EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING

US, 2017, 91 minutes, Colour.
Amandla Stenberg, Nick Robinson, Anika Noni Rose, and Ana de la Reguera.
Directed by Stella Megghie.

Everything, Everything is something of a contemporary fairytale. It is set in affluent California where money seems to be no object and so everything is possible.

The film also dramatises inter-racial themes but does not draw attention to them explicitly, leaving the audience to accept the realities.

The film is very much geared to feminine sensibility, director, the original Young Adult novel by Nicola Yoon, as well as most of the central characters. Female audiences, older and younger will be able to identify with the characters, and young male audiences should find Nick Robinson’s Olly sympathetic.

The initial voice-over comes from a teenager, 17 turning 18, Madeline, Maddy, played with some charm by Amandla Stenberg. We learn immediately that she is confined to her home and has been since she was a young child, diagnosed with a severe auto immune deficiency. She cannot go out, has lived inside the house, relating to her mother who is also a doctor and cares for her and a visiting nurse who sometimes brings her little daughter. Otherwise Maddy has no communication outside but has a greater yearning, as indicated in the opening credits where, in her imagination, she looks through the glass window and it breaks and she steps through and then floats in a pool.

Some audiences may remember the John Travolta television movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. Other moviegoers may recall the plot of a lesser-known farcical comedy, Bubble Boy, with a young Jake Gylenhaal who has been confined to a plastic bubble in the house, not allowed to go out, cared for with ultra-attention by his mother. It played on comedy. This scenario is much more serious.

One day Maddy notices a family arriving next door, especially the teenage son of the family, Olly, Nick Robinson. He and his sister bring a bunt cake as a neighbourly gift but Maddy’s mother rejects it. However, beginning with eye contact and waves, the two begin to communicate, especially when he holds up a page from the window with his mobile phone number and the communication begins.

While we know that Maddy would like to get out of the house but is apprehensive about her condition, we don’t quite know what is going to happen in terms of this teenage attraction and relationship.

We might guess that at some stage Maddy and Olly will meet and that Maddy’s mother will not be best pleased. Then, will Maddy go out of the house, risking her health for Olly’s sake, testing out how ill she is or not?

As the film goes on, it seems less and less plausible in terms of realistic action, especially in the character of the mother and her motivation and love for her daughter, in Maddy’s motivations for decisions and the consequences.

Yes, there have been some teenage stories of romance where the heroine actually dies, so throughout the film we are actually open to whether the love story is one of happiness or one of doom. So, no spoilers in this review.

1. A teenage story? Family story? Love story? Mixed race themes but the screenplay not emphasising this?

2. The title, Maddy and her wanting everything, the situation in the house, upbringing, desires?

3. The location of the home, affluent, the details of the interiors, the view from the street? The outside world – seen through the glass? The world experienced online? The contrast with Hawaii, the plane trip, the hotel, the beach, jumping from the cliff? The hospital sequences?

4. The musical score, the songs reflecting the characters and action?

5. The credibility of the plot, Maddy’s situation, in an affluent world where money was no object? The touch of the fairytale in contemporary America?

6. Maddy, telling his story, 17 turning 18? Looking at the glass, the symbolism of its breaking, going out, floating in the water?

7. The situation, her relationship with her mother, her care, the mother is a doctor, supervising? Carla as a nurse, friendship, her daughter? Maddy inside for all the years, her life, her studies, reading, clothes, visits?

8. Seeing Olly, he and his sister arriving with the gift of the cake, the mother refusing politely? The two waving to each other? His phone number? The communication, real and fantasy, the imagination of the conversation the diner, talk, telling their stories?

9. Carla, friendship with Maddy, Maddy pleading for the visits? Olly coming into the house? Not touching, the effect of the real-life talk?

10. Olly and his sister, their mother, the father and the glimpses of his brutality? Assaulting Olly, Maddy going out, his concern, her mother’s concern? Her surviving well enough?

11. Maddie’s mother, her character, the past, the death of her husband and son, the photos? The declarations of love?

12. Finding out the truth, the confrontation with Carla, dismissing her? Nurse Janet and her regulations and severity?

13. Maddy and her illness, studying online, her decision, going out, the note for her mother? Buying the plane tickets online? Persuading Olly to take her, the airport, the car and the exhilaration, wanting to go faster, the plane trip, the hotel, shopping, the swimming gear, going to the beach, swimming, floating, the exhilaration of the jump, the night together, the bed, the
sexual experience?

14. The collapse, illness, going to the hospital, her mother coming, questioning Olly’s sister, her concern?

15. The return, at home, the stopping more communication, Olly’s concern that she was okay, he and the family leaving? Secretly?

16. The phone call from a doctor in Hawaii, her diagnosis, Maddy searching for the documents, confronting her mother, the plausibility of the truth and her mother’s possessiveness? Wanting her mother to leave? Maddy explaining her mother’s motivation, wanting to love her? Trying to love her?

