The Woman In The Window (2020)

The plot of A J Finn's book was tailored for fans of the classic film thrillers of the 30s and 40s and 50s — essentially a string of all the especially twisty-turny bits of Hitchcock's The Lady Vamishes and Rear Window mixed with the memorable moments of other noir thrillers like Witness To Murder — but what the book lacks and what this adaptation dutifully lacks is any masterful thriller storytelling: there is no clever pacing or building of suspense or deft shifts in tone, just a relentless, frenetically paced string of twists and, like the book, the movie is filled not with characters but mere shapes who all speak with A J Finn's voice and dart around with the same urgency and at the same speed, driving the story to its end before you've even started to distinguish between these blobs.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

American Hustle (2013)

This lively comic "who's grifting who" crime caper with a warm heart opens with Christian Bale's conman carefully constructing a combover to hide an unfortunate male pattern baldness and from there introduces con artists, FBI agents, politicians and mobsters who are all similarly doing what they have to do to survive - not just the high tension/high risk sting at the movie's centre (based on the FBIs actual ABSCAM operation in the 70s and 80s) but their very human frailties, dysfunctional marriages, tricky affairs, dicky tickers and office politics.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Nocturnal Animals (2016)

After 19 years apart from her first husband, an insomniac and deeply unhappy art dealer receives from him a draft novel, a devastating tale of loss she suspects conceals a sinister meaning, in this slow burn thriller with a, sadly only deceptively, arresting opening scene and first half.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Arrival (2016)

Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi about a linguistics expert enlisted by the US Government to help communicate with snuffleupagus aliens using their wineglass-stain language is for most of its runtime an intriguing mystery but it turns out to be a mystery only on account of its central idea being excessively withheld from viewers and, when the big reveal finally comes, the movie's hypnotic pace underwhelms the moment.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Zack Snyder opens this with the trauma of Bruce Wayne's childhood - a backstory no-one needs to see, not now, not again - and from this tired start it is clear he has approached his job of launching DC Comics' Justice League franchise like an overzealous fanboy wanting to include evvveeerything, mashing together Nolan's Dark Knight series with his own 2013 Henry Cavill Superman movie and ending up with a monstrous, laborious, not-fun-at-all Justice League origin story that briefly features a personality-free Wonder Woman and an overly familiar Lex LuHeathLedgZuckerbergJokethor...surely jumping straight into an already assembled Justice League-proper movie would have been more fun than this!?

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

The Muppets (2011)

An amusing Muppet movie in which Gary, his girlfriend and Walter gather the muppets together for a reunion they hope will raise the funds needed to save the old muppet studio from a ruthless oil tycoon...maniacal laugh. 

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Man of Steel (2013)

This frenetic but enjoyable instalment of the Superman franchise has Superman looking more like Wolverine than ever before - muscly, hairy, and fearless - and features dizzying but thrilling action sequences only slightly marred by the sight early on of Russell Crowe riding a Jar Jar Binks-style dragonfly around Krypton.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

The Master (2012)

A peculiar little slip of a story about a traumatised drunkard's encounter with a guru, given grand treatment by Director Paul Thomas Anderson who, for no obvious reason, has steeped the movie with references to Scientology.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS