lougooch Reviews

Six Minutes to Midnight (2020)

preposterous and pointless

[2/10 · 5 June 2021]

Given the cast, it's hard to see how this yarn could be the result. The central problem with the plot is that the 'based-on-a-true-story' context is fascinating but the drama and jeopardy entailed is not, despite the best efforts of the booming score to suggest otherwise. Nazi generals have sent their girls to a British finishing school. With war looming, they want them back. Should they stay or should they go now?

As soon as you figure out that none of this matters, then settle back and enjoy entirely different entertainment: spot the "39 Steps" rehashes; play 'she/he/they would never have done that' bingo; and imitate the meaningful glances that characters give each other if they're not looking entirely and implausibly clueless.

Alternatively, invest your one hour thirty or so minutes in the company of Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll - seldom, if ever, bettered.

Iona (2015)

Tempestuous yet tedious

[2/10 · 12 August 2020]

Windswept moors, rugged crags, dangerous currents are captured in arresting cinematography, and thank goodness for these points of interest. High profile actors do their best to convey characters that whisper, glower and seethe. A maybe miracle in a barn, a possible 'murrrder' in glasgow, and a certain menace in the church are all devices that are painfully slowly stitched together in this dour, drab and ultimately fairly insubstantial tale.

Tommy's Honour (2016)

Keep an Open mind and heart

[7/10 · 1 June 2020]

With scant knowledge of or interest in golf and no notion at all of the Morris father and son partnership, this film was not an obvious viewing choice. However, Mullan and Neill were a draw-card enough and so I found myself whisked up to the wilds and links of Scotland. Beautiful scenery, a social interest story of class, and a creeping disapproval of the unkindness of some religious attitudes drew me in. The central performances of Lowden and Lovibond illuminate the piece, and create the emotional heft. Even with no engagement with golf, it's impossible not to care about the fortunes of this young couple. Watch it with an Open mind and heart.

As an Eilean (1993)

thoughtful meditation on presence and absence

[8/10 · 24 March 2020]

I caught this on BBC iPlayer and spent a reflective 1 hour 35 in its spell. The Gaelic is poetic to the untrained ear, the location haunting, and the storylines engaging. It echoes something of Gregory's Girl and foreshadows the dilemmas of Brooklyn. Look carefully at 47 minutes and you'll catch the masterpiece The Battle of Algiers with a clever comment on colonialism and cultural imperialism. To paraphrase one of the characters, "Concentrate on the film, it's good". Rich and rewarding.