17. Going to New York, meeting Olly at the bookstore, the romantic run through the city?

18. A romantic fairytale – plausibility for the truth?

47 METERS DOWN

UK, US, Dominican Republic, 2017, 89 minutes, Colour.
Mandy Moore, Claire Holt, Matthew Modine, Chris Johnson, Yani Gelman, Santiago Segura.
Directed by Johannes Roberts.

47 meters down could be in a shaft, a deep hole, the sea. In this case it is the sea, specifically the ocean off the Mexico coast (although the scenes were filmed in the Dominican Republic, hotels, beaches, the open sea).

Sharks have frequently been the symbols of terror – as well as providing real terror. Even prior to Jaws, there were a number of thriller films with shark in the title, Shark, Shark’s treasure… In fact, the attraction to screenwriters to provide shark and comparable stories continues, from pot boiling stories like the Sharknado television films to the Blake Lively 2016 fear-fostering The Shallows.

One of the main features of this film is that after 20 minutes, two young women go down in a cage and that for the next 55 minutes both the audience and the women spend it completely underwater.

The underwater sequences are effective and it is quite a surprise (for those who remain to read the credits) to discover that it was all done in an underwater studio in Basildon, in England.

The story is pretty straightforward because the main attention is given to the dangers and the peril. Two sisters go for a holiday to Mexico, one, Kate (Claire Holt) the adventurous type, the other, Lisa (Mandy Moore) the older sister, a touch envious of her outgoing sister, and who is experiencing a breakup, from the only man that she was ever attached to. How much there
The director has a nice touch, the opening credits underwater, but only in the swimming pool, and a glass of red wine being tipped over and staining the water, foreboding blood.

The rest of the plot is quite simple. The women meet two attractive locals who persuade them to go out to sea and to go diving in a protective cage. The captain of the boat is played by Matthew Modine. Well, the two men go down and all is well. We know that when the two women go down, all will not be well. There are lots of explanations about how much air will be available, how to be restrained in breathing, how to read the warning signals, and a lot of dialogue reassuring everyone that everything will be okay and it will have the time of their lives!

It is not too long before they see sharks circling and are amazed in admiration, but then a shark gobbles up the camera that they drop. Then the chain of the winch holding the cage breaks and down they go, 47 meters.

For the next hour or so, we share the women’s terrors, initial panic, an ability to keep calm, some radio contact, but fears that the boat might have left them, sharks, of course, some possible help and, again of course, hopes raised and then dashed, more peril.

The two women take it in turns to be panicky then fearless with radio contact at times and Matthew Modine being reassuring – the warning against coming to the surface too quickly because of the bends as well is possible nitrogen poisoning after plugging in to relief air tanks underwater.

The film plays a dramatic trick at the ending – but it works. And it is all to do with the solution of how the two women are to be rescued.

Needless to say, but still worth saying, that this is not a film for any audience who feels claustrophobic underwater let alone vicariously experiencing some sense of hopelessness and prospective drowning and the ever present sharks.

It certainly is effective of its kind.

1. The popularity of shark and terror stories? Diving? Drama, thriller?

2. The Dominican Republic standing in for Mexico? Hotels, beaches, the sea?

3. The underwater photography, almost an hour of underwater photography – and in the underwater studios at Basildon, UK?

4. The title, the reality of the depth? The cage, the diving, air cylinders, breathing, microphone communication? The cage and the winch? The beauty, the fish, the sharks, the sea floor, light and darkness, the issue of the bends and nitrogen affecting the brain? Realistic?

5. The situation, Kate and Lisa, the credits and the wine in the pool, intimating blood? Lisa and the breakup with Stuart? Lisa telling Kate the truth, Kate urging Lisa to go out, the dancing, meeting the local men, the kiss?

6. Kate, daring Lisa for the dive, apprehensions, going to the wharf, the men, Taylor and the crew?

7. The continual reassurances? The men and their dive, all successful?

8. The women going down, the view, the photos, dropping the camera, eaten by the shark? The winch chain snapping, the falling, going down to 47 meters? The issue of time, supply of air? The continual referring to the statistics about air remaining?

9. The two women, the reactions, fear, Lisa and panic, Kate keeping calm? Going out, the difficulties with getting the helmet off? Making the contact, the advice? Initially feeling the abandon, thinking the ship had gone? The torch, Javier, discovering him dead? The range of the sharks, their size, circling? The women getting in and out of the cage? Kate, the new winch, connecting it? The air cylinders? The flares?

10. Kate, her character, courage, the sharks, her injury, death?

11. Lisa, the fall of the broken cage, hurt leg, the effort to get it out? Issues of air? Going to get the torch? Her return, try to keep contact with Kate?

12. The dramatic effect of the double ending? Lisa getting out, getting Kate, the flares, the radio communication, Taylor urging them to go slowly, the flares dying, dropping the flares? The sudden view of the sharks?, The risk of the bends, with Taylor, the men pulling the women out, the sharks at their legs? The injuries? On board? Lisa and her hallucination?

13. The actual ending, the Coast Guard arrival, the men going down, finding Lisa, in the cage, her brain damage, hallucinations, bringing her to the surface?

14. Effective as a thriller? Caution?

LET'S LIVE A LITTLE

US, 1948, 85 minutes, Black and white.
Hedy Lamarr, Robert Cummings, Anna Sten, Robert Shayne, Norma Varden.
Directed by Richard Wallace.

