Jack The Giant-Slayer

No pantomime for me this year, so I gave Jack The Giant-Slayer a go instead. This is the 2013 version directed by Bryan Singer. It is a mixture of the traditional stories Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack the Giant-Killer. So, much as you think you know the story, there are actually a few unexpected turns.

The CGI is brilliant. The giants are scary. The beanstalk is scary (really). Everything looks beautiful and fairytalesque.

I also really liked the portrayal of the relationship between Jack (by Nicholas Hoult) and the princess (by Eleanor Tomlinson). Both actors did a great job; avoiding the sugary clichés so loved by pantomime amateurs all over the country at this time of year.

At its root this is just a fairytale; but it is done really well, with style, humour and drama.

Bullhead

A film set near the Belgian-Dutch border using mostly Limburgish and seemingly about cattle farmers. Doesn't sound too compelling, but that is the trick that Bullhead plays on you.

You see the title character in the present day at first. He doesn't seem like a very nice guy, to say the least. Director Michaël R. Roskam does a brilliant job of drawing out your prejudices about this grown up Jacky, before hitting you with the harrowing story of his past. Wow! What an impact that makes. Suddenly you find yourself looking at Jacky and his behaviour in a totally different way.

The plot continues to twist with more revelations about the relationships between the main characters. You see early on that they know (or at least recognise) each other, but only gradually learn how.

I found this film fascinating. Particularly the performances of Matthias Schoenaerts as Jacky and Jeroen Perceval as Diederik. It is beautifully shot and the cuts backwards in time are well done.

There are a couple of clumsy devices (Lucia is annoying) and the possible humour of the car mechanics was lost on me as a subtitle reader.

Overall, an excellent film. It is harrowing though. Bad things happen. Really bad things!

Byzantium

I put Byzantium on my rental list mostly because it has Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan in. Never seen a trailer and didn't read the blurb. It's a plan that's worked well before. And it delivered another great watch.

This is a film that takes an established genre and reworks it slightly. Not massively. But enough. Especially when you don't know what genre at the start. There is mystery and then an unfolding realisation of who these two women are.

There's not a lot of action, but the acting and script are both excellent.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

The problem with The Exorcism of Emily Rose is that it doesn't know if it wants to be a courtroom drama, a thriller or a horror film. It tries to be all three and ends up being neither.

There is no drama because you know from the start what is going to happen. There are moments of horror, but they are so spread out that they lose their impact very quickly. The focus on the lawyers marginalises the most important characters, which should be the girl's family and the priest.

The outcome of the trial is pretty much irrelevant. In the real-life case of Anneliese Michel on which the film is based it was the parents and two priests who were prosecuted. In the film it was just the priest: why? I didn't understand the premise of him being solely culpable for the girl's death.

The real-life story here has huge potential, but I think the film fails to tell it well.

Alan Partridge : Alpha Papa

You know those days where everything goes wrong? It takes you 3 attempts to get your T-shirt on the right way round ... inside out, then back to front ... you've run out of tea / coffee / milk / bread. Well, I think if every day were like that then you'd end up like Alan Partridge.

Probably like many who loved the Partridge TV shows, I was a bit concerned that Alan might not translate to the big screen. But fear not; he does. Alpha Papa is a great film. All the characters are really well done and the straightforward plot is perfect for putting AP into the situations we love to see him struggling with.

This is a continuation of Alan's evolution. He's older and a bit wiser now. He sees some of his flaws and isn't quite as pompous as before.

I can't explain why this is funny. And some people wont like it. But the title sequence with Alan driving to work and singing along to the radio had me in stitches.

Fish Story

There are plenty of Japanese films that have just left me baffled at the end. For a long time it looked like Fish Story might be one more of them; but it isn't.

Between the punk music and impending disaster, the film throws a collection of interesting characters who all feel connected... you just don't quite know how. As the scenes jump between 1975, 1999, 2009 and 2012 you spot some characters who are the same and others who might be but aren't.

Confused? That's part of the charm. There are enough likeable characters to keep you interested even when you are not quite sure what is going on. And, trust me, at the end everything is clear.

Quirky, fun, interesting. Stick with this one, you wont regret it.

Immortals

I've been ill this week; which is a poor excuse for ignoring all the bad reviews and fair warnings and watching Immortals. What a dreadful film!

