So far we’ve watched two films by Ken Loach, Kes, which we loved, and I, Daniel Blake, which I thought was the product of a director out of touch with the times. This film about the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War immediately after is much closer in quality to Kes and I suppose that reflects the director’s greater affinity for the period. But it still is rather hamfisted with its political messaging and I think a little biased in the director’s insistence on how much of the disagreement was founded on fighting for socialism.

Having a Philippine film on here is another first. Though it mostly takes place in Hong Kong, this definitely counts as a Philippine film by virtue of its leads, its director Cathy Garcia-Molina, and its screenplay. A comparison with the recent Still Human is obvious as both feature Philippine women working as domestic helpers in Hong Kong. But Hello, Love, Goodbye is the superior film is almost all respects with the main reason being that it captures life from the Philippine point of view much more authentically.

This is very much not the appropriate season for this film but we could all do with some lighter fare and cheering up in these trying times. I suppose this counts as a second tier animation film as its quality and budget are visibly inferior to the box office releases. In another era, we would have called this a direct to video film but a Netflix release doesn’t sound so denigrating these days. Note that while this is an English language film and features many famous voice actors, it was actually made by a Spanish animation studio.

I loved First Man when I watched it in the cinema a couple of years ago but do I really need to watch a documentary of the same events? It turned out that yes, even though it covers much of the same ground, the excellent editing here and the use of previously unseen archival footage makes this well worth watching for space fans and adds much of value even to those who are already familiar with the moon landing.

This is described as being a documentary out of Macedonia and it is certainly the first Macedonian film we’ve ever watched. However despite the cinéma vérité shooting method, it’s barely possible to believe that this is a documentary as it has characters, a plot and even a proper dramatic arc. Reading up on it, it seems that the filmmakers insist that it’s a documentary as the original intention was to make a film about the region but when they met Hatidže Muratova they realized that her personal story was too good not to tell.

I’m pretty sure I added this film to my ever growing list due to its specific notability as a war film. Its director Cy Endfield doesn’t seem to have made anything else of comparable stature and while the promotional materials for it now prominently feature Michael Caine this was actually his first major role and he only plays a supporting character here. Yet it is a fantastic war film and easily one of best I’ve ever seen about a single battle, while managing the almost miraculous feat of not being too racist.

This marks the third and last installment of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s coming-of-age trilogy. It’s interesting to note that each of the three films is about a main male character who is growing up, with the age increasing in each successive film though they are all different characters. Here the protagonist is a young man who must leave his home to make his own way in the world. Naturally this is also the age when he must deal with girl problems.