Ah, the glamour of life in the Eternal City. A friend had tickets for a screening that was part of the Rome Festival of Cinema, for 10.30 on a Saturday night. Of course one didn't ask “what for?”. My aversion to horror movies being well known, it wouldn’t have been one of them. But had someone told...

I’m late reporting on George Clooney’s Michael Clayton because it hasn’t been easy to work out what to say, beyond the banal “one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long, long time”. The script plays with time beautifully, with the flashback -- four days earlier -- spooling quietly on so that thing...

I had read about Werner Herzog’s documentary Grizzly Man, which weaves his own footage with that of the dead bear watcher, although I never really made the effort to seek it out. But when it showed up on a DVD evening at a friend’s house, I wasn’t going to object. It is actually a beautifully made...

Why does he wear his cap backwards, like the yoof? Other than that, Looking for Richard doesn’t pose many questions. It’s a good enough watch, and in the end you come away with a film within a film, with the very best bits of Richard III staged rather well. I liked the rapid switches between rehea...

Cate Blachett surely has to be in the running for an Oscar, but as Actor or Actress? Her Jude Quinn (without a parka!) in I'm not there is astonishing, Bob Dylan somehow brought to life. She doesn’t impersonate Dylan, but she somehow recreates him, which is fitting as this wonderful, kaleidoscopic...