Shameless Self Expression

On a satellite repair mission, NASA astronaut Patrick Wilson encounters something he believes to be extra-terrestrial, colliding with the spaceship it results in a fellow astronaut being killed. Back home in an official inquiry, Wilson’s account of events is not backed up by mission leader Halle Berry, and the findings blame technical issues and Wilson basically made the scapegoat. A few years later the disgraced astronaut is now near-homeless and leading children’s tours at a museum whilst Berry is now NASA deputy director. One day, Wilson encounters budding scientist and conspiracy theorist John Bradley who believes the moon is really an extra-terrestrial satellite and that its orbit has changed. Soon NASA seems to concur, believing the moon is on a collision course with Earth. Berry and her NASA colleagues need drunk and miserable Wilson to get his shit together to help in their possible solution to the problem. Michael Pena plays the new man in Wilson’s ex’s life, Charlie Plummer i...

When Anny Ondra’s Scotland Yard detective beau John Longden seems more interested in work than her, she decides to entertain the interest of artist neighbour Cyril Ritchard. This turns out to be a mistake as Ritchard attempts to rape Ondra who is forced to kill the man in self defence. Longden covers it up for her, but the duo soon find themselves the target of a sleazy blackmailer (Donald Calthrop). That’s Sara Allgood as Ondra’s mother.   Although initially started as a silent film, this 1929 film ended up being the first ‘talkie’ from Alfred Hitchcock ( “Strangers on a Train” , “Vertigo” , “Shadow of a Doubt” ), who adapts the Charles Bennett (who worked on Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” , “The Man Who Knew Too Much” , and “Foreign Correspondent” ) play himself. There’s a terrific 65-75 minutes of footage here, but because it started out as a silent film, those 65-75 minutes are disjointedly bookended by silent footage of lesser interest. The finale is a long chase that does h...