Modern Family (2009-)

USA

Television Series

Creators: Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd

Cast: Ed O'Neill, Sofía Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, Rico Rodriguez, Nolan Gould, Sarah Hyland, Ariel Winter, Reid Ewing

Using, though not particularly convincingly, a mockumentary format (hardly anyone ever seems to be aware of the [oft illogically] placed camera, apart from during the interview sections that occasionally punctuate the action), Levitan and Lloyd’s nevertheless very funny and gently affecting sitcom explores the lives of three interlinked, unconventional families, following them as they go about their day-to-day home-lives.

Season 1 (2009-2010)

With new trophy brides, stepsons, and adopted Vietnamese orphans, the Dunphy-Pritchett-Tucker-Delgado family finds itself growing considerably in a short space of time, leading (unsurprisingly) to a number of oft hilarious teething problems, in this highly and consistently entertaining first season. Iain.Stott

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Galaxy Quest (1999)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Dean Parisot

Writers: Robert Gordon, David Howard

Cinematographer: Jerzy Zielinski

Composer: David Newman

Cast: Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Daryl Mitchell, Enrico Colantoni, Robin Sachs, Patrick Breen, Missi Pyle

The ageing cast of a cult sci-fi TV show are mistaken for the space-exploring heroes that they used to play by a hapless bunch of aliens, who enlist them in their fight against a merciless enemy after watching old episodes of their show, believing them to be historical documents, in this mildly diverting comic film, which just about elicits sufficient laughs to hold your attention. Iain.Stott

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The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Ernst Lubitsch

Writers: Samson Raphaelson, László Miklós

Cinematographer: William Daniels

Composer: Werner R. Heymann

Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut, Sara Haden, Felix Bressart, William Tracy

An underutilised clerk, whose once amiable relationship with his boss has inexplicably began to sour, comes to realise that his new colleague, with whom he shares a mutual disliking, is in fact his new pen-pal, with whom he had hoped to form a romantic relationship, in Lubitsch’s thoroughly and gently entertaining yet mildly corny and perhaps a little predictable romantic comedy, which has proven to be greatly influential over the years. Iain.Stott

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Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen (2009)

Recommended

UK

Short Television Film

Director: Justin Hardy

Writers: Peter Harness, Peter Guinness

Cinematographer: Douglas Hartington

Cast: Bill Paterson, Mark Gatiss, Paul Freeman, Kenneth Cranham, Charlotte Riley, Olwen May, Jamie Spencer

Dr. James Niven, a Scots medical health officer in Manchester, battles manfully against the forces of politics and commerce to shut down his adopted home city to prevent the spread of the titular virus, which claimed more than 70 million victims worldwide at the close of The First World War, in this beautifully crafted and terribly affecting fact-based television drama. Iain.Stott

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Kaboom (2010)

Not Recommended

USA/France

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Gregg Araki

Cinematographer: Sandra Valde-Hansen

Composers: Robin Guthrie, Vivek Maddala

Cast: Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, Juno Temple, Roxane Mesquida, Chris Zylka, James Duval, Andy Fischer-Price

In the days leading up to his 19th birthday, Smith, a bi-sexual college freshman, has a number of sexual encounters with strangers and comes to learn of his place in a global conspiracy involving a supernatural, apocalyptic cult, in Araki’s camp, knowingly naff, irony-drenched pseudo-sci-fi flick, which might prove hilarious for similarly aged students under the influence of various psychotropic substances, but will likely leave the rest of us decidedly cold. Iain.Stott

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Big Love (2006-2011)

USA

Television Series

Creators: Mark V. Olsen & Will Scheffer

Cast: Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny, Ginnifer Goodwin, Douglas Smith, Amanda Seyfried, Grace Zabriskie, Matt Ross, Joel McKinnon Miller, Melora Walters, Shawn Doyle, Mary Kay Place, Harry Dean Stanton, Daveigh Chase, Bruce Dern, Mireille Enos

Set in Salt Lake City, Olsen and Scheffer’s consistently entertaining if rather undemanding series follows the ups and downs of a polygamous family who straddle the divide between modern day Mormons and the compound-dwellers who remain stuck in the 19th century.

Season 1 (2006)

With their latest marriage still very fresh, their new homes barely moved into, and the paint on the walls of their second DIY superstore still wet, polygamous Bill, Barb, Nicki, and Marge find plenty of teething troubles to keep them occupied, in this gentle and undemanding yet strangely addictive first season.

