Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says that October could be the worst for cinema since the late 1990s, despite the high quality of many films. Docudrama #1 Springsteen:Deliver Me From Nowhere is enjoyable, if not emotionally engaging. #2 Regretting You is a mother and daughter drama with great acting but the annoying screenplay makes the characters' lives unnecessarily difficult. He laughed more than he should have done. He loved All Of You on Apple TV+, with Imogen Poots and Brett Goldstein friends in a near-future world. It's a lovely, dramatic, fresh and charming film. He also recommends seeking out the prescient S1m0ne from 23 years ago, with Al Pacino digitally creating an actress.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says he can't remember when there were so many good movies in the chart. At #6 is Channing Tatum in Roofman, a true tale of a polite crook who hides away in a toy store. Also starring Kirsten Dunst, it's a character study full of great performances. At #9 is After the Hunt with Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield in a superbly-made ideas movie with an exquisitely calibrated script. On Netflix, The Woman in Cabin 10 with Keira Knighley and Guy Pearce disappointed. It's an old-fashioned thriller set on a luxury cruise, which might be fine if you put your brain in neutral.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson loved #1 Tron: Ares, the 3rd in the series. It has amazing graphics, a great score and is often very funny. He was impressed with #3 I Swear, set in the Scottish Borders, about a lad with Tourette's. A true story boasting great real performances, it is funny and yet heartbreaking; James had to hold back tears many times. Despite the Oscar buzz he was disappointed with #5 The Smashing Machine. Yes, Dwayne Johnson can act and Emily Blunt is super but it's a dull story. James and Simon both recommend the 4K restoration of the massively influential 1981 French thriller Diva, with an embarrassment of extras. And James thinks Netflix's Steve, produced by and starring Cillian Murphy – about a head teacher of a reform college – may be a touch melodramatic at times but is one of Murphy's best performances.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson raves about #1, Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn. At times baffling, it's bravura film-making which you can't stop thinking about and which seems destined for Oscar glory. Not so #7 The Strangers: Chapter 2, a nonsensical horror sequel. More interesting is #25 Brides, a low budget production about two naive teenage girls who want to flee the UK. It's very realistic and you don't want to tear your eyes away. Disney+'s The Man In My Basement is a psychological thriller with Willem Dafoe. Scuppered by an unlikeable protagonist, it might have made a better play.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson wished he liked #6, the fantasy A Big, Bold, Beautiful Journey with Colin Farrell & Margot Robbie. It looks good but there's no chemistry, just whimsy. He does recommend #8, the thought-provoking NT Live production Inter Alia. He found Wrack & Ruin, a box set of post-war DEFA films on Blu-Ray aimed at de-Nazifying Germany, particularly Somewhere in Berlin, an eye-opening education and a must for film lovers. And out next week on Apple TV+ is The Lost Bus, a true story with Matthew McConaughey a bus driver trying to save schoolchildren from a wildfire. Deftly directed by Paul Greengrass it's a prime example of the new panic attack genre.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
With box office takings on the rise, James Cameron-Wilson celebrates the arrival of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, an exquisitely packaged production with most of the regulars that rounds the trilogy off nicely. He finds #4 The Long Walk, based on a Stephen King novel about boys forced onto a deadly march, to be so compelling you didn't worry about its illogicalities. #7 Spinal Tap II: The End Continues plays on a nostalgic yearning. Often too silly, it still has a high chuckle quotient. James also pays tribute to Robert Redford.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson is mystified by the success of #1 The Conjuring: Last Rites, the 9th in the series. It's the biggest horror opening ever but it is dumb and clichéd and James spent most of its 135 minutes trying not to fall asleep. Ethan Coen's Honey Don't! is #10. Chris Evans & Margaret Qualley star in a good-looking but lightweight dark comedy with a surprising amount of sex, violence & bad language for a 15. He much preferred Apple TV's Highest 2 Lowest. Directed by Spike Lee, Denzel Washington stars as a music mogul in a gripping crime thriller which is also a moral fable.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson loved the start of beautifully-written black comedy The Roses (another remake) at #1. But he liked the characters played by Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch so much that it became painful and hard to stomach as it turned darker. He preferred #6 Caught Stealing, a freewheeling caper set in 1998 with Austin Butler, directed by Darren Aronofsky. It's an inventive and often very funny surprise. He found #43, Slovenian Little Trouble Girls, an awakening drama set in a Catholic school, sensitive and a breath of fresh air. He had few good words to say about Netflix's The Thursday Murder Club with the likes of Helen Mirren, feeling it like a poor TV movie from another era.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says that the top five UK films have the lowest take since 2022. #6 The Life of Chuck with Chewitel Ejiofor and Tom Hiddleston is a challenging and original fantasy which is beguiling, terrifying and yet life-affirming. Highly recommended. #10 Eddington has Joaquin Phoenix in a satire of America as the pandemic hit. Although thought-provoking it meanders, isn't always credible and is far too long. James thoroughly enjoyed Netflix's Night Always Comes with Vanessa Kirby, a formulaic thriller but nonetheless a genuinely gripping one.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron Wilson says the new #2 film Materialists with Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans is one of his favourites of the year. A fascinating insight into online dating, it's a classic romantic drama that looks sensational and boasts a great screenplay. He found #8 Together a barmy and nonsensical body horror with little to recommend it. And he thought #10 Nobody 2 with Bob Odenkirk not a patch on the first film, being a formulaic, predictable & witless John Wick knockoff. He loved Netflix's Shark Whisperer, an intriguing documentary which, unusually, puts both sides of the argument and is a visual treat.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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