Wednesday evening had been intended as Cinema Evening, a new picture house having opened around the corner and being in need of investigation and appraisal. Given my enduring weakness for high-school movies there was only going to be one winner: Booksmart, in which two clever students realise on the eve of graduation that they should have worked less and played more, upon which they hit the town and attempt to cram four years of lost fun into one night.

Oh happy day, curled up with a hitherto unread David Thomson film book.

MARLON BRANDO, the reclusive Oscar-winning actor who was one of the most influential stage and screen performers of his generation, has died aged 80, associates said yesterday.