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.

Dollhouse Episode 7 - Echoes

Carrying on from last week's brilliant Man On The Street, this is another compelling, complicated episode. A strong narcotic developed by the Rossum Corporation has been infecting students at a local university, causing them to lose all their inhibitions. DeWitt puts Victor and Sierra on the case, as security personnel and sexy disease expert respectively. Meanwhile, Echo is on assignment with the same guy we saw in the first episode but when she sees the university on the news she begins having flashbacks to her life as Caroline, who attended the same university.

Much of the episode is comprised of flashbacks. We learn that Caroline was an animal rights activist who, along with her boyfriend, broke into the Rossum Corporation's secret lab and uncovered a heap of information about experiments that they had been doing on humans for the Dollhouse. We also discover that Caroline's boyfriend was killed by Rossum's security guards and that this somehow led to Caroline being initiated into the Dollhouse.

Meanwhile, the narcotic begins having a funny effect on Topher (later Pantless Topher) and DeWitt and Mellie/November is withdrawn from active duty. We also get a glimpse of a new potential active, Sam.

All in all this was a solid episode, and the first one that's really blended drama and comedy together effectively. Olivia Williams was hilarious in her drugged state and there were so many quotable lines in her exchanges with Topher. We also got to learn a bit of Caroline's backstory and a suggestion of how she came to live in the Dollhouse - what happened in the two years between Caroline's break-in to the Rossum Corporation and her internment in the Dollhouse? DeWitt has been almost protective towards Echo for several episodes now and I hope we get to see exactly why this might be. The show finally seems to have found its feet after some major stumbles. Let's hope it continues the momentum.

Wilde

Fascinating and multi-faceted biopic of Oscar Wilde (as played by Stephen Fry) that focuses on his destructive relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, or Bosie (Jude Law). Wilde's marriage to Constance Lloyd (Jennifer Ehle) and the unfurling of his sexuality are passed over quickly, perhaps too quickly, but the film benefits from the tight focus on its central figures. It's a film of peaks and troughs; Wilde's creative output coincides with his numerous breaks from the increasingly selfish Bosie. As a comment on fame and of Victorian hypocrisy, this is interesting, but it's when the film moves into its final, tragic register that it really hits home. After being accused of sodomy by Bosie's tyrannical father Lord Queensbury (Tom Wilkinson), Wilde sues for libel. He withdraws the case but the Court still prosecutes him for gross indecency and Oscar is forced to serve the two years of hard labour during which he wrote De Profundis. Fry is perfect as Wilde and is nicely counterbalanced by Law, who is by turns capricious, needy and sympathetic. The two leads are ably supported by an excellent supporting cast, particularly Ehle, whose prison visit to her husband is the film's emotional touchstone. A witty, intelligent tribute to Oscar Wilde's legacy, this functions equally well as a three hankie period weepie.

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Adapted from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, David Fincher's latest is about a man, Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), who ages backwards. His mother dies in childhood and his father, repulsed by his haggard baby boy, leaves him on the steps of an old people's home where Benjamin is brought up by Queenie (Taraji P. Hensen). There he meets a young girl, Daisy, who later grows up to be Cate Blanchett, a ballet dancer who is later crippled in an accident and who becomes the love of Benjamin's life. Twee, sentimental, maybe even a little condescending at times, Fincher's film works in fits and starts. The stunning cinematography, set design and special effects are captivating, although the latter become distracting by the time Benjamin hits his early 20s and the audience is left staring at Brad Pitt's eerily unlined face. There are definitely some longeurs, in particular an unneeded story involving Benjamin witnessing Pearl Harbour. The acting is erratic also. Benjamin is little more than a cypher, leaving Pitt little to work with and Blanchett is surprisingly uninvolving but Tilda Swinton and Julia Ormond, as Benjamin's lover and daughter respectively, bring a bit of emotional heft to the material. The movie ends by offering up a message that we must try new things, that it's never too late to become someone new. It's trite (and hardly unexpected from the writer of Forrest Gump), but delivered with enough sincerity to ensure that when we witness the elderly Daisy caring for Benjamin through his infancy and up to his death as a baby in her arms, that I was left with a few sniffles. As a follow-up to Fincher's marvellous Zodiac, this is a disappointment, but it's not entirely without its charms.

