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
Peanut Butter Falcon (London Film Festival 2019) 5 stars
Zak runs away from his care home to make his dream of becoming a wrestler come true. The Peanut Butter Falcon infuses its message of autonomy and risk-taking with a sense of magic – as Zak, a young man with Down Syndrome, escapes his dreary, constricting care home for freedom and adventure. As Zak (Zack Gottsagen)… Peanut Butter Falcon (London Film Festival 2019) Read More
The Nightingale (Sundance London) 3 stars
It’s an easy get-out, to anoint a movie “a hard watch”, but Jennifer Kent’s period revenge thriller The Nightingale is just that. I went in with no other information beyond this being a follow up to The Babadook, a horror film about a menaced, powerless child but really about loneliness and grief. This is, in… The Nightingale (Sundance London) Read More
The Farewell (Sundance London) 5 stars
The Farewell is writer-director Lulu Wang’s second feature, and it’s a funny, bracing, tender and profoundly moving film. “Sexy but poor” is how Billi (Awkwafina) describes herself half-jokingly to her mother, visiting her parents while trying to avoid the apartment she always owes rent on. Her parents also live in New York, the whole family… The Farewell (Sundance London) Read More
Apollo 11 (Sundance London) 5 stars
The words that sum up Apollo 11 hark back to magic – yes, this paen to science (technology, maths, physics) and humanity (bravery, a compulsion to explore, even teamwork) is spellbinding, entrancing, mesmerising. An extraordinary event deserves an extraordinary movie documenting it, and Apollo 11 is certainly that. In a modern era where there are few… Apollo 11 (Sundance London) Read More
Canada Now launches UK film tour – the best of new Canadian cinema across the country
Canada Day on 1 July sees the first day of the CANADA NOW tour, which takes the films from the London CANADA NOW event in April and makes them available to independent cinemas across the UK. The tour will launch with a special one-off masterclass including director Yan Giroux (For Those Who Don’t Read Me,… Canada Now launches UK film tour – the best of new Canadian cinema across the country Read More
“Sometimes, Always, Never” director Carl Hunter on mods, muzjiks and his Merseyside movie
“Scrabble as a motif, order can be created, things can be put right. But you’ve just got to know the rules and be willing to play.” Carl Hunter, director of Sometimes, Always, Never. Film director Carl Hunter used to play in Liverpool band The Farm, part of the soundtrack to my 90s youth – and he was in a… “Sometimes, Always, Never” director Carl Hunter on mods, muzjiks and his Merseyside movie Read More
The Last Tree (Sundance London) 4 stars
Shola Amoo’s second feature is an accomplished and absorbing film, following the teenage Femi as he struggles to create his own identity and sense of place from disparate memories, experiences and expectations. Little confusions, which for teenagers can still loom large, are woven into far more serious choices. There’s a sweet scene when Femi, walking along… The Last Tree (Sundance London) Read More
Animals (Sundance London) 3.5 stars
It’s rare to find a film that combines such huge respect for the gorgeousness and grubbiness of female friendship with such dizzying disrespect for the human liver. They’re connected in this film of course, though I still feel drained just thinking about the sheer quantities of white wine consumed by best friends Laura and Tyler… Animals (Sundance London) Read More
Late Night (Sundance London) 3 stars
When late night chat show host Katherine Newbury is told she’s being replaced, she finally has to face her writers’ room. Literally, as most of the men in there have never even seen her in the flesh before. Those men are all white, and privileged, though not as hirsute as I was expecting. They’re lazy,… Late Night (Sundance London) Read More
Corporate Animals (Sundance London) 3 stars
Imagine The Descent crossed with The Office, but nastier. That’s Corporate Animals. It’s uneven, but often brutally hilarious, as horrible boss Lucy (Demi Moore) forces her key employees into a team-building exercise exploring caves in New Mexico. Always wanting to push her employees on to greatness, even if they don’t want to go, Lucy declines… Corporate Animals (Sundance London) Read More
Giant Little Ones (Canada Now Film Festival) 4 stars
I’m baffled by modern adolescence, and can hardly believe myself that back in the ’80s mine was modern too. Luckily Keith Behrman’s film leaves me with a sense of hope for my own children’s upcoming teen years, which may have more in common with my own than I feared. In Giant Little Ones Behrman, who… Giant Little Ones (Canada Now Film Festival) Read More
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