Scum (1979)

Dir. Alan Clarke's remake of his own 1977 BBC Play for Today (also called Scum, but withdrawn by the BBC due to its violent content). It's a hard-hitting drama set inside a British borstal. A youthful Ray Winstone is Carlin, a resident with a reputation that brings as much trouble as it does respect. It's pretty standard stuff for a while, but the second half turns the dial up.
Whereas Carlin's commentary is mostly via fists and blood, a second character, named Archer (Mick Ford), provides a more literate and educated voice. Together, each in their own way cast light on the abusive, violent happenings that were allowed and encouraged within the closed institution.

3½ brutal slips out of 5

Memories (1995)

A trio of anime shorts made by notable genre directors, each one based on a story by Katsuhiro Ôtomo, creator of the seminal Akira (1988).
01. Magnetic Rose (Dir. Kōji Morimoto). Four space-garbage collectors respond to a mayday call and get more than they bargained for. Written by Satoshi Kon, who adds his reality-bending skills to Ôtomo's. Music by Yoko Kanno.
02. Stink Bomb (Dir. Tensai Okamura). For a regular bio-lab worker, what starts out as a simple cold turns into the worst day of his life. More comedic than the other two, it nevertheless has a serious side with a grave message.

03. Cannon Fodder (Dir. Katsuhiro Ôtomo). An Orwellian setting with some masterful world-building. It's like a showcase for the freedom that animation offers over live action, specifically with location panning and movement.

3½ trajectories out of 5

Mighty Joe Young (1949)

In Africa a young girl trades for a small baby gorilla that grows to an impressive height. Over a decade later she falls foul to an exploitative NY nightclub owner who wants the protective beast as his star attraction.
Hoping to capture the imagination (and the wallets) of movie-goers who were wowed by King Kong (1933), Mighty Joe is another giant ape story with FX overseen by Willis O'Brien (Kong's animator); but it was reportedly Ray Harryhausen who did most of the hands-on work. The result is stop-motion set-pieces that are nothing short of spectacular. But more than that, Joe's mannerisms and doleful eyes really make us care about him.

3 van removals out of 5

The Quatermass Experiment (2005)

The film was a kind of experiment for the BBC too, being the first live TV broadcast fiction they'd made in over 20 years. The basic story is the same as before — about a rocket ship that crashes back to Earth minus some crew members after having been out of contact for a time while in space — but the production is lifeless and there's some awful dialogue throughout.

Jason Flemyng is miscast as Quatermass, and the BBC 4 budget meant that the threat is spoken about more than actually seen. On paper it's a gutsy attempt to recapture an era when TV was like theatre in the home, but a small number of interesting scenes (e.g., the drama during the press conference) aren't enough to shake the insipid feeling that pervades the majority of it.

1½ compositional changes out of 5

Les Choristes (2004)

English title: The Chorus

A French language film in which a music-lover named Clément (Gérard Jugnot) becomes a supervisor in an all-male boarding school for 'difficult' kids. Instead of tirelessly dishing out punishments like the uncaring headmaster (François Berléand), who sees them as a collective evil, Clément treats the boys as individuals, breaking down barriers and inspiring young minds in the process.
It's the kind of story that I've seen a number of times before, with varying degrees of success, but it has enough poignant sincerity in the telling, and the right amount of vitality in its actors to make exploring it again worthwhile.

3½ paper aeroplanes out of 5

Rasputin The Mad Monk (1966)

If not for Christopher Lee in the lead role of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, Hammer's period movie would be little more than a standard story about a man undone by his own ambition and greed. Lee's stick-on beard makes him look like an ancestor of author Alan Moore, but his astonishing screen presence and powerful gaze are as strong as ever - the latter is even used as a defining trait of the 'mad monk', whose hypnotic gaze and fierce unyielding will aid him in influencing his way into a Russian ruler's confidence.
Despite the setting it's fully in English. Lee doesn't attempt any kind of Eastern European accent, it's simply the actor doing what he did better than anyone.

3 complimentary sweets out of 5

Hal (2003)

You've maybe already guessed that it's an anime romance that relies on sentimentality, which it is and does, but it's not as painfully twee or wishy-washy as the clichéd shōjo cover art implies. It has tragedy in its make-up.
It's a tale of two lovers, one of whom meets a sudden end. The other becomes withdrawn, lost in a memory-filled state of grief. A selfless robot takes on the appearance of the deceased and attempts to ignite the healing process.
At only one hour in length it feels a little rushed, but it manages to get its emotional content to a satisfying level within that time. By doing — and sharing in — kind deeds for others the robot learns more about itself.

3 buttons out of 5

Raging Phoenix (2009)

JeeJa Yanin's second film is a strange one. She plays Deu, a woman unsuccessfully coping with being alone. The martial arts side of things is in response to a gang who are abducting young women for evil purposes.
It lacks any kind of proper context for a long time. The middle section is better, despite the clichés, but the last third goes awry with scenes in unusual surroundings, probably because someone thought they looked cool and not for any practical story purposes. And rather than rely wholeheartedly on JeeJa's natural ability, they add ridiculous action scenes reminiscent of a Hollywood summer action movie. The music is fine during the quiet emotional scenes, but is often painfully weak during the more energetic ones.

2½ kicking chasers out of 5

Wolf Children (2012)

The trials that a parent must endure when raising children are often difficult, but kids transforming into wolves isn't typically one of them. Not so for Hana, who's forced to move to the countryside lest her secret be discovered.
Dir. Hosoda's slow pace during the early parts of the film allow moments that are focussed on growing closer to ease themselves into play, setting the tone for the themes of fitting in and the importance of discovering one's role in life that develop further in the later parts.
Narrated by the firstborn wolf child of the title, it's a sweet and loving coming of age tale, but I feel that it could've benefitted from a few more buoyantly powerful scenes, like that of the wonderful first snow tumble.

3 piggy promises out of 5

Lords of Dogtown (2005)

Venice Beach, 1975, is the locale credited with the beginnings of 'modern' skateboarding. It's then that a group of youths, later known as the Z-Boys, got their hands on some urethane wheels for the first time. Their reckless attitude, and general asshole-ness towards anyone and anything that they didn't like, imbued the practice with a punk edge that took it to the next level.
Written by Stacy Peralta, one of the aforementioned, the LoD film tells that story in a direct manner that lacks spark. The skating scenes, especially the pools, are as good as the real thing, but a lack of passion in many of the cast drags the experience down, which the powerful ending highlights more so.

2½ backyard pool boyz out of 5