Film Reviews
The Seagull review - Chekhov classic gets the all-star treatmentSaturday, 08 September 2018![]()
A starry and mostly American cast does well by The Seagull, Chekhov's eternally moving portrait of egomania run wild and self-abasement turned tragically inward. Combining two major players from the New York theatre world in director Michael Mayer (London's Funny Girl, Broadway's Hedwig and the Angry Inch) with a Tony-winning... Read more... |
The Miseducation of Cameron Post review - learning the right wayFriday, 07 September 2018![]()
This is Desiree Akhavan’s second film, following on from her rather ironically titled Appropriate Behaviour of 2014. That was a coming-out drama about a bisexual, Iranian-American woman, whose story closely reflected the director’s own – and ... Read more... |
Under the Wire review - risking everything to tell the world the truthWednesday, 05 September 2018
She was “the most important war correspondent of her generation”, says Sean Ryan, her editor at The Sunday Times. And her colleague Paul Conroy describes her as “a complete and utter one-off – exceptionally driven, with a real sense of purpose”. These tributes are for Marie Colvin, who was killed by President Assad’s forces on February 22 2012. Conroy was on assignment with her when she died. He was badly wounded in the attack, but escaped from... Read more... |
Yardie review - Idris Elba shoots straight in his directorial debutFriday, 31 August 2018![]()
The first significant British film to explore the influence of Jamaican sound systems in London was Babylon. Shot in 1980, its street patois was deemed impenetrable enough to merit subtitles. Times change. Read more... |
Cold War review - a gorgeous and mesmerising romanceWednesday, 29 August 2018![]()
Can we ever really know the passion that brought our parents together? By the time we are old enough to hear the story of how they first met, that lovers’ narrative has frayed in the telling and faded in the daily light of domestic familiarity. Read more... |
BlacKkKlansman review - absurd and angry satireSaturday, 25 August 2018![]()
What happens when you let racism sit and fester in the middle of your culture? Read more... |
The King review - the myth behind the manSaturday, 25 August 2018![]()
The most famous face in musical history, and perhaps the instigator of modern culture as we know it; he truly was the King. But for a documentary focused on such an icon, The King touches very little on Elvis Presley the man. Read more... |
The Guardians review - beautifully crafted dramaThursday, 16 August 2018![]()
A slow tracking shot over the gassed corpses of soldiers, their masks having failed the ecstasy of fumbling, opens The Guardians. This French art house film would perhaps have been better served by the English title The Caretakers; it's closer to the original French meaning and would have made it less likely to be confused with a superhero movie. Read more... |
The Negotiator review - Jon Hamm shines in Beirut-based thrillerFriday, 10 August 2018![]()
So far Jon Hamm has had trouble finding himself movie roles which fit him quite as impeccably as Mad Men’s Don Draper – though he could do worse than throw his hat in the ring for James Bond – but his role here as an American diplomat in Beirut plays obligingly to his strengths. Read more... |
A Sicilian Ghost Story review - a beautiful, confusing journeyTuesday, 31 July 2018![]()
Childhood is an inimitable experience – the laws of the world are less certain, imagination and reality meld together, and no event feels fixed. A Sicilian Ghost Story recreates this sensation in the context of real world trauma, producing a unique and sometimes unsettling cinematic... Read more... |
Apostasy review - trouble in the Jehovah's Witnesses' KingdomSaturday, 28 July 2018![]()
Religion’s desire to fulfil humanity too often denies it instead. The cruelty of inflexible faith which breaks fallible adherents on its iron rules is at the core of this family drama, written and directed by former Jehovah’s Witness Daniel Kokotajlo. Read more... |
Mission: Impossible - Fallout review - brilliant summer blockbusterMonday, 23 July 2018![]()
This is the second Mission: Impossible movie written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the first time any director has been called back for an encore on the series. Read more... |
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again review - sweet, silly, and, best of all, CherFriday, 20 July 2018![]()
Mamma Mia! has a habit of bursting upon us at crucially restorative moments. The Broadway production opened just after 9/11 and provided necessary balm to a city in shock. Read more... |
The Receptionist – London’s underground sex industry laid bareThursday, 19 July 2018![]()
When director Jenny Lu graduated from university, the promise of a big city career quickly turned into a series of rejections. Around this time, a close friend of hers committed suicide by jumping off a bridge – unbeknownst to their circle of friends, this girl was working in the sex industry. Read more... |
First Reformed - faith fights the eco-apocalypseSunday, 15 July 2018![]()
Father Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) calls himself one of God’s lonely men. The term given to Paul Schrader’s anti-heroes since Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle is usefully explained by the priest: his loneliness is a divine attribute letting him sympathise with fellow sufferers. Take one look at Hawke’s face, though, which seems sucked into hollow-cheeked, unnatural nobility, and it’s clear few need help more than him. Read more... |
Summer 1993 review - the tenderest fabric of childhoodFriday, 13 July 2018![]()
Carla Simón’s debut feature Summer 1993 is a gem of a film by any standards, but when you learn that its story is based closely on the thirtysomething Catalan director’s own early life, its intimacy becomes almost overwhelming. Read more... |
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