FILLMORE DISCOS 22

Nothing here I'd recommend at all, and unless the remake of Friday The 13th defies all predictions and is the mother of all slasher movies, there's not really much else on the horizon either. Oh, and not that it matters whatsoever, but what utter nonsense the Oscars were awarded to this year.

The Reader (**)
notwithstanding the chance to savour Kate Winslet pulling on her nylons (here's a welcome return to the erotic in mainstream movies), I confess I don't enjoy this kind of manipulative morality tale, one I see as essentially a fraudulent mechanism to hypothetically question one's own choices, and one's own feelings, in difficult or impossible circumstances; furthermore, the 'Allo 'Allo-style accents remove all potential seriousness from the otherwise deeply solemn plot

Redemption: A Mile from Hell (*)
dodge this low-budget trash and come and let me show you true redemption instead

Bye Bye Blackbird (**)
despite a mediocre cast and wooden script, Bye Bye Blackbird has beautiful set-pieces, costumes, and backdrops, plus bearded ladies, dwarves, and pretty circus girls, yet all that goodness can't disguise that the film is a victim of its own ambition: to realise the surreal Kafka story of a trapeze artist who won't come down from his perch - the final 30 minutes begin to unveil the true weirdness of the plot, however the first hour is treated far too conventionally to make the whole feel congruent

What Just Happened? (*)
dreary comedy to avoid (like one should with any De Niro film these days)

Role Models (***)
there is one reason, and one reason alone, for watching this otherwise cringeworthy formulaic comedy fluff: Jane Lynch - her role and performance is one of the funniest things you'll ever see (my 3 precious stars are all for her)

High School Musical (*)
nowhere near the dizzy heights of HSM3, but (in the context) has a smidgen of curiosity value