Film Reviews
Midsommar review - hell is other peopleThursday, 04 July 2019
Who would have thought that Ari Aster could top the satanic delights of Hereditary? Yet with Midsommar, a psychedelic twist on folk horror, he has. Aster abandons the supernatural to show that it’s not things that go bump in the night that scare us, it’s other people. Read more...
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Never Look Away review - the healing potential of artWednesday, 03 July 2019
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who made his reputation as a leading German film-maker with The Lives of Others (2006), told the New Yorker that his latest film sprang out of a desire to explore the relationship between making art and healing. Read more... |
Spiderman: Far from Home review - a pleasant, if clichéd, tourTuesday, 02 July 2019
There’s no rest for the webbed wonder in Spiderman: Far from Home. It’s just a few months since Marvel wiped out Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame and his protégé Peter Parker is being hounded to fill Tony Stark’s place. Read more... |
Support the Girls review - working class dramedy misses edgeSaturday, 29 June 2019
A rambling portrait of 24 hours in the life of Double Whammies, an American sports bar where the waitresses entertain their TV-watching patrons by dressing in skimpy tops and tiny shorts. Apparently this is categorised as a ‘breastaurant’ (my spell-checker reels at this portmanteau, but there are several well-established chains in the US). Read more... |
In Fabric review - hell is a demonic dressFriday, 28 June 2019
Red is the colour, mayhem is the name – along with pestilence and greed. Read more... |
Yesterday review - Beatlemania in a parallel universeThursday, 27 June 2019
The price of fame and the value of artistic truth are among the topics probed in Danny Boyle’s irresistible comedy, a beguiling magical mystery tour of an upside-down world where The Beatles suddenly never existed. Read more... |
Apollo 11 review - an awe-inspiring leapWednesday, 26 June 2019
How could this story be told again? Director Todd Douglas Miller has found a way: strip away narrative and give the audience the purity of original record. The result is a gripping non-fiction experience that sits in a unique space between documentary, art, drama and dream. Read more... |
Mari review - bittersweet drama with flairTuesday, 25 June 2019
Mari is one part kitchen sink drama, one part dance performance, bringing a refreshing take on bereavement and family. Read more... |
Toy Story 4 review - fabulous return to the big screenThursday, 20 June 2019
Making it to the fourth film in a series and maintaining quality is a feat pulled off by very few franchises, (see last week’s dreary Men in Black: International). But Pixar has done it with Toy Story 4. Read more... |
The Captor review - Stockholm syndrome sillinessThursday, 20 June 2019
The botched 1973 hostage incident which inspired the term Stockholm syndrome comes to flatly comic life here, the strange psychological phenomenon of captives falling for their captors over time being reduced to an absurd caper. Read more... |
Diego Maradona review - entertaining but skin-deepSaturday, 15 June 2019
There's something unsatisfying about the fact that Asif Kapadia's new documentary on the controversial 1980s sporting legend Diego Maradona has a two-word title. Read more... |
Men in Black: International review - lacklustre sequel missing original starsFriday, 14 June 2019
The best joke in Men in Black: International happens before the film starts, when the iconic Columbia Pictures lady in a toga whips out a pair of familiar dark glasses. It’s a nifty, witty gag that doesn’t outstay its welcome, which is more than can be said for the feature that follows. The original stars are absent and there’s an absence too of the screwball humour that made the first film, back in 1997 such a hit. Read more... |
Sometimes Always Never review - small but perfectly craftedThursday, 13 June 2019
A starring role for Scrabble is one of the things that sets this small-scale but deceptively affecting film apart. Read more... |
We the Animals review - lyrical story of brotherly love and family traumaWednesday, 12 June 2019
“When we were brothers we wanted more: more volume, more muscles, us three, us kings.” So begins documentary-maker Jeremiah Zagar’s faithful but watered-down adaptation of Justin Torres’s autobiographical coming-out novel, set in the 1990s. Read more... |
Bob Dylan Special - Rolling Thunder Revue, NetflixTuesday, 11 June 2019
Tomorrow, Martin Scorsese delivers, via Netflix, two hours and 22 minutes of screen time devoted to Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, following on from the release last week of the latest Bootleg Series boxed set, 14... Read more... |
Dirty God review - an important piece of filmmakingSaturday, 08 June 2019
With the continued prevalence of acid attacks in the UK, it was only a matter of time before they became the subject of a film. Thank goodness, then, it's handled with such unflinching care as it is in Dirty God. Read more... |
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