Astérix et Obélix : Mission Cléopâtre

2002, France, directed by Alain Chabat

An enormous hit in France on its release -- even more so than the first live action Asterix film, released in 1999 -- and a point of reference for many French people, with many snippets of dialogue finding their way into the wider cultural lexicon (some of the wordplay is brilliant, and the jokes do come thick and fast, though as ). That said, Asterix and Obelix often feel entirely peripheral to their own film, which takes the film far from the spirit of the original books -- and neither Clavier and Depardieu seems especially invested as a consequence. 

The Dig

2021, UK, directed by Simon Stone

A very enjoyable, if historically questionable, account of the Sutton Hoo dig in the late 1930s, as the war approached. The film looks absolutely lovely -- no accident, I think, that it's something of a celebration of the green and pleasant land as darker shadows gather -- though occasionally the framing suggests director Simon Stone is reaching for a more artistic statement than his material allows. There's melodrama to spare; it feels as though writer Moira Buffini and Stone didn't have full confidence in their central, fascinating, story. As a result, unfortunately, some parts of the script badly misconstrue the historical record (especially ironic in that part of the point  is to correct the fact that excavator Basil Brown, nicely played by a weatherbeaten Ralph Fiennes, didn't receive his due when the treasures from Sutton Hoo were first put on display). 

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

2011, US, directed by Rob Marshall

I've often tried to start the new year out with a "good" film, but sometimes one that's enjoyable will do: despite their flaws, I've generally enjoyed the movies in this series, and while Johnny Depp's off-screen life is deeply problematic, to say the least, he continues to bring the main character energy here, especially following the departure of key personnel from films 1-3. Rob Marshall is a definite downgrade as director, mainly because he's much less crisp as an action director (a problem for the swashbuckling scenes), but as before the whole affair moves along pretty briskly. Undemanding entertainment, in other words.

Films Seen in 2020 (52)

BlackKklansman (2018, US, Spike Lee) January 6, 2020

Run Silent Run Deep (1958, US, Robert Wise) January 7, 2020

Les Petits mouchoirs (2010, France, Guillaume Canet) January 14, 2020

The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019, Canada/Norway, Elle-Májía Tailfeathers & Kathleen Hepburn) January 12, 2020

Transit (2018, Germany, Christian Petzold) January 25, 2020

Street Scene (1931, US, King Vidor) January 28, 2020

The Pirate (1948, US, Vincente Minnelli) February 8, 2020

Fear (1946, Alfred Zeisler) February 8, 2020

Midnight Mystery (1930, US, George B. Seitz) February 11, 2020

Mulan (1998, US, Tony Bancroft & Barry Cook) February 17, 2020

The Sound of Music (1965, US, Robert Wise) February 22, 2020

La Guerre des tuques (2015, Canada, Jean-François Pouliot) March 7, 2020

Wendy and Lucy (2008, US, Kelly Reichardt) March 7, 2020

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018, New Zealand/UK, Peter Jackson) March 24, 2020

Early Man (2018, UK, Nick Park) March 28, 2020

Top Hat (1935, Mark Sandrich) March 28, 2020

La Course des tuques (2018, Canada, Benoît Godbout) April 1, 2020

Hangover Square (1945, US, John Brahm) April 4, 2020

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965, UK, Martin Ritt) April 13, 2020

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946, US, Lewis Milestone) May 2, 2020

Occupe-toi d'Amélie (1949, France/Italy, Claude Autant-Lara) May 11, 2020

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002, US/UK, Chris Columbus) May 11, 2020

Le Retour du héros (2018, France/Belgium, Laurent Tirard) May 25, 2020

Les Misérables (2019, France, Ladj Ly) May 25, 2020

Mr Right (2015, US, Paco Cabezas) May 27, 2020

The Invention of Lying (2009, US, Ricky Gervais & Matthew Robinson) May 27, 2020

The Lovebirds (2020, US, Michael Showalter) June 1, 2020

The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975 (2011, Sweden, Göran Olsson) June 13, 2020

10 Rillington Place (1971, UK, Richard Fleischer) June 20, 2020

I Will Follow (2011, US, Ava DuVernay) July 8, 2020

La Guerre des boutons (2011, France, Yann Samuell) July 27, 2020

Le Petit Nicolas (2009, France/Belgium, Laurent Tirard) August 3, 2020

Le Juge Fayard dit "Le Shériff" (1977, France, Yves Boisset) August 26, 2020 

Cold War (2012, Hong Kong, Sunny Luk & Longman Leung) September 21, 2020

La Vie scolaire (2019, France, Grand Corps Malade & Mehdi Idir) September 21, 2020

