Apartment Zero (Conviviendo con la muerte) (1988)

In this "apartment thriller", as in Single White Female (which has the same homoerotic undertones and is about as deep), apartment doors (and masks, sunglasses and wigs) hide potential dangers (satan, psychopathy, or death, say) and certainly as Colin Firth's neurotic, introverted moviehouse owner Adrian Le Duc takes into his apartment a new tenant, the James Dean-like (or really very Tom Cruise-like) Jack Carney (Hart Bochner), there are brutal political executions taking place, and I suppose in a city like Buenos Aires in the mid-80s, so soon after State-sponsored terrorists have disappeared thousands and brutally killed artists and intellects, it is hard for the residents of an apartment complex to know whom to open their doors to.

★★★★☆

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The Mercy (2017)

In 1968, Douglas Crowhurst entered a competition to solo-race around the world by boat and what happened aboard the Teignmouth Electron, a trimaran of his own design, while on land energy was high for his Boy's-Own Adventure, makes for gripping viewing with a terrific performance from Colin Firth as Crowhurst and a career-best performance from Rachel Weisz as his poor wife - but don't be fooled by that hopeful, heroic stare on the poster: it's grim.

★★★★☆

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The King's Speech (2010)

Forget the DCEU and MCU: grandly staged historical dramas like this one about King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II and stammering deliverer of rousing wartime speeches, form a rich and sprawling KGVIU - King George VI Universe - with Dunkirk and Darkest Hour and other recent big budget historical releases helping to turn boring WWII high school history classes into a rich cinematic tapestry that you feel you could watch stop-start, one movie in conjunction with the others and learn m9re than you ever did from your school books.

★★★★☆

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Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

The first looong hour reestablishes the 'anything goes' fantasy world of the original Kingsman (a world which I think is supposed to appeal to the now slightly older Harry Potter fan - this Harry Potter swears, smokes bongs, and has sex) and then the second hour demands that the viewer care (less) about a sprawling, charmless white bogan teenage boy's idea of a sophisticated spy world (more Spice World than James Bond with its hammy, unamusing cameos), care (less) about seen-it-before-in-Charlie's-Angels fight scenes, and care (less) about a plot tailor-made for the adolescent.

★☆☆☆☆

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Magic in the Moonlight (2014)

This is a breezy Woody Allen romantic comedy after Oscar Wilde about a cynical magician (Colin Firth) who, despite his scepticism about her claims, falls in love with a psychic (an always delightful Emma Stone).

★★★★☆

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Love Actually (2003)

This saccharine romantic comedy is replayed on television about three times a week and I've grown to loathe it, but at least on the first occasion it is a pleasure, featuring an ensemble all-star cast in a series of interconnected stories that share the central theme of messy love.

★★★★☆

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Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

This La Femme Nikita story centres around a wayward British youth recruited to become a gentleman spy, and is a cartoony action flick that presents only a white teenage boys' fantasy of sophistication including, for instance, female prisoners willing to be coerced into anal sex in exchange for freedom. 

★★☆☆☆

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Before I Go To Sleep (2014)

A victim of a violent attack wakes each morning without memory of the days before in this gimmicky thriller which cares less about its "bad guy reveal" and more about distracting audiences from plot holes and from asking too many questions about the woman's condition (which she may have caught from Guy Pearce in Memento).

★★☆☆☆

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The Railway Man (2013)

An Australian movie, The Railway Man tells the true story of a traumatised train-obsessed former British soldier's modern-day encounter with a Japanese Kempeitai interpreter who formed part of the team that tortured him after his capture in Japan-occupied Singapore during World War II, and while the realtime story minus flashbacks is temporally slight, the build up to it is gruelling and engrossing and when redemption of a sort comes, is very emotional.

★★★☆☆

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