What was the last film you watched?

[Mel O'Drama]

Good losers are probably the most dangerous ones.

You're not wrong, Willie.

At least with a bad sport you know where you stand.

I didn't know that streaming services offered the special features.

Oh, by "behind-the-scenes stuff", I meant a post-film visit to Wikipedia to find out some background.

Looking at the picture I can't decide if it's overselling or underselling itself, and now I'm curious to know how it compares the film.

Of the two I'd say it probably undersold itself as there's a lot more to it.

On the other hand, I was in the mood for something lighter and fluffier at the time, so I would have preferred to watch the poster.

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

I saw this a long time ago on TV and I think I see now why as a kid I had no idea what it was about other than being set in an insane asylum.
I see now that the subtext is buried so deep that I'm sure that it must have been heavily censored compared to the original play.

That explains a lot, as I remember not quite getting it when I watched in my younger days. I must confess I've forgotten most of it now, so perhaps I'll revisit it sometime.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I meant a post-film visit to Wikipedia

Oh, that was you? Please, next time try not to make such a racket.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Throw Momma From The Train (1987)

The brief for last night's film choice was something that didn't require thinking. I thought this seemed to fit the bill perfectly. And it helped that it was a brisk 85 minutes.

This is one of those films that I associate with being shown late at night in the late Eighties or early Nineties: probably after News At Ten or Film '92. The kind of thing that fell outside my usual viewing schedule and that (even though I'd probably noticed it was there) I didn't want to see badly enough to stay up late or set the video recorder.

I do admire that it doesn't attempt to conceal that its story is derivative. Plots from several Hitchcock films are ripped off, but most notably Strangers On A Train. However, instead of pretentiously wrapping it up as a homage or lazily making a spoof, Throw Momma simply acknowledges the films and makes them a plot point. It even uses footage from Strangers... at a key point, and then references it.

The two leads are engaging (halfway through it dawned on me that here are two former sitcom pros, which may explain the great chemistry).

It certainly hit the spot for a bit of daft entertainment and I'd probably watch it again in time.​

 

[Willie Oleson]

and now I'm curious to know how it compares the film.

Running time was lengthier than I thought so I watched it in two installments.
Jeff Daniels looks very nice in his....socks and Ray Liotta wears his clothes like a second skin. I like the way he arrives on the scene with that "move over Matt Dillon" attitude. It's an impressive debut for a survivor of The Lonely Lady.
I like the soundtrack and overall it looks remarkably un-cheesy for an eighties romcom (of sorts). Once Jeff Daniels' character decides not to escape from these horrible people the story loses a lot of its urgency. On the other hand, the fight scenes in the last part are very well done.
I find Melanie Griffith hit-or-miss in this film. She's good in some parts and in other parts she comes across as "my husband produced this film" (figuratively).

 

[Willie Oleson]

Let's throw it out and see if the cat licks it up

Watching it for the first time I think it's an intriguing and very entertaining (melo) drama but seeing how all that clever detective work plays out it's really not that different from being in the courtroom. It's basically Perry Mason played by different people.
The "villains" of the piece conveniently contradicted themselves or behaved disproportionately emotional or uninterested so there was never any doubt that I had to side with Henry Fonda's character.

As a reverse "whodunnit" it's a very good film but I'm not sure if it is masterpiece.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop (2021)

This was listed in my streaming service as having been made in 2023. A bit of a red flag, along with the fact that I struggled to find information about the background of the film (I'd done a quick search just to ensure this wasn't part of an ongoing series that needed to be watched in a certain order).

Anyway, I certainly wasn't expecting art. Which is fortunate, because I never got it.

The opening titles gave the impression of a TV movie (or even an episode of a TV series), and I'm glad about this because it kept my expectations in check.

Despite the detailed "origin" story in the film's opening scenes, I found it difficult to get a handle on the titular character. Her "thing" was being the wealthy lady of the manor and this privileged background had made her so adept in... whatever skills she needs for the occasion, probably. Martial arts. Strategy. Psychology. Advanced driving. I dare say she has feminine intuition on her side as well. She felt rather like a composite of any number of characters, from Emma Peel or Purdey to Harriet Makepeace (it did rather feel that the lead actress was attempting to channel Joanna Lumley and the end result was a bit Glynis Barber). There's probably a dash of Lara Croft and a helping of Jessica Fletcher and Nancy Drew as well. Oh, and having her as a teacher at a university felt a little like an attempt to get a bit of Indiana Jones in there.

