*** 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
“The Guilty” Star Jakob Cedergren On The Making Of The Blindsiding Danish Thriller
The Guilty, a nervy, tense Danish thriller set solely in the claustrophobic confines of an emergency dispatcher’s office, is released in the UK on 26 October. Asger Holm is a policeman working on the emergency phones, often dealing with timewasters and fakers – until he receives a call from Iben, a woman who is being… “The Guilty” Star Jakob Cedergren On The Making Of The Blindsiding Danish Thriller Read More
Sorry To Bother You (London Film Festival) 4 stars
With so many of us well-boiled frogs now, the only way to demonstrate how crazily evil our world has become is to take the metaphors and make them concrete. That’s what Boots Riley has done with his blunt satire Sorry To Bother You. In this alternative reality which isn’t that alternative, America has continued the… Sorry To Bother You (London Film Festival) Read More
Jessica Hynes On Freedom In Filmmaking & Her “Kurosawa Scene”
Jessica Hynes, writer and star of Channel 4 comedy Spaced and star of W1A and The Royle Family (among many, many other shows and movies), has recently directed her first feature film, the micro budget seaside-set family drama The Fight. The movie follows frazzled mum Tina who takes up boxing when she’s forced to find ways to acknowledge… Jessica Hynes On Freedom In Filmmaking & Her “Kurosawa Scene” Read More
The Fight (London Film Festival) 3.5 stars
*** I chatted to Jessica Hynes at the London Film Festival – check it out here *** There are plenty of altercations in Jessica Hynes’ directorial debut, both internal and physical; as mum Tina fights her past and her resultant self-worth to stand up and take control, by climbing through the ropes into the boxing ring. Boxing is… The Fight (London Film Festival) Read More
Stan & Ollie (London Film Festival) 4 stars
Unlike those comedians who are determined not to be funny in real life, Laurel and Hardy – and particularly Stan Laurel – are always on. Their act bleeds off the stage and the page, and into every day. “I’m just going to find a woman I hate and buy her a house” says Stan Laurel… Stan & Ollie (London Film Festival) Read More
They Shall Not Grow Old (London Film Festival) 5 stars
This year marks 100 years since the end of – ahem – the War To End All Wars. It’s estimated 10 million military personnel died during World War 1, which ran from 1914-1918. My grandad Bill was injured by shrapnel during the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front, and eventually they had to… They Shall Not Grow Old (London Film Festival) Read More
The Favourite (London Film Festival) 4.5 stars
You had to make your own fun in 18th century England, and if you were rich this might involve taking a pet duck for a walk, throwing fruit at a naked man in a long pink wig, or being the naked man in the long pink wig (who seems to be delighted with his involvement)…. The Favourite (London Film Festival) Read More
The Front Runner (London Film Festival) 4 stars
“Six points, four if it’s windy”. That’s the opinion poll boost the Democrats jokingly expect from the hair of handsome democratic would-be presidential candidate Gary Hart. It is a marvel, thick and brown, and considerably wider than his head, the odd strand tipped with silver. It shouldn’t matter but it does, and Jason Reitman’s film… The Front Runner (London Film Festival) Read More
Suspiria (2018) (London Film Festival) 3.5 stars
*** Read my review of the 1977 Suspiria *** Suspiria is a feminist film, if you use the 1970s definition that it’s a movement dedicated to the liberation of women – a dance academy, run entirely by women (the often ignored older women, to boot), with only female students, its roots going back to prehistory. Though… Suspiria (2018) (London Film Festival) Read More
Colette (London Film Festival) 3.5 stars
I am the real Claudine, the young women of Paris all cry, as Colette’s series of novels about a young French woman hit a nerve. Born Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (she shortens her name later as she starts to create a new identity for herself as the author of her books), she is a woman ahead of… Colette (London Film Festival) Read More
Border (London Film Festival) 4 stars
Border is a grown-up fairytale and a love story, and while it’s certainly not for children it has that mix of light and the darkness that traditional fairy tales used to have, making them both beautiful and unnerving. Myths and legends – those stories we really want to be true – entwine with an age-old… Border (London Film Festival) Read More