Dollhouse Episode 6 - Man On The Street

Okay, so this is what we've been waiting for. Dollhouse finally delivers on its promise and delivers what is easily its best episode to date courtesy of show creator Joss Whedon.

The episode begins with Ballard tracking down a potential Dollhouse client, Joel, an Internet billionaire. When Ballard tracks Joel down he finds him with Echo, only of course she's not Echo here. She's Rebecca, happily married wife of Joel who, hilariously, suspects that her husband is involved in pornography. Whilst Ballard is busy getting rid of Joel's security taskforce, Boyd nips in and whisks Echo back to the Dollhouse. Ballard then sits down and has a nice chat with Joel who, it turns out, is hiring out Echo to live out a fantasy he had of his dead wife coming home and finding out he'd made it big with the money and bought her a house. Ballard is quick to point out that this would be pretty touching were he not also using Echo for sex as well.

Ballard then does the not-very-sensible-perhaps-in-retrospect thing of telling Millie everything he knows about the Dollhouse. Millie, the girl who waits at her door with a dish of homemade lasagna waiting for the rattle of keys in a door, takes everything he says at face value. Shame that, unbeknowst to Ballard, DeWitt has a hidden camera in his appartment that's recording his conversation with the trusting Millie.

Meanwhile, back at the Dollhouse itself, Sierra has an unusual reaction to Victor, screaming when he touches her shoulder. After examining her, Dr. Saunders reveals that Sierra has had sex since her last assignment. Boyd, in full-on policeman mode, finds a blind spot in the network of cameras across the Dollhouse. Victor is taken off active duty, only for it to be revealed that it is, in fact, Sierra's handler Hearn. Just as Hearn asks Sierra to "lift up your dress", Boyd comes out of the shadows, throwing Hearn throw a glass door. Boyd's rationale for allowing Victor to be blamed for the assault on Sierra is that Hearn needed to be "flush" with his success before he would try anything again.

DeWitt offers Hearn a way out from The Attic (said with enough import to make us assume that this is a Very Bad Place). She places a photo of Millie on Hearn's lap, telling him that she needs to be killed and that she doesn't require a "clean kill". DeWitt also tells Topher to prep another identity for Echo, revealing ominously that it's time she and Ballard had "a second date".

The action then cuts back to Ballard and Millie, who have just finished having mind-blowing sex. They decide to get some Chinese food to fortify themselves for the next round. Whilst Ballard is in the Chinese restaurent, which is oddly (i.e. conveniently) empty, he's attacked by Echo. They have a badly edited fight in the oddly (conveniently) empty kitchen and then a slightly better edited fight in the street outside. Now for the twist. Echo has Ballard at gunpoint and reveals that there is a Dollhouse. Not just one but several around the world with ties to government and major political organisations. She reveals that the Dollhouse has someone on the inside who altered the parameter of her imprint in order for her to give Ballard a message: allow the Dollhouse to believe they've won. It's too big an organisation to fight in this way; a more imaginative approach is required. Echo tells Ballard that whilst the Dollhouse won't want to kill an FBI agent, they won't hesitate to kill anyone close to him.

Right on cue, Hearn enters Ballard's appartment and attacks Millie. The phone is ringing and we assume it's Ballard, who's racing back home in true hero fashion, but it's actually DeWitt, who says something about there being three flowers in the vase. It's a trigger. Turns out Millie is a sleeper agent who kills Hearn without batting an eye. DeWitt, after seeing on her hidden camera thingie that Hearn is dead, deactivates Millie just in time for her to run into Ballard's concerned man arms. Ballard is put on suspension from the FBI and DeWitt believes that she's done a good job.

A lot to take in here. After five disappointing episodes, it seems that this is where the show was heading all along. Plenty of twists, some of which I didn't see coming, and some good acting from everyone across the board. The focus was less on Echo and more on the ensemble, which is definitely a good thing. This isn't to denegrate from Eliza Dushku's skills as an actress - I actually think she's given a very solid, unshowy performance week after week - but the show as a whole feels a lot more coherent now. It feels not only like it's going somewhere but that it's able to engage with its more complex questions about morality, good, evil, the usual Joss Whedon favourites. It wasn't totally unlike Alias, not that this either is a bad thing, unless of course it's Season 4 of Alias...

There were lots of little things to enjoy here too. DeWitt's distinction between playing a "good hand" and "a bad hand very well" was marvellous and perfectly delivered by Olivia Williams, who seems to be coming into own now after her rather clipped and terribly English delivery in the first few episodes. Of course, I just love her in Rushmore and Miss Austen Regrets so I could be biased.

