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
Amaurosis trailer: no longer unseen
A shocking family event, a strange new friend who may or may not be all he seems, and an isolated Lake District location – all the elements are there in indie thriller Amaurosis. Previously released in the UK with the title The Unseen, this is an effective and eerie film about the effects of grief…. Amaurosis trailer: no longer unseen Read More
The Aftermath – 1 minute video review Includes Video 2.5 stars
READ MY FULL REVIEW OF THE AFTERMATH
The Aftermath 2.5 stars
How much can be rebuilt after it has been smashed to pieces? That’s the big question in The Aftermath – a postwar love story that attempts to to examine the realities of reconciliation, whether between people or countries. The film is about rebuilding broken relationships as much as broken cities, with the ambiguities of war… The Aftermath Read More
Two For Joy 4 stars
For the widowed Aisha (Samantha Morton) grief itself has become the driving force, rather than the reaction; with her family caught in an enervating circle of misery where the sheer exhaustion of getting through the day prevents them from escaping. It needs a huge catalyst to kick them off the repetitive cycle onto a different… Two For Joy Read More
Hereditary 4 stars
A creaky floorboard and a clicking tongue. Two sounds you don’t want to hear when you’re alone in the house and the only tongue clicker you know of is your dead sister. “I never wanted to be your mother” Annie says to her teenage son Peter (Alex Wolff), “it wasn’t my fault and I tried… Hereditary Read More
Mary Poppins Returns 4 stars
After IT last year I’ve avoided films involving colourful balloons and adorable small boys called Georgie, but this one rather took me by surprise. Luckily Mary Poppins Returns is not a horror in any sense but a beautiful fantasy, especially when little Annabel Banks calls a plumber for their flooded kitchen and he’s able to come… Mary Poppins Returns Read More
Never Steady, Never Still 4 stars
I’m all for seeing your life reflected in a movie, but sometimes it can be a little too close for comfort. I watched the Canadian film Never Steady, Never Still – about Judy, a middle aged woman living with Parkinson’s disease whose husband Ed dies – four days after my mum passed away. She was… Never Steady, Never Still Read More
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 3.5 stars
“You join the gang, you’re culpable,” says Mildred to her local pastor who has come to berate her for holding the local police force to account. She draws parallels between LA gang members being found guilty of crimes they didn’t commit because of group culpability, and joining a church where members are abusing altar boys…. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Read More
Killing Of A Sacred Deer 3 stars
The background sounds during key scenes in Killing Of A Sacred Deer – most of the time it isn’t really music – hugely reminded me of The Twilight Zone, and in many ways the film is like an extended, European cinema version of one of its episodes. This is certainly a movie that is hard… Killing Of A Sacred Deer Read More
Unseen, The 3.5 stars
I’m always surprised there aren’t more films set in the Lake District, particularly horror – that landscape of meres, tarns and rolling hills leading to grey jutting crags and high, lonely waterfalls can turn from benign to threatening in an instant. Factor in the area’s notoriously ropy mobile phone signal and the many isolated grey… Unseen, The Read More
Princess Cyd 5 stars
Once upon a time, aged 17, I went for an interview at one of our better redbrick universities – to study English, no less – and confidently told the don in front of me that I didn’t really rate Shakespeare. Reader, they rejected me. But if 16 year old Cyd were real, I hope it… Princess Cyd Read More