[TobyD]

Read the above comments with interest, but I'm afraid that I am going to maintain an irrational instinctual dislike of Hanks movies; with the priviso that I can still like some of them, such as Bridge of Spies.
It's not a quality thing, for example I usually find Tom Cruise movies enjoyable and he's just, well Tom Cruise most of the time and doesn't really act much. I just have irrational feelings about movies.

[tomtom]

Re transformative, see also Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men. The sense of menace he captures is incredible. Strong contender for my favourite film full stop.

Great film. I'm a Cohen Bros fan...

I'm a bit with Toby on Tom Hanks though. He's certainly very very good - I just am generally uninspired (ocassionally to the point of irritated) with his roles.. Bridge of Spies is excellent though....

He (Hanks) does do ALOT of films....

Speaking of actors that do alot of films - has there ever been a genuinely brilliant performance by Michael Caine? He's good - nearly always good - but has he ever been exceptional in a film? (with the brooding menace in Get Carter possibly - the rocking chair/phone scene is great...)

[SA Chris]

Michael Caine films are like Gary Gibson routes, so many there there have to be a few good ones.

There was a point when Pete Postlethwaite was in nearly everything too.

[Will Hunt]

Michael Caine? Muppets Christmas Carol, duh!

I liked him in Children of Men, but then what wasn't good about that film? You're probably right. Never extraordinary but consistently Very Good.

[Yossarian]

Caine FFS

Get Carter
Ipcress File
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Quiet American
Educating Rita
Zulu

I liked Tom Hanks in Charlie Wilson's War. Band of Brothers obvs. The rest just make me think that there might be worse people to get stuck in a lift with...

[Oldmanmatt]

Caine FFS

Get Carter
Ipcress File
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Quiet American
Educating Rita
Zulu

I liked Tom Hanks in Charlie Wilson's War. Band of Brothers obvs. The rest just make me think that there might be worse people to get stuck in a lift with...

He’s not bad in “Twist” either, as a modern day Fagin. The film was so so, a bit CBBC, but, especially considering his age, Caine was quite good.

[GazM]

Band of Brothers obvs.

Pendants Corner!
Dyou mean Saving Private Ryan? He was an exec. producer on Band of Brothers but never acted in it.

[AMorris]

The Dig

Really good, superb performances, and beautifully shot.

Watched this last night and was captivated the whole way through. I was entirely ignorant of the story behind this excavation, so afterwards it sent me on a hunt to find out more about Basil Brown. I'm a sucker for this kind of tale!

[Yossarian]

Sorry, yes!

[GazM]

Sorry for the pedantry! I was (still am I guess) a massive Band of Brothers fanboy.

We've watched very few films in recent years (young kids innit) but watched The Dig last week and loved it. Like AMorris that led to a bit of online research and to the British Museum's Curators Corner series on YouTube. Fascinating stuff.

By contrast, we watched Mary Queen of Scots the other night, which was entirely forgettable.

[spidermonkey09]

Apart from lack of ending.

Strong disagree! Think the ending works better in the book but I'm really glad they stayed true to it in the film.

[tomtom]

Following the Greenland reviews, I watched a much slimmer Gerard Butler (pre lockdown) starred in ‘Hunter Killer’ that was on film4 the other night (on 4 player etc..) - and I quite enjoyed it. I’m a sucker for sub films and whilst it was fairly brainless Hollywood blowing up things I thought it was alright.

[Snoops]

Caine FFS

Get Carter
Ipcress File
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Quiet American
Educating Rita
Zulu

Good list, missed Italian Job, and the 'Man who would be King', if anyone hasn't seen that is compulsory viewing;)

[moose]

Caine FFS

Get Carter
Ipcress File
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Quiet American
Educating Rita
Zulu

Good list, missed Italian Job, and the 'Man who would be King', if anyone hasn't seen that is compulsory viewing;)

He was good in Sleuth too (the original version with Olivier), and in a supporting role in The Quiet American.  I vaguely recall him being very good in a seedy way in Blood and Wine.

[ali k]

Band of Brothers obvs.

Pendants Corner!
Dyou mean Saving Private Ryan? He was an exec. producer on Band of Brothers but never acted in it.

