory in the courtroom, before leaving us on an ambiguous note.

As biopics go this is much more complicated and unconventional than, say, Walk The Line. This doesn't necessarily mean that this is a better film than James Mangolds', but it acts as a real return to form from Scorsese after the disappointing Gangs Of New York. DiCaprio gives a layered performance and does well not to be outshone by the starry supporting cast that also includes Alan Alda, Jude Law, John C. Reilly and Alec Baldwin. There are also a couple of spectacularly mounted airplane sequences and beautiful set designs that make up for the lack of narrative drive during the film's mid-section.

Rachel Getting Married

Jonathan Demme's return to the limelight provided a doozy of a role for Anne Hathaway as Kym, a former drug and alcohol addict who's just got out of rehab in time for her sister Rachel's (Rosemarie DeWitt) wedding. Arguments, revelations, tears and reconciliations follow.

The first half of the film is its most effective, where we get to see Kym struggle with her return to family life. She's attention-seeking, irritating, lonely and quick to take offence, often all of these things in quick succession. Thanks to a finely-tuned script from Jenny Lumet and the excellent performances from Hathaway and DeWitt, we completely understand why the two sisters rub each other up the wrong way. It's this central dynamic that powers the film, and whether they're tearing bits off each other or, in a tender, silent moment at the end of the film, reaching some sort of understanding, it's difficult to take your eyes from them.

Whilst Demme's naturalistic direction works wonders in the early, more troubled scenes, it becomes aimless, even dull later on. The seemingly endless wedding speeches are nothing compared to the wedding itself. It's sentimental and boring, the way these events often are, but they lack the dramatic fizz that made the movie so compelling beforehand. These portraits of troubled family life have become a staple of independent American cinema, but this is an interesting, astute addition to the canon and one that will no doubt cement Hathaway's place in the A-list.

Happy-Go-Lucky

An surprisingly upbeat film from Mike Leigh but one that, on reflection, sits neatly alongside his bleaker productions. Sally Hawkins plays Poppy, an irrepressibly cheery primary school teacher who refuses to let anything or anyone bring her down. Like Naked, Leigh's movie is primarily concerned with character rather than plot. Not an awful lot happens in Happy-Go-Lucky; it's more about how other people respond to Poppy's giggle, effervescent personality.

The biggest ask that the film makes of its audience is to believe that somebody like Poppy might actually exist. Somebody who quite happily chats to tramps in the dead of night, whose only reaction to a stolen bike is a slight sigh and a shrug of the shoulders. Many reviewers have responded warmly to the character of Poppy, but would anyone respond so warmly were they to meet this person in real life? Watching Poppy interact with her sarcastic flatmate and younger sister is almost like watching a sketch from The Catherine Tate Show. You keep waiting for the punch line, but the whole thing is gleefully free of any irony.

Leigh's message appears to be that by thinking happy we can be happy. Poppy might not have a mortage and pension scheme planned out, like her pregnant, sensible younger sister, but she's got her friends and she likes her job. Life's how you look at it, innit? If this is meant to be a cheer-giving message adroitly sent to us in the midst of the recession then it's an awfully glib one. By setting its cap against all hte cynics out there, Leigh has ensured that any critics of Happy-Go-Lucky can easily be branded as miserable, glass-half-empty-type people.

Hawkins' energetic performance goes a long way in helping you take Poppy at face value, but there's a troubling aspect to her personality that is hard to dispel, something that's evident in two of the movie's sadder, more poignant moments. In the first, Poppy is concerned for a pupil who is a victim of family abuse, but this quickly turns into an opportunity to net a dishy social worker. In the second, Poppy has a heated confrontation with her racist, homophobic, deeply insecure driving instructor (Eddie Marsan, terrific). He crumbles in front of her, but Poppy doesn't seem to bat an eyelid. Is this down to Poppy's inherent ability to always look on the bright side, or is it a coldbloodedness that allows her to skip through life without becoming deeply involved in other people's problems? It's a question that's not really answered, and one that I kept thinking about after seeing the film. Although Happy-Go-Lucky ambles along rather nicely, it's still a conflicted work and one that feels more smug than anything else.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

A warm, clever, sexy film from Woody Allen and a real improvement on his last "return to form", Match Point. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are two Americans summering in Spain. Vicky, studying Catalan culture, is reserved and cynical, engaged to a smarmy man called Doug. Cristina likes to see herself as a free spirit, impulsive and interested in photography. When they arrive in Barcelona they are propositioned by a handsome Spanish artist, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem). Whilst Cristina is all too keen to take Juan Antonio on his offer of a weekend in nearby Oviedo where they will "make love", Vicky is outraged at his brazen proposition. Both girls end up falling for Juan Antonio, but in very different ways. The arrival of his fiery ex-wife, María Elena (Penelope Cruz) complicates things further and both Vicky and Cristina are forced to rethink their positions on love and life.

