I love the outdoors — walking, jogging, being dragged along by my dog while walking or jogging — though the UK is so small I’m not sure it actually qualifies as the “great” outdoors. Not like the US, with its vast, remote woods and mountains, beautiful but sometimes dangerous. The most frightening outdoorsy thing that… BLOG — the film club tracks Missing 411: The Hunted Read More
The News Of The World, trying to get a nation to talk to itself
All the news about News Of The World that’s fit to print, and no sidebar of shame. Warning: very spoilery about the ending! My four-star review of the film is here. Arthur Miller said “A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself,” and Captain Kyle Kidd, the ageing, war-weary storyteller who travels… The News Of The World, trying to get a nation to talk to itself Read More
News Of The World 4 stars
A man travelling from town to town reading the news is tasked with delivering a young German girl who has been living with the Kiowa people back to her only living relatives. Intinerant storytellers have a long history: outsiders who paradoxically bring people together through the connective power of stories, even if the lines between… News Of The World Read More
The Devil All The Time: the devil is in the detail
Warning: full of spoilers, fire and brimstone. Well, spoilers anyway. My review is here. Character posters are at the bottom of the page. Despite the melodrama, multiple dead bodies and spiders, The Devil All The Time finishes – eventually – on a note that is both cathartic and hopeful. Arvin does survive. The ending is… The Devil All The Time: the devil is in the detail Read More
The Hunt 3 stars
In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, a group of elites gathers for the very first time to hunt ordinary Americans for sport. But the elites’ master plan is about to be derailed because one of The Hunted knows The Hunters’ game better than they do. Clearly made by just my kind of woolly… The Hunt 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
Freaks 3.5 stars
Freaks is a neat little sci fi thriller, heavy on allegory but satisfyingly self-contained – answering all the questions it sets up. My life is a search for answers, though usually of the “is that chewed-up paper next to the dog my film notes or my son’s homework” variety, so it was gratifying to get… Freaks Read More
First trailer for Top Gun: Maverick with Captain Cruise’s “love letter to aviation”
*** Second trailer has been released – check it out *** He’s back – and though he’s been busy in the intervening three decades, he’s missed out on a lot of promotions (same, Maverick, same). Scroll down for the trailer, and footage from Dan Diego Comic Con where Tom surprised the audience: “a love letter… First trailer for Top Gun: Maverick with Captain Cruise’s “love letter to aviation” 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
Us 4.5 stars
“I don’t feel like myself” says the nervy Adelaide, as they try to settle into their beach house for their holiday with their children Zora and Jason. “I think you look like yourself” says her husband Gabe. Doppelgangers both fascinate and repel us. They look like us but make us squirm. When we hear we… Us Read More
Crimson Tide 4 stars
*** Check out my submarine movies section *** “In the nuclear world the enemy is war itself” says Lt Commander Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington), during a rather spiky discussion with his war-hardened and instinctive Captain Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman). Two men: one Hunter, one Killer, I mean Ramsey, with the fate of the world in their hands…. Crimson Tide 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