Hollywood
Oscars 2024: politics aplenty but few surprises as 'Oppenheimer' dominatesMonday, 11 March 2024Oppenheimer as expected dominated the 96th Academy Awards, winning seven trophies whilst runner-up Poor Things took four prizes, including Emma Stone in the hotly contested category of best actress.There was a pro forma feeling to the roll call of... Read more... |
The Iron Claw review - pancakes and beefcakesFriday, 09 February 2024The Iron Claw is the sort of solid, mid-market Hollywood “programmer” that is often said to no longer exist on the big screen, and this family saga set in the world of Texas wrestling certainly has the feel of a museum piece. Many have warmed to it... Read more... |
Wonka review - a confusingly mixed bag of bonbonsSaturday, 09 December 2023As the 117 minutes of Wonka tick by, the question it poses gains momentum: who is this film actually for? Children of all ages?It’s an “origins” story, standard now for all manner of film character, showing the sunnier side of Roald Dahl’s eccentric... Read more... |
Blu-ray: BlackhatWednesday, 06 December 2023The Boxing Day release of Michael Mann’s first feature in eight years, Ferrari, finally follows up Blackhat, a Chris Hemsworth-starring cyber-thriller dismissed on its 2015 release in a manner he hadn’t experienced since The Keep (1983). This two-... Read more... |
My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock review - a sly primerSunday, 23 July 2023Mark Cousins pulled off a coup for his latest film history documentary, My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock, by getting the great director to narrate it. In his catarrhal East London drawl, Hitchcock parses dozens of the brilliant visual techniques he used... Read more... |
Barbie review - uneasy blend of farce and feminismWednesday, 19 July 2023The prologue to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie augurs well. A gaggle of young girls in a rocky desert are playing with doll-babies while enacting the mind-numbing drudgery of the early 20th century housewife. Then a new godhead arrives, a giant pretty blonde... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Inland EmpireTuesday, 11 July 2023Searching for a coherent narrative thread in David Lynch’s Inland Empire (2006) is probably futile, so it’s best to begin with the movie’s nervy central performance by Laura Dern in multiple, overlapping roles as “a woman in trouble”... Read more... |
The Flash review - back to DC, unremarkablySaturday, 17 June 2023Superhero movies are the nearest equivalent to American holiday parades: they come along with noisy, bright regularity, and crowds either flock to them, many eager persons deep along the sidewalk, or flee to quieter neighbourhoods.The Flash, yet... Read more... |
Disney 100 - The Concert, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - a slick tour of the Magic KingdomFriday, 02 June 2023There are a few perils to saying supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, as Janette Manrara discovered on this opening night of Disney’s anniversary arena jaunt. Trying to divide the Glasgow crowd into sections to sing the song, Manrara tripped over who... Read more... |
Oscars 2023 - the favourite lives up to its titleMonday, 13 March 2023Everything Everywhere All at Once lived up to its title Sunday night at the 95th Academy Awards by managing to win nearly everything everywhere almost all at once. The fragmented, seriocomic celluloid head trip won seven of the 11 Oscars for which... Read more... |
Babylon review - sound and fury in silent HollywoodSunday, 22 January 2023Babylon is sensational, a manic, pounding assault on the senses meant to convey Hollywood’s chaotic birth. Damien Chazelle’s return to La La Land’s showbiz dreams forsakes ineffable intimacy for hysterical thunder, and for much of the time that’s... Read more... |
Prom 27, Dinnerstein, National Youth Orchestra, Gourlay review - colour symphoniesMonday, 08 August 2022Danny Elfman – the punk rocker-turned-film composer behind Batman, Spider-Man, Edward Scissorhands and The Simpsons – reports that he felt sceptical when first approached to write for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Why? Simply... Read more... |
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