Two forty-something women take a vacation to Florida’s Vista Del Mar, where they get mixed up in a plot to kill everyone in the town. Unemployed, underqualified, and over-age, Barb’s hopeful comment to best friend and housemate Star that “This town is full of places looking to hire women in their 40s!” was my first… Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar Read More
Like A Boss 2 stars
Two women, friends since childhood, see their make-up business face disaster after a cosmetics mogul tries to buy them out. Considering how old-fashioned Like A Boss feels, I was expecting wall-to-wall matte plum lipstick and a sea of Rachel cuts. While it tries to position itself as current, its tale of a rapacious female boss… Like A Boss Read More
Crude Oil (short film) Short Film 4 stars
A young woman breaks free from an overbearing friendship after learning to recognise and assert her own talents and desires. Saying more in 15 minutes than many a big budget drama, this short, uplifting film about a long, constraining friendship is pithy, witty and warm. It’s also realistic; Jenny (Andreina Byrne) knows her friendship with… Crude Oil (short film) Read More
Faulty Roots (short film) Short Film 4 stars
Two teens with different genetic conditions are forced to form a friendship. Ella Greenwood’s film – which she wrote, produced and directed when she was only 18 – is a sharp reminder that it’s easy to retain lingering prejudices about mental illness even when we think we’ve cast them aside. Greenwood plays Lola, a teenager… Faulty Roots (short film) Read More
Jumanji: The Next Level 4 stars
Like Olympians declaring on camera after winning Gold that they’re never going to run / row / swim again, the four teens who ended up in the Jumanji video game two years ago were adamant that was it. No more sudden, shocking deaths before falling from the sky with one less life inked on their… Jumanji: The Next Level Read More
UK DVD and digital release for festival favourite Giant Little Ones announced
Giant Little Ones, which showed successfully at UK film festivals BFI Flare and Canada Now earlier this year, will be released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment in the UK next spring – on digital download on 3 February 2020 and on DVD on 10 February. The critically acclaimed (including by me!) coming of age drama was… UK DVD and digital release for festival favourite Giant Little Ones announced Read More
Shaun The Sheep: Farmageddon 3.5 stars
The joy when writing about Shaun the Sheep movies partly comes from not having to spend time afterwards trying to decipher key quotes that I’ve written down in the dark. No one actually speaks, except to utter the occasional “arghhh!” and “ugh”, and though I’ve often scribbled those exact words in response to other, lesser films,… Shaun The Sheep: Farmageddon 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
Shiny Shrimps 3.5 stars
The Shiny Shrimps, a comedy about a team of useless water polo players heading to the Gay Games, comes, um, warm on the heels of last year’s La Grand Bain (known as Sink Or Swim in the UK), about a useless men’s synchronised swimming team training for a championship, and Swimming With Men, a film about… Shiny Shrimps Read More
Animals (Sundance London) 3.5 stars
It’s rare to find a film that combines such huge respect for the gorgeousness and grubbiness of female friendship with such dizzying disrespect for the human liver. They’re connected in this film of course, though I still feel drained just thinking about the sheer quantities of white wine consumed by best friends Laura and Tyler… Animals (Sundance London) Read More
Secret Life Of Pets 2 3 stars
Cute animals in movies often become scene-stealers. Jonesy the ginger cat in Alien. Daisy the floppy-eared beagle in John Wick. Black Phillip the satanic goat in The Witch. Okay, not that last one. In The Secret Life Of Pets 2, it’s Rooster. He’s not actually a rooster, he’s a Welsh sheepdog, wonderfully voiced by Harrison Ford. He… Secret Life Of Pets 2 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