Movies watched in 2021

I had never known that radar was an English invention, nor that it was tested on England's south-east coast. My dad would have been a nine-year old boy then, living in East Sussex; I wish he were alive so I could ask him if he'd seen any of the experiments. The film wasn't great but I did enjoy seeing Eddie Izzard act; I don't think I've seen her before and she is a prodigious talent.

In 1939 a female landowner in Suffolk hires an archeologist to explore the burial mounds on her property. What they find is Sutton Hoo - an Anglo-Saxon ship, and possibly the most important archeological discovery in Britain. Ralph Fiennes plays the archeologist, and as usual carries the film. Very interesting.

Virunga is possibly my favourite documentary of all time. It's about the national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where almost all of the remaining mountain gorillas live. Threatened by poachers and rich men wanting to dig for oil, the staff are astoundingly loyal to the gorillas and to the park. It's a beautiful film, disturbing, inspirational. Lots of video of the majestic but critically endangered mountain gorillas. It is the love for the park and for the gorillas that takes this film from a good documentary to a great one. One of the gorilla carers says that his role in life is care for the gorillas, and that he will die for them if need be. Prince Emanuel de Merode, the park's head honcho, is a humble man who has dedication and bravery running through his veins. This film shows some of the most evil people I've ever encountered, and some of the best.

Languages all over the place. Filmed in English, Congolese French, and Swahili, subtitles throughout as even most of the spoken English is heavily accented.

Based on the book by Ian McEwan, the film stars Emma Thompson as a judge in a difficult case, and Stanley Tucci as her neglected husband. Quite a good rendition of the book.

This film is part thriller, part black comedy. Anna Kendrick plays Stephanie, a perky, can't-get-me-down vlogger who loves crafts and cooking. Blake Lively is Emily, a PR executive at a big fashion firm; her neglected son is in the same kindergarten as Stephanie's much-loved and doted-upon child. When Emily disappears without a trace, and the when the police give up, Stephanie decides to hunt Emily down herself. I enjoyed this film because Kendrick and Lively are two of my favourite faces on screen, and because the thriller/comedy balance is well maintained.

Russell Crowe plays John, a college professor whose life becomes unhinged when his wife, Lara (Elizabeth Banks) is jailed for a murder that she did not commit. When she attempts suicide, John determines to break her out of prison and hunts down a former inmate, Damon, who has written a book on prison breaking. When John learns that his wife is going to be transferred out of prison in three days, he must speed up the plan. It's a promising story, but somehow it doesn't work on screen, even with Russell Crowe in the lead.

Wow. This documentary was almost unbelievable. Craig Forster is a South African wildlife filmmaker with a house on the very tip of the African continent. A strong swimmer, Forster takes daily swims in rough current in a kelp forest, and forms a bond with a female octopus. As her trust of him grows, she touches his hand and lets him hold her against his chest; she also shows him the kelp forest in a way no tour guide could ever do so. The filming was magnificent, the scenery stunning, the fact that a human could become close to an octopus is preposterous and absolutely true. I was also impressed that Forster could stay underwater for six minutes before going up for air. One of the best films I've ever seen.

This is a critically-acclaimed film that I had difficulty understanding or liking. Gene Hackman (who is marvellous) plays Harry Caul, a surveillance expert who fears that the tapes he makes of his subjects may lead to a murder. That's where things got murky for me. I don't think I've ever understood films where there are spies and secret plots, and this one confused me as well. Meh.

Paul Bettany stars as Uncle Frank, who hails from small-town South Carolina, and now lives in New York, where he is a college professor and lives with his male partner. Set in 1974, with the views of the day on homosexuality, Frank's niece does not know her uncle's secret until she goes to college in New York and finds out. When Frank's dad dies, he and his niece drive home for the funeral, and Walid, his lover, decides to come along. It is a strained visit, but extremely well acted; Paul Bettany has always been a strong actor, and Peter Macdissi, who plays Wally (Walid) charmed the cameras and I loved his scenes. Really good film.

This was a weird one. It is not my usual taste, but there's huge critical acclaim for the film so I watched it. It was too much for me, really. The film was powerfully emotionally charged and possibly should come with a warning for those with mental health problems; this film is jarring and includes a devastating suicide. The concept of famiy and honour in Taiwan are so different to those in the west that I think I missed some essential aspects of the film and so was puzzled by the behaviour of some of the characters.

Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles.

Weak vehicle for a movie about a couple (Anne Heche and Thomas Jane), who go camping with their young daughter, who vanishes mysteriously. Cops are called into action, search parties form. Except for the twist ending, which was quite the surprise, I found the film uninteresting and not particularly well put-together.

A young couple who has just found out that they are expecting a baby take a short holiday in northern Sweden. They cross-country ski and spend a night camping in the cold in order to view the Northern Lights. Unfortunately, they are followed by someone attempting to murder them, and gore and violence follow. It was interesting enough to watch through, although I honestly believe that they could have removed at least half the gore and still made the same film. The characters aren't particularly likeable, and because of that I was not too concerned at the danger they were in. I will say that I liked the minimalist sets and scenery, and the filming itself was unusual and handled noticeably well.

I watched with Swedish dialogue and English subtitles. I don't like dubbed films, I like listening to other languages; it's part of the charm of foreign movies.

The premise for this film is an odd one: Fiona Shaw (Harry Potter's Aunt Petunia) plays a former Catholic nun who is now a respected profiler. Amidst the lack of respect and jeering of a police squad of male cops, she is able to catch a serial killer. The plot wasn't much, but Fiona Shaw was startlingly talented, and carried the movie extremely well.

Liam Neeson is a very successful bank robber. He has another heist planned, but meets Annie (Kate Walsh), falls in love, and eventually confesses his crimes to her. He turns himself into the FBI, and promises cooperation if it will get him a shorter sentence. Unfortunately the FBI officers are corrupt, and things go south very quickly. This film was not great, but watchable.

This unusual, wonderful film is set in Georgia (the country in Western Asia), and focuses on Merab, who is training in Georgian traditional dance in hopes of attaining a role as a principal dancer with the national troupe. His hopes are lowered when Irakli joins the class; he is more skilled than Merab and will undoubtedly take Merab's desired place. Irakli and Merab fall in love. Georgia has not banned homosexuality but it is widely condemmed, as reflected in the film, and is so contrary to Georgian ways that the actors received death threats while the film was under production. It is a remarkable film; I loved every minute of it.

A Swedish/Danish comedy-drama looks at four teachers at a Scandinavian high school. They are all uninspiring teachers and have unhappy marriages. They have read that humans have 0.05% too little alcohol in their systems, and they decide to remedy their own lives by drinking daily while at work. There are funny and tragic consequences, but the film, which reminded me so much of early movies by Ingmar Bergman, was a paeon to friendship and life and joy. Mads Mikkelsen starred in the movie and was, as always, absolutely brilliant, especially in the final scene where he dances around the harbour with nimble moves and acrobatic skill. I highly recommend this film.

Danish with English subtitles.

This wildly incomprehensible movie starred a much-younger Ewan McGregor, playing a psychatrist, Naomi Watts as his former patient and current live-in girlfriend, and a very young Ryan Gosling, who is a suicidal patient who has visions of future events. The film played like I've always imagined that hallucinogenic drugs might feel, and the plot was impossible for me to follow.

This is 40 had many enjoyable parts to it, but it was overlong and too simplistic to be a fulfilling film to watch.

It was truly a Judd Apatow film. He directed it, his wife, Leslie Mann, starred in it, and the two daughters in the film are Apatow and Mann's daughters in real life.

I mainly watched the film because Paul Rudd is in it, and I like him in almost everything. The story is about a woman reaching her 40th birthday and the state of her marriage and her misbehaving children. The film had raunchy moments, a lot of swearing, and is definitely not suitable for children. Chris O'Dowd is in the film, and I was delighted to see him. I also thought the soundtrack for the most part was quite inspired.

Side Effects was a very odd film that although intriguing, largely missed the mark and missed the potential that I saw in the script. Rooney Mara plays a seriously depressed patient of Jude Law's, who puts her into a clinical trial of a new anti-depressant, which has absolutely ghastly side effects. I think the stage-y way that the film was directed took away from the promise that the movie had. You could really tell that the film was being shot on small sets, and that distracted my attention from the story.

This film, based on a true story, covers the research and writing of the Boston Globe breaking the story of the coverup of the nearly ninety priests who had molested youngsters, mainly boys. The coverup went all the way to the Cardinal of Boston, and lasted for decades. It was a good film. The background was filled in nicely, the actors strong, and the story gripping. I particularly enjoyed the performances of Mark Ruffalo and Stanley Tucci. This is the second time I've watched the movie and it interested me both times.

This was a very good movie, albeit dark and upsetting. Lucas Hedges plays a gay teenager, the son of a Baptist preacher, who is sent to a conversion centre to stop him being gay. Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman play his parents. The conversion centre is hell. The story is a true one, based on a memoir by Gerrard Conley. Well worth a watch, but dark and moody.

Documentary about two murders, both committed in Spain, and the effect of those murders on the family. Years later a re-investigation is opened as it is determined that the original investigation had missed out some absolutely vital clues. Okay film, but not great.

Spanish with English subtitles.

Inspired coming-of-age film shot over twelve years so that the actors remained the same.

Somewhat interesting tale of a bystander who was shot while he watched the Boston Marathon. Ultimately too simplistic to really enjoy, I will say that Jake Gyllenhaal was extremely good in his role.

This is one of the stranger films I've seen in a while. The cast was great, especially Allison Janney, who is terrific in anything. This is the story of Sue Buttons, ignored or belittled by the world, and her quest to be special. When she catches her husband with a prostitute, he dies of a heart attack. She buries him under cover of night and then has an idea - declare him missing and become famous as the wife of a missing man, desperately awaiting his return home. I don't think that there was any need for the amount of gun violence in the movie, unless the writers were trying to make a point about the excess of gun violence in the United States. Not a good film, tolerable, but that's all.

Quentin Tarantino brings another strange and violent tale to the screen with this film. I wish I'd remembered how violent his movies are; this one was marked with blood and fighting and even a flame thrower at one point. Leonardo di Caprio plays a washed-up cowboy film star, and Brad Pitt plays his stunt double, who works for di Caprio now as a driver and jack-of-all-trades. I thought that both of the main actors were extremely good; Brad Pitt really deserved the Oscar for his chameleon-like ability to put on new skins and lose himself completely in a role. Not the great film I was hoping for, but it was certainly intriguing and unusual.