Hursto's five minute films

Wednesday, 10 June 2020

June 10th
Resistance
Sydney Film Festival
St Kilda Film Festival
Citizen Jane - DocPlay
Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes - Netflix series

Wow, cinemas are getting geared up to open again. Maybe that's for the young and brave. Meantime I've been previewing countless films from two festivals online as of today, and stay tuned next week for the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, also coming online. The overriding theme in many of today's reviews seems to be a mix of fighting oppression and racism, war and empowerment of women. Is it a sign of the times?

Resistance
Dir: Jonathan Jakubowicz
Length: 120 mins

11 June – 11 July – Available to rent from Foxtel Store

22 June - Select cinema release in Melbourne with other states to follow

29 July – Available to rent from iTunes, Google Play, Sony (Playstation Network)

Microsoft (Xbox Network), Foxtel PPV, Bigpond, Fetch & Quickflix

Before he was a world-famous mime artist, Marcel Mangel (Jessie Eisenberg), was a struggling performer, doing Chaplin imitations in cabarets in Strasbourg, France. After the Germans invaded in WW2, he joined the French Resistance and helped save the lives of many Jewish orphans. This is an inspirational story, totally worth telling. It is about bravery, dedication and selflessness, as well as the genesis of an artist who became possibly the best mime the world has ever known: Marcel Marceau. Eisenberg has studied hard to capture the archetypical Marceau moves and he does it well. Matthias Schweighofer is a stand-out as the sadistic Gestapo Chief, Klaus Barbie. One of the most tense scenes in the film is where the Resistance fighters, orphans in tow on a train, are confronted by Barbie. It's a brilliantly directed scene, but a shame that the entire film doesn't measure up to this scene. Overall the film tends towards formulaic, sentimental, and is clunkily framed by an American General (an Ed Harris cameo) introducing Marceau to his men. As a story, Resistance is unmissable, and while the film could have been more creative, it's nevertheless well worth watching and comes recommended.

Sydney Film Festival
June 10-21
For program and ticket purchasing, visit sff.org.au

This year is the 67th Sydney Film Festival, and it's online. Whatever package you purchase, from the smallest to the entire festival, you are free to watch at your leisure, on demand. Films are grouped into various strands. I've previewed a few.
Documentaries

Descent: Kiki Bosch is one of the world's only professional ice free-divers - that is, she dives without a wetsuit or scuba kit in freezing waters. This has helped her get over debilitating sexual trauma, and has created a determination and resilience seen in few humans. She helps train others to use her techniques for their own self-development. Inspirational, scary and fascinating viewing.

The Skin of Others: Tom Murray has researched and directed a beautiful documentary, that works on so many levels. It is the story of Douglas Grant, adopted as a toddler by Scottish parents. Grant later served in World War 1. Straddling two worlds, upon his return, he gradually felt less and less accepted by white society. Murray made the film with indigenous actor Balang Lewis reenacting scenes from Grant's life. Several commentators add insight into the history and the legends surrounding Grant. With the current movement #blacklivesmatter, this and Our Law, are such important and timely documentaries.

Our Law: Though only 27 minutes long, it has so many answers to the currently raging issue of police brutalisation of colored people, world-wide. In the remote town of Warakurna in the WA outback is Australia's only indigenous run police station. Police officers Wendy and Revis learn to speak to locals in language, and give kindness, advice and gentle warnings rather than brutality. The doco is an insightful look at alternatives, and into the culture of remote dwellers. (Proudly supported by NITV).
Europe: Voices of Women in Film.

A Perfectly Normal Family: Based upon the director's own childhood experience, this Danish film focuses upon loving father Thomas, who is divorcing from Helle, because he has decided to transition to become a woman. Daughters Emma and Caroline cope (or don't) in their own ways. This is a stand-out film, told with sensitivity, compassion, and delicacy. Mikkel Boe Folsgaard is perfectly cast as Thomas/Agnete, and the two youngsters playing his daughters nail their roles. It's a powerful argument for acceptance, compassion, and the enduring love between parents and children.
Charter: This disturbing and sad Swedish film explores a mother's mental state, as she abducts her two kids to take them on holiday, while in the middle of a custody battle. There are many nuanced layers here and no simple moral stance can be taken. Underpinned by terrific performances all round, this is serious Euro-cinema for fans of relationship/parental drama.

