I'd rather give you cancer than having it myself.

A Brazilian music critic (Sônia Braga) is the last resident to live in an apartment building. A developer has bought all the other flats and wants to knock the place down, so they keep trying to push her out by all means possible.

An ode to the power of objects - books, records, pictures, places - and the unique ability they have to bring back memories and emotions within us. As a bit of a homebody myself this was more like a horror film about someone’s life being destroyed, even though Aquarius doesn’t play out that way at all.

The whole film hinges on Braga’s masterful lead performance, a fiery lady getting on a little in years who shows decency, grace and intelligence in the face of corruption and bullying. She’s not just a stereotypical ‘strong old lady’ though. Mendonça Filho makes a point of making her a real person, someone who hurts people, someone who is sexually attractive (and active).

It’s not quite a flashy David and Goliath showdown but the main plot beats are all there, right down to the final confrontation with the developers.

A gentle, beautiful film that I fell in love with.

And you know the best thing about the future? It hasn't happened yet.

A paramedic (Dakota Johnson) discovers she has the power to see into the future, and act on it. She then must protect three girls (Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced) from a bad guy (Tahar Rahim) who wants them dead.

I went into this well aware of its reputation as a bit of a dud, but when a friend told me she’d seen it and it suffered from the most basic of technical difficulties and she wasn’t sure it was even finished, I had to see for myself.

Madame Web manages to destroy the illusion of cinema through poor effects, dodgy editing and, worst of all, excruciating ADR. Tahar Rahim in particular has scenes where he’s talking but his lips aren’t moving at all. Whole scenes just recorded in post then cut to show as little of his face as possible.

The script is stuck in a kind of first-draft stage, and it’s clear that everyone in the film isn’t entirely sure about what’s going on in each scene. In that regard Dakota Johnson is perfectly cast, she handles her nonsensical lines with a certain kind of quietly sarcastic nonchalance that she’s best at. She’s almost openly attacking the dialogue while acting it out in the film and it tickled me.

So are we in so bad it’s good territory here? I suspect this might become a cult film in the future but right now, like many films in this territory, its major crime is just being incredibly boring. It’s a weird, repetitive, directionless attempt to start a new franchise.

Sal, Wyoming's not a country.

A bank robbery goes awry. Surrounded by police the robbers (Al Pacino, John Cazale) take hostages and a long stand-off occurs.

My mind immediately springs to Lumet’s much earlier work, 12 Angry Men, in the sense that this is also a film about people stuck in a room, talking out their problems. He really has a knack for making boring things riveting, and making naturalistic film making look easy.

I love that 70s style of experimentalism, holding cameras on roller skates, improvising dialogue, shooting on-site and using locals in the audience. Lumet also allows Dog Day Afternoon a sense of humour, particularly in the botched opening bank robbery.

This is also from a time before Al Pacino was going full berserk in every role, here he gives a pronounced and elevated performance without ever going too far.

The same can be said for the film as a whole. Sure the stakes are high and there’s a lot of tension, but Lumet really gives every idea a lot of time to develop and characters a lot of room to evolve. It’s all charmingly laid back and really lets you get stuck into the story.

I was probably always going to enjoy this film, but it’s nice when something can deliver on its reputation while still subverting your expectations all these years after its release.