However, without anything to make this character stand out, she feels quite generic and derivative, and there's nothing to give this film (and I keep wanting to write "series") a USP. I also didn't buy her as an aristocrat or even upper class, but this was mitigated greatly by her having come to live in this environment after the deaths of her parents, and by her having been raised by her American guardian. It all helped me make sense of things that might otherwise have bothered me.

The tone of the film felt quite Anglo-American. It's quite hard to pinpoint just what it is, but something felt a little "off", as though this is an American view of how Brits live (the kind of portrayal one might expect from Hallmark Movie, which at times I did wonder if this might be). Looking more closely at the writers and producers, it is indeed a combination of people from both sides of the pond (and a couple of other European countries thrown in).

The writing is incredibly simplistic: safe and predictable. There are no clever twists and anyone who's watched a Murder, She Wrote episode or two can see what's coming. The denouement at the end even has a touch of the Scooby Doo to it. Indeed, the biggest suspension of my disbelief was called for at the very end when Willow had to give a Sleuthing For Dummies explanation to the brilliant man who had taught her everything she knows who - and this almost made me scream - had evidently missed most of the clues. And all of this was presumably done because the writers thought the audience might not be intelligent enough to keep up with the thin, recycled plot.

I've been a bit harsh, but it was watchable - and enjoyable - enough. There's certainly a market for twee, formulaic murder mysteries, and in this regard Miss Willoughby does feel like a fond throwback to a time when viewers demanded less of the story and simply enjoyed the scenery and the comfort of familiar character actors. This may be an imperfect example of the genre, but it's not without charm.

Caroline Quentin is great fun (I spent a third of the film convinced she was Lucille Hewitt from Corrie, before my partner recognised Caroline and then I immediately remembered Jennifer Moss had died anyway), and Kelsey Grammer - playing the Steed to Willow's Purdey, or the Giles to her Buffy - is welcome enough. The North Yorkshire scenery - from historic York to the cobbles of Howden and the grandeur of Birdsall House - is very photogenic indeed.

Would I watch a sequel or a series should either appear? Despite my scathing review, I'd certainly be open to it.



​

Ray Liotta wears his clothes like a second skin. I like the way he arrives on the scene with that "move over Matt Dillon" attitude.

Definitely. There's a confident, arrogant swagger to him that repels and attracts at the same time.

I like the soundtrack

Since I watched this with Who's That Girl in my mind, this was one area where I felt Madge's film was superior to this one.

it looks remarkably un-cheesy for an eighties romcom (of sorts). Once Jeff Daniels' character decides not to escape from these horrible people the story loses a lot of its urgency. On the other hand, the fight scenes in the last part are very well done.

Agreed on all counts. It gets quite gritty and even raw (in that fight sequence) and was more substantial (and heavy) than I expected.

I find Melanie Griffith hit-or-miss in this film. She's good in some parts and in other parts she comes across as "my husband produced this film" (figuratively).

I had the same experience. I'm trying to think if I've seen her in anything else - and I'm sure I must have - but I can't think of any of her performances. My main association of her is of numerous pictures in Eighties newspapers and glossies of her on Don Johnson's arm. And, of course, for being Tippi Hedren's daughter. I did wonder if the casting was at least partly an attempt to tie this film to that legacy in the same way as Jamie Lee's casting in Halloween. There are certainly similarities to be found between Melanie's character here and Tippi's mischievous, drama-manufacturing character in The Birds.

During this film I found it really difficult to work out her performance. There were times when I couldn't quite decide whether she was a terrible actress or she was being deliberately wooden as part of her screen persona to hide how canny and intelligent she actually was (à la Marilyn Monroe). I'm still none the wiser, but overall I'm leaning towards the former.

All the same, this has reminded me that I've never seen Working Girl (which I remember being huge at the time). And any film with Sigourney Weaver has to be worth a peek.

​

 

[LMLDallas78]

I went to the cinema Wednesday evening to watch Equalizer 3. I became a fan of the films after watching The Equalizer original series as a youngster and having a secret crush on the wonderful Edward Woodward.

Equalizer 3 was a very enjoyable watch with Denzel Washington mesmerising as always.