This is a very slight romantic comedy, the main reason for seeing it being Hedy Lamarr, always a beautiful and attractive screen presence. Some might think it a stretch for her to be playing a psychiatrist but, in life, she had some scientific and engineering achievements.

Robert Cummings, not always the most sympathetic of romantic comedy characters, plays a rather of obnoxious and over-busy advertising man, racing around the studio, ordering people about, having called shadows to calm down, forgetting whether he had them or not, putting on his clothes back-to-front, hearing phones when they are not ringing… He is also given quite a number of lines which seem now particularly misogynistic. He has been engaged to a rather haughty executive of a perfume company, wanting her to sign contracts. She is played by Anna Sten.

A book comes across his desk Let’s Live a Little, written by the psychiatrist, and he decides that he wants a promotion contract. He goes to the office, not suspecting that the doctor is a woman. He is not very good at dealing with women – at all. The doctor is intrigued, gets her doctor partner to take her to a nightclub where she meets the advertising man and his date.

All that might be expected actually happens, he falling in love with her without realising it, she falling in love with him. There are ups and downs, some clashes, she becoming unsure of herself and hearing phones ring…

Typical enough of the slight romantic comedies of the 1940s.

HOW TO MURDER A RICH UNCLE

UK, 1957, 79 minutes, Black-and-white.
Nigel Patrick, Charles Coburn, Wendy Hiller, Katie Johnson, Anthony Newley, Athene Seyler, Kenneth Fortescue, Patricia Webster, Michael Caine.
Directed by Nigel Patrick.

This 1957 British comedy is based on a French play, with characters and situations more suited to a French farce. However, it is transferred to England but with the central character who is American, sent from England some decades earlier to the United States where has prospered and become rich.

The gist of the plot is that he is returning to England and his family there is quite impoverished. It is taken for granted that the head of the household, with the connivance of most of the other relatives, rather snobbish and aristocratic in their outlook, is planning to murder the uncle for his fortune.

The film establishes the range of characters, played by very effective British character actors led by Nigel Patrick, often stiff upper lip and military in British films, who also directed the film in widescreen black and white. Wendy Hiller, about to win an Oscar the following year for Separate Tables, is his wife. Athene Seyler is his mother and the always effective Katie Johnson, best known for The Ladykillers, is an old aunt. Patricia Webster is the young woman in the house who has invited her fiance, studying criminal cases, a very young and bespectacled Anthony Newley. Kenneth Fortescue is the awkward son and heir.

One has to look rather carefully to see a 23-year-old Michael Caine as one of the workers about the estate. It was going to be seven years until he made a strong impression in Zulu and headline films for more than half a century on.

The uncle is played by the veteran Charles Coburn, reminiscent of his roles in such films as The More the Merrier, for which he won an Oscar, Gentleman Prefer Blondes and How to be Very, Very Popular.

The basic conceit of the story is that with all the plans for murdering the uncle, the various members of the family are the ones who are killed, the comedy being in the variety of ways in which the plans go wrong and backfire. Eventually, the evidence all seems to point to the uncle to have murdered all his relatives. However, with the testimony of Katie Johnson, all sweetness and light, the truth comes out.

A slight and slightly enjoyable British comedy with a twist.

MONK COMES DOWN THE MOUNTAIN

China, 2015, 123 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Chen Kaige.

Chen Kaige has been a celebrated Chinese director, emerging, along with Zhamg Yimou in the 1980s. Some of his significant films include Farewell, My Concubine, The Emperor and The Assassin, Forever Enthralled. He has been a visual chronicler of many aspects of Chinese history.

This film is probably more effective for a Chinese and an Asian audience rather than a Western audience. This is because of the themes as well as the construction of the story in the background of monasteries and monks making their way as well as martial arts.

The film opens with the monk in question trying to prove that he should stay in the monastery but entering so well that the Abbott advises him to leave. He finds himself in Shanghai, does a variety of jobs, but falls on hard times. He is befriended by a former monk but falls foul of the monk’s wife and her lover who murder the former monk.

He becomes involved in various adventures, cared for by a martial arts expert who becomes the victim of thugs.

This offers quite an opportunity for what might be called Jackie Chan kinds of adventures, well choreographed martial arts encounters. Touches of comedy – and touches of the ludicrous. However, the characters and the story telling have much more appeal to a Chinese audience. So, for worldwide audiences, a curiosity item in the career of Chen Kaige.

THE CIRCLE

US, 2017, 117 minutes, Colour.
Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, Ellar Coltrane, Bill Paxton, Glenn Hedley, Karen Gillan, John Boyega.
Directed by James Ponsoldt.

Well, this is embarrassing. Do you often have that message appear on your computer screen when Word or Mozilla is telling you that it is not responding and they come up with that embarrassment apology and make suggestions about how you could rectify the situation?

