The 225 Film Club recently held its third programme of short films by women filmmakers. Curated again by director, writer and producer Rita Osei, the event, held at London venue The Wing, showcased some of the best in short filmmaking from women directors over the past few years. Rita created the 225 Film Club in… The 225 Film Club – short film round-up Read More
Stardog & Turbocat 3 stars
This movie certainly understands cats and dogs, made up as it is of frenetic activity interspersed with longer periods when not much happens. Then the last 25 minutes really crank up the excitement, like that half hour starting at 6pm when cats go nuts and start running round the living room chasing their tails. Still,… Stardog & Turbocat Read More
Invasion Planet Earth 2 stars
It never rains but it pours as we like to say in weather-obsessed Britain, and that’s certainly true of Invasion Planet Earth. Not literally. This isn’t Geostorm. But our planet, already on the brink of a world war, is faced with an alien invasion. Simon Cox’s feature (he directed, produced and co-wrote the screenplay) has been… Invasion Planet Earth Read More
The Two Popes 4 stars
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
Knives Out 4 stars
In a film stuffed with did he / didn’t she, there are at least two areas of certainty: nurse Marta will vomit whenever she hears or speaks a lie, and every member of the Thrombey family under the age of 85 is awful. Even the *nice* ones turn out to be grasping and greedy, ignoring… Knives Out Read More
Le Mans ’66 5 stars
“A pure racer”, car designer and ex-Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby calls Ken Miles, expat British racing driver and quirky non-conformist. For a film set in California and France, Le Mans ’66 is very British. Its hero hails from Birmingham, he drinks gallons of tea, and his gentlemanly behaviour risks snatching defeat from the jaws… Le Mans ’66 Read More
The Knight Before Christmas 3 stars
14th century English knight Sir Cole Lyons can chop a Christmas tree down in one axe stroke, which rather concerned me when I started considering what his job might be back in snowy medieval Norwich – especially when he later captures a purse thief and wastes no time telling the pickpocket exactly what his punishment… The Knight Before Christmas 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
Vivarium (London Film Festival 2019) 4 stars
Everyone has their own line in the sand which they will not cross when it comes to settling down. Mine is those massive white canvasses with children in stripy knitwear leapfrogging over their siblings while mum and dad laugh heartily to one side. (I cling to the hope that when looked at from the corner… Vivarium (London Film Festival 2019) Read More
The King 3 stars
Henry V’s Chief Justice, William Gascoigne (Sean Harris), puts the realities of kingship best to the young English monarch: “Promise must be fulfilled. Promise must never be an end in itself.” He’s not showing much promise when we first see Prince Hal; his father Henry IV is still on the throne, and Hal is a… The King Read More
The Third Man 5 stars
I never thought I could be so enraptured by sewers, but Vienna’s are particularly impressive. Vast caverns running with water, spiral staircases, huge underground open spaces like cathedrals, with darker brick tunnels running off across the city and towards the Danube – the network beneath Austria’s capital is a perfect metaphor for the underground nature… The Third Man Read More
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