This is an earlier film by the same Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos who brought us The Lobster and The Favourite. When he made this, he hadn’t yet become famous so this was made with unknown actors and a limited budget. In fact, it takes place almost entirely within the confines of a family’s house. Yet it doesn’t disappoint with regards to its weirdness quotient while being somewhat easier to understand in terms of theme.

It’s pretty amazing how Elisabeth Moss is the one who achieved the most success and recognition coming out of Mad Men, and here she is in another film that is a hit with the critics. Unfortunately I think only about half of the film is really good as the part that deals with the descent of a rock star is fantastic but the subsequent attempted redemption feels weak and unearned.

Amidst the extended lockdown being imposed by most countries around the world, many works of entertainment have been available for free online. The most interesting of these to us are the recorded versions of live performances which would be otherwise impossible to watch. This one is a play originally run in 2011 based on Frankenstein. It was directed by Danny Boyle and starred Benedict Cumberbatch as alternately Victor Frankenstein or his creation.

This is another old film that is not great enough to be considered a classic and not well known enough to be a cult hit either. Nevertheless its director Alan J. Pakula is an established name, being the producer of To Kill a Mockingbird and the director of All the President’s Men. This film itself is noteworthy for its unusually complex psychological treatment of its characters, especially in the domain of sexuality, though it does feel a little dated now.

Like a significant proportion of the planet, we were on a binge of watching the series a few years ago and my wife was absolutely smitten by it. That’s why watching this highly anticipated feature film was always going to be inevitable even if objectively speaking we all know that it’s not going to be much good. The best thing to be said about it is that it properly reunites the cast, with the exception of Matthew Goode who has a curiously insignificant role, and the show is led by series creator Julian Fellowes.

As far as I know, director Jafar Panahi is still barred from leaving Iran or officially making films but of course he doesn’t let them stop him. Here he and the other characters are still playing themselves but at least he isn’t pretending that this isn’t a film anymore. I do like how Taxi Tehran was mostly about the city of Tehran, but this one is about him driving around in the countryside.

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.