16 year olds Maisy and Ben struggle with friendships and relationships while their upcoming AS levels loom over them It’s not true that you don’t remember your school exam results – I can reel off every single grade of mine, and that was so long ago they were called <dusts off parchment certificate illuminated by… Soundtrack to Sixteen Read More
Tales From The Lodge 3 stars
Arranging reunion weekends with ex-university housemates is a bit like trying to get tickets to Hamilton. At 30, you fall at the first organising hurdle when it turns out no one’s free on the same weekend for the next two years. By 40, you arrange it anyway because you know those two years will go… Tales From The Lodge 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
Sometimes Always Never (London Film Festival) 4 stars
*** Read my interview with director Carl Hunter *** Finally, a story about the beautiful game that isn’t boring or dependent on stereotypical ideas of its players. Yes, I’m talking about Scrabble. Set near Liverpool in the North West, director Carl Hunter’s delightful film is witty and moving – and beautifully written by Frank Cottrell Boyce… Sometimes Always Never (London Film Festival) Read More
Destination Wedding 4 stars
Trading endless insults, or sitting in un-companionable silence, anyone watching Frank and Lindsay would think they had been married for years. Actually they’ve only just met. It’s en route to the wedding of her ex-fiance Keith that Lindsay (Winona Ryder) encounters the ferociously bitter Frank (Keanu Reeves), Keith’s half-brother. Thrown together for a weekend of… Destination Wedding Read More
All Between Us 2 stars
This dinner-party-from-hell movie was made in 2010, but is only now, eight years later, getting a home entertainment release – presumably to cash in on co-star Tiffany Haddish’s phenomenal (and well-deserved) success. I’ll admit until I realised when the film was made I was rather mystified regarding Haddish’s involvement. It’s a story that has some… All Between Us Read More
Take Rabbit (Short Film) Short Film 4 stars
*** Read my interview with Take Rabbit‘s director, the Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated Peter Peake *** “You gets what you gives” says the Man as he gradually decides to start interacting with the world once more, ending his self-imposed conversational exile. It’s a change brought about in the main by a meeting with a talking Liverpudlian… Take Rabbit (Short Film) Read More
No Shade 3.5 stars
“If I’m natural I’m bush, and if I put on a wig I’m fake”, cries the beautiful and elegant Jade in frustration, as a succession of terrible dates and a broken love affair leave her reeling. A successful Black businesswoman, the twenty-something Jade is finding out that too many of the Black men she meets… No Shade Read More
New Life 2 stars
New Life – the title has several meanings that become clear as the story unfolds – isn’t saying anything new. But it is lifted by a nicely-pitched central performance from an actress who just gets better as her character is tested to the max. As a young boy Ben (Jonathan Patrick Moore) moves to the… New Life Read More
Sweet Virginia – 1 Minute Video Review Includes Video 4.5 stars
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Sweet Virginia 4.5 stars
It’s rare to find such a perfectly poised thriller as Sweet Virginia, where every character is so beautifully frayed by the realities of life and relationships. Almost everyone is at least slightly broken, and makes stupid mistakes. There is no saviour riding into town to save the day, and right to the end the story… Sweet Virginia Read More