Dreadful all round. What were they thinking? Complete and utter stinker. There I was, in my sick-bed, looking for something light, something fun and throw-away. I didn't care about mythological accuracy, I could forgive some poor acting, wasn't too bothered about a wobbly script, didn't mind if the action was mindless, expected plot holes and some predictability. But I got all of those in spades. Shocker.

The only mildly high point is the hilarious final battle between the Gods and the Titans. After the Gods teleport into the mountain through the hole at the top and kill more Titans than there seemed to be in the box at the start; there are still more Titans than there were at the start left over to kill all the Gods except Zeus. I guess that's why the Titans are scary, because you can fit so many of them in such a small box? It must be that, because they can't even jump out of a small hole to escape when Zeus collapses the mountain by pulling on a couple of chains... before teleporting away with his maybe-not-dead daughter.

Oh yes; that last bit made me laugh so much I almost got better instantly. Thank you. If only Immortals were properly classified as a comedy then maybe it would have got better reviews :)

Olympus Has Fallen

I was expecting Olympus Has Fallen to be a thriller, but it is just one brutal, nasty, man winning against a group of brutal, nasty, men and women.

There's nothing to like about this film; unless you somehow think that the thick slice of American patriotism at the end somehow makes up for the stunning stupidity of almost all of the American characters throughout the film.

Blackfish

I should have been an easy target for the documentary Blackfish. I don't like to see animals of any kind kept in confined spaces; so I didn't need convincing that young orca shouldn't be captured, "trained" and displayed in tanks for the entertainment of humans.

There also seems to be a significant amount of evidence to suggest that the male orca Tilikum has killed 3 people and that the owners of the SeaWorld park have failed to take proper responsibility.

And yet this documentary totally fails for me. Most of it is "talking heads" shots of former employees recounting their experiences and reactions to later events. There is little information on who the people are, what their qualifications are, how long they worked there and why they left the park. I was left with the impression that most of them worked there when they were "too young to know better" and now regret the association.

The experts are not presented much better. The lady describing how she put an orca in an MRI scanner and discovered its advanced emotions was just so cringe-worthy. There were some solid fact-based pieces, but they were swamped by the fluff.

How the makers made such a bad presentation of the footage they had, I don't know. There is one section which was completely gripping - where the male trainer survived a drowning attack by staying very calm - but otherwise I think this was an opportunity fumbled, if not entirely missed.

The Wolverine

It's a bit strange to write a review for a film you haven't seen. Based on my tastes I should have seen The Wolverine by now. I almost saw it at the cinema. But I was on holiday the week or so it was on the biggest screen here... and I object to paying so much for the smaller screens that are about the size of some of my friends' living rooms. That was July 2013.

Now the DVD / Blu-Ray is out to buy. Why would I buy it though? I'm probably only going to watch it a handful of times... even if it's good. Why add another plastic box to my already cluttered abode. This is November 2013, a whole 4 months after the theatrical release.

Surely I can rent the movie? Actually, no. The movie service I pay for (LoveFilm) says the rental release date is January 2014, almost a whole 6 months after the theatrical release... and 2 months after the DVD release.

Even stranger. I can't even add it to my rental list until it is released! Huh?

I don't know if this is LoveFilm doing something dumb, or the distributor. But since LoveFilm have offered a pretty good service for years, I can make an educated guess.

So how can I respond? What power do I have against this nonsense? One thing, I guess. I wont watch it when it does come out. There you go. This is my review: The Wolverine - I probably would have liked it, but I didn't watch it because the distributor pissed me off so much.

Me And You

Despite not working on several levels, I found myself quite charmed by Me And You. There's hardly any story beyond "Boy hides in basement for a week". You learn very little about the boy Lorenzo and his half-sister Olivia (who turns up much to the boy's annoyance). The only thing different at the end is possibly Lorenzo... he's still annoying as hell, but might see a better future for himself.

Of course, being a 14 year old Italian boy, Lorenzo is supposed to be annoying.

Olivia is 25. She is at first enigmatic, then annoying, then sad, then pathetic and finally all of those things at the same time... plus a little bit kinder towards Lorenzo than she began.

So this is one of those films which, if you think about it, seems rubbish. If you describe it to someone, it will sound rubbish. But it is quite enjoyable to watch. I don't know why. Two odd characters, not doing much... not brilliant... but engaging... somehow!

A Gang Story

Why the film Les Lyonnais is re-titled as A Gang Story in English puzzles me. What's wrong with The Lyon Gang ... I wonder. I don't think Casablanca would have done so well as A Nightclub Story.