They Call me Babu: A babu was a nanny working for Dutch families in the Dutch East Indies. The doco is based upon the testimonies of countless babus, and is narrated from the viewpoint of a composite fictional nanny. Visuals are archival footage from the Netherlands and Japan, and the whole gives voice to the experience of so many of these forgotten women. The film also goes as far as the occupation of Indonesia by the Japanese during WW2, and the country's subsequent independence from the Dutch. This is a gently told, yet powerful story, in which the old black and white footage, along with the elegaic soundtrack, pay exquisite homage to so many women who suffered oppression.
Australian Short Films
There are also many excellent short films to choose from. See the program (website above) for ideas.

St Kilda Film Festival
June 12-20
FREE to watch online at https://www.stkildafilmfestival.com.au/

Now in its 37th year, the St Kilda FF is also online this year, and it's FREE! As a foremost showcase for short film, it gives audiences a chance to become acquainted with a style of film-making they may not be so familiar with. Many of Australia's top directors got their start at this festival. Some of the viewing sessions will focus on specific themes, for example Forming Jane Campion will showcase five of the iconic director's early works. Philips Noyce's 1977 one-hour short feature film, Backroads can also be viewed. Other sessions feature animation, film-makers under 21, gender-based films, and so much more. International shorts get a guernsey, along with the top 100 Aussie short films. To pique your interest, the film Ring is shot from the viewpoint of an automated video doorbell, which records a crime going on at the other end of the corridor. Totally innovative, and surprisingly engaging for a mere 11 minutes. Or After the Away - a poignant 15-minute story of a friendship between two young boys. Open your mind to the possibility of short film having as much to say as a feature film; just in another way.

Citizen Jane: the Battle for the City
Director: Matt Tyrnauer
Streaming on DOCPlay

Activist and author Jane Jacobs wrote "The Death and Life of Great American Cities". In the 1960s she organised many grassroots movements against ruthless developer Robert Moses, who bulldozed many urban slums and built public housing (the projects), which took away the sense of community for locals, leading to crime and other social problems. Jacobs successfully stopped the building of a freeway which would have seen Little Italy, Lower Manhattan and SoHo devastated. In an era when so much of the history of our cities is being obliterated to make way for modern development, this is an especially important documentary. It goes to show what individuals and community movements can achieve when taking on "the big boys".

Conversations with a Killer:
The Ted Bundy Tapes
Director: Joe Berlinger
4 part series on Netflix

Confession: I'm a closet Dexter fan. I loved that series about the Miami serial killer, who only ever killed the bad guys who had escaped the long arm of the law. This particular killer, Ted Bundy, was no Dexter, as this grisly mini-series proves. The director draws meticulously on more than 100 hours of archival footage and interviews with police, friends, family members. The taped conversations with Bundy in jail are interspersed with the historical retelling. They are testament to the warped psychopathic mind of a well-spoken, handsome man who presented to society as just your average guy, and with a degree in psychology to boot. He used his charms to lure more than 30 young girls to their gruesome ends, and the details are certainly disturbing. For fans of crime series, this should prove compulsive viewing.

Friday, 5 June 2020

June 6th
Burden - new digital release feature
Proxima - new digital release feature
Extraordinary - new digital release feature
Unorthodox - Netflix series
Agave: The Spirit of a Nation - documentary DocPlay

Releases are hotting up - more coming out . . . plus film festivals scheduled for online release (not to mention murmurs about cinemas opening). This week I look at three excellent new feature films, an intoxicating doco on tequila, plus a series that you've probably seen but which is new to me. Stay tuned next week for a sneak peek into the forthcoming online Sydney Film Festival and the St Kilda Film Festival.

Burden
Director: Andrew Heckler
Length: 117 min
Available to rent now via Foxtel Store until 4 July

a moving story

In a small Carolina town, a redneck group of Klu Klux Klansmen set up a museum of Klan history. Reverend Kennedy (Forest Whitaker) organises protests to try to close it down. Mike Burden (Garett Hedlund) is a Klansman with a blossoming relationship with single mum Judy (Andrea Riseborough), whose little son plays with a local black kid. Torn between Judy and his Klan affiliation, Mike must make some tough choices. This film seems to have divided critics, but viewers love it, giving it the Sundance audience award. I'm squarely in the camp of those who recommend this film, despite its worthy themes sometimes being a little obviously drawn. The physicality of Hedlund's performance is a revelation, Tom Wilkinson as the local Klan leader is scarily evil, and Riseborough is flawlessly believable as Judy, hating Klan beliefs yet loving Mike. Furthermore, the story is based upon true events, and it carries the torch for redemption, grace and forgiveness, much needed in today's world. Not to mention its absolute relevance to the #blacklivesmatter movement, in a world still riddled with hatred and prejudice.
Highly recommended