Like Allen's British films, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is full of national clichés, but what was grating and offensive in Match Point feels much more tongue-in-cheek here. In part this is doubtless down to his actors, in particular Penelope Cruz, whose Oscar-winning turn as a Latin firebrand hits just the right note. Likewise Hall and Johansson strike just the right contrast together. When we meet them they appear as counter opposites - as head and heart - before the script complicates their two very separate set of ideals for amusing results. Breezy and good-humoured, Allen's summery romance is hard to dislike.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day

Delightful screwball comedy based on Winifred Watson's 1938 novel. Set right before the onset of World War II, Frances McDormand plays Miss Pettigrew, a governess who's constantly being fired on account of her prim, judgemental behavious towards her employers. In order to keep off the streets, Miss P. masquerades as a social secretary to a young American actress, Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams). Delysia, a flighty thing, has three men on the go at once: Nick, an arrogant nightclub owner, Phil, who she's hoping will cast her as the lead in his new play, and Michael, who loves Delysia for who she is not who she pretends to be.

During the course of a day, Miss Pettigrew helps Delysia understand the important of true love, meanwhile beginning her own tentative romance with lingerie designer Joe Blomfeld (Ciaran Hinds). Plenty of silly, fluffy mishaps, break-ups and make-ups follow. It's silly and slight, but anchored by the performances of its leading actresses. Adams is typically enchanting, whilst Frances McDormand's quiet, sad reflections on the last war add a more serious counterpoint to all the frippery. No classic perhaps, but good frilly fun all the same.

The Reader

A thoughtful, moving examination of the Holocaust and how successive generations have tried to come to terms with it. The film begins in Neustadt in 1958, where a fifteen year-old boy, Michael (David Kross), begins an illicit affair with an older woman, Hanna (Kate Winslet), who works on the trams. For Michael, this is a sexual awakening, but for Hanna it is something different. Before sex she asks Michael to read aloud to her - Homer, Lawrence, Hergé - but just a few months after meeting him, Hanna disappears.

Michael doesn't come across her again until 1966, whilst he is studying at university. There he discovers that Hanna worked as a guard at Auschwitz and stands accused, alongside several other women, of allowing 300 Jewish women to die in a fire during the death march that followed Auschwitz's evacuation. What follows is an analysis of national guilt and of the difference between thought and feeling. Michael holds a key piece of evidence that could help Hanna in her trial but should he present it to the courts? As Hanna is singled out by her fellow guards as the one who was in control, David Hare's intelligent screenplay infers that it is not just Hanna that is guilty. One angry student rails against his professor (Bruno Ganz, previously so effective as Hitler in Downfall) for "letting it happen", whilst Michael ponders the ramifications of a successful conviction so that successive generations won't forget what has happened.

A fair amount of criticism has been levelled at the film for what is perceived to be a certain amount of sympathy for Hanna. This, I think, misses the point. Hanna is singled out not as a victim but as something tangible for the second generation to pin their blame to. It's tempting to say that Hanna represents Germany's national guilt but this isn't really true either. She is representative of a need by the second generation to intellectualise and understand something so heinous that any explanation, in the end, remains elusive. As the film enters its final stretch, detailing Hanna's interment in prison, we see her movement from somebody who is able "not to think" about the crimes she has committed to someone who is able to feel them. It is at this point that the character becomes completely unknowable, slipping out of the fiction altogether.

The film's final scene involves Michael traveling to America to meet with a camp survivor Ilana Mather (Lena Olin), offering her money that Hanna left in to her in her will. Ilana refuses the money and, one must feel rightly, refuses the request for absolution. There is, she explains, no meaning when it comes to the camps; there is nothing there.