It was a lot slower pace than the others but it needed to be. I'm not into gory scenes, but they're executed very well and in a believable way. The setting in Italy is lush and the dialogue witty at times and effective telling a good story.

I'd read a few reviews which didn't rate it very good, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Horizon (2019)

I watched this mainly because I'm familiar with the territory (the geographical area, I mean. Not alien invasions). Thankfully I wasn't expecting much.

During the opening scenes, I found myself actually laughing at some of the ham in the OTT reactions, so I have nobody but myself to blame for sitting through another two hours of it.

Perfectly complementing the iffy performances were the dodgy effects. To be fair, I reminded myself this was probably shot on a shoestring budget and I've seen worse in some far more expensive films.

Just as I'd justified this, though, along came Edward Coleridge, a historic figure from the 19th Century, who spoke in contemporary RP (right down to T-dropping and contractions). Worse still was the flashback to Coleridge and his wife entertaining friends at their Clifton townhouse back in 1860 or something, and they ALL spoke this way. Contemporary expressions crept in, and - of course BOTH husbands wore (minimalist silver) wedding rings... something no man would have even considered doing at the time. The laziness around the period detail should have been funny, but ultimately just saddened me.

Somewhere in the last half, I decided that the series felt reminiscent of the kind of the serial that Children's ITV used to show in the 4.45 slot during the Eighties (think Chocky; Moondial and the like) and with that mindset I suddenly began to enjoy it.

It turns out that Horizon genuinely is a serial: it's a web-series originally released over two series in 2015 and 2017. And, for all its faults, it does impress on that level.

Here's the trailer in all its shrieky CGI glory:

 

[Willie Oleson]

Here's the trailer in all its shrieky CGI glory

So....HOLLYOAKS with UFOs? That trailer doesn't look bad at all.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

So....HOLLYOAKS with UFOs?

Oh yes. That probably sums it up perfectly.

That trailer doesn't look bad at all.

After the opening minutes made me giggle, this influenced how I viewed it for a bit.

Finding out it was a web-based serial I'm now of the view that it's better than I'd credited it with. For a low-budget independent project made by a small - and young - team, it's quite hard to knock (even if it's hard to resist sometimes).

 

[Angela Channing]

View attachment 47134


Watching it for the first time I think it's an intriguing and very entertaining (melo) drama but seeing how all that clever detective work plays out it's really not that different from being in the courtroom. It's basically Perry Mason played by different people.
The "villains" of the piece conveniently contradicted themselves or behaved disproportionately emotional or uninterested so there was never any doubt that I had to side with Henry Fonda's character.

As a reverse "whodunnit" it's a very good film but I'm not sure if it is masterpiece.

I love this film but I find some aspects really frustrating. A jury aren't meant to investigate a case but are just there to consider the evidence presented to them during the trial so about 90% of what went on in that jury room shouldn't have been allowed. However, once you get over that major flaw in the premise of the film, it is a superior piece of film making with several knockout performances.

 

[bmasters9]

The Competition (1980 Columbia Pictures film, produced by Rastar, with Amy Irving, Lee Remick and Richard Dreyfuss; about a man and woman who compete in a classical piano competition in San Francisco, and whose romance tries to get in the way; from Sony's Choice Collection DVD [feature starts all over again once the film is completed, for reasons unknown])

 

[James from London]

Today I watched Jock Ewing battling giant radioactive insects from outer space in Monster from Green Hell.



It was good fun and Jock was great, but the real gem I stumbled on recently is Snowball starring a young Dennis Waterman as a schoolboy and Gordon Jackson as his dad. It’s only an hour long and it’s free to view online (at least in the UK) and I’d totally recommend it if you’ve got a spare 65 minutes.

TPTV Encore

Watch the latest videos on TPTV Encore!

www.tptvencore.co.uk

 

[Seaviewer]

Monster-In-Law (2005)
A bit of a change of pace after watching two versions of Suddenly Last Summer in succession.
This is described as a romantic comedy but that really only lasts for the first ten minutes or so. After that it's all about the battle between Jennifer Lopez and her mother-in-law to be Jane Fonda who, of course believes she is not good enough for her son.
Not laugh out loud funny but enlivened by wisecracks from Wanda Sykes and a late appearance from Elaine Stritch as Fonda's own bete noir of a mother-in-law - leading to a not surprising but still moving resolution.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Super 8 (2011)

​

Before watching this, I thought I knew four things about it:

1. It's a found footage film
2. about an alien invasion
3. with a young cast
4. directed by Steven Spielberg

As it turns out, only one of these (#3) is wholly true, though there is a grain of truth to the others. While I was disavowed of the found footage and alien invasion aspects while watching, I came out of the film still believing it to have been directed by Spielberg. It's an easy mistake to make, since the film is aesthetically and tonally very much like Spielberg's work of the late Seventies or early Eighties. His favourite themes are there (the focus on kids from broken homes; the friendly alien who appears not so at first; disbelieving adults; gaslighting from the corrupt military/Government, et cetera).

