Cold In July, The Fault In Our Stars and Chef

A quite reasonable character led crime drama, Cold In July ticks most of the boxes. There are plenty of twists, the main one being after less than half an hour when it seemed the story was over. The three main leads are convincing. Michael C Hall, Sam Shepard and an over the top performance from Don Johnson are all good. Regular collaborators director Jim Mickle and writer Nick Damici have constructed a thoroughly watchable movie and revel in the grubby Texas scenery.

Having watched the trailer for The Fault In Our Stars, I imagined that they had completely ruined what was one of my favourite books of the last few years, and so promised myself to avoid the film. But the reviews were encouraging so against my better judgement, and in the absence of anything better, I nervously entered the cinema. I'm so glad I did. All my fears were unfounded as the makers lovingly reproduced a great version of the novel. Most of all Shailene Woodley IS Hazel Grace Lancaster. The movie had hardly started when the actress was the girl from the book. It was a shame that the same could not be said for Ansel Elgort as Gus, but nobody could have played Peter van Houten as well as Willem Dafoe. He was everything I had imagined. Laura Dern also brought a surprising humanity to the blandly written mother. Scott Neustadter and John Green have sympathetically adapted the latter's own novel and director Josh Boone rises to the occasion. I was amazed.

Chef is not a comedy. It does have some stodgy humour but really this is a drama without the topping. There is no real story, more a confection of events. There is also some unlikely casting headed by Sofia Vergara as the delicious ex wife of an overdone John Favreau. Cameos from Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr fall a little flat as if they thought it was a tasty idea at the time but the script was lacking bite. But funnily enough, all together it makes for a sunny concoction. The cinematography is appetising, the dialogue is occasionally crisp  and the soundtrack is a sizzling collection of Americana. When the Food Truck hits Austin, check out Gary Clark Jr playing "Travis County". Worth going to see the movie again just for these few minutes.