Capote (2005)

This isn't In Cold Blood but Truman Capote writing 'In Cold Blood', and it is painterly and utterly captivating in its evocation of the 1960s and in the way it contrasts the cocktail parties, soirees of New York with the bleak landscapes of rural Kansas, its scene of the now infamous Clutter family murders and its penitentiary stretched out across the flat, but the biopic remains frustratingly superficial about its subject, more snapshot than character study, touching upon - for a Capote Devotee maybe - but not wholly taking up - for anyone else - myriad points of interest including Capote's addictions (we just see him with a glass in hand, a mere signal for those in the know), his self-centredness (he cries, but we wonder why; he says he's done all he can (after a holiday in Spain) but we wonder if he actually believes it); the veracity of his journalism (we hear him repeatedly proclaim his near-perfect recall but wonder if it might be because he feels his credibility is/would be challenged); his deteriorating relationship with Harper Lee (she cools but we wonder what affect this has on him), and the freedom he had in his relationship with Jack Dunphy (there are hints at dalliances, and possibly even one with one of the killers, Perry Smith (according to some sources but not this film), but we are left wondering if he feels duplicitous...or anything at all).

★★★☆☆

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Moneyball (2011)

Brad Pitt continues his best Robert Redford impression since being schooled by him in Spy Games, here playing a distinctly Redfordesque Billy Beane, a real-life sabermetrician whose unconventional drafting process (based on research and analysis, not whether a player's girlfriend is hot or not) led his Oakland Athletics major league baseball team to a record-breaking winning streak in 2002.

★★★★☆

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M:i:III (2006)

Number 3 is a return to form after the lamentable John Woo-directed second in the M:I series, and although it is slightly histrionic, Mission: Impossible 3 benefits from a chilling turn by Philip Seymour Hoffman as a sociopathic villain and is also aided by a threadbare plot centred around a McGuffin that allows action and spy thrills to come to the fore.

★★★☆☆

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The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)

Despite the anticlimax of its fudged final scene, this is a terrific adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's 1955 book that succeeds as a classy thriller, a glamorous European travelogue, and a deeply disturbing psychological character study of a young chameleon whose talents as a voice artist and tendency to be in the right place at the right time assist him in keeping up a series of wickedly simple but deadly deceptions.

★★★★☆

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Punch Drunk Love (2002)

Adam Sandler's novelty goods factory floor manager grapples with his temper, his overbearing sisters, his new romance with Emily Watson, and a flawed coupon competition that sees him stockpiling crazy amounts of pudding, in this oddball but deeply affecting comedy drama, director Paul Thomas Anderson's - and Sandler's - best movie to date.

★★★★☆

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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.

★★★☆☆

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