The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2010
	Director: Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure 1-2)
	Actors: Nicolas Cage (Knowing, Face-Off), Jay Baruchel (This is the End), Alfred Molina (Species, Spider-man 2)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 26.02.2014, SD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: In spite of being a physicist, Dave (Baruchel) is the chosen one, destined to defeat the evil Morgana with help of the magician Balthazar (Cage), former apprentice of Merlin.
Review: In the middle of the movie there is a scene which is largely inspired from the Sorcerer's Apprentice segment from Disney's Fantasia (including the music), and I actually learned at the end of the credits that whole movie was inspired from the short cartoon! It belongs to the category of movies that explore a magical world hidden within our real world (secret societies of vampires and werewolves, super heroes that don't reveal themselves, ...), in that case it deals with pure magic, i.e. bending matter to one's will. The movie is entertaining but has some severe flaws like the intrusive music, the poor editing and the ellipses, the illogical reactions and the average actors. Nicolas Cage is actually very good in this role. Jay Baruchel looks like he was an acceptable replacement between Shia LaBoeuf (in Transformers) and Justin Long (in Die Hard 4). There are some nice elements however, like the Fantasia scene, or the whole sub-story with the famous TV magician. Special effects are also quite good.
Rating: 4 /10

The call (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Brad Anderson (The Machinist, Transsiberian)
	Actors: Halle Berry (X-men 1-3, Tomorrow Never Dies), Evie Thompson, Abigail Breslin
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 23.02.2014, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Jordan (Berry), a dispatcher for the 911 police emergency phone service, will feel personally involved in a kidnapping case.
Review: This is what I call a good Thriller, i.e. a movie that gives you thrills. The topic is interesting as the job described is indeed a tough one: replying all day long to distress calls, from innocent ones to murder, kidnapping or rape, and live them in real-time from the other end of a phone line from where you are powerless and the only thing you can do is send police cars that will take minutes to get there while you are still connected. A similar job was already at the center of The Taking of Pelham 123, but the story is much better in The Call. I really got taken into the movie when following the chase for the kidnapper. Hale Berry plays well a sensitive character, while the deranged kidnapper is very convincing. Only some moments are too predictable and some reactions unnatural (to maintain the suspense), but otherwise a very good movie.
Rating: 7 /10

Sans soleil (1983)

	Also Known As: Sun less, Unsichtbare Sonne
	Year of first release: 1983
	Director: Chris Marker
	Actors: -
	Country: GB
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 22.02.2014, DVD
Synopsis: A woman narrates the thoughts of a world traveler, meditations on time and memory expressed in words and images from places as far-flung as Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Iceland, and San Francisco.
Review: This movie is in the same DVD as La Jetée. There are plenty of cuts on different topics, that are put in parallel or at least associated. There is a philosophical thought about memory, identity and happiness, by reviewing these concepts in different cultures. But this looks as if nobody would have been really interviewed but only videos taken out of an archive and cut together to support one theoretical demonstration. For La Jetée it was ok to listen to the narration for half an hour. This time listening to it for one an hald hour is too much, maybe because the voice sounds boring.
Rating: 1 /10

Blackmail (1929)

	Also Known As: Chantage, Erpressung
	Year of first release: 1929
	Director: Alfred Hitchcock
	Actors: Anny Ondra, John Longden, Donald Calthrop
	Country: GB
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 18.02.2014, DVD
Synopsis: Alice White is the daughter of a shopkeeper in 1920's London. Her boyfriend, Frank Webber is a Scotland Yard detective who seems more interested in police work than in her. Frank takes Alice out one night, but she has secretly arranged to meet another man. Later that night Alice agrees to go back to his flat to see his studio. The man has other ideas and as he tries to rape Alice, she defends herself and kills him with a bread knife. When the body is discovered, Frank is assigned to the case, he quickly determines that Alice is the killer, but so has someone else and blackmail is threatened.
Review: This DVD, edition ArtHaus, is excellent! There are both versions done by Hitchcock, the silent movie and the talking picture. Both are similar but far from identical. The police officer is different, the takes for each scene is different and thus also the impressions. On top of it there is a bonus, a test take including a humorous Alfred Hitchcock!  The movie is built on a simple plot. The directing and cut use the typical Hitchcock's tricks, like special angle of camera playing with what is shown and what is hidden. The curtains are used here and look like a test for the shower curtain in Psycho. There are no many rooms, but the different angles make it interesting and ever changing. The acting of the three main actors is slightly exagerated to be more expressive of their role, the policeman being cheated and protecting his girlfriend, the girlfriend eaten up with remorse. Anny Ondra is very beautiful and the humour of Hitch in the test take is therefore even more surprising!
Rating: 8 /10 Here other posters that give different views into the movie.