Anyway, this is a great French film. The story spans many decades but slides gracefully backwards and forwards in time to show us key moments from the lives of the two main characters Momon and Serge.

I say 'story' but this feels more like an illustration of the relationship between Momon and Serge through the ages rather than a story as such. You get insights into their characters without forcing too much narrative onto them... and I think that works really well.

The acting is fantastic. Gérard Lanvin plays a wonderful, brooding, dark, but somehow principled Momon; balanced perfectly by Tchéky Karyo as his colder, tougher blood-brother Serge.

Well worth a watch. In fact, I will probably watch it again soon.

Trance

There's often a fine line between intrigue and confusion. The film Trance treads not so carefully and just about gets away with it.

We start out with an auctioneer telling us about art thefts. So we immediately expect the film to be about an art theft. Then we are caught by surprise and slapped into wondering what happened. Intriguing. Then we are offered a possible explanation. But that doesn't really seem to make sense. Confusing. We go along with it... and eventually there is a big reveal. And a not unsatisfying conclusion.

I thought most of the performances were good and carried the plot along nicely. James McAvoy is great and Vincent Cassel is a good opponent for him. I wasn't sure what Rosario Dawson was trying to show with Elizabeth but, since she is at the centre of the confusion, I guess that was deliberate.

An enjoyable watch if you don't think about it too much, or too little.

World War Z

Sometimes a zombie film comes along that totally changes the genre. In the meantime there are zombie films like World War Z which are just like all the other old zombie films; maybe with a bigger budget and a bigger star.

There's action, a few frights, and lots and lots of zombies. It's not a bad film. It's actually quite fun. And so are many other zombie films that are better than this one.

The Stoning of Soraya M.

Occasionally I make myself watch a film for my own good, rather than because I expect to enjoy it. The Stoning of Soraya M. is such a film. The title doesn't leave you in much doubt that this isn't going to be a barrel of laughs... or have a happy ending.

Living a comfortable life in the West, I think it's worth reminding yourself that life in other countries is significantly harder; particularly for women.

So this film has been on my watch list for a while. Waiting for the right moment. And I eventually started watching last night. But I didn't finish it.

The film opens well and builds some intrigue. Then it goes into a graphic description of the abuse that Soraya suffers before (I assume) her false conviction and stoning. I had to stop watching at about 40 minutes. The depiction seemed to be escalating horribly and was very realistic. Much as I wanted to know why she was killed, I didn't want to see it. Maybe because this is supposed to be based on a true story? It felt like I was a voyeur on the actual real suffering of this woman. I bottled out.

I've just read the wiki page about the film and I'm glad I stopped watching. I can't bear to watch real violence against women. The men who commit these crimes disgust me so much.

Seven Psychopaths

Seven Psychopaths is supposedly a British crime comedy. But it is set entirely in Hollywood and has a mostly American cast... plus Colin Farrell, who is Irish. So I'm not sure what Film4 and the BFI were doing funding it.

The film's construction is just as confusing. I didn't find it particularly funny, so I wouldn't class it as a comedy. I suppose there are crimes involved, but I wouldn't call it a crime movie. I don't know what it is, because it isn't really much of anything.

Colin Farrell is unconvincing as a drunk screenwriter. Christopher Walken is wooden. Only Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson make the best of the bad parts they have been written.

Overall, pretty much a waste of time.

Watchmen

Last night ended up being a Watchmen night. I had other things to watch, but wasn't in the mood for them.

I remember being given a copy of the graphic novel (call it a comic if you prefer, I don't mind) when the movie was in production. My friends were big fans and wanted me to read it before the film came out. Of course, they were worried that the film wouldn't do the book justice; and after reading it so was I.

But Watchmen is a great film. It captures the spirit of the book brilliantly. From the alternate 1985, to the very gritty violence and the dilemmas posed by the conclusion. The ending differs in some details from the book but, if anything, I prefer the movie ending, which is more believable than the original.

The brilliance of the story in Watchmen is what makes it interesting. I think the film succeeds because the director understood that. He concentrated on telling the story and didn't get distracted by the fact that the characters happened to be superheroes.

All Superheroes Must Die

As low-budget superhero movies go All Superheroes Must Die is a pretty good effort. The characters are engaging, the acting is mostly good and the sets have some substance compared to the abandoned quarry you usually get when money is tight.

The plot is quite mysterious, from the opening where we meet the main characters, to the end where we... finish. Nothing is given away too soon, and many things aren't given away at all; leaving plenty for the viewer to wonder about during and after the movie.