Of course, the movie isn't without its flaws. The fact that the entire film is in English (apparently at the request of the novel's author Bernard Schlick) with the actors speaking in German accents feels unnecessary but it's to be expected of prestige dramas with Oscar possibilities. Accusations of sentimentality wouldn't be entirely unjust either, but these are minor quibbles when taken as a whole the movie is so rich and interesting. As one would expect, both Winslet and Ralph Fiennes (as the older Michael) are very strong indeed (although the former's performance in Revolutionary Road is better, at least to my mind) but David Kross is the real standout. At eighteen, he's required to take on a great deal of the film's weight and he copes remarkably well. It's a pity he wasn't up for Best Supporting Actor, as this is a much more complex role than that of Michael Shannon's in Revolutionary Road, which everyone raved about.

This won't be to everyone's tastes, but it's a provocative movie that raised very conflicted feelings for this viewer and, as such, it should be applauded.

James Marsters and Son

The song's a bit blah and the quality isn't great but, but, but James Marsters! And a son! Is it me or does James Marsters look younger than when he was on Series 7 of Buffy?

Buffalo 66

I first saw this film when I was sixteen or something, back-to-back with The Virgin Suicides, a film which I've watched multiple times. This film, Vincent Gallo's directorial debut, I've only watched twice since. Once, about a year ago with a friend of mine who really loved it and then again last night with my housemate. It's a peculiar film, and one that I found myself liking a great deal less than when I initially saw it.

Maybe it's because since I first saw Buffalo 66, I've read what he's had to say about other actors and director, he released The Brown Bunny and tried to sell his sperm online, but would only accept Caucasian buyers. It was apparently tongue-in-cheek, but if it was a joke it wasn't a very funny one.

Buffalo 66 is about Billy Brown (Gallo), a troubled individual who's just got out of jail following a five-year sentence for a crime he didn't commit. He then kidnaps a beautiful young girl, Layla (Ricci, making the most out of an underwritten role), and takes her home to introduce to his parents as his wife. Billy's disinterested parents (played by Anjelica Huston and Ben Gazzara, both excellent) go some way to explaining his aggresive, childlike mentality. What's most striking about the story is that Layla almost enjoys the roleplay and fosters a deep attachment to Billy, allowing him to open up to her. It's a male wish fulfilment fantasy and mysogynystic to boot. Gallo's creative control - he wrote, directed and scored the movie as well as casting himself in the lead role - suggests that this is a personal film and, on this level, it's rather fascinating. The comical, romantic script takes the edge off the film's more unlikeable qualities.

Once

Charming Irish film about a musician (Glen Hansard) who seems to be a stuck in a rut, still writing songs about his ex-girlfriend who's moved to London. A chance encounter with a Czech immigrant flower seller (Markéta Irglová) gives him the boost he needs to put a record together, leave his humdrum life in Dublin and travel to London to win his girlfriend back.

This is a testament to how even the simplest of stories can work wonders if told well. Hansard and Irglová, both unprofessional actors, convey their loneliness and sadness convincingly that from the moment the two sing a duet together over a shop piano we want them to be together. The songs themself are the real story as the script itself is relatively bare. They're great songs as well. Emotive, longing, even humorous at times. What really impresses though is the refusal to sentiment and the movie's realistic (but never overtly bleak) setting. The most genuinely heartwarming romantic film I've seen since Before Sunset.

Top 10 People Who Are Adorable

1) Amy Adams as Giselle in Enchanted

Indisputable really. Adams completely understood that Enchanted was intended as a homage, rather than a pisstake, of Disney's fairytale adaptations. Her slightly exagerrated gestures perfectly mimic countless animated heroines. The big eyes, the megawatt smile - she wasn't just a charismatic leading lady, but a gifted comic actor. Helped by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz's hugely enjoyable, tongue-in-cheek musical numbers, and a well-chosen supporting cast, Enchanted helped Adams move from indie darling onto the Hollywood A-List.

2) Drew Barrymore as Josie Geller in Never Been Kissed

If asked to pick a favourite Drew Barrymore performance, my bet is that most people would go for The Wedding Singer. It's a better movie, for sure, but Never Been Kissed has a special place in my heart after watching it for the first time during a particularly painful work trip. The concept (a reporter goes undercover as a high school student, hoping to achieve the popularity that evaded her first time around) is stretched since Barrymore looks neither young enough to still be in school, nor old enough to be a reporter entrusted to such a delicate assignment. But then that's part of the fun. Drew does goofy just as well as she does lonely. That last scene where she's waiting on the baseball pitch for Michael Vartan to come and give her her very first kiss is flat out adorable.