The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)

	Also Known As: "Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro" (original)
	Year of first release: 1979
	Director: Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away)
	Actors (voices): Yasuo Yamada, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Makio Inoue
	Country: J
	Genre: Adventure, Animation
	Conditions of visioning: 17.02.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: The famous thief Lupin and his mates are going after the money counterfeiter in Castle Cagliostro, where they will unveil a grander plot.
Review: Continuing with my Miyazaki series, this time I wanted to watch his first movie as director. It was produced when the Ghibli company was not existing yet, and was a feature-length film associated with a successful TV-series (Edgar de la cambriole in French) for which Miyazaki already directed some episodes. Note that he also directed some episodes of the Sherlock Hound TV-series that I loved as a child, and I am seriously thinking about acquiring those two series now. Well, I have just ordered Sherlock Hound... As I read in the interesting review in the Mad Movies magazine I already wrote about, The Castle of Cagliostro is not as "thought-provoking" as the future Studio Ghibli movies, it looks more like the episode of an animated TV-series (which it is) but of excellent quality. As for Porco Rosso, the quality of the Blu-ray image is impressive and one can fully appreciate the work of the animation artists. I particularly liked the two car chases at the beginning of the movie. The story of big-hearted thief is quite typical of the Japanese manga and animation we know of that time: Sherlock Hound, Cowboy Bebop, City Hunter, Cat's Eyes... but one can feel the Miyazaki influence with the themes of Nature and the apparition of a steampunk flying machine. I am definitely looking forward to seeing more of his work.
Rating: 7 /10

The man who knew too much (1934)

	Also Known As: L'homme qui en savait trop
	Year of first release: 1934
	Director: Alfred Hitchcock
	Actors: Peter Lorre, Leslie Banks
	Country: GB
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 09.02.2014, DVD
Synopsis: A man and his wife receive a clue to an imminent assassination attempt, only to learn that their daughter has been kidnapped to keep them quiet.
Review:  The recent reviews on Hitchock movies motivated me to watch Alfred's movies that I had never seen. I start with the 30s. The image quality of the DVD was awful, it looked like a bad divx of the end 90s. The mono sound was actually fine. But the viewing did not start well.  There are not many scenes, but each of these has a good picture... for the field of view. Some are also very long especially the last fight with the police. In this movie, some of the tools used by Hitchcock to make a good movie, as explained in the book Le cinema selon Alfred Hitchcock (a.k.a. Hitchcock/Truffaut or M. Hitchcock, wie haben Sie das gemacht?), appear clearly. The bad guy, Peter Lorre acts perfectly and fits to the role. His light Eastern accent makes it more trendy in reference to the Stalinism of the 30s and the American fear of the communists. The McGuffin, the object that everyone wants to have, is a small piece of paper, an piece of information. The rest of the story is very simple and the directing is sometimes almost boring. This might be a reason for the remake done by Hitchcock in the States.
Rating: 4 /10

Dallas buyers club (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
	Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 03.02.2014, Schauburg, OV sneak preview
Synopsis: In 1985 Dallas, electrician and hustler Ron Woodroof works around the system to help AIDS patients get the medication they need after he is himself diagnosed with the disease.
Review: The story of a macho that wants to survive and sees the opposition of his friends in front of his disease. His machism and his love to life brings him in an incredible logic to get friend with a gay roomate and to defend him. It is based on a true story and there is no mercy neither for the criminal American authorities and industry nor for the people affected by AIDS. What is enphasized is the struggle for life, even if it is hard. These ideas are enhanced by the position of the camera with regard to the people and by the dialogues. The acting of McConaughey is incredible, so many types of reaction, all convincing. The acting of Jared Letto, who is quite often put on roles of beautiful person who gets destroyed, is very fine.
Rating: 7 /10

All Good Things (2010)

	Also Known As: All Beauty Must Die (Germany)
	Year of first release: 2010
	Director: Andrew Jarecki
	Actors: Ryan Gosling (Drive, Crazy Stupid Love), Kirsten Dunst (The Virgin Suicides, Spiderman 1-3), Frank Langella (The Ninth Door)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 15.02.2014, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: David Marks (Gosling) is torn between his love for Katie (Dunst) and following the footsteps if his father (Lengella) in real-estate although he hates it.
Review: Based on real events, I didn't know where the story was going. It all starts nicely with the life of the young Davis Marks but then we see him evolve through life as years go by. The three main actors of the movie are great. Frank Langella is scary as authoritarian father and Kirsten Durst lovely as usual (if you like her). It is nice to see Ryan Gosling playing something different than the very handsome young man as he did in Crazy, Stupid, Love. He tries (not always succesfully) to add more layers to his character to make him less predicatable. In the end the movie is about how people can change if you look at them for long enough periods of time, in that case 20 years. As often in movies based on real events, there are some gaps in the story, some strange reactions by the characters and  the ending can miss to satisfy you. This is the difference between real life and a movie story.
Rating: 6 /10

Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Glenn Ficarra & John Requa (I Love You Phillip Morris)
	Actors: Steve Carell (The 40-Year Old Virgin, Evan Almighty), Ryan Gosling (Drive), Julianne Moore (Jurassik Park: The Lost World)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 14.02.2014, SD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: When Cal (Carell) learns from his wife Emily (Moore) that she wants a divorce, he slowly loses is mind, until Jacob (Gosling) teaches him how to pick-up women.
Review: This is not a typical romantic comedy because the humour is not straight-forward (nor too dumb). Halfway through the movie you understand that it is actually a reflection on the single life vs. the couple life, being with one woman during your whole life vs. being with hundreds of them. Those are obviously two extremes of the real-life situation, but the viewer anyway feels close to the characters. The comedy is in the change: characters face situations that are not familiar to them, and it is funny to see them adapt. The couple Gosling/Carell is very good at giving that. I found a bit too easy the twist that occurs at two thirds of the movie but it helps refreshing the action and making you understand that people with have to work harder to deserve a happy ending.
Rating: 7 /10

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Rupert Anders
	Actors: Kristen Stewart (Twilight), Chris Hemsworth (Thor, The Cabin in the Woods), Charlize Theron (Hancock, Prometheus)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 08.02.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: After her father is duped, killed and his throne taken by Ravenna (Theron), the young Snow White (Steward) spends years in prison and when she escapes she searches for allies.
Review: Watching this movie reminded me of an interview by Guillermo del Toro during which he explained that when he was having a meeting with producers to talk about making a movie, half of the people in the room were financial analysts that were presenting plots and charts about what the public wants and what will make most money. Snow White and the Huntsman seems to have been built like that. All the best ingredients are present: the adaptation of a popular story, known actors that will please a large range of viewers, a Fantasy story like in the recent success Game of Thrones and the upcoming (at the time) The Hobbit (there are even Dwarfs, and a Troll that brings nothing to the story), two men for the love of one woman (Twilight-style), a chosen one with special powers (Matrix?), the power of Nature (like in Avatar + the giant dear like in Princess Mononoke) and many special effects. But even with good ingredients, a poor cook will fail. For me the actors were over-playing (especially Charlize Theron) or not playing well (Kristen Steward, like Derek Zoolander, has only one look), the music was not guiding me through the story like it should have, and in general I didn't feel involved in the story. That's a pity because I like the modern adaptation of the tale. It also reminds me of a much worse Chinese movie called Wind Blast that I have seen at the Far East Udine Film Festival in 2011 and that seems to have been engineered to please the audience but that was plain awful to watch. I even left the room before the end although I very seldom do that.
Rating: 4 /10

Porco Rosso (1992)

	Also Known As: Kurenai no buta (original)
	Year of first release: 1992
	Director: Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke)
	Actors (voices): Shûichirô Moriyama, Tokiko Katô, Bunshi Katsura
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 09.02.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: During the 30's in the Adriatic sea, Marco is a bounty hunter in the air and on the sea, an outlaw in a world where fascism is growing.
Review: When I saw the first image of the movie and the red seaplane filling the screen, I thought Waw! this looks beautiful, the colors and the quality of the drawings.   Because of the recent release of the latest Miyazaki animated film The Wind Rises (as usual with this kind of movie, no release planned yet in Germany...), the magazine Mad Movies published in January a long article including reviews of all his movies, and reading it definitely made me want to see them.  I knew only Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and The Moving Castle, and I had heard about Porco Rosso since such a long time that I had to start with this one (also because the topic is close to the one of The Wind Rises). What stopped me until now was that because of the international distribution of the Studio Ghibli movies by Disney, their prices never drops below 10-15 euros for the DVDs and 15-20 for the Blu-rays. The idea is: if you love your kids and they want to see this animated movie, you will pay any price for it. This is outrageous. Anyway, I decided to regularly buy those movies in Blu-ray to enjoy the best quality. As I said, the image and sound are perfect, and the aerial scenes really enchanting. Some interesting facts that I learned about: the real name of Porco Rosso is an homage to an Italian cartoonist Miyazaki worked with, and the father of Miyazaki owned a factory that built planed during WWII, explaining his passion for flying (you find this theme in many of his movies). I thought Porco Rosso would be different from the movies I knew as it is older and could be more "optimistic". Well I was wrong, you find in the movie the same elements that make a Miyazaki movie: parallel History, children (over-intelligent for 17-years old) as main characters, some impossible love stories, war, enemies not very scary, and a mitigated ending. All of this makes that even if it looks beautiful, the movie is not so easy to watch and you can't do it just for fun, it forces you to look for deeper degrees of meaning in it. So this is what makes a Miyazaki movie, and what makes that I have a hard time loving them entirely.
Rating: 7 /10