On this level it kind of satisfies. I don't feel the period setting is completely convincing - I missed the "1979" super at the beginning and spent 15 minutes trying to work out when it was set until someone told me - but considering the young cast it's better than many, with 21st Century speech patterns only creeping in occasionally, and there's a degree of nostalgia that comes from watching. It's well-cast and the performances are decent. There are occasional noisy outbursts with accompanying CGI visuals, but when the "less is more" approach is applied it works well. Fortunately, this is most of the time, with the alien itself mostly staying out of sight and even the film's genre taking its time to become apparent.

While J.J. Abrams directed, Spielberg did produce this film, so it's essentially a Spielberg produced homage to his earlier works. Abrams is no stranger to this. I believe he's a fan (the Abrams film I'm most familiar with -Joy Ride AKA Road Kill - is essentially a retread of Spielberg's Duel). Anyone who's seen Close Encounters or E.T. will find themselves in very familiar territory here, while a couple of the scarier set pieces evoke Jurassic Park.

The inevitable ending feels heavily influenced by a couple of those earlier Spielberg films already named, though lacks the emotional punch of either.

Overall, this surprised me nicely by not being quite what I'd envisaged from the fragments of information I've gleaned over the years, while still having plenty of familiarity.​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

She-Devil (1989)

This is a film I was aware of back when it was first released but actively avoided. I'd watched the 1986 TV series back when it was originally transmitted and thought it was great. I really had no wish to see a frothy, vacuous sanitised Hollywood interpretation of such a dark story. And yet, here I am.

How I ended up watching this weekend, I'm not quite sure. Since it's directed by Susan Seidelman, it's likely that it cropped up as a suggestion off the back of watching Desperately Seeking Susan and some similar films and I had one of my "oh... what the hell" moments.

It's probably over 35 years since I watched The Life And Loves Of A She-Devil series, but I do remember it being very serious, seedy and explicit. A conversation analysing the weirdness of people enjoying kissing when it's just sharing spit has never quite left my collective memory (I was pretty young when I watched it, and it's the kind of thing a schoolboy remembers). And I remember it being extremely creepy in places.

The poster for the film pretty much sums up the tone, and it's there from the very opening notes that we're going for something frivolous, slightly quirky and saccharine. It looks sumptuous and glossy. There's clearly a decent budget and it feels like the visual equivalent of a sweet treat (compared with the rich, carefully-planned four course meal that is the original).

Casting is fine. Meryl Streep is Meryl Streep. The comedic triangle elements, and Streep's character being a glamorous high profile husband-stealing celebrity feels rather like what we'd later get from her in Death Becomes Her. Given her range, it's a shame that it's treated as a broad comedy, and it's also intriguing to see that she'd originally been interested in playing Ruth.

Roseanne Barr's casting makes it quite clear what kind of Ruth we are given here. I can forgive this version not being "abnormally tall" as Ruth is meant to be, and I also appreciated Barr's lack of vanity. But with this being a very surface film and Barr's acting range appearing rather limited (at least from what I see here), there's very little to make this character fly. If I hadn't seen the original mini-series, I'm sure it would have been easier to accept (this goes for most elements of the film), but Julie T. Wallace's Ruth was so powerful and terrifying that I found myself sighing when hearing Barr's Ruth - in her trademark nasal twang - recite more or less the same narration as Wallace's, with amateurish "school play" overemphases in place of Wallace's unsettling menace. I find Roseanne quite likeable which kind of works for this version of Ruth, but is certainly quite a different experience from the original where my young self came away finding Ruth genuinely scary.

The soundtrack is... mostly forgettable. Most of the "original" tracks are very of their time, and the most memorable soundtrack moment is Elvis Presley's (You're The) Devil In Disguise played at the end. But there's nothing as bone-chillingly perfect as the BBC series' theme Warm Love Gone Cold.

