If you go down to the woods in yesterday's era

 Desperate Poaching Affray (1903)

Directed by William Haggar this short film stars Sid Griffiths, Will Haggar Jr. and Walter Hagger. A group of hunters come across some poachers and it all kicks off.

There is little plot here but this is an early action sequence that will entertain for the short time it runs. If you want a bit more story you have to look elsewhere but this is a pretty good piece of action for the time it was made. Very occasionally some of the acting might be a little weak but things move to fast to dwell on such small problems.

3/5

Painting plagarism

Big Eyes (2014)

Directed by Tim Burton this film based on a true story stars Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. A woman leaves her husband and moves to San Francisco where she marries an aspiring painter who takes credit for her work.

Surprisingly different from the rest of Tim Burton's work this biopic is in an interesting look at the art world and raises some pretty good questions on what art is. For the most part it seems that the film sticks to historical events, not taking huge liberties as some films do. Nothing stands out especially about the execution of the film but Waltz gives one of his usually wacky performances.

4/5

Not as cute as it seems

Sixteen Candles (1984)

Written & directed by John Hughes this film stars Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall. Waking up to find she feels no different on the morning of her sixteenth birthday our protagonist also finds her family has forgotten her birthday too.

This film does a good job of capturing that teenage insecurity when it comes to love and sex even if the plot is a little generic at times. Strangely for a John Hughes film there are sub plots with some really lazy racism and date rape vibes. If you can look past the flaws this is still a decent coming of age film and fits in well with John Hughes other films.

3/5

Musical revolutionary in Indian cinema

Pancham Unmixed (2009)

Directed by Brahmanand S. Singh this documentary features contributions from a large number of people in the Bollywood music business. We follow the career of R. D. Burnman also known as Pancham da who is credited with revolutionising the music of Bollywood.

As someone with little knowledge of Bollywood or music I thought this film did a good job of explaining what was special about it's subject but could have done a better job at showing what the state of Bollywood music was like before he began his career. Some more comparisons to contemporaries might have helped but this film does not fall into the the trap of just being hero worship at least. I really enjoyed the small glimpses of the different films from across the ears of Indian cinema that this film provided.

3/5

Under stated

Under the Skin (2013)

Directed by Jonathan Glazer this film based on the novel of the same name by Michel Faber stars Scarlett Johnasson. A strange woman drives round Glasgow in a van picking up men.

While undoubtedly there is something going on under the skin here I found the execution of the film to be too slow and vague even for my tastes. The script ends up straying pretty far from it's source material and while you can tease out some themes of race and genre from the film just far too much is left unexplained. Scarlett Johnasson gives a good performance as a protagonist that essentially has no personality but otherwise this film bored me a little at times.

2/5  

Meat mugging

Stop Thief! (1901)

Directed by James Williamson this short film from the silent era stars Sam Dalton. While carrying a joint of meat a butcher is robbed of by a tramp.

This is a simplistic short film that pretty much is exactly what it says on the tin. There is a bit of action in a chase sequence but there is not a huge amount to go on here. For what it is the film is fairly well made but at just over a minutes run time there is never going to be any depth here.

3/5  

Paint on film

Fiddle-de-dee (1947)

Directed by Norman McLaren this animated film features the song “Mocking Bird” played on a fiddle. Painted shapes dance and twist to music.

Painting directly onto film gives this movie an unique look and it does a really good job of visualising the music that accompanies it. While there is no narrative or attempt to add depth it is an interesting watch. You have to admire the skill that has created this animation frame by frame if nothing else.

3/5