Despite Judy Garland’s far-too-early death at the age of 47, there’s a sense in Judy that by then her life had come full circle, and not in a good way. Interweaving her five-week engagement at the Talk Of The Town club in London a few months before her death with her teenage years in Hollywood,… Judy Read More
Ad Astra 5 stars
Warning, some spoilers: so if you don’t want to know there are killer space baboons, leave now. What if, instead of finding intelligent life out there, we have to accept we’re stuck with slightly dim life down here? The urge to push forward is strong, though it’s often exploration as a deflection, because there’s something… Ad Astra Read More
Bait 4.5 stars
Despite its tough subject matter, there’s a magic saturating writer-director Mark Jenkin’s film, shot on a vintage 16mm camera using black and white Kodak film that he then hand-processed. Jenkin’s methods (you can read more about them in my interview with him here) result in a film both grittily realistic (harking back to those 1960s kitchen… Bait Read More
Falling Inn Love 3 stars
To B&B or not to B&B, that is the question – as American city girl Gabriela wins an actual New Zealand guesthouse in a competition, meeting handsome local builder Jake when she turns up to view her beautiful but ramshackle prize (which at least comes with its own goat, Gilbert). To which I could also… Falling Inn Love Read More
Pain And Glory 5 stars
This is definitely a comment rather than a question, but the fictional film director’s Q&A in Pedro Almodóvar’s delicious Pain And Glory is the most glorious I’ve ever seen. Incapacitated by memories and the drugs he’s taken, 50-something filmmaker Salvador Mallo (a fantastic Antonio Banderas) is tracked down to his kitchen as a cinema full of… Pain And Glory Read More
Once Upon A Time In… Hollywood 4 stars
Warning: spoilers ahead, so no moaning please (unless of the art film kind) It’s been called a love letter to Hollywood, though with that title, Tarantino’s ninth movie also plays into our – and Hollywood’s – love of re-booted fairy stories that have lost their original callous brutality and now finish with everyone living happily ever… Once Upon A Time In… Hollywood Read More
Blinded By The Light 3 stars
By 1987 Mrs Thatcher had been in power for eight years and believe me it felt like a whole lot longer than that at the time. As if things could get any worse, Curiosity Killed the Cat, Tiffany and Debbie Gibson were mounting assaults on the UK charts. I’d tried to block all of those… Blinded By The Light Read More
Playmobil: The Movie 3 stars
I have a soft spot for Playmobil, and not only because it’s easier on parental feet when you tread on it in the dark than arch-nemesis Lego, which like its tie-in films is considerably sharper-edged than this smooth German rival. But while Playmobil:The Movie lacks the bite of the Lego films, this is still a colourful,… Playmobil: The Movie Read More
Kursk: The Last Mission 3.5 stars
With state-of-the-art Russian submarine Kursk now at the bottom of the sea, and Russian rescue equipment mostly sold off, Royal Navy Commodore David Russell (Colin Firth) asks Admiral Vyacheslav Grudzinsky (Peter Simonischek) if his bosses will let the British in: “not until I’ve tried a sufficient number of times to do the impossible with the… Kursk: The Last Mission Read More
Yesterday 3 stars
Jack Malik, unsuccessful at both singer-songwriting and love, is cycling home one night though his Suffolk hometown when the electricity fails across the world for 12 seconds and he’s hit by a bus. It’s a calamity for Jack (Himesh Patel), though it doesn’t seem to affect anyone else much, who see it as a jokey… Yesterday Read More
Anima (Short Film) Short Film 4 stars
Anima is a sometimes mesmerising experience – ironic when you consider both the soundtrack (it’s a film “best played loud”), and that it’s a denunciation of dystopian societies, whose messages to control their populations can be almost hypnotic. This is a film that moves between dreamlike and nightmarish, from realistic settings to the entirely stylised…. Anima (Short Film) Read More
Sometimes Always Never (London Film Festival) 4 stars
*** Read my interview with director Carl Hunter *** Finally, a story about the beautiful game that isn’t boring or dependent on stereotypical ideas of its players. Yes, I’m talking about Scrabble. Set near Liverpool in the North West, director Carl Hunter’s delightful film is witty and moving – and beautifully written by Frank Cottrell Boyce… Sometimes Always Never (London Film Festival) Read More
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