Saturday, January 18, 2020
First Lines: Philip Kerr - The One From the Other
We were just a stone's throw from what had once been the concentration camp.
Friday, January 17, 2020
Suite Française (2014)
During the early years of Nazi occupation of France in World War II, romance blooms between Lucile Angellier, a French villager, and Bruno von Falk, a German soldier.
Well-made period melodrama with a good cast is more successful depicting a French community under Nazi occupation than with its romance, but does so with some suspense.
Lady in the Death House (1944)
A young woman is on death row for the murder of a man who was blackmailing her family, although she claims she was framed.
Likable, but highly unconvincing low-budget drama is gloomy and well-played, but otherwise unremarkable.
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
First Lines: Mo Hayder - Pig Island
The alarms first went off in my head when the landlord and the lobsterman showed me what been washed up on the beach.
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Anon (2018)
In a world without anonymity or crime, a detective meets a woman who threatens their security.
Although transporting an in-the-face message warning of the increasing grip of cyberspace onto everyday life, this sci-fi tale has great style and atmosphere, and Owen and Seyfried are convincing in the lead roles.
The Diabolical (2015)
A single mother, and her children, are awoken nightly by an intense presence, and she asks her scientist boyfriend to destroy the violent spirit, that paranormal experts are too frightened to take on.
A conventional haunted house tale with a time travel twist is too ambitious for its own good and so loses most of its plausibility along the way, despite some cheap scares in between.