Well, this is embarrassing. When this reviewer consulted the IMDb entry on The Circle and found such hostility towards the film, its subject, the screenplay, performances, it was a very awkward moment. Principally because the reviewer had liked the film a lot and was being shamed by a vigorous, sometimes vicious, combination of reviewers, bloggers and trolls. Perhaps I should have guessed it because the cinema release in Melbourne was at only six venues in outer suburbs, for one week only, one session per day at 10:15 AM.

So, the challenge was to articulate what was so interesting in the film.

It was the subject. The Circle is a technology company which is moving so fast that it is gaining members as prolifically as Facebook, Link-in, Twitter…, especially members in the younger age bracket who are eager to be in instant and detailed communication with as many people as possible and as instantly as possible. The aim seems to be to make everything, every thought, every feeling, even every secret, as available as imginable.

At the centre of the story is Mae, a strong performance by Emma Watson, a young woman doing secretarial work who gets the opportunity to have an interview to work for The Circle, assisted by her good friend, Anna (Karen Gillan) who has a significant position in the company. Mae gets the job and is delighted. She goes to the weekly Friday evening gathering of workers and members, enthusiastic young adults, who listen in admiration to the genial and good-humoured self-promotion of the CEO, Eamon Bailey, played, significantly, by Tom Hanks.

Important are characters in the background of Mae’s life, especially her parents (Bill Paxton and Glenne Hedley who both died soon after completion of the film) and a kind of boyfriend, Mercer, played by Ellar Coltrane (whom audiences saw growing up, year by year in the twelve years of the making of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood).

Mae is constantly challenged by exuberant co-workers, wondering why she doesn’t participate in all the communal activities of the company. Mae likes to kayak and, one night, to get away from things, she takes a kayak from a locked facility, goes onto San Francisco Bay, gets into trouble and immediately there are searchlights and rescuers. Everybody knows about and has looked at what she has done. The consequence is that Mae is challenged, acknowledging how she felt bad when she was keeping secrets, enthusiastically agreeing to wear a mini-camera all the time so that all the members of The Circle can her see her every action, share her every thought and feeling, including her contact with her parents, her father suffering severely from MS.

While the audience in the cinema is looking at Mae, brief message after message, Twitter -like, sail across the screen, everybody participating in Mae’s life. Mae is so buoyed by all of this even to suggesting that as individuals register for The Circle, automatically they are put on the electoral roll – leading to an optimistic sharing of ideas and attitudes, everyone united. She doesn’t think of the word ‘totalitarian’.

So, the challenge to the film’s audience, the screenplay written by Dave Eggers who wrote the original novel, is where we stand on communication, where we stand on privacy, where we stand on invasions of privacy, guilt feelings and shame and shaming, and where social media is taking us and is taking us so rapidly.

Maybe the bloggers felt threatened by the message of this film, a caution on the repercussions of social media, some of them potentially tragic.

This reviewer liked the message and its challenge, the performances, the implications of the themes. It is hoped that there are some out there who will also like The Circle.

1. A contemporary story? Futuristic? American? World story? The linking of the world?

2. California settings, homes, workplaces, offices, the Bay, the woods and mountains, the bridge? The halls the gatherings? Socials for The Circle? The musical score?

3. Audiences identifying with the themes, the characters? Social media? Technological development? Communications? Cameras, audio surveillance? Links, sharing, contacts? Signs of progress?

4. Audience response to issues of privacy, intrusions? In daily life, detailed? Information at the right to information? Secrets, lies? Things are guilt, exposed in feelings of shame? Idealism about human unity? Memories of totalitarianism? The situation is real and unreal?

5. Mae and her story? Emma Watson in the role? Her age, ordinary, but work, her relationship with her parents, the visits and meals? Her hopes? Her friendship with Mercer? Her friendship with Anna, and upper ranging the interview, her excitement, getting ready? Her parents support? The expectations of the interviewer, thinking her enters boring? Her improving, giving the right answers, getting the job?

6. The Circle, as an organisation, for communication, technological expertise, technological development, control? Cameras and surveillance, audio? People being controlled? Bailey, genial, his speeches, rapport with the crowd, self-promotion, enthusiasm? Something of a benign dictator? His presentations, the jokes, his ideals? His assistant, their discussions, sharing with him? Plans, in the office, discussions? The senators investigation?

7. May, her ancestor clients, the target for her assessment, her score? Ambitions? Not particularly involved with socials? Going home, the discussions with Mercer? Her relationship to her parents, her mother’s concern, her father and his MS? The project with Ana, the beginnings of change, and a very busy, her improvement and Amber’s decline?

8. Her love for kayaking, stealing the boat, going on the water, the darkness, the trouble, into the water, the searchlights, the rescue and the police? Everybody knowing and seeing what she had done? The aftermath, discussions with Bailey,’s secrets and sharing? So telling the truth and her feeling better?

9. Her transition, going on stage, the presentation, the interview, her agreeing to where the camera?

10. Her followers, seeing and knowing everything, intimate details, the range of tweets floating across the screen, the languages? The discussions with the parents – but the intrusion on their sexual encounter and their cut the connection? Her job, becoming a celebrity? Talking with and are in the privacy of the toilet? Discussions with Thai? Her growing enthusiasm?

