O'Malley

Poster Mkilmer gets it.

This movie by the way underrated Vincent Sherman is a sequel to the 1944 Michael Curtiz picture, Janie, which was about a high-spirited bobby-soxer and the havoc she inadvertently causes for her family and her town. I thought the Curtiz was at best fitfully amusing but contrived, sit-comy and slight. The Sherman is something else entirely. As the title indicates, the eponymous character is now wed (to a returning G.I. she fell for in the first film) It's rather grim for a comedy, and much of the thrust of the film is a portrayal of marriage as a stultifying and unrewarding condition, hardly what one would expect in a 1940s comedy about newlyweds. There are intimations of adultery, and Janie and her husband even have a contract, which is to be renewable each month at each spouse's option if he and she want to remain married. One can certainly see the pair 20 years down the line having become the couple in Sherman's 1947 masterpiece, Nora Prentiss.

Despite the dark undertones, the film is also quite funny. And as a story of G.I.s returning from World War 2, it's more effective and empathetic than Wyler's pompous The Best Years Of Our Lives, and spares us the self-seriousness (it also has the same deep focus cinematography that was celebrated in the Wyler film).

Gone Baby Gone is the best film I've seen so far this year. I can't think of another movie that is so mournful, or another mood piece which so perfectly and beautifully sustains its mood throughout.

Ben Affleck memorably has compassion and empathy for his characters, while not shrinking away from the appalling aspects of their personalities and the grimness of dead-end lives And what a joy to see a thoughtful movie with moral ambiguities, one that is asks hard questions and presents no easy answers. The ethical struggles through which the characters are going are so deeply expressed as to be completely palpable, and this is accomplished without an ounce of sentimentality.

Affleck's non-judgmental stance towards most of the characters adds to the depth and richness of the picture. The film's ambiance is also superb – the production design, costumes, extras all convey such a strong sense of a very particular place.

And what acting! If we didn't know Amy Ryan was an acclaimed stage actress, we'd assumed she was someone Affleck came upon at a bar in Dorchester. She's uncannily good. And a shout out to Amy Madigan, who is just as impressive (and in some ways even more terrifying than Ryan). As for Casey – wow! After The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Bob Ford, another superb and unforgettably self-effacing performance. One of the most exciting things film-wise this year has been his emergence as a major, major acting talent. I love what Mahnola Dargis wrote in the NY Times: "I'm not sure exactly when Casey Affleck became such a good actor." A truly haunting achievement.

"Lucky Losers" is too straight-forward to be a memorable Bowery Boys picture, though it does contain a good supporting cast. It's just not wacky enough and it lacks memorable set pieces. The scenes with Louis posing as a rich gambling fool, for example, fall flat. Still, it manages to be quite amusing and the Gorcey-Hall chemistry is as incomparable as ever.

Hillary Brooke is one of the glories of B cinema (although, regrettably, she doesn't have much to do here). Dick Elliott, who plays the drunken conventioneer, would turn up as Mike Clancy in a couple entries at the tail end of the series.