3) Jennifer Garner as Jenna Rink in 13 Going On 30

Okay, so 13 Going On 30 is by no means a classic of the bodyswap genre, but it would fall flat on its face were it not for the believability that Jennifer Garner brings to the role of a thirteen year-old girl trapped in a thirty year-old body. And, okay, so I'd happily shoehorn Jennifer Garner into any Top 10 list I could because I love her a little bit, but she shows serious comic chops for an actress primarily known for dramatic. Or, y'know, being super-serious Sydney Bristow. I prefer her pratfalls to Cameron Diaz's anyway, an actress who just seems to get less and less likeable as time goes on.

4) Jayma Mays as Cynthia in Red Eye

This is a gem of a movie. Tight script, interesting direction and able acting from its two leads, but Jayma Mays really makes this movie for me. Playing the ditzy receptionist at the hotel where Rachel McAdams works she provides a valuable comic counterpoint to her boss' airbound escapades. It's difficult not to succumb to Jayma's big doe eyes whilst she deals with irritating customers, room switches and a terrorist plot. I wish this actress had been in more than Ugly Betty and Epic Movie.

5) Mark Ruffalo as David Abbott in Just Like Heaven

Better known now as a "serious" actor in films such as Zodiac, Collateral and Blindness, Ruffalo has long since lent his special brand of adorableness to several romantic movies. From playing Sarah Polley's lover in Isabelle Coixet's weepie My Life Without Me to more upbeat roles in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and 13 Going On 30, he's proven that his talents stretch to a variety of different genres. However, it's in Mark Water's supernatural follow-up to Mean Girls that he really shines. The material is fairly lightweight, even with the twist at the end of the movie, but both Ruffalo and co-star Reese Witherspoon act their socks off. Ruffalo plays a guy who's just moved into his appartment, unable to get over his previous relationship. The scene where he finally opens up to Witherspoon's Dr. Elizabeth is heartbreaking to watch. His little bit of extra weight also help in making Ruffalo almost unbearably huggable-looking.

6) Robby Benson as Beast in Beauty and the Beast

One of Disney's best films and one of it's best characters. Belle was the first in a long line of more enlightened animated heroines, wisely choosing the difficult, brooding Beast over vain, barge-sized Gaston. Beast's gradual change from snarling loner to eager suitor is so winningly animated and acted that it's impossible not to be won over. Who wouldn't want a boyfriend (Beast or otherwise) who grants them with their own library, saves them from wolves and has their own ballroom. Like Enchanted, music plays a big part, in particular Something There, in which Bella and Beast engage in a snowball fight, each on the brink of acknowledging their fledgling affections for the other.

7) Glen Hansard as "Guy" in Once

Because he tells his pain through his music. Once doesn't have much in the way of script - it's all about the songs. And boy does Glen Hansard sing his heart out. I've always been a sucker for anyone who can sing and the music here is particularly effective. He's lonely, desperate to reach out and touch somebody. His final decision to head off to London and win back his girlfriend is laudable but it's his final gift to Markéta Irglová's "Girl" that really resonates. When I first saw this film I cried tears of actual happiness, which are damn hard to come by.

8) James McAvoy in Starter For 10

I hated the book but loved the film, which is unusual. I've been a fan of McAvoy since Shameless, so his seemingly inevitable ascent to Hollywood stardom and Angelina co-starring was A Good Thing. He launches a full-on charm offensive in Tom Vaughn's 80s nostalgia fest, lusting after ditsy Alice Eve before getting it on with Rebecca Hall's beret-donning girl with smarts. The combination of endearingly naive and cringiliy recognisable has been a long-standing tenet of lad lit for a long time now, but while John Cusack's turn in High Fidelity didn't really do it for me, James McAvoy really did here. Best scene is undoubtedly when he cries on his first date with Eve.

9) Alicia Silverstone as Cher in Clueless

Pretty much the only thing anyone remembers Alicia Silverstone for these days (her performance as Batgirl in Batman and Robin is best forgotten), but what a role to be remembered for. Amy Heckerling's smart adapation of Emma is winningly led by Silverstone's pouty performance. Her Cher is as well-meaning as she is shallow and completely adorable. Whilst co-star Brittany Murphy shot to stardom after Clueless, Silverstone has struggled with naff TV shows (Miss Match) and supporting roles in naffer movies (Stormrider, Scooby Doo 2). It's a shame, because she's clearly a good comic actress. And she gets to be with Paul Rudd as well. Biatch.

