Django Unchained
Quentin Tarantino - Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christophe Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio

Say what you want about Quentin Tarantino, the man knows how to make a movie. There is a certain je ne sais quoi about the films of some directors, something so assured and confident that it makes a film compulsively watchable. Scorsese, the Coens, P T Anderson, the list goes on, but Tarantino is possibly the most engaging of the bunch.
He has been criticised a lot for making films where the only reference is other films. Films that are divorced from any real life experience. Fair enough. But the same is true of Scorsese in his appropriations of everything from Vincente Minnelli's showmanship to Italian neorealism, or the Coens, or Anderson who obviously has an encyclopaedic knowledge of film. But Tarantino is the most extreme example.
Who cares though, when you get a film as riotously entertaining as this? Just as Inglourious Basterds turned world war 2 films on their head so this both revives and redefines slave westerns, a sixties/seventies genre of western exploitation. The dialogue is cracking, the performances arch and expert. Christophe Waltz deservedly snagged a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and he, DiCaprio (having a helluva a lot of fun), Don Johnson, Foxx, and particularly Samuel L Jackson are all terrific.
Of course it's bloody and transgressive, as freed slave Django becomes a bounty hunter and searches for his true love, but what did you expect? Buy the ticket, take the ride.

Silver Linings Playbook is one of those films that might divide audiences. It's a film about people with various mental disorders, specifically Bradley Cooper, who is – presumably – bipolar, causing all sorts of problems for his long-suffering family. He falls for Jennifer Lawrence, herself somewhat troubled. This is basically a love story, but an unusual one, buoyed along by several fantastic performances (Bob De Niro does great work as the father, naturally with his own disorders to deal with). So it's either a rare glance at a world we seldom see, or a cutesy exploitation of people's problems. Whichever way, it's pretty good.

Hamilton: In The Interests of the Nation is a Swedish/British co-production, apparently the first of a trilogy. And, despite the clumsy title, it's stunning stuff. Hamilton is an intelligence officer, 'a Swedish James Bond”, but, even with locations from Afghanistan to Jordan, Somalia to Stockholm, and a complex story of international espionage and arms smuggling, this is far from 007. The action is unflinchingly tough and there are genuinely shocking moments. Hamilton himself is spectacularly morally compromised by inner demons, to a degree rarely seen in a 'hero”. It's a self-contained story; I can't wait for more. (FYI: Two thirds subtitled.)

The 2004 boxing day Indian Ocean tsunami is the backdrop for The Impossible. In Thailand it leaves a family of five scattered and trying desperately to reunite. It is strong stuff, the recreation of the tsunami simply astounding and the carnage of its aftermath heartbreaking. Both Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts are quite brilliant and totally believable (the kids are good too). And while there was the usual fuss made that the story concentrates on white tourists rather than the locals the more depressing point seems to me that this true story of a (darkish) Spanish family was changed to make them cute and blonde and English.

Moving on from films for a minute, there's a lot happening in the Dr Who universe. Matt Smith has just announced that he's stepping down at the end of the year so the search for a new doctor is on. And Series 8 has just finished on UKTV. If you missed it, or can't get that channel and still need a fix, the previous series are now out on DVD including the always-entertaining but intermittently baffling Dr Who Series 7, featuring what fans worldwide dubbed one of the Best Episodes Eva, The Doctor's Wife, written by cult hero Neil Gaiman.