Proxima
Director: Alice Winocour
Length: 107 min
June 3rd digital release from Madman Entertainment: https://www.madmanfilms.com.au/

French woman Sarah (Eva Green) is a divorced mother, and the only woman astronaut in training for a mission to the International Space Station. As the training hots up, time spent away from her young daughter Stella (Zélie Boulant-Lemesle) becomes more disturbing for Sarah, caught between maternal ties and her own career aspirations. This is a beautifully made film, with a Cesar Best Actress nomination for Green's thoughtful performance. Any mother-daughter saccharine sweetness is carefully avoided, and themes of gender bias are well handled without beating the drum too loudly. Matt Dillon is terrific as one of Sarah's two co-astronauts, and the insights into what is involved in the rigorous training are instructive and fascinating. With the SpaceX mission having just landed at the ISS, it's another very timely story.
Highly recommended

The Extraordinary
(AKA The Specials on IMDB)
Director: Olivier Nakache, Eric toledano
Length: 116 min
June 3rd digital release from Madman Entertainment: https://www.madmanfilms.com.au/

Winning the audience award at the San Sebastian FF, and with a swag of other nominations, this film grew on me as it went along. The story is inspired by two real-life charitable organisations and their dedicated staff who deal with profoundly autistic kids that other places won't take. From the start it is very confronting, as unmanageable and disturbed teens act out violently. Vincent Cassel plays Bruno, the Jewish head of one organisation, with Reda Kateb as Malek, the Muslim head of the other. The two men, and their helpers are selfless, compassionate, and patient beyond belief. The trouble is that this group has not been "certified" by government authorities, and are constantly torn between the knowledge of being the last resort for their charges, and the threat of being shut down. The film is a disturbing insight into a world many of us only hear about, and pays homage to those people among us who rise above the ordinary to help others.
Highly recommended

Unorthodox
Director: Anna Winger
4 part series on Netflix

Many people I've spoken to have already seen this, so I may be preaching to the converted (no puns intended.) Esther is a young woman growing up in an intensely orthodox Hasidic Jewish community in Williamsburg New York. Expectations upon women are to have as many kids as soon as possible after marriage. The gossipy community is closed and rigid and Esther feels she has no choice but to run from it - all the way to Berlin where her own mother, long estranged from the community, lives. This series, based upon a biography, is magnificent viewing, superbly scripted, toggling constantly from the lead-up of what happened in Esty's past to her present plight. Beautifully acted, it is a portrayal of a world many of us will never get to see, and a reminder of how orthodoxy of any form can be totally detrimental to individuality, despite tradition and culture creating strong bonds.
Unmissable

Agave: The Spirit of a Nation
Length: 79 min
Streaming on DOCPlay: https://www.docplay.com

DocPlay throws me into decision crisis - so many magnificent docos to choose from - where does one begin? I hadn't initially intended to choose this one, but found it totally absorbing viewing. Expressively shot, it takes us to three distilleries in Mexico, where people pursue the family tradition of distilling the agave plant into both mescal and tequila (BTW: mescal can be made from all agave plants, tequila from only the blue agave). Again, the story has resonance for so much that troubles today's world - the destruction of ecosystems by over-farming, struggles of small producers against big corporations, and the constant battle to preserve indigenous cultures and customs. It's also an uplifting glimpse into the joyousness of Mexican cultural practices, and their strong family bonds. Pour yourself a shot, and savour this terrific doco.
Highly recommended

Monday, 25 May 2020

May 26th
The Trip to Greece - new feature film
The Story of Film - 15 part series - DocPlay
10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki - Japanese

With restrictions easing, people may well be looking forward to heading off to cinemas in the foreseeable future. At the moment I'd say, leave it to the brave. But at least things are looking up, and for those still avoiding the increasingly thronging crowds out there, there's still plenty of fine film to be caught from the comfort of your couch (or perched on your exercise bike).