10) Gael García Bernal as Stephane in The Science Of Sleep

Michel Gondry's follow-up to Eternal Sunshine sometimes feels a bit hit-and-miss, especially on a second viewing but there's no denying the adorableness of Bernal's central performance. In a rare English-language role, and after more sexually aggressive performance in Bad Education and Y Tu Mama Tambien, he's surprisingly innocent-seeming here. Cast alongside a floaty Charlotte Gainsbourg, he exudes vulnerability. Paired with Gondry's typically imaginative set designs and hand-made special effects, Bernal's enjoyment is plastered all over his face. Especially coming from an actor better known for serious roles his performance, like that of Mark Ruffalo's in Just Like Heaven, is all the more effective. And he has great hair in this too.

13 Going On 30

Fluffy escapist nonsense helped considerably by immensely likeable performances from its two leads. On her thirteenth birthday Jenna Rink wishes that she was "flirty, thirty and thriving" before waking up in Jennifer Garner's body. Jenna, now an editor for an ailing magazine, is a bit of a meanie as an adult and comes complete with credit card, bitchy best friend and a jock boyfriend. Panicked, she tracks down her childhood best friend Matt (Ruffalo), who her adult self has lost touch with. In what is essentially a retread of Big, Jenna's childlike enthusiasm manages to save the magazine she works for, she learns that love and friendship are more important than money and status and enjoys a fairy tale ending with Matt.

Garner is pitch perfect as the girl trapped in a woman's body. Awkward, dorky and loveable, she makes the most of the workmanlike script. She's ably supported by Ruffalo, who's just as endearing here as he was in Just Like Heaven. There's a slight tendency for the film to bombard its audience with 80s nostalgia, but at least that does give us the following scene:

Released Today

The Boat That Rocked - New movie from Richard Curtis about a ship off the English coast broadcasting pirate radio in 1966. Richard Curtis' previous films have either really done it for me (Four Weddings, Bridget Jones, Emma Thompson in Love, Actually) or they really don't (Notting Hill, The Edge Of Reason, the rest of Love, Actually). The cast is a mix of the predictable and the interesting. No doubt Bill Nighy will be doing his usual deadpan schtick, although I would happily follow January Jones to the ends of the earth. Reviewers have been unimpressed but no doubt I'll catch this on ITV2 in a few years time.

Monsters Vs. Aliens - Self-explanatory 3D-animated feature from the Dreamworks stable. The first thing I thought when I saw the trailer for this was "Reese Witherspoon hasn't been in anything for ages". I don't count Four Christmases. She looks to have set her default setting to "perky" for this one. Reviews have been positive.

Religulous - Michael Moore-esque documentary about religion in the West. From Larry Charles, director of Borat.

Modern Life - Documentary about the decline of tradition in the French countryside.

Top 10 People Who Kill People

Following my recent obsession with Dexter, I've decided to put together my Top 10 "People Who Kill People":

1) Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs

Despite the character falling into self-parody in Hannibal and Red Dragon, Anthony Hopkins' first portrayal of the liver-quaffing serial killer is as grimly fascinating as ever. Although his break from prison is memorable, it's his scenes with Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) that linger. Hopkins' best-known roles since then have tended to be period films (The Remains Of The Day, Howard's End, Shadowlands) but he'll always be remembered as Lecter. Baring in mind that Hopkins has stiff competition from Brian Cox, who played Lecter previously in Manhunter, and from Ted Levine as Buffalo Bill, that's one heck on an achievement.

2) Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2


A lot of people seem to be of the opinion that Quentin Tarantino can't write female characters, which is baffling given that three of his movies have centered around strong, memorable women. Uma Thurman gives the best performance of her career, finding the ultimate role in The Bride aka Beatrix Kiddo. The intense physicality of her performance (the scene in Kill Bill: Volume 1 where she has drag herself into the Pussy Wagon without using her legs springs to mind here) is impressive, but it's Thurman's mixture of gutsy independence, raw emotion and deadpan humour that make her so watchable. After punching her way out of a coffin, covered in dirt and bleeding from a shotgun wound she walks into a cafe and simply says "Could I have a glass of water, please?" Genius.

