The papacy has been around so long there’s a precedent for almost anything, including an incumbent resigning. True, you have to go back to the thirteenth century for the last one to go of his own accord before Benedict XVI in 2013, but he’s there (or rather not there). I would never have expected that… The Two Popes Read More
Frozen 2 4 stars
Water may have memory, as Olaf believes (no doubt to the delight of homeopaths everywhere) but since turning 45, I don’t. I can barely recall Frozen, despite seeing it in the cinema more than once with my children. Still, I’m going to stick my neck out and say that this sequel, six years on, is something… Frozen 2 Read More
Judy & Punch 4 stars
Brazen, bouncy and hugely entertaining, this is part fairytale and part Punch and Judy origins story – and like many fairytales it has become sanitised in its journey to what we know as a Punch and Judy show today. Our modern Mr Punch, by now fading even as a children’s entertainment, is *only* a wife… Judy & Punch Read More
Little Monsters (London Film Festival 2019) 3 stars
Little Monsters is a great advert for teacher excellence, if not much of a recruiting tool – as multi-talented kindergarten teacher Miss Caroline has to save her class of small charges as they face down an attempted zombie apocalypse. I say attempted; it does feel a little half-hearted, as the world’s slowest undead hordes stagger round… Little Monsters (London Film Festival 2019) Read More
Judy 3.5 stars
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
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