There are a couple of slips into cliche, and some dodgy dialogue, but all-in-all my complains are very minor.

Well done to everyone involved in making this movie. It looks like a close-knit crew from the credits. I hope they had fun making it. I enjoyed it much more than many of the multi-million dollar hero flicks that are trotted out as so-called blockbusters.

City Of God

Based on the true story of a boy growing up in a Brazilian slum. City Of God carries you through several decades of his life with ease and style. The "city" is awash with drugs and guns. People are only there because they have nowhere else to go. People try to escape. Few succeed.

I don't know if all the names are real. It seemed odd that the bullied kid was called Rocket and the bad guys were called things like Carrot.

Given that many of the actors were so young, you almost have to keep reminding yourself that you are watching a portrayal and not a documentary. The acting is that good.

The pacing seemed just right to me too. As well as the balance between hope and hopelessness. There aren't really good guys and bad guys here, as such, just people stuck in a hole... actually, that's not quite true, there are some people in this story who would probably do bad things in any environment.

Great film.

Gangster Squad

In the middle of Gangster Squad there is a huge hint at a possible surprise to come later. But it doesn't. That about sums up this movie. You feel like you've seen all the parts before. There are no surprises.

The acting is fine, the plot is fine, the cinematography is fine. But it is all formulaic. Maybe if you have never seen any gangsters movies... ever... you might enjoy this.

I didn't hate it, but apart from the surprise that never happened, it is already fading from my memory.

Shame; this is a good cast that could have done something great.

High Life

It is easy to say that High Life is a comic version of Reservoir Dogs... with drug addicts instead of hardened robbers. But that would be a little unfair to it. There is a comic element, but it is comedy based on the tragedy of these guys lives.

Set in the 1980s, when ATM machines were a new phenomenon, High Life is really about a group of guys who see another chance to improve their lives the easy way. They go for it. And fail in a big way. But they can't quit so they just keep piling failure on failure.

That is the tragedy. You can see that the characters need to try something different. But even the slightly more intelligent leader (played by Timothy Olyphant) can't accept that there is another road.

I thought all four main characters were very good. Very diverse and yet strangely balanced by their shared addictions. The only thing that threw me was that I was convinced that the "pretty boy" character was played by the same actor who was Gambit in the Wolverine Origins film. He isn't. This is Rossif Sutherland and Gambit was played by Taylor Kitsch.

This film isn't a classic, but is still well worth a watch.

Filth

I ventured out to the cinema for the first time in ages to see Filth. The first thing to say is that even though I enjoyed the film it will be a long time before I venture out to the cinema again. Plenty of people have said this before, but it is worth repeating in the hope that someone might notice eventually -

Piracy is not killing cinema : I don't go to the cinema very often because it is too expensive!

Right, back to the film. Filth is based on the book by Irvine Welsh and tells the story of a Scottish police detective with, shall we say, problems.

James McAvoy does a brilliant job of bringing Robertson alive, with wonderful support from the rest of the cast. The film buzzes along at a quick pace with plenty of sex scenes and set-piece gags to leave you in no doubt about the characters of the characters.

Don't watch this film and tell me you were shocked. If you are easily shocked then don't watch it. This is an Irvine Welsh story, do some research.

Very enjoyable film.

Leap Year

The review I saw for Leap Year said it was a Mexican psychological thriller in which a terribly lonely woman embarks on a course of sexual experimentation.

I'm an adult male, so it sounded worth a look (so to speak).

This is actually a very bleak film. I think on balance I'd rather I hadn't seen it.

There are several problems I had with it. Firstly, the opening 30 minutes sets the scene of how lonely Laura is. This is done quite well, but it becomes monotonous and I might have given up on another day.

The next 30 minutes show the build up towards February 29th. This is why the film is called Leap Year, something significant happened to Laura on that date. I wouldn't call this sexual experimentation. It was disturbing to watch and on another day I would have stopped watching at various points.

The final 30 minutes moves towards a shocking conclusion, but doesn't make it. At least, it doesn't reach the shock I expected (or feared) but instead shocks you with something entirely more bleak and hopeless.

There are some unanswered questions which I guess you could call "thought provoking". But really I just want to forget about this film as soon as possible.

The Greek Interpreter

Over 400 pages into the Complete Sherlock Holmes and we finally meet his big brother Mycroft in The Greek Interpreter.

