Friday

Perhaps I've been talking about films that are arriving too far in the future. So what movies are coming out now? Maybe the biggest film this year is released today - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Just to clarify, the plot of this movie does not involve Captain Jack Sparrow stopping in at a pub on King's Road in Chelsea for a quick drink. That might be interesting. Instead, I am looking forward to this film about as much as a man looks forward to having stitches pulled out: i.e. it's something I want, but something I know will hurt. Reviews so far are bad for the film. The problem is that the original was just so good. Although it was a big film, I somehow felt that it was small in scale. The following sequels have attempted to be too grand, too epic. I suppose it was the characters, or the character of Johnny Depp, that first interested us. But he is quite one-dimensional, and three hours of him can get irritating (yes, the latest film is 160 minutes long!). So, what should you see instead? My hot pick for the week is The Bothersome Man, brilliantly described by the Metro's critic as 'like an Ikea catalogue directed by David Lynch'. Great stuff.