Season 2 (2007)

The Hendricksons’ lives become ever more entwined with those of the residents of Juniper creek, as business, political, and family loyalties are twisted and manipulated by Bill (and his enemies) in order to ensure a more secure future for him and his family, in this considerably more ambitiously plotted second season.

Season 3 (2009)

With a bolder use of music and a generally more dramatic tone, this third season – in which potential fourth wives, teenage pregnancies, new business ventures, and high profile court cases compete for screen time – contains both the series-so-far’s most powerful moments and its cheesiest ones too, as it becomes evermore (though not unpleasantly) soap-like.

Season 4 (2010)

Bill decides to run for state senate, consumed with the naïve idea that when he wins his seat he will be able to unveil his polygamy to the public and legitimise it, though his single-mindedness soon begins to take its toll on his large family, in this entertaining fourth season, which generally returns to the tone of the first two seasons, and is benefited greatly by Anton Sanko’s powerful scores.

Season 5 (2011)

With his family’s polygamy now revealed to the world, Bill Henrickson spends much of this relatively disappointing and unbalanced final season gathering new enemies, most of whom he manages to deal with rather too easily and never entirely convincingly, as the series heads towards its somewhat bathetic conclusion, desperately missing the likes of Melora Walters, Shawn Doyle, and Amanda Seyfried. Iain.Stott

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Rescue Me (2004-2011)

USA

Television Series

Creators: Denis Leary, Peter Tolan

Cast: Denis Leary, Michael Lombardi, Steven Pasquale, Daniel Sunjata, John Scurti, Andrea Roth, Callie Thorne, James McCaffrey, Natalie Distler, Robert John Burke, Lenny Clarke, Jack McGee, Adam Ferrara, Michael Zegen, Tatum O'Neal, Larenz Tate

Leary and Tolan’s oft brilliant though somewhat unevenly entertaining comedy-drama follows the booze-soaked misadventures of New York fire-fighter Tommy Gavin and his dishevelled crewmates, providing an unglamorised and un-PC portrait of a group of working-class males doing an important and difficult job.

Season 1 (2004)

With his drinking starting to get out of hand, his daredevil behaviour at work beginning to rub some people up the wrong way, and his every waking moment plagued by the ghosts of fires past, fireman Tommy Gavin struggles manfully to cope with his imminent divorce, whilst his colleagues drink and womanise merrily away, in this frequently hilarious and gently affecting first season, which is let down only by the occasional aesthetically incongruous musical montage.

Season 2 (2005)

With Sheila pregnant, his family still missing, and his new firehouse tediously dull, Tommy struggles to regain control of his life, giving up drinking, aided only by Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and a whole heap of narcotics, in this hugely entertaining though rather inconsistent second season, which fails to juggle the show’s many elements as elegantly as it did in its first instalment, with one episode in particular feeling almost like that of a sitcom.

Season 3 (2006)

With his uncle Teddy in prison awaiting trial for murder, his father’s health rapidly deteriorating, his soon-to-be-ex-wife having an affair with his brother, his sister dating Garrity, and the lives of a number of his workmates going rapidly down hill, Tommy Gavin struggles manfully to deal with the death of his only son whilst avoiding the demon drink, in this more consistent and evenly toned third season, which irons out the kinks of the second though never reaches the comic heights of the first.

Season 4 (2007)

When not attempting to sell his new-born son/nephew to Sheila, trying to buy Coleen’s love with expensive gifts, or attending the newly formed Gavin family AA meetings, the increasingly unhinged Tommy can be found dressed as his dead cousin Jimmy, surreptitiously saving people from fires whilst off duty, in this slightly tired fourth season, which often feels painfully familiar and uninspired if still relatively entertaining.

Season 5 (2009)

An attractive French journalist, writing a book about 9/11, is given unlimited access to the fire-fighters of 62 Truck, forcing them to confront their mostly repressed feelings and memories of that day, which soon results in Tommy (and subsequently most of his family) returning to the bottle, in this longer, more ambitious, and pleasingly ramshackle fifth season.

