Juno, National Treasure and There Will be Blood

For such a low budget movie, Juno is a remarkable success. The witty script by Diablo Cody, for which she deservedly won the Oscar for best original screenplay,and the acting of Ellen Page carry the film. Occasionally the quick fire dialogue is hard to catch, but the acting overall is first class. Juno's parents bring an unexpected warmth to the proceedings, and even Jennifer Garner does a good job. Why do other reviews concentrate on the director? Anyone could have made an equally good film given this piece of brilliant writing. There are moments that make you think long after leaving the cinema. I only questioned why the intended adopter's husband left his wife much later, and suddenly realised that he would be much more comfortable with a partner like Juno than his stodgy and humourless wife.

I had a difficult decision to make the week I went to see National Treasure; Book of Secrets. I crossed off Jumper and The Bucket List, so decided this was the best of the week. I was pleasantly surprised. A lightweight but enjoyable adventure with some unusual casting. Nicholas Cage did OK, but Helen Mirren was out of her depth in the final action sequences.

Now There will be Blood is a different type of film altogether. I can see why the audience numbers were quite low. I thought I would be the only one watching when I went, until two couples arrived late. It is slow in parts but I found every minute was highly watchable. I think someone said it was the kind of film to sit back and let it take you over, and I can see what he meant. The cinematography is some of the best ever, and deserved the Oscar. Daniel Day Lewis gives one best of the all time performances. The trouble is, he is so good at portraying a man who basically hates everybody, that there is no counterweight to the foreboding that persists throughout. But as a piece of acting on screen or in the theatre, I have seen none better. I also think Paul Thomas Anderson deserved an Oscar. It is his screenplay and direction which make it a work of art. The movement of the camera following the rescuers to the fire is absolute magic. I think it deserved the Oscar for best film, for me it just beats No Country for Old Men. An outstanding movie that will stand alongside the best of all time in years to come.

19, Raising Sand and Others

The first time I listened to Adele's CD, I was totally unimpressed by the first few tracks, apart from the obvious hit single "Chasing Pavements". And then I hit track nine and everything changed. The only cover on the album, "Make you feel my love" is an absolute belter of a Bob Dylan song that various artists had already recorded. This version has just a brilliant piano accompaniment which, coupled with an undeniable great voice, makes just one marvellous piece of music. Then the final track maybe goes one better. For me, the best song Adele has composed, "Hometown Glory" has my new favourite piano introduction to another brilliant song.

It is only on these two tracks that Neil Cowley plays piano. And what a difference it makes. Classically trained and now with his trio touring jazz/chill out, Neil takes soul piano to a new level. On "Hometown Glory, the pause between the slow intro and main pulsating melody is absolutely exquisite. The other tracks on the CD are very different, but some are beginning to grow on me.

The same can be said for "Raising Sand". I do not possess a Led Zep album, so Robert Plant is new to me. I am not impressed at all by his vocals on this recording, however Alison is her usual wonderful self. And it is those tracks where she sings solo that do it for me. The instrumental backing is highly original and take some getting used to. On the fourth hearing, they are just beginning to make an impression. It is the fusion of the acoustic bass, and sometimes 6 string bass, with the other instruments that makes for such a distinctive sound.
Other recent new CD's include:

"Drastic Fantastic" by KT Tunstall - a good follow up to "Eye to the Telescope" .

"A Hundred Miles or More" by Alison Krauss - a collection of mainly rather dull old songs, only worth listening to for the vocals and the duet with John Waite on "Missing You"

"Kill to Get Crimson" by Mark Knopfler - can he get even more laid back? Good, though.

"Count to Ten" by Tina Dico - one of my female singer songwriters that I collect - this is good (five Stars for each of the five reviews on Amazon), even better than her best known album "In the Red".

Sweeney Todd, No Country for Old Men and Cloverfield

Three of the best films I have seen for a long time. Again all very different, two oscar contenders and one that should have been.

Like Jonathon Ross ("Film 2008"), I dont really go for musicals. But also like him, I thought Sweeney Todd was excellent. There is so much going on when the singing starts, the acting and direction first class. And hugely atmospheric. I'm just not sure if the throat cutting had to be so realistic, and I like horror films.

I had to talk to my son about No Country for Old Men as I was confused by the ending to what was a superb movie. However I found exactly what I had missed on Yahoo Answers. I had thought that two main characters (Bell and Shigurh) had never met. They didn't, but were as close as you could get without actually meeting. The movie was terrific, fantastic photography and direction, and an awesome performance by Tommy Lee Jones.

There had been mixed reviews for Cloverfield. All the cast were a pretty annoying bunch, but maybe that was appropriate given the ending. The film was a frenetic and chaotic 75 minutes. It did contain some of the "horrors and heroism of survival", but tried mainly to give an experience of being in a monster catastrophe. This worked extremely well, with very long complex takes, and huge production values for a single camcorder.

"Doesn't have to be this way"

There are four songs by Robert Lee Castleman on the 2006 Grammy winning album "Lonely Runs Both Ways" by Alison Krauss and Union Station. They had already used a number of his songs on previous albums. "Doesn't have to be this way" is a haunting piece of music with such clarity of singing and playing. Alison Krauss, for me, has the best voice in popular music. And the dobro playing of Jerry Douglas is breathtaking. Altogether a wonderful track on a great album.

"One of these mornings" and "Sound of Silence"

Episode 3 of the second series of Torchwood takes a good sci fi series to a new level. "To The Last Man" sees love struck Toshiko falling for a handsome soldier. She has dressed for the occasion and has made big effort to look her best. But "Tommy is man out of time. Woken every year for his cryogenic sleep. Jack promises that one day they will need him. This year his time, and Tosh's will come......but the time is 1918." A time travelling drama at its best, enhanced greatly by Moby's "One of these Mornings" played at the beginning and the end of the episode. I had never heard the song before, but whoever chose it deserves a medal.

I was more impressed with Emilio Esteves' film "Bobby" than the critics. The final sequence was particulary emotional when Bobby Kennedy starts his final speech in the Ambassador Hotel in LA. "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfukel starts to play in the background and but soon is all you can hear as the cast watches and cheers. Brilliant. It was also the song I can most remember from "The Graduate". Both can be seen on Youtube.

Flowers in February

On the 5th Of February, the weather turned extremely mild. After a grey period with temperatures that struggled to reach 3 degrees, the following week hit record highs for early February. Cloudy and 12 degrees to start, the sun came out and so did the bulbs. Nine days of mild weather brought the daffodils into flower, first leaves on the hawthorn and even the first flower on the forsythia.

All the shrubs have there first new shoots and the lawns had their first cut,unprecedented for February. It is normally not until late March that I cut the grass for the first time. The cold weather has now returned with heavy frosts at night. But the gardens still look good for this time of year.

P.S. I Love You, Aliens Vs Predator and In the Valley of Elah

It cannot be possible to see three such different movies. A romantic drama, a horror and an intelligent crime drama all in ten days.

The best of the three for me was definitely "P.S. I Love You". Lightweight and trivial it may have been, but I just loved it. Good dialogue and great acting from especially Hilary Swank. Beautifully filmed, well dressed, some nice songs and good locations in New York and Irish countryside. . How could I not be impressed when the penultimate scene was shot at a deserted Yankee Stadium. The critics hated it. Far too commercial.

I thought the first "Aliens Vs Predator" film was pretty good. The latest did not match it, but was entertaining enough for the 90 minutes. Not too much of the monsters, and plenty of action built around the main characters. Could have been better written, but that was not what the film was about.

Now "In the Valley of Elah" was well written, not as bad as Jonathon Ross made out. What else do you expect from Paul Haggis. But what detracted from the screenplay was that the film was far too slow and ponderous. Too many silences punctuated the dialogue. It was said to be a slow burner, too slow for me. There was no pace until the last half hour, by which time it was too late. There was a good story there, and if the film had been cut by half an hour, it might have been great. As it was, it was left to fine acting from Tommy Lee Jones and, remarkably, from Charlize Theron to hold the film together. They nearly pulled it off.