Andrea Arnold's WASP (2003)

It's maybe widely known that glamor's not
A feature of a single mother's days.
Well, here we get a concentrated shot
Of what that life can wreak upon her, gaze
Upon her squalor, and then watch her lie
When some old flame just spots her in the street.
From then the bad decisions seem to fly
Right at us, and the consequences meet
Us almost ere the mistakes can happen. This
Predicament is often played for laughs,
But here it's simply squalid, sad and hits
Us in the gut. Some clever edits graph
Trajectories of tragedy. We sweat
With Zoe's oldest daughter most, and fret.

Lindsay Anderson's O LUCKY MAN! (1973)

 I'm now become an Alan Price fan girl,
Graham Crowden steals his brief scenes yet again
As our Mick Travers blunders through a world
Still made for white boys. We last saw him when
He made a right mess of his schoolboy days
But seems to not have suffered consequence.
He sees some this time 'round, but somehow stays
A poster boy for priv'lege. Some expense
Was spared in casting, though it's all top notch --
They all get many roles, which adds a bit
To surreality, and does a lot
To make this funnier. The perfect fit,
Though is how Price's band serves in the tale,
And how the ending dance party just wails!

James Ivory's THE WHITE COUNTESS (2005)

Oh, what a cast, and what production -- yet
These stars in gorgeous clothes, just dripping style
As gracefully they flit across each set
Creating for the screen that old Shanghai,
All seem asleep, or near it. Kazuo
And Mister Ivory, together they
Love nothing more than lovers, yes, although
They've yet to let a couple have their way.
A lovely, quiet film is something I
Enjoy, but sometimes it's all too sedate
(But maybe, lulled as always when I spy
A Sanada, I cared less for the fate
Of these romantic leads?). And one real gripe:
A sighted Fiennes, in blindface ain't my type.

William Boyd's THE TRENCH (1999)

A stage director would not have to change
A thing about this setting, tight and dark.
There's noncom Daniel Craig cast with a range
Of fresh young faces, soon to make their mark
Onscreen. No gore is spared and that despite
A dearth of action. This could be a play,
A psychodrama. Tension in the night

Is rooted in the characters. Some may
Think Blackadder Goes Forth is on repeat,
If minus all the laughs that World War One

Supplied in such abundance. Ere they greet

Their fated doom, the standard things are done,

Back stories told, surprise explosions, and

A shot or two of green and pleasant land.