Une Fille facile (2019, France, Rebecca Zlotowski) September 26, 2020

Balle perdue (2020, France, Guillaume Pierret) September 27, 2020

The Willoughbys (2020, US, Kris Pearn) October 16, 2020

Les Choses de la vie (1970, France, Claude Sautet) October 24, 2020

The Secret Garden (1993, US/UK/Poland, Agniezska Holland) October 31, 2020

Rien à declarer (2010, France/Belgium, Dany Boon) November 7, 2020

Rosie (2018, Ireland, Paddy Breathnach) November 7, 2020

Peter Pan (1953, US, Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, & Wilfred Jackson) November 26, 2020

Pinocchio (1940, US, Ben Sharpsteen & Hamilton Luske) November 27, 2020

The Muppet Movie (1979, US, James Frawley) November 29, 2020

M (1931, Germany, Fritz Lang) December 2, 2020

Mangrove (2020, UK, Steve McQueen) December 19, 2020

Home Alone (1990, US, Chris Columbus) December 26, 2020

Brave (2012, US, Mark Andrews & Brenda Chapman) December 27, 2020

Onward (2020, US, Dan Scanlon) December 28, 2020

Elf (2003, US, Jon Favreau) December 31, 2020

Star Wars (1977, US, George Lucas) December 31, 2020

Other Films Seen in 2019 (36)

Le Grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972, France, Yves Robert) January 11, 2019

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942, US, Michael Curtiz) January 11, 2019

Destry Rides Again (1939, US, George Marshall) February 1, 2019

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019, US, Dean DeBlois) March 10, 2019

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018, US, Peyton Reed) March 30, 2019

The Jane Austen Book Club (2007, US, Robin Swicord) April 5, 2019

Crazy Rich Asians (2018, US, Jon M. Chu) May 17, 2019

Wonder Woman (2017, US, Patty Jenkins) May 31, 2019

Braqueurs (2015, France, Julien Leclercq) June 11, 2019

Always Be My Maybe (2019, US, Nahnatchka Khan) June 19, 2019

Snowpiercer (2013, South Korea, Bong Joon-ho) June 21, 2019

Arrival (2016, US, Denis Villeneuve) June 23, 2019

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016, US, Bryan Singer) July 1, 2019

My Cousin Rachel (2017, UK/US, Roger Michell) July 29, 2019

Runaway Jury (2003, US, Gary Fleder) July 29, 2019

Step (2017, US, Amanda Lipitz) July 30, 2019

Booksmart (2019, US, Olivia Wilde) August 2, 2019

Widows (2018, US, Steve McQueen) August 3, 2019

X-Men: First Class (2011, US, Matthew Vaughn) August 11, 2019

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019, US, Quentin Tarantino) August 15, 2019

The Mule (2018, US, Clint Eastwood) September 9, 2019

Paris is Burning (1990, US, Jennie Livingston) September 23, 2019

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018, US, Desiree Akhavan) September 25, 2019

La Beauté du diable (1952, France/Italy, René Clair) September 26, 2019

Smallfoot (2018, US, Karey Kirkpatrick) October 11, 2019

Downton Abbey (2019, UK, Michael Engler) October 13, 2019

Mississippi Grind (2015, US, Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck) November 9, 2019

The Killer is Loose (1956, US, Budd Boetticher) December 5, 2019

Klaus (2019, Spain, Sergio Pablos) December 8, 2019

Love in a Fallen City (1984, Hong Kong, Ann Hui) December 17, 2019

Knives Out (2019, US, Rian Johnson) December 22, 2019

Parasite (2019, South Korean, Bong Joon-ho) December 23, 2019

The Irishman (2019, US, Martin Scorsese) December 23, 2019

Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936, US, H. Bruce Humberstone) December 24, 2019

The Old Man and the Gun (2018, US, David Lowery) December 25, 2019

Frozen II (2019, US, Jennifer Lee & Chris Buck) December 30, 2019

The Sleeping Tiger

1954, UK, directed by Joseph Losey (under the pseudonym Victor Hanbury)

As so often, a viewing choice inspired by David Cairns, this is an enjoyably ripe melodrama, over-stuffed with plot and challenges to logic, but Dirk Bogarde does good sleaze, Losey directs with great energy, and the climax has a nice bit of visual poetry to it.

The Man Who Cheated Himself

1950, US, directed by Felix E. Feist

A pretty classic, B-level noir, in which Lee J. Cobb's cop is bewitched and betrayed by a femme fatale, again a classically misogynistic trope of the genre. Cinematically, it's worth a look, with some striking shot choices, especially as the film reaches its climax, while there's surely a nod to Hitchcock's Suspicion in the prominent appearances of several glasses of milk. There's also a nice mix of San Francisco location work and back projection shots.