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2006
	Director: J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Super 8)
	Actors: Tom Cruise (Cocktail, The Firm, Oblivion), Michelle Monaghan (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Due Date), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction), Laurence Fishburne (Matrix 1-3), Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Star Trek), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Big Lebowski)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 06.02.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Ethan Hunt (Cruise) will be facing a new enemy (Hoffman) willing to make business on the World's destruction. His hierarchy and even his private life will get involved.
Review:  I was persuaded that this movie was the worst of the four in the franchise, but I had actually never seen it and I must have confused with another one. It turned out to be pretty good and more clever than its two predecessors. J. J. Abrams shows all of talent on this first movie as director and this led him to the career we now know: storytelling, framing (with a few lens flares already), original choreography of the action scenes and use of special effects (the seamless transition between the character of Tom Cruise putting on the mask of the character of Philip Seymour Hoffman is brilliantly executed). It is a nice balance with the second movie in which Tom Cruise and his character were too arrogant. In MI:III they pay this arrogance by causing the wrath of their enemy who will then attack them personally. This cold-blooded villain reminds of classical enemies seen in many James Bond movies. The weapon at the heart of the story (the Rabbit's Foot) seemed to me like the best example of a MacGuffin and made me think of one episode of the cinema series Contrechamp on Lemonde.fr in which this concept is explained. I was thus not surprised when watching this episode again to see MI:III mentioned. Alfred Hitchcock is quoted: "A McGuffin is the thing that the spies are after, the thing that the characters worry about, but the audience don't care.". It can be a useful ingredient to make a good story, it is usually forgotten in the course of the action and and it has been used in many films (Avatar, The Departed, Pulp Fiction...).
Rating: 7 /10

The Birds (1963)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1963
	Director: Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo, Rear Window)
	Actors: Rod Taylor (The Time Machine, Inglorious Basterds), Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 03.02.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Melanie Daniels (Hedren) follows Mitch Brenner (Taylor) to his home town to set up a practical joke. As they start to get close, unexplained bird attacks occur.
Review: I have seen this movie several times when younger, but not anymore for the past twenty years. I was glad the be able to watch it again in the best conditions (the image is beautiful on this Blu-ray edition) and I realized that it made a strong impression on me a bit like Jaws did, but not as strong. Watching the birds attack and pick on the heroin's hands immediately reminded me that I used to have nightmares of those moments. As when watching Rear Window, I was surprised (but not displeased) that the action takes so long to start. Actually before watching the movie I didn't know how it could sustain suspense for almost two hours only with birds. It does it by slowly introducing the characters (that meet in a pet shop surrounded with birds) and the little town where the rest of the movie will take place. And in the last 45 minutes birds start to attack by increasing numbers. Attacks occur only a handful of times but it is every time masterfully shown: the flock of small birds entering the house thought the chimney, the attack of the farmer not even shown but that may be the scariest of all as we see him only briefly dead in his room with gauged eyes and no music at all. The scene of the number of crows that slowly increase behind the heroin as she waits near the school is also masterfully done. The Birds is often called Hitchcock's monster movie and you can see on a short set of interviews on the Blu-ray how much it has influenced other directors. I had guessed it already when watching the movie, the unexplained attacks in a shore town reminds of The Fog by John Carpenter and The Mist written by Stephen King. The interviews (including one of Carpenter who is usually rather shy) confirms that, and further links the movie to the universal theme of Nature taking its revenge on Men, like also in The Happening or After Earth, both by M. Night Shyamalan. I have now remaining to watch less known movies by Hitchcock, and looking forward to it.
Rating: 8 /10