The Trip to Greece
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Length: 103 min
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqkSrXsUOlk
Available now on iTunes, Google Play, YouTube, Sony Playstation, Telstra & Fetch TV

This is the fourth gastronomic trip Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have taken together, and, unfortunately, their last. After The Trip (visiting northern England), The Trip to Italy, The Trip to Spain, comes this journey to my favorite overseas destination. The two retrace the steps of Odysseus, starting with Lesvos, home of poet Sappho, then Macedonia, Athens, the Peloponnese and finally Ithaca, the island Odysseus returned to. Now I know not everyone enjoys this droll, very chatty form of humour, but I come to it from a place of just loving the silly conversations these two guys have, trying to one-up each other, and outdo each other with silly accents ("That's not how Michael Caine talks - this is how" - this time it's Ray Winstone imitations). The scenery is to die for, historical facts interesting, and while there is the same dry humour this one has a little extra plot depth in its ending. And needless to say the food has one totally drooling. When you can't get on a plane to Greece, give this one a go!

10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki
Director: Kaku Arakawa
Length: 4 x 49 minute episodes
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/

Thanks to the team at the Japanese Film Festival, there is some excellent FREE watching for Japan-o-philes! With a smorgasbord of documentaries, anime series, travel series, and much more, this is a fabulous opportunity to top up your craving for all things Japanese. I've always loved the animations from Studio Ghibli who gave us such sublime films as My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Ponyo, Princess Mononoke, Howl's moving Castle, The Wind Rises and many more. In this fabulous series, we get an insight into the creative process of co-founder of the studio Hayao Miyazaki. For lovers of these animations, I suggest this is something not to be missed.

The Story of Film - an Odyssey
2011
Director: Mark Cousins
Length: 15 x 1 hour episodes
Streaming on DOCPlay: https://www.docplay.com

The ultimate doco for movie lovers (yes I know, many of you tell me you've already seen this, but I hadn't.) Film critic Mark Cousins spent six years on four continents to cover more than 1000 films and spanning 11 decades. Unlike similar American-based docos, Cousins looks at film the world over, comparing movements, trends, iconic films from everywhere, sometimes as a complement and sometimes as a contrast to what Hollywood was up to. He includes clips from the films, interviews with directors and actors, now grown old, and the wealth of information and entertainment here is simply monumental. I now have a new list of films I must track down from the past, and from far-flung countries.

Thursday, 14 May 2020

May 15th
Astronaut - new feature film
Afterlife - Series Netflix
This Ain't No Mouse Music - DocPlay
Lost in Translation - revisit - Foxtel film

My sadness continues - for the many deaths, illnesses, ongoing dramas, people struggling to make ends meet, and the stupidity of certain politicians who are still disputing, denying, self-aggrandising and creating more trouble than we already have. So, lifting of restrictions - how have things really changed though? Yes we can gather in larger groups, but it just means we have to be all the more cautious. Hopefully not too many silly people will run amok and flout the restrictions, as if there were no pandemic. It's still with us, and we still have no cure or vaccine. To be really safe, stay at home and watch films. This week's selection is a slightly more uplifting bunch - we need it!!
P.S: I'm not giving my usual graded recommendations during this period - I'm only reviewing things I recommend!

Astronaut
Director: Shelagh McLeod
Length: 97 min
Available on FetchTV, Google Play, Foxtel Box Office, Apple TV

still has all his marbles

Only a few weeks ago I was talking about the young Richard Dreyfuss, then only 26 years old, in American Graffiti. Now in his 70s, he plays Angus, a retired civil engineer, who has always wanted to travel into space. When a raffle is held with the prize of that exact trip, despite his age, he enters. Yes, I know some reviewers are negative about a film like this, with its rather stereotyped view of old age (not Angus, but the other oldies in the retirement home). The film's denouement, no matter how realistically based on the Branson/Musk space-flight ambitions, also lacks a certain credibility and is too neat. However, there is MUCH to recommend this sweet, heart-warming film, not the least being the fabulous performance by its lead, and the lovely relationship created with grandson Barney (Richie Lawrence). Angus is a wonderfully inspiring character, as he proves old-age is not an impediment to being useful, or to having big dreams, which is a much-needed reminder in today's world. I chose to put aside the ultra-critic hat, and simply enjoyed it as a delightful, feel-good film.