Oh the irony 

[andy popp]

Judas and the Black Messiah; not a biopic, but focused on the last year or so in the life of Fred Hampton, leader of the Black Panthers in Chicago. I thought this was a great film, anchored by superb performances by Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, and Dominique Fishback. Highly recommended.

[sheavi]

Babyteeth - Aussie drama/comedy on Netflix.  Thought it was excellent.

[Davo]

White Tiger (Netflix)

Balram leaves his poor village and overbearing family to work as a driver for the local landlord/mob boss and begins his brutal rise to self-made millionaire. This is a film version of the book of the same name which won the Booker a few years back. I thought the book was a bit overrated but really enjoyed this. Adarsh Gourav is excellent as the put upon Balram brewing up a dangerous mix of resentment and rage, and the lavish Netflix budget makes Delhi look almost exactly like it actually is, ie a dusty, dirty, dysfunctional metropolis which is nevertheless better than the village Balram is desperate to escape.

Thanks for the recommendation. Just watched this and thought it was great. Really well acted, filming and images of India and Delhi are amazing. Would never have bothered watching without the heads up.

[andy popp]

Nomadland, directed by Chloé Zhao, starring Frances McDormand, based on the 2017 non-fiction book "Nomadland: Surviving American in the Twenty-First Century," and featuring several of the people from that book playing themselves. I had high hopes for this film, hopes the film utterly exceeded. Fern (McDormand) has been widowed and the company town she lived in has been shuttered. Through force of circumstance she begins to live in her van, slowly drifting into a nomadic lifestyle followed by increasing numbers of older Americans experiencing extreme economic precarity, living a life on the margins, working terrible jobs, seemingly lost but forging bonds and community.

Roaming endlessly across Arizona, Nevada, and the Dakotas, the film has all the majestic landscape beauty of the best westerns, but the story is told on such a perfect, intimate human scale, with great subtlety and compassion but without sentimentality. McDormand is better than she's ever been, but it's such a self effacing performance you immediately forget she's working with non-actors.

I think the film will probably be most often viewed as a parable of contemporary America's economic dysfunction, but it also the best thing I've ever seen on the experience of widowhood.

If you're in any doubt, I think this is a masterpiece, one that is going to bear many viewings.

[TobyD]

Nomadland, directed by Chloé Zhao, starring Frances McDormand, based on the 2017 non-fiction book "Nomadland: Surviving American in the Twenty-First Century," and featuring several of the people from that book playing themselves. I had high hopes for this film, hopes the film utterly exceeded. Fern (McDormand) has been widowed and the company town she lived in has been shuttered. Through force of circumstance she begins to live in her van, slowly drifting into a nomadic lifestyle followed by increasing numbers of older Americans experiencing extreme economic precarity, living a life on the margins, working terrible jobs, seemingly lost but forging bonds and community.

Roaming endlessly across Arizona, Nevada, and the Dakotas, the film has all the majestic landscape beauty of the best westerns, but the story is told on such a perfect, intimate human scale, with great subtlety and compassion but without sentimentality. McDormand is better than she's ever been, but it's such a self effacing performance you immediately forget she's working with non-actors.

I think the film will probably be most often viewed as a parable of contemporary America's economic dysfunction, but it also the best thing I've ever seen on the experience of widowhood.

If you're in any doubt, I think this is a masterpiece, one that is going to bear many viewings.

Where can you see this?

[andy popp]

We used a VPN to watch it on US Hulu. On reflection, it would have been helpful if I'd noted this.

[TobyD]

We used a VPN to watch it on US Hulu. On reflection, it would have been helpful if I'd noted this.

Ok thanks dude, I had already read about this elsewhere and it sounds very good; I'll have to see how it's available in the UK. Good review btw thanks.

[Lopez]

If it isnt breaking any rules, i can sugest a streaming site where that film is available. Legally a gray area but so it's using VPN's to get around territorial DRM restrictions...  So handy for cases like this one

[andy popp]

We actually pay for a Hulu subscription, so I don't feel too guilty about using a VPN.

[Loos3-tools]

Raze available on Amazon at the moment - strong grindhouse vibe

The Cube - 90’s sci-fi horror classic that feels very now