Author: Dave Franklin

Action: Bullitt (1968), The Killer Elite (1975) & Breakout (1975) Despite being the best part of sixty years old and having no action in its first twenty minutes, Bullitt still feels fresh and unusual. It might be famed for its superb, eleven-minute car chase, but I take as much pleasure in its taut, understated feel.…

Despite a career lasting more than six decades, a hand in some of the most luminous films of all time and a Best Actor Oscar, Robert Duvall remains curiously unfamous. I suspect if you showed his picture to twenty people in the street, hardly anyone would identify him. Perhaps this is because he prefers supporting…

Synopsis: A latent lezzer with peculiar mental powers wants a girlfriend. What does it matter if her target isn’t a rug muncher? Director: Joachim Trier Cast: Eili Harboe, Kaya Wilkins, Henrik Rafaelsen, Ellen Dorrit Petersen Like a fair few blokes, I shamelessly employ double standards when it comes to homosexuality. I’m none too keen on…

Synopsis: “This is my house.” Director: Nicolas Gessner Cast: Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexis Smith, Mort Shuman, Scott Jacoby In 1991 Jodie Foster picked up her second Oscar, apparently poised to have one of the most glorious movie careers of all time. Instead, her post-Lambs output collapsed into mediocrity. The rot set in straightaway with…

Humour is built on cruelty. At least, the funny stuff is. I can give you two childhood examples. I had a couple of mates called Plow and Meg. Plow was a strange lad, skinny as rake with a mass of curly hair and about as likely to get a girlfriend as a piss-stained lamppost. He…

At the age of nine on my British junior school’s playground I first became properly aware of a place called Australia. I grabbed the satchel of the rather unpopular Andrew George and started to run off (probably because I knew it contained a bag of pickle onion-flavored Monster Munch and a bottle of Ribena) when…