After Life
Director: Ricky Gervais
Length: 2 Series each 6 x 1/2 hour

Streaming on Netflix

bittersweet scenes to warm the heart

Written and directed by, and starring Ricky Gervais, this series is something to be relished. Gervais plays Tony, a grieving widower, who is bereft without his beloved Lisa, and uses abrasiveness, sarcasm, hostility, and suicidal desires to fend off his emotional pain. He works at a regional newspaper, where the low-key stories and his fellow employees garner his contempt, an emotion Gervais does par excellence. I used to not like him, but after this show, I'm a convert. This is a winner of a series, with incisive scripting, dry humour, out-loud laughs, but underneath it all a surprisingly moving thread of compassion, and a universal resonance for the sadness and struggle in so many of our lives. Penelope Wilton is terrific in her small role as Anne, also bereaved, but the entire cast is the perfect accompaniment to Gervais's brilliant creation.

This Ain't No Mouse Music
2013
Director: Maureen Gosling, Chris Simon
Length: 92 min
Streaming on DOCPlay: https://www.docplay.com

Chris Strachwitz, a child refugee from Nazi Germany, has spent his life tracking down blues/roots and other traditional American music genres, recording it, and celebrating it. Chris founded Arhoolie Records, and helped bring so much previously unknown American music into people's living rooms. From down south blues (with Lightnin' Hopkins and other icons), through to Tex Mex, Cajun and Zydeco from Louisiana, New Orleans Jazz, and Appalachian bluegrass, there is an abundance of great music to be enjoyed, along with a plethora of fascinating observations and interviews with aficianados (musicians themselves) like Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal. This film won three various audience awards, and I can see why. For lovers of music, this is an absolute treat, and the word uplifting an understatement. (What is "mouse music" by the way? See the film and find out!)

Lost in Translation

Director: Sofia Coppola

Length: 102 min
2003

Available on Foxtel

What a list of creds this film has, among them Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Screenplay in the 2004 Golden Globes, and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Low-key and understated is the name of the game in this sad, sublime story of faded movie actor Bob Harris (Bill Murray), in Tokyo for an advertising shoot for Suntory whisky. At the same hotel is Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), young wife of trendy photographer John (Giovanni Ribisi), who is always too busy to barely notice his lonely wife. Despite the age gap, Charlotte and Bob seem to click together, and what happens I'm not telling, except to say it may not be as you'd imagine. This film is replete with yearning, regret, existential loneliness and the sort of emotions one can often not express. This is set against a backdrop of a wryly amusing Japanese society, where translators seem unable to communicate effectively, and where quirkiness comes up against tradition. There is so much deep poignancy in this film, such a palpable sense of "what if", it brought me to tears, and I was thrilled to revisit it.

Thursday, 7 May 2020

May 8th
Hearts and Bones - VOD release
Blood - series Acorn TV
Hostage - VOD release
Color Out of Space - VOD release
ET - Foxtel
Jurassic Park - Foxtel
Pandemic/apocalyptic/lockdown films

This week is a grab bag of liquorice allsorts (yum - haven't had them for years) - a selection of films releasing on demand, along with an excellent Irish series, and a couple of golden-oldie memory-lane blockbusters. I'm sticking fairly rigidly to the "five-minute review" idea and mostly avoiding great depth. Just brief impressions of things you may like to watch while grappling with the ongoing trainwreck of our lives!

Hearts and Bones
Director: Ben Lawrence
Length: 111 min
Available on many platforms: iTunes, Google Play, YouTube, Sony Playstation, Telstra & Fetch TV. DVD out on June 3rd
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNaSt0_UUcc

story of trauma, secrets and friendship

Dan Fisher (Hugo Weaving) is a war photographer who has returned home and is suffering PTSD. His wife announces she is pregnant. Preparing for a gallery show, Dan is approached by a Sudanese refugee Sebastian (Andrew Luri), who requests that a certain photo not be included in the exhibition. As a friendship grows between the men, it becomes clear that both men have traumatic pasts (and secrets) that need to be dealt with. As a portrayal of shared humanity, this is a thoughtful and worthy film, anchored, as always, by a top notch performance from Hugo Weaving. The plot strands are subtly interwoven, and the whole is satisfying and resonant to many aspects of our lives and moral dilemmas.

