Screen Time
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Best Films Of 2021 and Screen Time December 2021
And so another year comes to an end, this time with a bin full of (mercifully, negative) lateral flow tests. Despite a few difficulties along the way, the film review project survived intact: if we count this post, then every single movie I watched, either at home or at the cinema (when they re-opened) has… Continue reading
2021, Aaron Sorkin, Adam McKay, After Love, Aleem Khan, Alek Keshisian, Another Round, Being The Ricardos, best of, Blond Ambition, Chloe Zhao, cinema, Darius Marder, Don't Look Up, Drive My Car, Edgar Wright, Emerald Fennell, featured, film, In Bed With Madonna, Jane Campion, Jasmila Zbanic, Javier Bardem, Kevin Macdonald, Last Night In Soho, Lee Isaac Chung, Madonna, Minari, movie, Nicole Kidman, Nomadland, Passing, Promising Young Woman, Quo Vadis Aida, Rebecca Hall, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Screen Time, Sound Of Metal, Steven Spielberg, The Mauritanian, The Power Of The Dog, Thomas Vinterberg, Top 10, West Side Story, writing -
House Of Gucci, Spencer, Respect and others – Screen Time November 2021
Here’s one way to sum up November’s cinematic delights: four films about fascinating, real women, and two films about equally fascinating, fictional women. Tellingly, the latter were far more interesting than the former, with one important exception, as I’ll describe in a moment. Continue reading
2021, 25 Years Of Innocence, Agata Kulesza, Aretha Franklin, Ayten Amin, cinema, Colin Firth, Egypt, Eva Husson, featured, film, film review, Graham Swift, House Of Gucci, Jan Holoubek, Josh O'Connor, Lady Gaga, Liesl Tommy, Mothering Sunday, movie, Odessa Young, Olivia Colman, Pablo Larrain, Piotr Trojan, Poland, Princess Diana, Respect, Ridley Scott, Screen Time, Souad, Spencer, Tomasz Komenda -
Dune, The Silence Of The Lambs, County Lines and others – Screen Time October 2021
Not the cheeriest of months… well, as long as we don’t count the Paw Patrol movie. Although I am partial to kids’ fare (which, in my view, requires extraordinary skill to pull off well), I must point out that this particular cinematic offering was enforced viewing as part of a childcare stint. But rules is… Continue reading
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Annette, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and A Clockwork Orange – Screen Time September 2021
If September’s film viewing was bound together by an overarching theme, it was the idea of integrity. In Annette – Leos Carax’s memorably surreal musical – the main characters grappled with their attempts to remain true to their artistic lives – and their splintering selves – while singing their way through some deceptively banal songs.… Continue reading
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Another Round, Supernova and Summer Of Soul – Screen Time July (and August) 2021
Things must be going back to normal if there were only three cinema outings for me in July (and none in August, incidentally). I pray this resumption of regular routines isn’t a short-lived reprieve and that we don’t return to the world of restrictions in the autumn. But no point worrying about that at the… Continue reading
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The Father, After Love, A Quiet Place Part II and others – Screen Time June 2021
Strong central performances were the most notable feature of June’s best films. But first let’s get the exception out of the way. Peter Rabbit 2 (Will Gluck) is the very worst sort of children’s film: cynical, unfocussed and completely uninspired. It has no clue who its audience is, and very little interest in attempting to… Continue reading
2021, A Quiet Place part ii, After Love, Aleem Khan, Aneil Karia, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Whishaw, Diane Lane, Emily Blunt, featured, film, film review, Florian Zeller, Joanna Scanlan, John Krasinski, Kevin Costner, Lesley Manville, Let Him Go, Olivia Colman, Peter Rabbit 2, Screen Time, Surge, The Father, Thomas Bezucha -
The Mauritanian, Promising Young Woman, Sound Of Metal and others – Screen Time April 2021
How to be good? This was the question that seemed to tie together most, if not all, of April’s film viewing. From the sun-saturated capers of Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief (great fun, but certainly one of the master’s less memorable efforts) to the pulse-quickening horrors of Bryan Fogel’s The Dissident (an important piece of… Continue reading
2021, Alfred Hitchcock, Bryan Fogel, Carey Mulligan, Darius Marder, Emerald Fennell, featured, Hillbilly ELegy, Jodie Foster, Kevin Macdonald, Lee Isaac Chung, Minari, Promising Young Woman, Riz Ahmed, Ron Howard, Screen Time, Sound Of Metal, Tahar Rahim, The Dissident, The Mauritanian, To Catch A Thief -
Tina, Ammonite, Midnight Cowboy and others – Screen Time March 2021
Through no conscious planning, March turned out to be a time for extraordinary women, at least as far as film-viewing was concerned. The month’s first movie – Pieces Of A Woman (dir. Kornel Mundruczo) – certainly didn’t shy away from placing the female experience at the centre of its focus, but it was a tediously… Continue reading
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News Of The World, I Care A Lot, Mank and others – Screen Time February 2021
Looking back at the list of films I managed to notch up in February, I’m struck by how many of them veered towards the bizarre. For instance, there was The Prom, Ryan Murphy’s colourful film version of the Broadway musical about celebrity types injecting an acceptance of diversity into small-town America. The shopping-mall-set rendition of… Continue reading
2021, Adam Curtis, Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar, Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, cinema, Dear Comrades, featured, film, film review, I Care A Lot, Les Miserables, Mank, movie, News Of The World, Nose, Possessor, Quo Vadis Aida, Screen Time, Shirley Valentine, Simple Passion, The Capote Tapes, The Dig, The Prom -
Le Mans ’66, The White Tiger, Assassins and others – Screen Time January 2021
Seven films in one month is quite a poor achievement for me, and as I type these words, I’m trying to work out why I didn’t treat myself to more in-house cinematic outings. But the reasons aren’t forthcoming. Was it all to do with the extra-grey, Covid-enhanced January malaise by which so many of us… Continue reading
Adarsh Gourav, Alex Thompson, Annemarie Jacir, Assassins, Christian Bale, cinema, David Osit, featured, film, film review, Fran Lebowitz, Israel, James Mangold, James Reed, Le Mans 66, Martin Scorsese, Matt Damon, Mayor, movie, My Octopus Teacher, Netflix, Palestine, Pippa Ehrlich, Pretend It's A City, Ramallah, Ramin Bahrani, Ryan White, Saint Frances, Screen Time, The White Tiger, Wajib
About Me
I am a writer and award-winning perfume critic currently living in the south of England and working on a novel. For my perfume-related writing, please visit Persolaise.com.
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DARIUSH ALAVI 