“Just stay inside the circle” says a mother to her dangerously sick daughter, as she has to leave the girl in their bedroom, the bed surrounded by a circle of salt, to go downstairs and find her medicines. Made on a tiny budget and released just in time too scare your socks off at Halloween,… Salt (Short Film) Read More
Bohemian Rhapsody 3 stars
The Greatest Showman, they could have called this, had that title not already been taken – but I suspect in the long run Bohemian Rhapsody will have quite a lot in common with Hugh Jackman’s biopic of PT Barnum. The Greatest Showman was criticised on release (including from me) for what it left out about the… Bohemian Rhapsody Read More
The Hatred 1.5 stars
It’s 1968, and German farmer Samuel (a suitably sinister Andrew Divoff) is living with his wife and daughter on a fruit farm in the US. He’s certainly creepy, and his clashes with his teenage daughter Alice (Darby Walker) are worse than your average father-daughter arguments even given the period it’s set. One day a package… The Hatred Read More
Down Periscope 2 stars
*** Check out my submarine movies section *** Down Periscope is far from a feminist film though you’ll have to wait a long time to see so many men doing the cleaning. I’ve not witnessed such a good scrubbing from a team of guys since the clingfilm-and-Windolene clear-up job in John Wick when they turned up to… Down Periscope 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
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
Smallfoot 3 stars
Yeti do exist but they’re not the abominable ones. They’re huge and hairy though, living near the top of a huge mountain above the clouds in the Himalayas. Yeti society is governed by the Stones – no not those Stones, though the Yeti who start questioning the stories they’ve been told aren’t getting much satisfaction…. Smallfoot 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
Hunter Killer 3.5 stars
*** Check out my submarine movies section *** One side-effect of the current political situation is that films like Hunter Killer are stuck in that 1990s post-Cold War warm glow where protagonists and presidents are decent people who just happen to have been born on different sides of an arbitrary border. While their real life equivalents are… Hunter Killer 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
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