Nicholas Cage does so much awful work these days that it was quite a surprise last year to see this low budget, independent film shoot to the top of critics’ charts. After learning about its premise, I was disinclined to like this, worried that it would be mostly about watching one or more animals suffer. As it turned out, this film isn’t really about the pig at all and is a lot more like John Wick than I ever imagined, albeit in a radically different direction. It sure is an interesting and creatively impressive film but it has as little to do with real cooking and food as John Wick has with real combat.

Due to how much I loved The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I am certainly going to watch more of the work of its two directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who as a duo call themselves the Archers. This is again a film that is really about Britishness itself, being inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, but set during the Second World War. As Chaucer’s collection of stories is about a group of pilgrims travelling to Canterbury, so too is this film about a group of people who befriend each other on the road and find themselves going to Canterbury as well. In this way, it captures a little of what the pilgrimage experience might have been like for those in the Middle Ages and shows off the city and its surroundings to wonderful effect.

As I write this, director Jafar Panahi has once again been imprisoned. His sad fate contrasts sharply with the tone of this, one of his better known films that is about the oppression of women in Iran but is lighthearted and patriotic. This is about how the country stops women from attending football matches but this doesn’t deter a determined group of female fans. It was apparently filmed in a stadium during an actual qualifying match which gives this an electrifying atmosphere and incredible sense of authenticity. It’s fiction of course because no way would real soldiers and police officers be as empathetic and as easily bullied as the ones shown here as the director’s own fate demonstrates. But it sure does make for a fun movie.

This is a German film in that the production company, director and most of the cast are German but its heart and soul is Japanese. It is in fact an obvious homage to the works of Yasujirō Ozu transposed to Germany which is all well and good. But what makes it great is that it then builds on that foundation to explore the aftermath of the death of a spouse. I’m surprised that this doesn’t seem to be better known and more highly regarded and it’s true that it could stand to be a little less heavy-handed in its messaging which prevents it from being truly sublime. Still, I do believe that this is one of the favorite films I’ve watched so far this year.

I know that this really should be seen in a proper cinema hall but it was shown too early after lockdown was lifted for us to feel comfortable going out just yet. In retrospect I regret that as this was originally shot in the IMAX format and television screen just don’t do it justice. At this point, it’s fair to say that I’m a fan of Denis Villeneuve so it was always exciting to have him tackle Dune. Having now watched it I have to say that this is as perfect an adaptation of the novel as anyone could reasonably ask for.

The Wire is still widely cited by many as the greatest television show that has ever been made. Creator David Simon has made other shows since then but none stood out to me particularly. The Deuce however brings serious star power with James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal as leads and co-producers. Instead of drugs, the focus of the series is on the sex trade in New York City during the 1970s. We’ve only seen the first season and it’s as great and richly complex as you might expect. It does however feel more like an ethnography than a dramatic story and it unfortunately lacks the magical spark that made The Wire so special.

I guess this makes two films this week that are about history. This is a documentary about a music festival that took place over six weekends in the summer of 1969 in Harlem, New York City. Since one of the Sundays was concurrent with the much better known Woodstock Festival, this event was at times marketed as being Black Woodstock. However despite the presence of many famous performers and a large attendance of mainly black people, the event was little known to most of the US or the world. This film shows how it was a formative, life-changing event for many of the attendees but afterwards it disappeared from the public consciousness and even this footage of it languished unseen.