I recently saw the new production of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, now in its last weeks at the Hudson Theatre, and it’s been rattling around in my brain ever since. (Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe are outstanding. If you can make it, don’t miss it.) A musical […]
The Feather on the Scales: ‘Defending Your Life’ (1991)
Defending Your Life is a comedy, but this doesn’t mean it should be taken lightly. A vision of the afterlife that ponders the nature of existence and what the sum of all our days might finally amount to, it suggests there is a fate even worse than death: never having truly lived. Daniel Miller (Albert […]
Out of the Frying Pan: ‘The Hot Rock’ (1972)
Part of my ‘New York State of Mind’ series. “I’ve heard of the habitual criminal of course, but I never dreamed I’d become involved in the habitual crime.” So speaks one of the droller denizens of The Hot Rock, Peter Yates’ winding caper film, in which a gang of thieves find themselves stealing the same […]
Neverland and Back: ‘Hook’ (1991)
All little boys grow up, except one. Steven Spielberg’s Hook asks what would happen if the world’s most famous eternal child not only became a man, but a husband and father too. The answer is an intriguing, if not always satisfying foray into the Peter Pan mythos. Peter Banning (Robin Williams) is a middle-aged, workaholic […]
Far Out: ‘The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension’ (1984)
This post is part of the Jeff Goldblum Blogathon, hosted by Realweemidget Reviews and Emma K Wall Explains It All. See the other posts here. Faced with an indecipherable plot, I am occasionally tempted to cry, “It’s not rocket science!” In The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, it really is—and brain surgery […]
Rocket Men: ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ (1958) and ‘First Men in the Moon’ (1964)
Fifty years ago today, humanity first set foot on the moon. TCM has been celebrating with a month-long sci-fi festival, beginning with George Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon: one of the first science-fiction films ever made and over a century later, still one of the best. Alongside the robots, metropolises and things from another […]
Love and Larceny: ‘Jewel Robbery’ (1932)
Jewel Robbery is like a lattice of spun sugar: intricate, elegant, beautiful to look at and delicious when devoured. It’s morning in Vienna and a high-end jeweller’s is opening its doors. The grill goes up, the safe opens and reverent hands extract dozens of necklaces and bracelets, the camera closing in to caress each glistening […]
From Page to Screen: Seven Films Set in Bookshops
Happy Independent Bookstore Day! Every last Saturday in April, since 2015, bookworms across the country have celebrated indie bookshops: marvellous, idiosyncratic creatures that these days feel like an endangered species. It’s a great excuse to buy books. Not that I’ve ever needed one. Glancing at my shelves, I’ve sometimes wondered if I’m in danger of […]
Love on the Lower East Side: ‘Crossing Delancey’ (1988)
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, here’s the first instalment in my ‘New York State of Mind’ series. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jewish grandmother in possession of an eligible granddaughter and an enterprising disposition must be in want of a grandson-in-law. Such is the tale of Crossing Delancey, Joan Micklin Silver’s […]
Street Fighter: ‘The Way of the Dragon’ (1972)
In The Way of the Dragon, Bruce Lee fights in an alley behind a restaurant, in the restaurant itself, on a rooftop, in a park and at a World Heritage Site. The film exists so that we might have the pleasure of watching its hero dispatch thugs in increasingly imaginative ways. When the hero is […]