The basu! Guide to the Movies

RIP #ClorisLeachman One of my all-time favourite character actresses. By the time I caught up with her she was in her legendary comedienne phase: the Mel Brooks movies(no, not Young Frankenstein, that came later for me), the Herbie movie, the Muppet movie, the Ernie Kovacs movie(truly, a TBT story for another day), The Beverly Hillbillies(even though I hadn't seen the original TV series - thank you #BarryNorman[RIP 😔], etc. etc. etc. It was only later, much later, with the 1-2 punch of YF & Last Picture Show that I began to understand the range of her remarkable talent. And what range!, what length!, what breadth! *So* many movies, TV shows, a few plays, rollicking interviews, acceptance speeches. She was in so much stuff, and had so much fun doing all this stuff that sometimes we took her for granted, no? And that was never clearer when TBH and I made the mistake of immersing ourselves in the mindbending American Gods(👏) and we were both like, who was that? she was great...

#Radioactive Superbly-crafted biopic of the dutiful kind, with some inspired, decidedly non-dutiful, flourishes that elevates it above the average, by-the-numbers sort of thing you may see during Awards Season. Give Satrapi tons of credit, I mean, one second she's a graphic novelist, and the next she's embarking on quite an accomplished, protean(🤓) directing career. More power to her✊! And tremendous power for assembling such a great cast: Taylor-Joy's purposeful daughter(sequel please, she won a #NobelPrize too😲!), Pike's *fiercely* committed performance, and, gotta say, my longtime-fave Riley, who includes a soupcon of #JohnHurt in his heart-tugging, movie-stealing turn. I've been a fan since his awesome breakthrough in #Control(now, *that's* a TBT story for another day🤩!); hopefully his performance here is a hint of the great stuff that's still to come. PS. Honestly, Curie was the answer to a GK question for most of my life, this movie was ...

#NoMansLand Sturdy B-movie Western with more on its mind than the usual-usual DTV actioner, and its heart decidedly on its sleeve. Loved the cinematography, especially all those beautiful Mexican locations. Nice change-of-pace work from Grillo(who doesn't save the day, for once) and Lopez(who doesn't have to be a comedian, for once). Great stuff from Pimentel and esp. Jiminez, who brings an effortless gravitas to a complicated role. I can't wait for the inevitable Bollywood remake👍! - - - #ConorAllyn #JuanPabloRamirez #FrankGrillo #GeorgeLopez #AndieMacDowell #JorgeAJimenez #EsmeraldaPimentel #JakeAllyn @ifcfilms

Un-bl**dy-believable! A Test win for the #Cricket ages! After the walking-wounded heroics of the last Test, I thought, ya know, good job lads, pat on the back and all that… But then, to walk into the #Gabba, where the Aussies haven't lost since Bush was president…Bush I, that is!(h/t: Priya Pishi)…with half the team injured, and you throw a bunch of *kids* straight into the lion's den… …and you win!! Sure, steady #Pujara & Cap'n Cool #Rahane. But how about blitzkrieg #Pant…and all those kids who seemingly came out of nowhere: (TBH's fave)#Shubman, #Shardul - #Washington(7th[!] wicket partnership!), #Natarajan, #Siraj, #Vihari…too young to be cowed by paper-bullies #AUS?! Kids, these days…🤩 Man, this series is the one I'll be telling the grandkids…uh kids, let's just start with kids, about one day!!! PS. Stay classy Aussies🙄 PPS. Talk amongst yourselves: Is, uh, Ajinkya, more, umm, ya know, suited to Test captaincy than, err, ya k...

#Relic As a rule, I don't watch horror, elevated or otherwise(the ER bills are too high, especially nowadays😲!), but when you have a movie this buzzed-about, well, you kinda have to hitch up your big boy pants, gird ye olde loins, and well, brave it through😲. And if you do manage to make it through in one piece, you'll marvel at this creepy, unrelenting, teeth-chattering, horror movie, that will make you promise to never, no matter what, retire to a charming cottage(with a never-ending interior, woah, what's the square footage on this thing😲?!) at the edge of the woods! Speaking of cottage, my goodness, the production design on this film, that too on a budget, yikes, every square inch of the world these people live in is creepy to the bl**dy max! Speaking of max, usually in modern horror you have the editors working overtime to give you the endless parade of jump-scares, here, the editor takes a different tack, using miles of craftsmanship to create that lan...

#Assassins Good, clean beyond-the-headlines-one-shocking-twist-after-another-documentary-as-international-thriller fun. Seriously, just when you think you've seen it all, wham!, along comes another jaw-dropping turn of events, and you're left shaking your head. Of course, while all these narrative pyrotechnics are going on, you wish the movie had delved a bit deeper into the two people actually at the center of it all, instead of just rendering them as thumbnail sketches, but I suppose that will be a documentary for another day. Such naive notions about quaint concepts such as, oh I dunno, justice😬 As the one character says: I thought the whole world was pink and full of nice people… Yeah, not quite, not bl**dy quite 😲… - - - #RyanWhite Siti Aisyah Doan Thi Huong @greenwichentertainment

#NeverRarelySometimesAlways Absolutely devastating. Directed with complete mastery of tone by young Hittman, subtly letting everything build without any of the usual emotional pyrotechnics or exposition, until that beautiful, if melancholy ending(talk about sticking the landing, I had my heart in my throat that the usual streaming autoplay would start shouting at me before the emotional dust had settled - thank g*d for small miracles!). Huge kudos to the production designer for doing such a great job without the inbuilt advantages of budget and obviousness. And kudos, too, to the casting director, going with almost all unknowns, so you can just surrender yourself to the journey without having your brain perk up with that hey-I-know-him/her-from-somewhere alerts. And speaking of unknowns, nice work by Chapman in that *crucial* "titular" scene, by co-lead Ryder, her quiet confidence masking the teenage fumbling, and, of course, Flanigan, who, in her very first film, g...

RIP #MichaelApted One of my *very* favourite directors, without me even realising it! Of course, he was responsible for one of the most staggering achievements in cinema history: The Up Series. It's a crime that neither he nor the series was every recognised by the #Oscars. Seriously, what an omission. It was thanks to my film school professor #JedDannenbaum(RIP…sigh…) that I found out about this monumental documentary series (and almost everything else about docs, what a great teacher!). TBH and I devoured the ones that had come out up to that point, and we made the trek to the movie theatre(sigh…) for every installment after that. It wasn't just about life, it kinda *was* life itself, no?, spurring you to put your own life under the introspective microscope in seven-year chunks. We even met the great man himself; he couldn't have been kinder, or more patient(he must've heard my questions like a billion times before). But, ya know what, after the Up series ...

#FireballVisitorsFromDarkerWorlds Stunning, eye-watering 4K images to soothe the soul at a time when all our souls need soothing…that is, until the inimitable Herzog pops up to jauntily remind us of our impending inevitable doom ("The warning was justified"), the meaningless of Man's actions in an infinite unfeeling universe capable of wiping us out ("They were oblivious to the sudden death of everything"), the terrifying realisation of how small a part we truly play in the order of things ("Looking eternity in the eye"), and the obliviousness with which we go about our daily lives (Planetary Defense Coordination Office, whatthewhatnow?!😲)…😰 But hey, keep calm and meteor on…amirite?!😂 Look, if you, like me, prefer your nature/quest-for-meaning documentaries to be full of stunning, heartwarming images, populated by the world's most interesting people, with a running current of existential dread running underneath all that awe and wonder...