Some Films

Deja vu (***)
Denzel Washington stars as a cop tracking down a bomber in this sci-fi thriller. I mostly enjoy Tony Scott’s films, though they’re very rarely challenging.

Denzel more or less phones it in here. I’ve seen him do the same thing in several other films. The supporting cast of Val Kilmer, Bruce Greenwood and Adam Goldberg, do their best but never really rise to anything noteworthy.

The storyline was more straightforward than I thought it was going to be. I had imagined several twists and double crosses that never came about, although what I had imagined seemed to me to be more interesting that the actual conclusion.

Babel (****)
The third feature from director Alejandro González Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga. This follows on from their previous flms, Amores Perros and 21 Grams by following several interweaving storylines over a fractured time period.

It’s never less than gripping, even if some of the storylines seem to bear no relationship to the others. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett have less screen time than their star billing would usually suggest. Blanchett spends most of her time lying on the floor.

The pacing of the film and its use of music to build tension and atmosphere are both excellent and while, for me, it didn’t have the power of 21 Grams, it was still a class act.

Infamous (*****)
You might think that you’ve seen this story before if you’ve seen Capote, but even if you have seen that film, this is most definitely worth going along to.

It employs different techniques than the first film did. Capote was full of short, sharp scenes, Infamous takes more time and features several flashbacks and talking heads sequences.

Toby Jones is phenomenal as Capote. It’ll be a shame if Academy voters think they can’t nominate him for Best Actor because Hoffman won for the same part last year. Daniel Craig warms to the role of Perry Smith, the kind of part he’ll now very rarely be offered since Bond has launched him into the big time.

This is much more like a love story between Capote and Perry Smith, than Bennett Miller’s film was. Infamous also frequently plays up Capote’s flamboyance for comic effect.

Of the supporting cast Juliet Stevenson is the stand-out as fashion editor Diana Vreeland, though Gwyneth Paltrow has a brief but memorable scene as a torch singer.