11. On stage, progress, the suggestion about enrolment in The Circle and on the electoral rolls? As a celebrity, Bailey encouraging her, her enthusiastic communication everybody agreeing?

12. The character of type, his suspicions, talking with Mae, his wariness? The meetings, listening to her presentation? The contact and his advice?

13. The search for the criminal, finding the criminal under 20 minutes, everybody watching, the clock, Bailey and his assistant? The scenes of the criminal, following her, people giving information, in the prison, out of the prison, at work, being caught?

14. Soul-search, finding someone who is not a criminal, everybody calling out, Mae hesitant, the decision about Mercer?

15. Everybody trying to find Mercer, finding him, pursuing him, in the vehicle, his fears, not knowing what’s happening, the crash and the fall from the bridge? Audience reaction? Bailey and is trying to save the situation, saying that the technology could be better, reconstructing the situation and Mercer not dying?

16. May, her grief, time away, the return to her parents? Talking with Thai?

17. Her plan, on stage, celebrity, her being manipulative, getting the audience to support Bailey and his assistant wearing cameras? That everything should be known, all the letters, emails? And they’re being instantly sent to everyone? Bailey smiling but knowing that he was exposed?

18. Themes of the limitations of communication, the need for privacy, the limits of invasion?

19. A warning about the future were, authorities in control, everybody’s private and public life under surveillance?

WILD

Germany, 2016, 97 minutes, Colour.
Lilith Stangenberg, Georg Friedrich.
Directed by Nicolette Krebitz.

Wild is a confronting German film. The title refers to the central character, Ania, as well as to a wolf.

The first part of the film establishes Ania as a character, living alone, reclusive, relating with her sister and visiting her ill grandfather in hospital. She works in an office, relates well enough to fellow workers who invite her out, rather reluctantly, to parties. There is ambiguity in her relationship with one of her bosses, Boris, played by Georg Friedrich, who flirts, expects her to bring him coffee, gets her to pick up material because he has lost his driving license.

However, the most part of the film concerns Ania’s relationship with a wolf that she sees by chance at the edge of the woods. She researches wolves, learns all about them, buys meat to feed the wolf, buys pet rabbits and sets them loose, finding one of them dead and so continuing to pursue the wolf, engaging her friends with material to set up a location to trap him. She injects him, takes him home.

The film dramatises its point in showing Ania becoming more feral, lustful, including intimacy with the wolf itself. She feeds it, yet imprisons it, her landlady complaining about mess and smell. Feeling more freed at work and defying people, she has a lustful interlude with Boris as well.

While only and does have some control, she also loses control of herself, letting her feral nature and wildness surface with some devastating results – but also indulging in her sense of wild freedom.

Not a film for every audience but a questioning about humans and their animal nature, control and giving up control.

AMERICAN MADE

US, 2017, 115 minutes, Colour.
Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, Caleb Landry Jones, Jesse Plemons.
Directed by Doug Liman.

It sounds more than a bit odd to use the word “rollicking� and the word “depressing� to describe American Made. Why?

The depressing part of the film is that it is all true. This is the 1970s and 1980s, the era of Jimmy Carter giving speeches about things declining in the US, Ronald Reagan coming in to talk optimistically about the 1980s, Nancy Reagan saying “say no to drugs�, but also the period of the Medellin cartels and Pablo Escobar, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the arming by the United States of the Contras and training them in America, Oliver North and the proposal for Iran to aid the Contras… Very depressing. And it makes one wonder what films about activities of the present will feature in films of 30 years time! Given the American history of 2016-17, it is somewhat rollicking already!

As regards “rollicking�, this is very much the tone and style of the film, bright and breezy, bright saturated colours for landscapes, tunes of the times, very boisterous hero with boisterous exploits. And he is played by Tom Cruise.

Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, in the Mission Impossible series and his performances as Jack Reacher despite the ironies, is pretty serious, very serious missions, impossible or not. But, as Barry Seal, the true-life action hero of these escapades, he can let his hair down, so to speak, let his inhibitions down, and enjoy himself while giving the solid impression that the hero is enjoying himself.

At the end of the 1970s, Barry Seal was a TWA pilot, enjoying turning autopilot off to disturb his co-pilot as well as give the passengers some unexpected and unwelcome turbulence, laughing all the way home. But, on the way home, he is smuggling drugs through various American cities. He is happily married, and glamorous wife (Sarah Wright), two children and his wife pregnant, a home in Baton Rouge.

Then, one day a government agent (hush-hush), calling himself Monty Schaefer (Domhnal Gleeson) turns up with files all about Barry Seal’s activities. We have already seen the political situation in Central America, especially the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Ronald Reagan speeches (as well as some rollicking excerpts from his Bedtime for Bonzo and some westerns), so the offer is to secretly photograph hotspots. So successful is he that he is commissioned to transport gun secretly to the Contras in Nicaragua. It is an offer that Barry can’t refuse, in fact an offer that he eagerly embraces.