3) Pauline Parker in Heavenly Creatures



Pauline is perhaps the most sympathetic character on the list. Kate Winslet may have been the breakout performer from Peter Jackson's luminous, unhinged biopic but Melanie Lynskey is every bit as memorable. As well-meaning adult figures attempt to put a stop to the intimate friendship between Pauline and Juliet Hulme, Pauline's ambivalence towards her kindly mother turns to rancour. Her diary entries, surprisingly matter-of-fact in their delivery - "Tomorrow morning Mother shall be dead. How odd" - are taken from the diaries of the real Pauline, who now lives in the Orkney islands.

4) Scar in The Lion King


One of the few Disney characters who we actually see kill somebody, here the mighty James Earl Jones-voiced Mufasa. Scar might not be my favourite Disney villain (I tend to prefer the women: Maleficent, Ursula, Cruella), Jeremy Irons' sarcastic tone suits the character well. The moment when he throws Mufasa off the cliff, which comes right after the stunning stampede sequence, is one of Disney's most dramatic moments. Of course, Scar meets a sticky end when he's eaten alive by hyenas, but he's perhaps the most memorable character in a film jam-packed with great ones. Although technically Scar's not so much of a person who kills people, but a badass lion with a black mane denoting his evilness, but no list would be complete without a Disney character.


5) Michael Myers in Halloween

Michael Myers is the ultimate stalk-and-slash killer. Black Christmas may have been the first horror film to show the murders from the killer's point-of-view, but Michael Myers remains iconic. The mask, the troubled childhood (recently mined in Rob Zombie's pointless Halloween remake), his fascination with sister Laurie Strode, his seemingly supernatural ability to survive what any would-be plucky heroine throws at him. All of this and more made him a slasher movie template for years.


6) Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct



No list would be complete without Sharon Stone's icepick-wielding, lady-part-flashing serial killer. Sexy and smart, she's more than a match for Michael Douglas. In a later movie, Scream, Rose McGowan's character cites Catherine Trammell as the only female serial killer in the movies and she's not wrong. Most female killers in film tend to kill as acts of revenge, such as Beatrix Kiddo, Sally Field in An Eye For An Eye or Jennifer Jason Leigh in Single White Female.


7) Kit in Badlands


Tempting as it is to put either Bonnie and/or Clyde here, Kit is probably my favourite killer on the road, even if he doesn't wear killer berets like Bonnie Parker. Paired with a pre-Carrie Sissy Spacek, Martin Sheen's gun-toting, back-to-nature serial killer on the run was perfect for Malick's typically intelligent film, which takes in themes of love, death, innocence and the conflict between man and nature. Despite being completely amoral, Kit is a supremely likeable antihero and part of the reason why the movie works is that you're constantly rooting for Kit and his goodtime gal to stay one step ahead of the cops.




8) Patrick Bateman in American Psycho


In the past year it would seem as if Christian Bale has done everything he can to tarnish his reputation in Hollywood. After an alleged assault on his mother after the UK premiere of The Dark Knight last July, in February Bale was then caught on audio ranting at a DOP on the set of Terminator Salvation who had wandered into his shot. It's worth remembering that his performance as the eponymous protagonist of Mary Harron's Brett Easton Ellis adaptation that broke him in America. It's a snarling, humorous performance set to a perfect soundtrack of 80s classics. Best moment? His moonwalk right before he chops off Jared Leto's head.


9) Darryl Revok in Scanners

I'm a big Cronenberg fan, especially his earlier body horror movies and Michael Ironside's performance as Daniel Revok is purely here for the manner in which he kills his victims. The opening sequence, where a press conference gasp as they witness somebody's head explode is brilliantly effective and for this reason alone he deserves a place on this list.

10) Peyton Flanders/Mrs. Mott in The Hand That Rocks The Cradle

"Cuckoo in the nest" films were all the rage in the early 90s, with both The Hand That Rocks The Cradle and Single White Female making big bucks. Whilst my love of Jennifer Jason Leigh is almost enough to make me want to put Hedy Carlson here, Peyton Flanders is just that little bit more devious. Wanting to extract revenge on the woman who accused Peyton's obstetrician husband of molesting her, thereby causing him to hang himself and for Peyton to lose the baby she had been carrying, Flanders poses as a nanny to Annabella Sciorra's Claire Bartel. Once inside she feeds Claire's baby with her own breast milk, accuses the gardener of paedophilia and kills Claire's friend Marlene (Julianne Moore) WITH A FUCKING GREENHOUSE. Not that I don't love Heady's "death by high heel", but Peyton really takes the biscuit.