Ready Player One

(Steven Spielberg/2018/USA)

Here is a fine example of taking a great book and transforming it into a mediocre film. Spielberg must have been on autopilot here, the nuance and excitement of the novel is reduced to cinematic trope and bland, box ticking Hollywood script fare.  Disappointing on many levels but it is Spielberg and even a run of the mill effort elicits a few decent action sequences.

(2/5)

The Piper

(Kim Gwang-tae/2015/South Korea)

Taking the pied piper myth and reframing it within post war Korea, The Piper is at times fantastical but ultimately nightmarish and violent. Veering between straight narrative and flashback it also veers thematically between social comment, myth and classic revenge story. I’d resist calling it compelling viewing but it kept me entertained throughout.

(3/5)    

Bagdad Cafe

(Percy Adlon/1987/Germany & USA) 

A German lady breaks up with her oafish husband in the midst of dustbowl America and lands in with a variety of characters living in and around the Bagdad Cafe, a roadside pit stop for truckers and travellers. And therein we witness the slow build of camaraderie and a shared spirit, particularly between the two wonderful leads, Marianne Sägebrecht and C.C.H. Pounder. Bagdad Cafe is of its time, when films could be quirky for quirk’s sake and I actually felt a stab of nostalgia watching it. A film like it, produced today, would probably get shredded. It survives the test of time though, as no matter how put on the eccentricities of character, at its core is straight as a die friendship and shared human experience. It is heart-warming, funny and unapologetic and Jack Palance turns in a magnificent performance also.

(3/5)