Of course, anyone who saw Dichen Lachman as Katya Kinski on Neighbours will love her unconditionally.

Trademark Whedon humour was to be found in abundance, in particular the phrase "moral spankitude", and I liked the captions of LA people discussing what they thought about the "urban legend" that is the Dollhouse.

All in all a great episode and hopefully a sign of things to come, if Fox don't cancel it.

Movie Of The Day: Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Joe Wright’s adaptation of Austen’s much-loved classic aims for a naturalistic approach to the material. Keira Knightley’s Lizzie Bennett is girlish, prone to giggling and sulking. It’s not a bad performance – far from it – but she’s not well served by Deborah Moggach’s script. The focus is almost entirely on the romance between Lizzie and the proud Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen; he’s no Colin Firth). Moggach concurs with popular academic opinion in highlighting Lizzie’s longingly long tour of Pemberley as key in changing Lizzie’s opinion of Darcy. However, this switch in feeling just doesn’t sit right with the rest of the movie and any pleasure to be had in the interactions between the two leads is from the novel.

The liberties that Moggach takes with Austen’s story is certain to anger purists. Wickham is reduced to a handful of scenes and the devastation that Lydia’s elopement has on the Bennetts is glossed over. What really impresses here is Wright’s direction, which conveys a feeling of intimacy which is far removed from the chocolate box visuals of other Austen adaptations. Whether it’s Lizzie and Jane talking underneath the covers at night, or the long shot through the movie’s first ballroom sequence, Wright’s direction at first seems at odds with the period setting but does, finally, make a sort of sense. As we see Knightley stomping through a muddy backyard after her best friend Charlotte has informed her that she is to be married to the uptight, unwittingly humorous Mr. Collins (a particularly well-observed turn from Tom Hollander), it’s clear that Wright is clear to highlight the gulf between Lizzie’s romantic expectations and the very real possibility of her family’s inherent poverty.

An interesting, if flawed, adaptation of a popular novel. Wright’s flourishes were to seem ostentatious in his second movie, Atonement, but this proved an effective stepping stone for Knightley as the yoof’s answer to Helena Bonham Carter.

Twilight

Following the phenomenal success of Stephanie Meyers' quartet of vampire novels, the film adapation of the first book in the series, Twilight, was bound to be a success. In a year oddly barren of teen movies, Twilight had teenage girls queueing up in their thousands to see their favourite characters brought to life on the big screen. What's perhaps more surprising is that Catherine Hardwicke's (Thirteen) adaptation is actually pretty good.

Bella Swann is a sixteen year-old girl with emo trappings who has moved from her mum's place in Arizona to stay with her father in the small town of Forks, Washington. Not quite the cheerleader-type, Bella is nonetheless bright and pretty enough to make friends easily, although she is unable to feel any real connection to her new friends. She quickly draws the attention of Edward Cullen, an intense young man who has the disquieting habit of staring at her throughout biology class from underneath his perfectly perfect eyelashes. As Bella is soon to discover, Edward is a vampire. But it's okay; he's a vegetarian. The Cullen family live on woodland animals rather than succumb to their predatory ways. However, any burgeoning romance between Bella and her vampiric beau might just prove too much of a temptation for Edward, who's all too aware of his desire to rip his girlfriend's throat open and drink of her pure virgin blood.

What follows is a chastened romance, full of brooding glances, swooping camerwork and an overwhelming sense of teen angst. Several reviews of the books pointed out their seemingly pro-abstinence agenda. However, coming from a director such as Hardwicke it's difficult to see the film in this way. As she showed in Thirteen, Hardwicke isn't afraid to show teenage sexuality in all its mucky details and although Bella and Edward don't "get it on" per se, the question of sex is never far from the surface and by (wisely) choosing to play the whole thing straight, Hardwicke creates a sense of malevolent sexual tension that is often absent from other movies aimed at a teenage audience.

The performances are rooted in reality, especially Kristen Stewart's jumpy, self-conscious Bella, and Robert Pattison (who's clearly been taking notes from the David Boreanaz school of acting) looks all set to be the new Zac Efron. There are some faults to the finished product, not least of all an occasionally clunky script and some dodgy special effects, but Twilight is a brave move away from the sort of glossy teen cinema we're used to seeing.