Ice age (2002)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2002
	Director: Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha
	Actors: -
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 02.02.2014, DVD, German version
Synopsis: Back when the Earth was being overrun by glaciers, and animals were scurrying to save themselves from the upcoming Ice Age, a sloth named Sid, a woolly mammoth named Manny, and a saber-toothed tiger named Diego are forced to become unlikely heroes. The three reluctantly come together when they have to return a human child to its father while braving the deadly elements of the impending Ice Age.
Review: Animation can be seen in any language. This time, I tried first in German whereas I have also the original English version. Next time and then also as comment to this post. I preferred the German Finding Nemo than the original one because of the voices and German version of the text as well much funnier than the English one.  For Ice Age, I had it better in mind than this time. I remember that in 2002 the efforts placed on the textures of the animals was particularly impressive. Now there is more realistic, but it is actually sometimes better to have not to be realistic to be closer to the truth. The story is good and not only for Scrat. This fable as in La Fontaine's can be put in parallel to the current society and the ways one can choose to survive or overcome difficulties. It focuses on some points like solidarity and fun. Without being part of the international Hedonists, I like this motto. The jokes and the situations got older but some are still irresistible. The German voice of Sid enhanced its confusion and this was fun too. I will watch it in English in the coming weeks. It was good to watch it that day. I needed it.
Rating: 6 /10

Le week-end (2013)

	Also Known As: Dirty weekend
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Roger Michell
	Actors: Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, Jeff Goldblum
	Country: GB
	Genre: Comedy, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 27.01.2014, Schauburg, OV sneak preview
Synopsis: A British couple return to Paris many years after their honeymoon ther.
Review: The couple is quite old but the story could have been identical with much younger. It is indeed a kind of midlife crisis that they are living. He wants sex and contact, she does not. Slowly it becomes clear (ALMOST SPOILER) that both are still enloved but do not live their love as they would like to.  The acting of both is very authentic, even if the dinner scene seems very artificial. But its goal is to bring specific dialogues between both. This way Jeff Goldblum is purely artificial because he is just a tool of the scenario to support the couple. Several scenes are really good for their picture building and the lot of saying without talking thanks to both Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan. Having these two great actors, the story could have been slightly different to benefit the most of them.
Rating: 5 /10

The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1977
	Director: John Landis (The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London)
	Actors: Evan C. Kim, Bong Soo Han, Bill Bixby
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 02.02.2014, DVD, 42" TV, French dubbing.
Synopsis: A parodic and satirical  patchwork of the TV, cinema and advertisement world in the 70's USA.
Review: I like John Landis for some of his big movies (The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London) and some other work like Michael Jackson's Thriller music video or the episode of the Masters of Horror TV-series: Deer Woman. I even met him at the Neuchatel Festival Festival and he wrongly spelled my name on the autograph (see pictures below). I have read that at the time of The Kentucky Fried Movie he was young and inexperienced, and this small budget movie was a bit chaotic to film. This kind of reflection on TV and cinema reminds me a lot of Joe Dante's similar Hollywood Boulevard (1976), or his later and better Matinee (Panique sur Florida Beach in French) in 1993. The movie was written by the ZAZ (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker), responsible for the 80's parodies like Airplane, the Naked Gun series, ... and you can recognize the same kind of humour already here. The 30-minute parodic section of a Martial Art exploitation movie has probably influenced Kung Pow! (2002) and Black Dynamite (2009). Finally, I have learned that the movie was a great inspiration for the French humorists Les Nuls (particularly obvious when you hear the title song: The Karioka!). But apart from those great references, the movie is hard to watch: the jokes are not often funny, the absence of music makes the movie boring but hopefully the story changes often so that you are bored for only short periods of time. It was not helped by the poor French translation (I may give it a better rating once I watch it in original version). Recommended for big fans of cinema History only.
Rating: 3 /10

Looking for Eric (2009)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: Ken Loach
	Actors: Steve Evets, Eric Cantona (Le Bonheur est dans le Pré, Switch), Stephanie Bishop
	Country: GB, F, I, B, E
	Genre: Black Comedy, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 01.02.2014, DVD Rip, 11" computer screen
Synopsis: Troubled in his life, a big fan of Eric Cantona (Evets) starts to see him in visions, to discuss with him and follow his advise to improve his life.
Review: I wrongly thought that this movie was more a comedy about a guy whose goal is to meet his hero Eric Cantona. It is actually more a drama in which Cantona is used as a philosopher (he gets some great lines and reference is made to the Seagulls one) or an inner voice to help the main character redeem himself. The movie is sometimes hard to watch because you can't imagine how those simple characters will manage to gain back the control of their life, but they do. The main characters and his mates are touching and really down to Earth, as I is probably often the case in Ken Loach's movies. And the description of the day-to-day life in the British small towns or suburbs is done without embellishment. A big theme in the movie is how to live with your past mistakes, and learn from them so that you do better. I liked the apparitions of Cantona and his interactions with the hero (also named Eric). The behavior of Eric, in particular regarding the love of his life, is very realistic and one can relate to it.
Rating: 8 /10