The trouble is that he has been in league with Pablo Escobar, so what eventuates is a combination flights, guns to Nicaragua, drugs from Columbia dropped at various centres along the way home. Schaefer assists him, and another cargo is introduced, Contras from Nicaragua being flown in to a training camp outside the town of Mena, Arkansas, where Barry and his family have not only quickly moved ahead of the law, but which provides open space for the training camp, an enormous amount of equipment care of the government and massive, massive amounts of cash coming and, eagerly banked,, being stored all over the place, even buried in the yard because there is so much.

Isn’t America great – as Barry often thinks and states.

It is all very well for Monty Schaefer to run this operation but the DEA becomes interested, so does the FBI, the local police, Arkansas government…

So, in order to avoid time in prison, Barry is persuaded to set up Escobar and associates, now in exile from Columbia, with evidence for the American authorities. Whether intended or not (one is inclined to bet on intended), Barry is exposed and becomes a target for the Columbia cartel. Barry narrates all his exploits on a series of tapes, all labelled for discovery by the authorities.

Not exactly a rollicking end to this real-life story, except that the Reagan Administration goes on, as does the Bush administration, Oliver North gets exposed – but American life, American-made, goes on.

A sardonically pacey harking back to an American past which can now be exposed.

1. A true story? American, ethos and style? Politics, drugs, missions, secrets?

2. Audience knowledge of the events, the 1970s and 80s, Jimmy Carter and the speeches about dim future? Ronald Reagan and his 1980s optimism?

3. The politics of the period, the role of Central America, Nicaragua, the Sandinistas, the Contras, US attitudes, against the Sandinistas, anti-communist? Training, weapons? The exposure? Oliver North – and the Iran Contra gate?

4. Drugs in the 1970s and 80s, Columbia, Escobar and the cartel? The American pilots and the use, smuggling guns, exporting the Contras?

5. Barry Seal, a Tom Cruise role, exuberant? The tapes and his confessions? Providing the flashbacks, his record, carrying the tapes, the final expose?

6. Barry, working for TWA, pilot, daredevil, turning the autopilot off, turbulence for the passengers, his role in smuggling? Lucy, the relationship, the kids, family, the house?

7. Schaefer, his mysterious background, arrival, challenge to Barry, his having a file on him? The drugs? Recruiting him – and the IAC? Lucy not believing him?

8. The planes, the Property in Arkansas, Drums, the Fleet, the Range of Pilots?

9. Taking the Photos, Supplying Them to the American Government? The Transporting of the Guns? The Transporting of the Contras, Their Attitude Towards Him, Wanting His Sunglasses, Hostile, Ignorant? America, the Camp, the Training?

10. The Local Sheriff, Easy-Going?, the Bank Can the Attendance, the Deposits, the Prosperity for the Town?

11. Barry and His Dealing with the Colombians, Escobar and His Henchmen, Paul Getting? The Bottom Me, the Deals, the Quantities of Drugs, the Heavy Takeoff, the Range of Flights, the Maps, the Different Places for the Drops in the Collection of the Drugs?

12. Barry, the High Life, the Amount of Money, the Storage of the Money? The Arrival of Bubba, Lucy’s Brother, His Prison Background, Reluctance to Work, the Money, His Buying the Car, the Fear of Arrest and third strike, confessing to Barry, the money, the passport, the car, the explosion of the consequences?

13. The exuberant success, the amount of money, the different hiding places, the lavish house, pool, Lucy and her response? The children?

14. The interest of the DEA, CIA, FBI?

15. The DEA, the deal with Barry, the flight, the photos of Escobar, Peter and his fear? Paul Gandhi and his joke about killing him?

16. Oliver North, the involvement, plans, government, the Contras, funding from the Roman?

17. The mid 80s, the Reagan Administration, the cozy chats, Nancy Reagan and her saying no to drugs and drink? Reagan and Communism? The television reports, Barry seen in the photos? Exposed?

18. Barry and his arrest, the Arkansas district attorney, going to the court, his community service for the Salvation Army? Lucy and her going back to Baton Rouge? His urging her to take the jewellery for her support? Her reactions?

19. Barry, the work of the Salvation Army, his caution, starting his car, avoiding the explosions? The irony of the cartel following him, his being shot?

20. The event seen in retrospect? The depressing themes? The ironic title and American exuberance?

THE DARK TOWER

US, 2017, 95 minutes, Colour.
Idris Elba, Matthew Mc Conaughhey, Tom Taylor, Dennis Haysbert, Claudia Kim, Jackie Earle Haley, Abby Lee, Kathryn Winnick, José Zuniga.
Directed by Nikilaj Arcel.

For more than 40 years, Stephen King has been regaling worldwide audiences with a variety of horror stories in his novels and then in the screen versions of the novel is. They run an enormous range, horror, both apocalyptic and contemporary, and this film combining both.

The film opens with children playing – not for long in a Stephen King story. They are targeted by an evil sorcerer, Walter, and their inner energy, their “shine� is extracted by machines and fired towards a thin high tower that reaches towards the sky – a kind of transcendent presence that might guarantee safety to the world or, because of a variety of portals, many worlds. It seemed to have a similar function to the monolith in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This is the stuff of nightmares. And, literally it is, young Jake, Tom Taylor, has these dreams continually, spending his time drawing them, stark black and white pictures of the tower, the evil Walter and a blurred figure of a gunslinger. Jake has lost his father tragically in a fire. His mother is concerned about his mental health as is his stepfather who, of course, he dislikes intensely.

