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
Nest – kids’ review! (short film – London Film Festival 2019) Short Film 4.5 stars
There’s a big bird with pink feathers that wants to be friends with a little bird and its friends. It chases the little bird to make the little bird like him but the little bird gets scared. Then the big bird makes a lovely nest on the ground and the little bird and its friends… Nest – kids’ review! (short film – London Film Festival 2019) Read More
Jerich0 – kids’ review! (short film – London Film Festival 2019) Short Film 5 stars
This is my favourite of all the short films I’ve watched this week. It’s about a robot lizard and it’s only one minute long. When I heard “Jericho” I thought that sounds like a lovely name and I think the lizard might be called Jericho. It starts off not much sad. The robot lizard crawls… Jerich0 – kids’ review! (short film – London Film Festival 2019) Read More
The Penguin Who Couldn’t Swim – kids’ review! (short film – London Film Festival 2019) Short Film 4 stars
This film is five and a half minutes long. There’s a penguin who can’t swim because he has a short wing. Nobody speaks but that doesn’t matter. There isn’t much detail in their faces. Sometimes you can only see their eyes but you can still tell how they are feeling. He watches his friends swimming… The Penguin Who Couldn’t Swim – kids’ review! (short film – London Film Festival 2019) Read More
Peanut Butter Falcon (London Film Festival 2019) 5 stars
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 who escapes his dreary, constricting care home for freedom and adventure, drifts on a raft through the stultifyingly hot river-ways of the American South with new friend Tyler and old friend… 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
Princess Emmy 2 stars
What small child wouldn’t like to be able to talk to animals? It’s got to be more interesting than listening to parents wittering on about “the olden days” (ie 1995). Princess Emmy is what we should probably call a Horse Chatterer, a tween princess whose best friend is a horse called Ceasar. There are 24… Princess Emmy Read More
Princess Emmy (kids’ review!) 2.5 stars
In Princess Emmy she has a gift because she can talk to her horses. Her favourite horse is called Ceasar. I talk to my cat but she doesn’t understand that many words. In the film Princess Emmy lives in a castle with her family. Her cousin Gizana is mean to her. She comes to stay because they… Princess Emmy (kids’ review!) 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
Destination: Dewsbury 2 stars
It’s a huge shock when the first one of your generation dies, as delusions of immortality crumble and the reality of middle age looms. New indie British comedy Destination: Dewsbury tackles this from the viewpoints of four men, mates since school, their lives starting to disintegrate just as the fifth member of their schoolboy gang turns out… Destination: Dewsbury Read More