Si vis pacem, para bellum – if you want peace, prepare for war – is the Latin maxim from which this film’s title comes, quoted by Continental Hotel manager Winston (Ian McShane). This is indeed a climactic battle, if sometimes a proxy one, between two ageing institutions – the High Table, a ruling elite that… John Wick 3: Parabellum Read More
Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb 5 stars
*** Check out my interview with Matt Wells, director of Stanley Kubrick Considers The Bomb, the short film showing with the new 4k Dr Strangelove *** It shows how easily I slipped back into my 1980s-era Armageddon obsession when – on realising Stanley Kubrick’s classic Dr Strangelove is 95 minutes long – I decided to… Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb 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
Replicas 1.5 stars
There’s something pleasingly pointed about a man jokingly claimed to be immortal starring in a movie about creating a form of immortality. Sci-fi cloning film Replicas was also co-produced by Keanu Reeves, whose youthful visage and apparent appearances in portraiture through the ages baffles many who apparently can’t tell the difference between two men with dark… Replicas Read More
The Isle 3.5 stars
*** Read my interview with Matthew (director/co-writer) and Tori (producer, co-writer and star) Butler-Hart *** I feel something of an affinity with sirens, as I too find that innocent men dash themselves on the nearest available jagged outcrop, their faces contorted in terror, whenever I start singing. The Isle, a supernatural Victorian thriller set on a… The Isle Read More
Avengers: Endgame 4 stars
“How do I spoiler thee, let me count the ways…” Apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, but I’d have no idea where to begin with a spoiler-free review, so expect *some* plot points, themes, and comments on haircuts. I’m not telling you who dies, or stays dead, though I will tell you who can. Avengers: Endgame is… Avengers: Endgame Read More
In Fabric 4 stars
With In Fabric, director Peter Strickland has built a world which conveys all that is best and worst about shopping: carnal, animalistic, beautiful, frightening and blackly funny, with as many touchable moments as teachable ones. Imagine a cross between 1970s department store sitcom Are You Being Served? and the original Suspiria, and that just about… In Fabric Read More
Long Shot 4 stars
This is a grown-up comedy, what with it being about politics, ethical journalism, the environment, personal integrity, Boyz II Men, boners, masturbation, and drugs. Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) is Secretary of State, working under President Chambers (Bob Odenkirk) whose route to power was a decade spent playing the president on TV. Which is very funny… Long Shot Read More
Greta 3 stars
WARNING: Spoilery if you haven’t seen the trailer I’ve categorised this as a comedy thriller, as aspects of it – Isabelle Huppert’s lusciously frenzied performance, a gleefully hideous injury (in close-up!), the shriekingly signalling music – position it like that, though the rest of the cast play it straight and there aren’t any jokes as… Greta Read More
Stuck 3 stars
A musical set in a stranded New York subway car? Where three women and three men, from very different backgrounds, finally start talking? It’s not the breaking into song which seems unbelievable – I’ve seen that several times on the Tube in London (when I say seen, it’s been through half-closed eyelids, pretending to be… Stuck Read More
Her Smell 3.5 stars
For a film about music and musicians, the soundtrack to Her Smell is less the songs, and more the chanting, stomping fans out in front of the stage – in love with Becky Something, and furious with her at the same time. Becky (a riveting Elisabeth Moss), lead singer with punk rock band Something She, is… Her Smell Read More
Missing Link 4 stars
“These are dark days. Electricity. Suffrage. Evolution!” So says Lord Piggot-Dunceby, head of the Optimates Club – a London home-from-home for posh, white, male 19th century explorers (is that description tautological?) It’s a club which wealthy explorer Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman) is desperate to join, though Piggot-Dunceby has no intention of allowing anyone who believes… Missing Link Read More
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