Season 6 (2010)

After dying briefly, and paying a short visit to hell, Tommy Gavin re-joins the world, where he is confronted with his daughter’s drinking problem, Lieu’s health problems, militant AA family members, and the very real possibility that his beloved firehouse will be shutdown, in this brief but enjoyable sixth season, which all but abandons previous seasons’ sporadic attempts at seriousness in favour of outré black humour. Iain.Stott

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How to Make It in America (2010-)

USA

Television Series

Creator: Ian Edelman

Cast: Bryan Greenberg, Victor Rasuk, Lake Bell, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Shannyn Sossamon, Kid Cudi, Luis Guzmán, Martha Plimpton

A pair of slackers pushing thirty – a fashion school drop-out and his chancer pal – try to set up a small clothing line, suffering (as they do) through the various ups and downs that fate throws at them, in Ian Edelman’s amiable and pleasingly low-key comedy-drama

Season 1 (2010)

A drama that is seldom dramatic and a comedy without any jokes, this unassuming first season slowly but surely paints a portrait of a number of disparate New Yorkers, creating rounded, likable characters who we soon come to care for, without really taking them anywhere in particular, but the journey – so far, at least – is certainly a pleasant one. Iain.Stott

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Roger & Val Have Just Got In (2010-)

UK

Television Series

Creators: Beth Kilcoyne, Emma Kilcoyne

Cast: Alfred Molina, Dawn French

Sisters Beth and Emma Kilcoyne’s gently funny, quietly moving, and pleasingly low-key sitcom depicts the first half-hour that the eponymous middle-aged couple spend together each night after they get home from work, listening in on their strange little conversations and rows, gradually building up a picture of their tragedy-tinged life together.

Series 1 (2010)

Still trying to deal with the death of their infant child eighteen years earlier, Roger and Val find the added burden of a parent’s imminent death and problems at work a strain perhaps too far, in this witty, affecting, and relatively subtle first – and possibly last (is there really anywhere to go after this?) – series. Iain.Stott

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CFB's Top 30 Films of 1950 (2011)

1. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
2. All About Eve (1950)
3. Los Olvidados (1950)
4. Rashomon (1950)
5. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
6. In a Lonely Place (1950)
7. Gun Crazy (1950)
8. Winchester ‘73 (1950)
9. Orpheus (1950)
10. Night and the City (1950)
11. Harvey (1950)
12. La Ronde (1950)
13. D.O.A. (1950)
14. Cinderella (1950)
15. Stage Fright (1950)
16. Panic in the Streets (1950)
17. Born Yesterday (1950)
18. Wagon Master (1950)
19. Rabbit of Seville (1950)
20. Saint Francis, God's Jester (1950)
21. Un Chant d'Amour (1950)
22. Rio Grande (1950)
23. Les Enfants Terribles (1950)
24. The Gunfighter (1950)
25. Stromboli (1950)
26. No Way Out (1950)
27. Young Man with a Horn (1950)
28. Caged (1950)
29. The Furies (1950)
30. Father of the Bride (1950)

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CFB's Top 20 Obscure Films of 1950 (2011)

1. Mirror of Holland (1950)
   No Man of Her Own (1950)
2. La Beauté du Diable (1950)
3. Guernica (1950)
4. Dark City (1950)
5. Harriet Craig (1950)
6. Sunday in August (1950)
7. The Glass Menagerie (1950)
8. Path of Hope (1950)
9. Devil’s Doorway (1950)
10. Gone to Earth (1950)
11. The Sound of Fury (1950)
12. Madeleine (1950)
13. Outrage (1950)
14. The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950)
15. Distant Journey (1950)
16. The Breaking Point (1950)
17. Operation Disaster (1950)
    Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl (1950)
18. The Woman in Question (1950)

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Shed Your Tears and Walk Away (2009)

Recommended

UK

Feature Documentary

Director/Cinematographer: Jez Lewis

Over a period of 18 months, documentarian Jez Lewis returns to his seemingly idyllic hometown, the beautifully situated Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, catching up with his old friends – those that are still alive, that is, as many have been lost to drink, drugs, and suicide – shedding light on the self-destructive culture that has built up there, in this depressingly enlightening documentary, which proves that despair is certainly not limited to urban deprivation. Iain.Stott

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Due Date (2010)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Todd Phillips

Writers: Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, Todd Phillips, Adam Sztykiel

Cinematographer: Lawrence Sher

Composer: Christophe Beck

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan

Peter Highman, flying back to Los Angeles for the birth of his first child, is thrown off the plane after getting into an argument with a fellow passenger, the childlike Ethan Tremblay, who is heading for Hollywood in search of stardom, and with whom he is soon forced to share a car for a mammoth road trip, when he discovers that he has left his wallet on the plane, a trip that goes from bad to worse, in this sporadically funny and mildly amusing if somewhat mean-spirited comedy, which pales in comparison to the similar though far superior Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987). Iain.Stott

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Mad Dogs (2011-)

UK

Television Series

Creator: Cris Cole

Cast: John Simm, Max Beesley, Marc Warren, Philip Glenister, Ben Chaplin, María Botto, Eloise Joseph, Tomás Pozzi

Series 1 (2011)