^ Not that this song would have fitted the Hollywood version at all. I'm counting my blessings that the film didn't feature a dance cover of Christine Collister's haunting song in the style of the ill-advised I Will Survive cover that appeared.


With this being a fluffy "digest" version of the film, it's obvious that many details would end up omitted. With America being more conservative, the fetishist stuff, nudity and sex with priests and the like were probably never going to make it in, and I was OK with that.

The biggest surprise for me in this department, however, was the whole "becoming Mary Fisher" angle since, from what I remember, this is the entire point of the story... or at least the point to which all roads lead. As we got towards the end of the film, I wondered how on earth Ruth's surgeries and her gradual physical change to look like Mary would managed to be squeezed in, and I was quite shocked that there was not even a hint of this. Granted, I wasn't expecting all the visceral tooth drilling and bone sawing detail I vaguely remember from the series, but I was still curious to see Roseanne Barr becoming Meryl Streep and stealing her life completely. Without this, the project felt even more pointless and the story half told. Perhaps they were planning to save this part for She-Devil 2: Plastic Boogaloo.

Nitpicking aside, with low expectations this is an enjoyable, fun film that's easy to digest and probably has some rewatch value. Since the original material suggests it should be none of these things, this isn't necessarily a good thing. With American dominance of the market I feel sad that this is the version with which most of the world is now probably familiar (and hope, possibly in vain, that it at least leads some to check out the 1986 series).

Still, since the definitive authentic version had already been filmed, it's a relief this simply did its own silly, harmless thing rather than attempting to match the tone of the original. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.​

 

[Willie Oleson]

Still, since the definitive authentic version had already been filmed, it's a relief this simply did its own silly, harmless thing rather than attempting to match the tone of the origina

One particular scene that made me laugh out loud was the one in which Ruth and ...don't remember who, a friend?...were looking for a place...a workplace?
Anyway, at some point the woman who's showing them around says "whaddaythink, huh? huh? huh? huh?" It sounded so funny.

It would be nice to revisit the mini-series, if only for the 1980s nostalgia.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Baby Boom (1987)

Yet another well-known Eighties film that I was aware of but that completely passed me by. At least I think it did. I couldn't swear that I've never seen this, but then it's so comfortably predictable it's also the kind of film that one could probably practically play out in one's head without ever having seen it. This is especially true given other films of the era with similar tones and themes, such as Three Men And A Baby (Diane Keaton herself later starred in others that I associate with this kind of romanticised conservative genre of comedy with Father Of The Bride).

In many ways it's very of its time. Keaton's character - with her Armani suits, Oliver Peoples glasses and minimalist apartment - is the epitome of the Yuppie (the very point of the character, of course. By film's end she's learnt a valuable lesson).

It has a cutesy, boing-y synthesised Eighties score which tells you when to laugh or get tearful or whatever (saving the viewer the trouble of having to think too much about what's actually going on).

It's a warm film and quite a soppy one. I have a low tolerance for cutesy films, especially cutesy baby films, but I found myself investing in this one. The girl (or girls, since she was played by twins) is cute without being precocious and the film really sells J.C.'s journey with her (there's a scene at the adoption office which almost broke my stony heart).

I suppose the underlying message of the film is that you can have it all on your own terms... if you're creative and resourceful enough. The ending is upbeat and happy enough, but there's just something about it that could have been a bit more.

Spoiler: Plot spoilers

For the first half of the film, it really felt as though J.C. was on her way to achieving something significant. There's a terrific moment after she decides to keep the inherited baby where Harold Ramis's character announces he can't do it, and she calmly but simply says "OK" and then he's gone. I found it quite admirable that she (well she and he both, really) had sacrificed this in order to step up and be there for the child. After all, she still had her career. Then that, too, was gone and I wasn't sure how to feel about this because it leaned into the "all women are slaves to their maternal instincts" trope. She gave up what was most important to her life to be a mother, which seems retrogressive.

Then comes the baby food business she sets up, starting with the homemade apple sauce, and she's the capitalist again (so she can have it all on her own terms). But the unnecessary icing on the cake was the romance with the vet. So she has the money, the career and the man. And that's kind of the measure of her success. It ended up lazily ticking all the conservative boxes. And while it worked fine, I'd have found it a stronger film without the Hollywood ending.