Then, the film reveals that this other world, other planet, has its own reality and not just in Jake’s dreams. Just as he is about to be taken to a psychology camp, he escapes the representatives who, of course, are servants of Walter. He is given a clue that a mysterious house of his dreams can be found in Brooklyn and then makes his way there, and is enticed to go through a mysterious portal.

He soon encounters Roland, the gunslinger, whose mission is to destroy Walter, especially after Walter destroys his father. The two protagonists are played by a rather high powered-stars: Idris Elba as Roland, the gunslinger, and eerily mysterious and evil, Matthew Mc Conaughey as Walter.

While there are a lot of mysterious activities in the other planet, especially with the staff working on the children and extracting their inner “shine�, there is a sinister researcher, Jackie Earle Haley. The trouble is that Water has powers over life and death and can say, in a Matthew Mc Conaughey,� stop breathing� – and they do.

One of the intriguing aspects of the plot is that there are several portals in New York City and that the central characters can come and go, Jake searching for his mother, Roland needing medical help (but helped by medication, hotdogs and Coca-Cola).

The plot is particularly American with an enormous reliance on guns. With the gunslinger and the guns, the gun is seemingly glorified as the weapon of choice for winning the battle against good and evil. And, quite a body count. Roland does say that whoever aims with his hand has forgotten his father’s face and that aiming should be through the eye and the heart. This is what he teaches Jake – and this will clinch the victory of good and evil.

Idris Elba is certainly an earnest hero. Matthew Mc Conaughey, dressed in black, employing his Texas drawl in a menacing way, is an unexpected devil figure.

Stephen King offers us an inter-connected world and a science fantasy parable of the struggle between good and evil.

1. A Stephen King story? Fantasy? Another world into connecting with the real world?

2. The futuristic story, the alien planet, the duct itself, the settlement in the laboratory, the mountains, woods and desert? The contrast with New York City, the earthquakes, the order in the sky, ordinary life, the streets and homes, apartments, school? The Gothic house? The portals? Interconnections? The musical score?

3. The title, the initial explanation? Good and evil, the symbol of transcendence?

4. Jake, the introduction, the children playing, the signal, the time, stopping the play, hostilities? The laboratory, the technicians, the machines, extracting the shine, it’s flowing towards the town? Unable to destroy it?

5. Jake, his age, his dead father, memories of the fire? His mother, the stepfather? The power of his dreams? His drawings, black and white? His friend, school, the fight? The and typically taught his stepfather? The plan for the therapy camp, being persuaded by his mother? The two emissaries, suspicions? The drawn, the computer, the house identified in Brooklyn? His escape, finding the house, finding the portal?

6. Going through the portal, his shoe? The encounter with Roland (and the scene with Roland, his father, bequest, the death of his father)? Roland suspicious? Holding Jake over the cliff Western Mark talk, travelling together, the revenge quest?

7. Water, Matthew Mc Conaughay, dressed in black, the evil wizard, his control, the children, the attempts to destroy the tower? His power of eliminating adversaries? Staff and his pressure on them, his assistance, stating don’t breathe and people collapsing? The information about the portals, going to New York, the confrontation with Jack’s parents, the death of the sceptre stepfather, the disappearance of the mother? Is focusing on Jake, aware of Jake shine?

8. People moving in and out through the portals? The researcher, his loyalty to Walter? The information? The girl assistant, Baker, the gash on her cheek? The sympathetic girl to Jake, the help, her death?

9. Roland, his personality, fighting, the gunslinger? The importance of guns, confrontations, the number of rounds? His being wounded? Going to New York, the hospital, the medication, the bills and their effect, Coca-Cola?, the later hotdog? Water and his going to New York, confrontations?

10. The philosophy of gun shooters, the targets, taking aim? The target practice, Jack and his firing?

11. The shootouts, the body count, the emphasis on guns as the solution for the problems?

12. Jake, being trapped by Walter, into the machine, the process, shine going to the castle? His staying, defying Water?

13. The confrontation between Robert and Walter, the warding off of the bulletin ammunition? Jake and his eyes, Roland, collapse, recovery? The final confrontation waters defeat?

14. The survival of the town, the future, Roland inviting Jake to be his partner?

HAMPSTEAD

UK, 2017, 104 minutes, Colour.
Diane Keaton, Brendan Gleeson, James Norton, Lesley Manville, Simon Callow, Phil Davis.
Directed by Joel Hopkins.

There is often a nice expectation about a film when it has a title referring to a particular area of London. Will we see a lot of the area? Who are the people who live there? And will the area lend itself to some romance? Yes, to all the questions.

Hampstead Heath has been the location for quite a number of London-set films. We do see a lot of the Heath, the open park lands, the houses surrounding and the streets and shops, the view of the London skyline in the distance. A pleasure for the audience to be there.