Four old friends, tiptoeing into middle-age, travel to the swanky Majorcan villa of a fifth friend to help celebrate his early retirement, but – just as long simmering resentments are about to come to the boil – corrupt cops, the Serbian mafia, and a vertically challenged hit-man enter their lives, leaving them forever changed, in this blackly comic, pleasingly paced, and generally hugely entertaining if mildly anti-climactic first series. Iain.Stott

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Butterfly Effect (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Short Television Film

Series Title: Moving On (2009-2010)

Director: Richard Standeven

Writer: Esther Wilson

Cinematographer: Len Gowing

Composer: Steve Wright

Cast: Lesley Sharp, Finn Atkins, Lisa Millett, Joanne Froggatt, Luke Bailey, Elliott Tittensor

Whilst helping out in a role for which she had not been trained at the hostel where she works as a cook, Sylvie Jackson has a run-in with an armed youth, which leaves her an emotional wreck unable to leave the safe confines of her own home, in this convincingly written short drama. Iain.Stott

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Dress to Impress (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Short Television Film

Series Title: Moving On (2009-2010)

Director: Illy

Writer: Arthur Ellison

Cinematographer: Len Gowing

Composer: Steve Wright

Cast: Dervla Kirwan, Ian Hart, Jack McMullen, Neil Fitzmaurice, Ramon Tikaram

A teenaged boy’s cross-dressing secret threatens to tear apart his parents, when a misunderstanding over the purpose of a bag full of sexy lingerie leads to accusations of infidelity, leaving him with no choice but to confront his fears, in this humorously and sensitively crafted short drama. Iain.Stott

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Getting On (2009-)

UK

Television Series

Creators: Jo Brand, Vicki Pepperdine, Joanna Scanlan

Cast: Jo Brand, Vicki Pepperdine, Joanna Scanlan, Ricky Grover, Peter Capaldi

Set on a female geriatric ward of an NHS hospital, filled with superbugs, bureaucracy, and faecal matter, this (relatively) grittily realistic yet frequently lough-out-loud funny sitcom expertly combines incisive writing and probing direction with some beautifully naturalistic performances.

Series 1 (2009)

Kim Wilde (no not that one), returning to nursing after some time away, is introduced to the bureaucratic nightmare of the modern NHS by her timidly officious superior, Sister Den Flixter, whilst their overly sensitive male Matron, Hilary Loftus, looks on, and Dr. Pippa Moore worries endlessly about the ward’s faecal matter, in this hilarious, refreshing, and generally quite brilliant (although very brief) first series. Iain.Stott

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Marchlands (2011)

Recommended

UK/USA

Television Mini-Series

Director: James Kent

Writers: Stephen Greenhorn, David Schulner

Cinematographer: Lukas Strebel

Composer: John Lunn

Cast: Denis Lawson, Jodie Whittaker, Dean Andrews, Alex Kingston, Tessa Peake-Jones, Jamie Thomas King, Elliot Cowan, Shelley Conn, Ethan Griffin, Sydney Wade, Elizabeth Rider, Sophie Stone, Anne Reid

The tragic, unexplained drowning of an eight-year-old girl in 1967 not only deeply affects her family, but also impacts upon the lives of two other families who subsequently live in their eponymous home – in 1987 and 2010 – in this intricate, well-acted mini-series, which deftly moves between eras whilst, for the most part, skilfully revealing its mysteries (though the final episode perhaps wraps things up just a little too easily). Iain.Stott

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Freefall (2009)

Recommended

UK

Television Film

Writer/Director: Dominic Savage

Cinematographer: Ben Smithard

Composer: Rupert Gregson Williams

Cast: Dominic Cooper, Aidan Gillen, Joseph Mawle, Anna Maxwell Martin, Rosamund Pike, Riz Ahmed, Alfie Allen, Sarah Harding, Charlie Creed-Miles

Savage’s thoughtful, sensuous, and terribly moving BBC drama takes a mournful look at the credit crunch through the eyes of three disparate men: Gus, a doleful investment banker whose life outside of his job has slowly disappeared; Dave, an amoral mortgage broker who has made a small fortune through selling discount mortgages to people that he knows can’t possibly afford them; and Jim, a security guard with a young family, who is perfectly content with his lot until his old school friend Dave convinces him to buy a fancy new house with one of his discount mortgages. Iain.Stott

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The Ape (2009)

Highly Recommended

Sweden

Feature Film

Original Title: Apan

Writer/Director: Jesper Ganslandt

Cinematographer: Fredrik Wenzel

Composer: Erik Enocksson

Cast: Olle Sarri, Françoise Joyce, Niclas Gillis, Sean Pietrulewicz, Lennart Andersson