Older than Sherlock, a better observer and a cleverer deducer. Can it be possible? So why isn't he a great detective? Because he doesn't have the energy for it. OK. He does the government's accounts instead... or something.

I wonder if that's it for Mycroft. Or will we see him in another case? Gripping stuff.

There's also only one more short story now until The Final Problem and we haven't heard a peep about Moriarty yet. I'm surprised. Conan Doyle didn't quite build up his collection of characters as I expected. Assuming this collection has the stories in the order they were published.

Life of Pi

I haven't read the book of Life of Pi because I tend to avoid books that win major prizes. I'm not really into literature in the high-brow sense, and assume that people who give prizes are. So I only read books based on personal recommendations or because the cover catches my eye in the library.

With those prejudices in mind you may now choose to totally ignore what I thought of the film version of Life of Pi.

It is a very pretty film. Visually stunning in many, many ways. There are lots of fascinating shots and I'm told that it is one of the few films that is worth watching in 3D (I saw the 2D version).

The first part of the film, about Pi's early childhood, is interesting. Then we get to the main part of the film. Which I didn't find interesting at all. I'd seen the posters for the film, so I knew one of the "surprises" already. If I was supposed to share his boredom, then I did.

There is no real tension because the story is narrated by the adult Pi all along. So you know he isn't going to die, or chew his own arm off. I was just waiting for the end for the whole of the last hour.

The ending is clever and redeems some of the torture, but not enough. Sorry, I just didn't enjoy it at all.

Warm Bodies

It's quite hard to describe Warm Bodies without giving away too much. And I am quite determined not to include spoilers here; especially after seeing the trailer for Dark Skies on the front of this disk and thinking that it pretty much gave away all of the surprises.

You could say Warm Bodies is a zombie film from the zombies' point of view. Or that it is Romeo and Juliet with zombies. But I'm not even sure I would describe this as a romantic comedy. I don't really know how to describe it. It was amusing in places. Quite sad in others. Always interesting. A bit scary. Ultimately optimistic.

I enjoyed it. Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer are good leads and even John Malkovich doesn't spoil the atmosphere (sorry, I'm not a fan). There's no attempt to over explain; we just see people trying to live their lives (or deaths); and I like that.

I find myself thinking that the best summary is probably "a zombie film for people who don't like zombie films". As for people who do like zombie films...

Lost In Translation

I had a couple of films lined up to watch last night but wasn't in the mood for either of them. So I watched Lost In Translation again instead.

It is a real mood film. One of the best films to watch if you are in the right mood. And I was last night. Some parts made me laugh and others made me nearly cry. Which is an indicator that I wasn't feeling quite as bad as I thought... since I do cry at those scenes sometimes.

The brilliance of Lost In Translation is that the two main characters know they are lost. Everyone else is probably just as lost, but doesn't know it. And setting it in Tokyo was a master stroke. A city where even the most grounded Westerner feels out of place (I have been there).

Everything adds up to a clever way of looking at two very different people struggling with their lives. And seeing them makes you realise that struggling is normal. No-one has a perfect life. Things go wrong all the time. Life is a struggle. But you can always fall back on films like this when you need to.

Lone Star

A friend recommended Lone Star to me years ago. I put it on my rental list and it has been sitting there marked "Currently Unavailable" ever since.

Anyway, I finally got to see it. I really enjoyed it. It is quite long, but doesn't feel it, even though there isn't much action. This is a good story, told at a leisurely pace. The smooth transitions between present and past and back again are very well done; unlike the clumsy flashbacks of so many films.

The focus on a small set of characters allows for a good exploration of the situation, without getting bogged down in too much detail. There is always a lot left unsaid, for the viewer to imagine as they wish.

An excellent film. An interesting journey; with some surprises subtly hidden away.

Silver Linings Playbook

I'm wondering if I should heed the maxim "if you can't say something nice, say nothing" when it comes to films. That's not quite the case with Silver Linings Playbook, but I have to search hard for something positive to say.

I certainly don't think it is a terrible film. But I didn't connect with it at all. I watched it. There were a couple of good parts. It ended.

I didn't buy the characters or the situation. It just didn't work for me. Maybe that's my fault. Maybe I just don't understand that part of American culture. I don't know.

So I'm not going to say this was a bad film. Just that I didn't enjoy it.

Broken

Half-way through Broken I wondered if it was going to be one of those British films that is well acted, well shot, and intelligent, but just leads you from nowhere in particular to another nowhere nearby. It isn't.

