Bill (2015) is a historical comedy based loosely on the life of William Shakespeare and is currently available on Amazon Prime Video in the UK. It features most of the cast of UK hit TV series Ghosts and Horrible Histories. The BBC film is akin to a feature-length episode of the latter and I suppose also comparable to the likes of Blackadder and going back through time still further the work of Monty Python.

Tom & Jerry: The Movie (2021) on Netflix gives you a Roger Rabbit style blend of animation and live action to tell the slapstick story of what happens when Jerry the mouse moves into New York City’s finest hotel and the manager hires Tom the cat to get rid of him. The film stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael Peña, Rob Delaney and Ken Jeong, and is not without its charm without really blowing any viewer’s mind with originality.

Hard Times (2009) on Netflix is a retitle of crime comedy Holy Water and is the story of a down-on-his-luck mailman who, with his three misfit pals, botches a Viagra-based get-rich-quick scheme in the Irish town of Kilcoulin’s Leap.

Notable perhaps only for the appearance of Terminator star Linda Hamilton, this low-budget film is fun for two acts and then kind of peters out at the end with loose ends getting wrapped up rapidly and any complications for the lead characters being magically removed.

A Haunting in Venice (2023) on Disney Plus is a stylish supernatural thriller based on the Agatha Christie novel Hallowe’en Party, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot, and third in the series that includes Murder on the Orient Express and the disappointing Death on the Nile. A Haunting in Venice has a retired Poirot living in self-imposed exile in Venice. He reluctantly attends a birthday party at a decaying, haunted palazzo. When one of the guests is murdered, the detective is thrust into a sinister world of shadows and secrets.

Like the other films in the series, Branagh and team has assembled an impressive ensemble of Hollywood luminaries including Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Tina Fey (30 Rock), Kelly Reilly (Yellowstone) and Riccardo Scamarcio (Caravaggio’s Shadow). The good acting and cinematography props up a rather predictable plot, and there is a good sprinkle of ‘haunted house’ tropes to keep you interested. As such this third outing of Branagh’s Poirot is probably my favourite.

The Creator (2023) on Disney Plus is a satisfying helping of original sci-fi from writer/director Gareth Edwards (Rogue One, Godzilla, Monsters) bursting from the shackles of franchises while still being heavily influenced by pop culture – especially I feel Japanese anime in terms of story rather than style (which is perhaps more akin to Neill Blomklampt than it is Katsuhiro Otomo). There are heaps of sci-fi goodness here backed up by lovely cinematography blended with photo-real SFX. The pairing of John David Washington (Tenet) as the government agent with a heart and Madeleine Yuna Voyles as the AI child he has to protect also works very well. Allison Janney, who I think I last saw in Juno, also does very well in a role I’d have expected the likes of Sigourney Weaver to populate.

However, without giving too much away, I found things got rather confusing toward the end when the pair find themselves on enemy territory so to speak. Much of the jeopardy was sadly lost on me as things were happening too quick for me to both balance my suspension of disbelief as to what I was seeing on the screen with understanding the immediate perils the characters were facing. Difficult for me to say more than that. As usual I am fixating on the end of the story instead of viewing it as a whole. If I take a step back and appreciate the whole, then this is certainly a great sci-fi with some truly original visual concepts which certainly went down better with me than last month’s Rebel Moon.

Saltburn (2023) on Amazon Video was the subject of several word-of-mouth recommendations to me and Siggy, and did not disappoint. The film hooks in to that deep sense of the need for belonging to a gang when you go to a university and perhaps aspiring to be something better than you were at home with a set of people who don’t know you. When that university is full of rich pricks with elitist ideals, then it’s a playground for an imaginative writer/director like Emerald Fennell.

Barry Keoghan has the lead role and is excellent, as are pretty much the whole supporting cast of toffs. Saltburn is the name of the country house in which the toff Keoghan’s character befriends lives with his eccentric parents and sister, and a lot of the action happens at the house, including ‘the bath scene’ everyone was talking about. I enjoyed the film a lot as a study of the tensions within the English class system which get pulled to breaking point when cultures collide at university.

Black Bear (2020) on Amazon prime Video puts Aubrey Plaza front and centre of this dark and emotional comedy drama about a filmmaker who stays at a remote cabin by a lake to seek inspiration for her next script. To say Black Bear is meta would be an understatement and as soon as the central scene of Plaza sitting gazing out across the lake is repeated for the first time you know this film is going somewhere unexpected.

Fans of writer-director Lawrence Michael Levine’s previous work will likely know what to expect. I on the other hand went in blind. I am a big fan of Plaza in comedy and serious roles, and so that’s what first attracted me. By the end of the film I was hugely impressed by her performance – the best I’ve seen so far – but also the slithery nature of the story that purposely tests your grip on the constructed reality laid before you on the screen.

Where Saltburn thrills with its shock factor and more traditional twists, Black Bear leaves you thinking about the film long after you’ve seen it. Levine doesn’t so much write twists, he flexes his taste for meta to make the audience figure stuff out for themselves.