Blood
Director: Sophie Petzal
Length: Series 1: 6 x 1 hr

Streaming on Acorn TV: https://au.acorn.tv/

Cat Hogan (Carolina Main) has always been the black sheep of the family. When she returns to her village in Ireland for the funeral of her mother, she becomes convinced her father (Adrian Dunbar) is implicated in her mother's death. So begins a dramatic and gut-wrenching emotional journey of uncovering secrets, truths, and the "real story", which is only revealed in the wonderful final episode. This is strongly scripted, well acted, and something quite fresh, in terms of its many unfamiliar actors, except Dunbar, familiar from Line of Duty. If you like a good mystery, family convolutions, and lovely Irish scenery this could be one to check out.

Hostage
Director: Frank Shields
Length: 93 min
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=XsRnbqNKUWc

Umbrella Film - streaming on demand: https://www.umbrellaent.com.au/310-on-demand

This film is based on the true story of Christine (Kerry Mack), a 16-year old sideshow worker who falls in love with handsome German, Walter Maresch (Ralph Schicha). After he whisks her away to Germany she discovers he is a sadistic controlling neo-Nazi. Made originally in 1983 this film has been meticulously restored. With its sex, melodrama and predictable tropes, it sits firmly in the genre of Ozploitation - low budget Aussie films made after 1971 when the the R rating came in. This is nevertheless a fascinating piece of film history which critic Adrian Martin described (about three decades ago) as "one of the most explosive, enduring and significant movies of Australian cinema in the '80s". Indeed it still packs a punch with its relevance for today's world, where brutality to women, abusive men, and fanatical groups are important issues to be grappled with.

Color Out of Space

Director: Richard Stanley

Length: 110 min

Available from Umbrella Video on Demand

Nathan Gardner (Nicolas Cage), his wife Theresa (Joely Richardson) and their three kids have headed to the countryside to escape the city hubbub and live a tranquil rural existence on an idyllic New England property. Nathan wants to farm alpacas (so cute, stars of the film), Theresa is recovering from cancer, and the kids are a weird bunch, daughter Lavinia a self-styled witch, son Benny a stoner, and youngest Jack a cute oddball. Life is disrupted when a meteorite crashes into their yard. The meteorite "evaporates" overnight, but some strange alien life force or pathogen begins to cause havoc - coloring the air, creating lurid flowers, and infecting everything it contacts - including Nathan and his family. Based upon a short sci-fi story by HP Lovecraft, this is one of the oddest films I've seen in a while. The opening scenes are mesmerisingly beautiful, with towering, (but slightly menacing) trees. Overall, the cinematography is stunning, and Cage (love him or hate him) gives one of his most crazed, out-there performances, which, unfortunately, towards the end runs the risk of becoming laughable, though it does capture one's attention! The film gets more horrific (think body horror) and bizarre as it goes along, but I guess this goes with the genre. However, I can't say I was bored, and I suspect for fans, it has the potential to become a cult classic. It may not be everyone's taste, but it's definitely for Cage-o-maniacs and alpaca fans.

Let's go Spielberg retro

Having recently watched a wonderful three-hour doco on Foxtel about the iconic director Steven Spielberg, I decided to indulge in a couple of his blockbuster entertaining films. I'm here to report the two I chose were mega-entertaining, and absolutely worth a second viewing (or first, if you've never seen them).

The film is a delightful heartwarmer.

E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982): The little alien who gets left behind when his spaceship makes a hurried exit from earth, is befriended by a lonely boy, Elliott. For me this sweet (at times saccharine-sweet) story doesn't really date; it is a celebration of children's dreams of belonging, and of family, and of magic. There is much to make you laugh and cry, and it's great to see the tiny Drew Barrymore early on in her career as Elliott's sister Gert.

Jurassic Park (1993): For dinosaur fans it's unmissable, this exciting story of the theme park that goes dramatically pear-shaped, when the giant reptiles get loose. With an all-star cast featuring Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, this is popcorn entertainment par excellence. The special effects were ground-breaking at the time, and some of the memorable scenes have gone into movie legend.

Top films for lockdowns

I don't feel inclined at this moment to stress myself further with too many films of dystopian scenarios, but there are a lot of lists out there at present of people's favorite pandemic/end-of-days movies. My friend Jennifer Henry has sent me her list:

Contagion
The Road
A Quiet Place
Passengers
The Last man on earth (actually a TV series)

I remember Outbreak, (1995), giving me a 10-Panadol headache, while 12 Monkeys (1995) and 28 Days Later (2002) were also worthy candidates for stress-inducing films.

What are your favorites, dear readers?