This is Emily’s story. She is an American, she herself referring to English opinion that she is something of a quirky American (still shades of Annie Hall), has married an Englishman, lived in London for years, has a son. But, her husband has died and has left her in quite some financial difficulties.

She is a friend of a number of the women in the area, middle class to upper-class women, used to a comfortable way of life, assuaging their consciences by taking on a number of protests (like the elimination of mobile phone towers in the area) and interested in the pulling down of old hospital buildings and new accommodation development. Emily is part of the group. She also works as a volunteer in a charity shop and friendly with the young man who is distributing leaflets for particular courses like preserving the salmon.

Emily has a son, Philip, played by Grantchester’s James Norton. A complication arises when the Hampstead ladies set up an eligible middle-aged bachelor lawyer who could help solve Emily’s financial problems – which he is only too eager to do and to form a liaison with Emily.

So, where can this go? The answer is in the form of Brendan Gleeson, something of a bear of a man, initially with a grizzly impression but showing more cuddly signs as the film goes on. He is Donald, who lives in what looks like from the outside a dilapidated shack, an independent life, growing his own vegetables, gruff with outsiders. Actually, Emily notices him when she is looking from her attic with binoculars she is thinking of selling and becomes intrigued by him, sees him being attacked and calls first-aid.

Curiosity gets the better of her and she approaches him. Yes, it is an unlikely romance but, of course, that is where it is going. The couple hit it off, he tells his story of coming from Dublin, escaping his home and family, a relationship with a London woman, her death, his building the shack and living on the Heath – to the disgust of his uppercrust neighbours.

The developers are wanting to pull down an old hospital and are certainly wanting Donald’s land. Emily helps him, the young man protesting for the salmon joins her in sprucing up Donald’s house, Emily getting a protest group to act for him (which he initially gruffly disavows).

The problem goes to court, presided over by Simon Callow, the developers eager to oust Donald and reclaim the land, he trying to show that he has a claim, relying on a neighbour (Phil Davis) who kindly offered to carry an oven all those years ago but whom Donald criticised and attacked. He becomes linchpin for a solution to the problem.

That is, the problem of the shack. But, the further problem arises whether Emily could live with Donald in the shack or whether she should sell her flat and buy a cottage in the country.

As we are puzzling how this can be resolved and how the film can end, it does rather nicely and romantically. But how, you might ask!

1. Romantic comedy? American and Irish characters, in London?

2. The title, the visuals of the heath, the park? The neighbourhood, the streets, homes and buildings, the shack on the hospital grounds, the lake? The summer season? The musical score and dramatic tone?

3. Emily’s story, widow, her anger at her dead husband? His affair? Secrecy? Her age, American background, considered quirky? Her flat, the leak in the roof? The concierge and the mail and taxes? Her friends, going to the meetings, discussion of the repairs, £5000, Fiona and her financial assistance? Emily and Philip, the situation at home, her husband’s anniversary, her eventually going to the grave, her anger and throwing things? Her volunteer work in the shop? The mother with the cantankerous child? The protests, the young man and the salmon cause? The protests about mobile phone towers? The quality of her life?

4. The attic, the goods, thinking about selling, the binoculars, looking at the window, seeing the tramp, the shack, his swimming, the continued looking? His being attacked? Calling for first-aid? Her demonstrating with the petition, seeing him, following him, talking with him?

5. The inter-cutting of Donald’s story, his age, appearance, tramp, the shack, swimming, the eviction notice, wrapping the carrot?

6. Hampstead society, interested in finance and development, the hospital as an eyesore, their snobbery, the protest against mobile phone towers? The owner and the other women, their characters, and marriages? Friendship with Emily? Setting up James, his accountancy work, the date, his come on?

7. Emily and Donald, Diane Keaton’s style, Brendan Gleeson as bearish? Emily, the beret, wearing it – and memories of Annie Hall? Their talking, sharing, questions and discussions, Donald and the woman, the relationship, her death, his running away? Emily and her financial situation? The bonding, going to the attic, the relationship, the bath, his meeting Philip?

8. Emily starting the campaign for him, the young man and the group protesting, repairing the shack, the painting, the flowers? Donald and his reaction, eventually saying thank you?

9. Emily’s birthday, the party, James and his singing, kissing Emily? Seeing the tramp, going to the attic, Emily’s reaction, being ashamed, Donald leaving?

10. The court, the hearing, the lawyers, the Indian lawyer, the judge and his presiding? Donald’s explanation about himself? His life? The court wanting documents? Emily remembering the man who carried the oven? Tracking him down? His testifying, his hospital document verifying the situation, his saying that he helped because he was once homeless?

11. Donald, the supporters, in the court, around the car?

12. Donald and Emily talking, his not wanting to move, Emily and her decision to sell positions in the house, Philip’s help, selling the flat, buying the cottage? Giving the money back to Fiona, telling Fiona she was under her husband’s thumb, Fiona knowing about the husband’s affair, Fiona saying Emily was braver?

13. Phillip helping with the move, the buying the cottage, nice, going to the village, chasing the hen, hearing the news?

14. Donald, the shack and the barge, setting the rumours about going to France? His declaring his love for Emily, and the sailing on the river?