A man awakens on a bathroom floor, covered in someone else’s blood, and – once washed and dressed, with Bluetooth earpiece inserted – sets off for work, only gradually coming to realise what he might have done the night before, in Ganslandt’s extraordinary film, a restrained and uncompromising character study, which pays great respect to its audience’s intelligence, whilst shining a remarkably sympathetic light upon a character who would normally only be treated with contempt. Iain.Stott

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Get Him to the Greek (2010)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Nicholas Stoller

Cinematographer: Robert D. Yeoman

Composer: Lyle Workman

Cast: Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, Sean Combs, Elisabeth Moss, Rose Byrne, Colm Meaney

Aaron Green, a record company schlub who has hit a sticky patch in his relationship with his long-term girlfriend, is entrusted with the task of accompanying a fading British rock star from London to Los Angeles for a big anniversary concert, but struggles to deal with his drug-fuelled, capricious ways, in Stoller’s mildly and inconsistently diverting comedy. Iain.Stott

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East Bound & Down (2009-)

USA

Television Series

Creators: Ben Best, Jody Hill, Danny McBride

Cast: Danny McBride, Steve Little, Katy Mixon, Andrew Daly, John Hawkes, Ben Best, Jennifer Irwin, Ana de la Reguera, Efren Ramirez, Marco Rodríguez

Kenny Powers, an uncouth, once promising pitcher whose baseball career fizzled out after years of physical self-abuse, still dreams of returning to the big-time, despite his lack of conditioning and the fact that he managed to alienate just about everyone involved with the sport during his career, in this oft hilarious if occasionally rather (entertainingly?) unfunny comedy series, which has become increasingly (and strangely) addictive as it has progressed.

Season 1 (2009)

Kenny Powers returns to his hometown to live with his brother and family, taking a job as a P.E. teacher at the local middle school, and – with aid of his colourful language, bilious bigotries, raging egomania, taste for drink and drugs, and eye for the ladies – gets into various scrapes, in this inconsistently entertaining first season, which is at its best whenever the wonderful Steve Little is on screen

Season 2 (2010)

After his return to the big leagues failed to materialise, Kenny Powers, abandoning family and friends, heads down to Mexico in search of answers to something-or-other; when they also fail to materialise, he is soon getting himself involved in cockfighting and other low pursuits, whilst courting a local singer with an ample behind, in this more restrained and focused and consequently much more consistently entertaining second season. Iain.Stott

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The Lady and the Duke (2001)

Recommended

France/Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: L'anglaise et le duc

Director: Eric Rohmer

Writers: Eric Rohmer, Grace Elliott

Cinematographer: Diane Baratier

Cast: Lucy Russell, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Alain Libolt, Charlotte Véry, Rosette, Léonard Cobiant, François Marthouret, Caroline Morin

A wealthy Scotswoman, who several years earlier had adopted France as her home, struggles to survive the French Revolution without compromising her principles, whilst her former lover, The Duke of Orleans, hopes to do so by playing an active part, in Rohmer’s fascinating and stylish mix of artifice and realism, which features a pair of impressive performances and some beautifully written dialogue. Iain.Stott

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Whip It (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

USA

Feature Film

Director: Drew Barrymore

Writers: Shauna Cross

Cinematographer: Robert Yeoman

Composers: The Section Quartet

Cast: Ellen Page, Alia Shawkat, Marcia Gay Harden, Eulala Scheel, Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Jimmy Fallon

Bliss, a 17-year-old small-town girl, fed-up with her mother’s pageant obsession, discovers Roller Derby, a violent roller skate-based sport, and becomes an instant star, finally finding a modicum of happiness – that is, until her parents find out, in Drew Barrymore’s mildly diverting feature directorial debut, a perverse mixture of clichés and anti-clichés. Iain.Stott

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This Movie Is Broken (2010)

Recommended

Canada

Feature Film/Concert Film

Director: Bruce McDonald

Writers: Don McKellar, Kevin Drew, Bruce McDonald

Cinematographer: John Price

Cast: Greg Calderone, Georgina Reilly, Kerr Hewitt, Broken Social Scene

After sleeping together for the first time, Bruno and Caroline, who have been friends since childhood, spend their last night together (before she is due to return to Paris) at a large, free, open-air concert, thrown by local band Broken Social Scene, in McDonald’s intriguing and mostly successful mixture of raucous concert film and bitter-sweet love story, though it is at its best when concentrating on the music. Iain.Stott

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