I'm trying to think how many films I've watched with Diane Keaton, and the answer is "not enough". The First Wives Club; The Godfather films; the occasional more recent film has been streamed recently. To my shame I've never watched Annie Hall, and it has been in my watch list for a while. I do find her a charismatic actress. It's quite a feat to essentially look the same in everything and display many of the same quirky mannerisms, yet still be completely in the moment and somehow become that character completely. I'm fascinated by her features: the fixed smile; the sad "weary of life" eyes. And her timeless style, of course. Plus she seems to be ageing both relatively naturally and like fine wine.
​

One particular scene that made me laugh out loud was the one in which Ruth and ...don't remember who, a friend?...were looking for a place...a workplace?

Oh yes - that was when she was setting up her "Vesta Rose" agency with the old colleague from the nursing home.

at some point the woman who's showing them around says "whaddaythink, huh? huh? huh? huh?" It sounded so funny.

This reminded me to look up who played "whaddayathink" woman.

I don't recall her getting a close-up, and I remember thinking as I watched that she looked rather like Marilee Stone from Dallas (even though she didn't sound at all like her), so I wanted to see who it was.

Turns out it was June Gable, who went on to play Joey's agent Estelle from Friends.

It would be nice to revisit the mini-series, if only for the 1980s nostalgia.

Funnily enough, after watching the film, I took a peek to see if it was available on DVD.

Seems it's long out of print, but I'll certainly keep an eye out for either an affordable copy or for the series becoming available to stream. I'd be very interested to see how it's aged, and - since it made a big impression on me as a kid - how I view it as an adult.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

A Perfect Getaway (2009)

This is one I stumbled upon after it occurred to me that I'd enjoyed Steve Zahn in Road Kill (AKA Joy Ride) but have seen him in very little else besides, other than some small roles (like Phoebe's first husband on Friends).

While I may have previously seen a poster or heard the title, I wasn't familiar with this film. The combination of the title, poster image and preview write-up made me think of Black Rock, a later film which I watched some years ago:​

Black Rock (2012)

I watched based on nothing but the cover image of the woman in the water. It wasn't even that clear from the write-up what the plot was to be. Which is all to the good.

Turns out it's a hybrid of And Then There Were None; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Lost and that episode of Sons and Daughters where Chris Bainbridge made Fiona play hide and seek at Woombai. With a bit of teen angst, a glossy Nineties slasher soundtrack and a random section where two of the leading female characters strip naked and hug and slap one another. It's got the lot, really.​

It's not too far, I suppose (from what I remember, at least), but it also turned out to be a lot more than I was expecting.

There's a lot of focus on character, but most of the characters are very unpleasant. This is no doubt deliberate and some of the casting reflects this: Timothy Olyphant excels at intense, brooding, dark characters with hints of sociopathy. Zahn's character is the one that kind of holds it all together while others are posturing around him. Even his new wife annoyed the hell out of me within a scene or two (in the scene where she returned from the toilet and was coquettishly asking him if he'd missed her because they'd been apart for nine whole minutes, I actually commented that if this was a slasher, I was hoping she was the first victim).

Persevering with the film is a rewarding experience. There's a lot of paranoia about who can be trusted, and there are red snappers herrings galore. In the last act, there's a really effective twist that had me reeling. I'd actually considered the possibility of this twist early on and then dismissed it based on what I perceived as evidence to the contrary. Even now I'm not sure if it's a cheat or one of the cleverest of its kind. The only way for me to know would be to watch a second time and follow the dialogue really carefully. Trouble is I don't feel in a rush to watch again because it's just not that kind of film.

All the same, I thought this was a nice little find and well worth a watch.​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Trouble is I don't feel in a rush to watch again

Cut to me rewatching almost the entire film again immediately after writing this. ^

Even now I'm not sure if it's a cheat or one of the cleverest of its kind. The only way for me to know would be to watch a second time and follow the dialogue really carefully.

Watching knowing the twist, it does kind of hold up OK. There are a few lines and looks that make me go "aha!" and cleverly change the context of what's seen or said.

However, there are also a number of lines and looks that feel like they are there to fool the audience rather than other characters. But there are potentially feasible explanations for even those if one bears in mind certain things seen late in the film. But it's difficult to say any more than this without completely giving the whole thing away.