Last Night in Soho (2021)

The life of 60s performer Sandie - think nightclubs, cocktails, Cilla Black-types, Dusty Springfield-lookalikes, and lots of leering, lecherous men - and that of fashion student Eloise in the present day - think peer pressure at college, bar-hopping, part-time beer-pulling and rental applications - supernaturally collide with the help of reflective surfaces, an impressive series of effects that is this psychological horror's pièce de résistance, but if there is anything to learn from Eloise's bunny hop into so elaborate a Swingin' 60s fandango, it seems just to be the idea that no matter how much women are used and abused over decades by lecherous men, in the end they'll always trump men with their own villainry.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Murder Mystery (2019)

Adam Sandler not acting like a moron and Jennifer Aniston doing what she always does makes for a likeable pair of sleuths here but the writing is so lazy, the murder mystery plot aboard a luxury boat so run-of-the-mill, the assembled suspects (played by a surprising array of big name stars) so lacking in characterisation beyond exaggerated nationality, deformity, or idiosyncracy, and the denouement so underwhelming, so bemusing - in fact so boring - viewers will only continue watching to the end either because they're tied to their chair or because they vainly hope this Netflix offering will dish up a final twist or surprise or something, anything!, to unlock the great mystery: how Netflix sustains its subscription service when it serves up dross like this so lazily thrown together you almost suspect it has been released unfinished.

★☆☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994)

A transsexual (a hilariously deadpan Terence Stamp) and two female impersonators (one, Guy Pearce playing Cesar Romero doing The Joker) hit the road in a big lavender bus, taking their drag show from Sydney to Alice Springs via mining towns Broken Hill and Coober Pedy, in this much-loved 1994 comedy drama that downplays or entirely sidesteps points of possible contention and ends up feeling like a disingenuous string of encounters between the performers and outback locals.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Superman (1978)

Grandly staged with big name stars including Marlon Brando and Terence Stamp, and with big special effects, this first big budget superhero movie is an enduring best, unhurriedly telling the origins of the all-American Superman and how he saves the world from a trio of galactic invaders under the command of General Zod.

★★★★★

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS