Ordeal by Innocence (1985) is a flat Cannon Agatha Christie misfire in Dartford, where camp performances fail to excite and Dave Brubeck’s jarring score hammers the final nail in the coffin. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

Megalopolis (2024) is a humiliating spectacle, like watching a once-great master publicly soil himself in a haze of bad ideas and cheap effects. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

I know polls and it’s a way off and all that. But I rarely see anyone engaging with the enormity of what’s happening (outside of the right wing commentariat). I reckon it’ll take a bloody miracle to stop Reform forming the next government.

Lots of Joe Orton coverage due to the Sloane revival, more & more tinged with (unsurprising) unease about his sex tourism. First pass at thinking it through… substack.com/@jmcfire/not...

Marching Powder (2025) is a tired retread of Nick Love’s earlier glories, with Danny Dyer solid but wasted in a dated nostalgia trip. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A tired retread of Nick Love’s earlier glories, with Danny Dyer solid but wasted in a dated nostalgia trip. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

The End (1978) is a witty, hilarious, and occasionally touching Burt Reynolds black comedy, boosted by Dom DeLuise’s wild turn and a fantastic supporting cast. Recommended. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

New Substack: Dumb Enough to Actually Try It. Free speech again, this time on the ugly online celebrations of Charlie Kirk’s death. The issue isn’t going away. Link 👇

Times are tough but Bob Dylan is in miraculous form. Love this short, immaculate set from this year's Farm Aid. youtu.be/PBOe5KbKgcY

My latest in The Critic demonstrates, with help from William Blake, how society needs abrasive, “prophetic” voices to challenge stagnant & corrupt ideologies. thecritic.co.uk/graham-lineh...

Barquero (1970) is a Western standoff that doesn't develop its promising premise, lifted by Warren Oates’ maniacal brilliance and Forrest Tucker’s scene-stealing mountain man. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

Harry in Your Pocket (1973) is a flawed caper lifted by James Coburn’s subtle, masterful performance, which gives the film genuine emotional weight. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

Gay Shame is a sharp, witty polemic in which Gareth Roberts charts how ideology hijacked LGB gains, warning of its cult-like dangers. substack.com/@jmcfire/not...

Bigggles (1986) on film is a bungled time-travel mess that doesn't know what to do with the dated property, notable only for Peter Cushing’s weary farewell. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A strange desert adventure with John Wayne miscast, Sophia Loren wasted, and Rossano Brazzi floundering, redeemed only by Hathaway’s and Cardiff's striking vistas. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

What horror is this? “Oh no Hoppity I couldn’t do that!” must’ve been a much abused catchphrase… youtu.be/KetGKkIz82A?...

I wish this “poet” had knocked on my door when I was living in a council estate. I’d have given him what for about his rotten verse devoid of the figurative.

Robert Redford was an enormous star when I was growing up. His presence in and behind the camera of films often used to imbue them with a kind of intense solemnity, as if they were a ticking off to anyone there simply for his movie star looks. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I was at a friend’s and we ended up discussing (as you do) 1970s British sexploitation cinema; I told him of the very worst example, which may be the worst British film ever made, Queen of the Blues (1979). After watching it, there was mutual agreement… letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

If nothing else, The Killing of America, a documentary collage from 1981, is a useful corrective for anyone who thinks the current landscape of US violence is anything new. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

My God, they killed him. youtu.be/XokAdcVvUCQ?...

New substack: Nan On the 125th anniversary of her birth, I remember my grandmother Annie — her story, the world we shared in a Romford tower block, and the weight of loss. open.substack.com/pub/jmcfire/...

"And just like that, the villagers saw their so-called Enlightenment vanish, as if it were no more than a will-o’-the-wisp. The villagers shrank from it, clutching again at the ways they now felt they should never have forsaken." 🔖

Red Monarch (1983) plays Stalin’s last years as a grotesque comedy, but despite strong actors it feels arch, unfunny, and poorly directed. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

I rewatched Fisher's Dracula (1958) which makes things complex by pitting an overly stiff respectability against Dracula’s dangerous sexual allure. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

I’m at the bfi Southbank for the Orton TV plays. It is already, as JO himself might say, “full of types.”

‘If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing on public television – Joe Orton’s plays on television’ Published here to coincide with the BFI’s screening of Orton’s television work, this from 2015 looks at how his mischief found its way onto the small screen. open.substack.com/pub/jmcfire/...

This may be less than magnificent news... | Orson Welles’ Lost Movie Will Use AI to Reconstruct Missing 43 Minutes www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...

Black Widow (1951) is another of Hammer's radio adaptations, set partly in an Epping then devoid of asylum hotels. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

I predicted it last week. This week, Lucy Connolly spoke to a huge audience at Reform UK’s conference. Link 👇

Unknown Number: The High School Catfish (2025) - Another day, another glimpse at the mystery of iniquity. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A Farewell to Arms is my first Hemingway. It'll be a while before the next, I reckon... www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

My latest piece for The Critic is out. It looks at the flagging phenomenon and suggests the Church has missed an opportunity. If inclusion means anything, it must also mean engaging with those we’d rather not — and here was a chance to do so... thecritic.co.uk/the-cross-la...

There’s more to be said about the phenomenon of “cozy mysteries” and the degradation of the English crime story, and this pass at The Thursday Murder Club is first thoughts. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

My first encounter with Spaghetti Western gunslinger Sabata, in his first sequel Adiós, Sabata (1970): letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A look at Babygirl (2024), glossy trash pretending to be about sexual desire but really creaming itself about corporate lifestyles... letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

Comes a Horseman is a dull 70s neo-western with an odd coincidental link to the TV series Dallas. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

A visit to Gloucester Cathedral, home to the shrine of Edward II substack.com/profile/1399...

In the Cotswolds. We got in touch with the old Catholic England of abbeys, monks and Athelstan at Malmesbury yesterday.

A visit to Claydon House substack.com/@jmcfire/not...

Free Speech? Absolutely! Or else, welcome to the non-stop Connolly show. When Britain jails people for words while others spout as bad and walk free, folk feel something’s broken. My take on free speech, Lucy Connolly, and the mess of UK law. jmcfire.substack.com/p/free-speec...

Had no idea that the West End production of Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam starred Dudley Moore, with Hancock’s Australian buddy Bill Kerr as Bogie. theatricalia.com/play/ayg/pla...

Forty Deuce, the middle panel of Paul Morrissey’s early 80s urban triptych, is a challenging watch, but says much about the commodification of human life, and death. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

Free Speech? Absolutely! Or else, welcome to the non-stop Connolly show. When Britain jails people for words while others spout as bad and walk free, folk feel something’s broken. My take on free speech, Lucy Connolly, and the mess of UK law. jmcfire.substack.com/p/free-speec...

Watching the crappy sequel Exterminator 2 (1984) made me realise that we don't make vigilante films any more, because the reality of them is too close for comfort. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

All the world’s a rage, And all the men and women merely angry; They have their vexes and their annoyances; And one man in his time stamps many feet, His acts being seven rages… www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/a...

Some research into an obscure poster that failed to sell at an online auction yielded a delightfully prissy review by Clive Barnes... substack.com/@jmcfire/not...

Freewheelin' '70s romance Semi-Tough turns out to be a very poor runner-up to Noël Coward's Design for Living. letterboxd.com/jmcfire/film...

Thomas and Teresa: Meditations on saintliness and the stage Mulling on Bolt’s Thomas More and Teresa of Ávila’s autobiography, I explore how you stage the lives of saints — with their visions, martyrdoms, and miracles — for a secular age? jmcfire.substack.com/p/thomas-and...

We can see the auld triangle there…