The story is about 3 families living in a cul-de-sac. They are all broken in a different way; the families and the individual characters.

The acting is excellent. Not just from Tim Roth and Cillian Murphy, who don't over-dominate, but the whole cast. The children are particularly convincing, lead by the wonderful Eloise Laurence.

(aside: Cillian Murphy's character is over-billed for marketing purposes. Robert Emms and Rory Kinnear are much more significant to the story than he is)

I really liked the way that the story appeared to wander a bit and then snap back together at the end for the finale. It was all very subtle and didn't feel contrived at all.

This is quite a short film, at only 90 minutes, but it packs a lot of punch.

Red Road

I found Red Road uncomfortable to watch, for several reasons.

It is the story of a CCTV operator in Glasgow. As I walk around and see cameras pointed at me all the time, I don't like to think of there being real people behind them watching me. Seeing a depiction of the operators, watching, following and assessing, therefore gives me the creeps. They do help people, but they are also voyeurs.

Then there is the pace of the film. I found it too slow for my liking. It works up to a point; I was constantly thinking something bad is going to happen soon and fretting for the main character. The motivation is also revealed very subtly, which I liked. But there are too many false starts and I eventually found myself wanting to switch off, but staying with it because I wanted to know what happened at the end.

The conclusion is also disturbing and thought provoking. I wondered would she really do that? and I think the fact that the answer is unclear is a real credit to the film.

Thursday

Now that I'm not working much, I've gone off Thursdays. Which is a shame since Thursday is the new Friday. But what does that make Friday? Apart from the old Friday. And people wonder why I have problems with modern society.

One Thursday I do still like is Thursday Next from the Jasper Fforde novels. It occurred to me recently, having read two of them, The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book, that there might well be a third by now. So I checked. And there is a third. And a fourth. And a fifth. In fact there are seven!

Good to know I'm on the ball. I've been busy. Anyway, I'm definitely going to check out the new books as soon as I'm done with Sherlock Holmes and the other five books in my reading pile. I hope they are as good as the first two. Which I seem to have read quite some time ago...

The Adventure of the Yellow Face

I picked up The Complete Sherlock Holmes in a charity shop a while ago and have been working my way slowly through the 1122 pages.

Last night I read The Adventure of the Yellow Face, which is remarkable for two reasons: firstly, as Watson states up front, Holmes is completely wrong about the case (although he clearly says that his theory is the most probable one that fits the facts); and secondly, Holmes and Watson don't actually do anything other than encourage the main protagonist to do what he was probably going to do anyway.

I keep thinking after every short story "Hmm. That was a bit, er, short." but I keep reading them. There really is something about the characters of Holmes and Watson that is very compelling... even though, on several other levels, some of the stories seem a bit rubbish.

Dark Skies

I completely missed Dark Skies when it came out. Didn't see any trailers, nothing. Which may have helped... as this is just the kind of film that's best watched with as few preconceptions as possible.

It isn't a Boo! scary horror film, on the whole. But it is a psychological drama that builds nicely to a climax.

We see a family, their friends and local community, all behaving perfectly sensibly given the information they have. Which is a nice change. You don't have to shriek "just listen to her" at the screen when someone does something completely dumb. Of course, some people are quicker to change their world-view than others, and some ignore the facts whatever they are. But that is what real people do.

Petty Romance

I'll start with something I know. Film. Petty Romance is billed as a Korean romantic comedy... don't let that put you off if you don't like rom-coms (guys) because this is more fun than most.

Subtitled films always have the potential to draw me in more than English language films, because you can't really look away without missing something. And this film definitely passes the Do I pause to pop into the kitchen for a beer? test.

The initial draw (no pun intended) here is that the film is set in the world of adult comic publishing. Sex and comics. Those are things I have always been fascinated with! And the director makes great use of his opportunities to mix the comic and real world.

Of course, part of the film is about the relationship between the male and female lead character. But the charm of this film is that the characters are trying to sort out other big problems in their lives and the romance becomes another part, another problem, for them to deal with.

It also doesn't try too hard to be funny. The humour just slots in nicely here and there.

I'm not going to score films on this blog. Either I like a film, or I don't. I liked Petty Romance.

I have no idea...

...what I am doing here.

I might post some film reviews. Or books. Or just ramble on about why my life seems to have gone wrong. Things have gone wrong; there is no doubt there.

So, lets see. Hopefully it will help.