Film Reviews

Best of 2020: Film

theartsdesk Saturday, 26 December 2020

It all started so promisingly. Parasite's triumph at the Oscars was a resounding response to 2019's saccharine and problematic Green Book. Art house was in and here to stay. And in some ways, this came to pass - with cinemas caught in a cycle of opening and closing, the blockbusters were nowhere to be seen.

The Woman Who Ran review - toxic male alert

Graham Fuller Wednesday, 23 December 2020

The dramatic developments in The Woman Who Ran, the 24th film written and directed by Hong Sang-soo since 1996, are mild to say the least.

Soul review - Pixar's latest film misses the cinema

Saskia Baron Monday, 21 December 2020

Pixar's recent work raises the question, how much overt spiritual guidance do you want in your animation? In their latest film, Soul, middle-school music teacher Joe (Jamie Foxx) aspires to play New York’s famed jazz clubs but is living hand to mouth.

Let Him Go review - melancholy family drama morphs into ferocious thriller

Adam Sweeting Thursday, 17 December 2020

The pairing of Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Superman’s surrogate parents in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice did not go unnoticed, and here writer/director Thomas Bezucha has reunited them as Montana residents George and Margaret Blackledge.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom review - keeping things theatrical

Joseph Walsh Wednesday, 16 December 2020

There was always bound to be a hint of melancholy watching George Wolfe’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Try as you might to focus on the film, you can never quite shake the fact that you’re watching the final performance of Chadwick Boseman, whose life was cut tragically short this year from bowel cancer.

Wonder Woman 1984 review - be careful what you wish for

Adam Sweeting Wednesday, 16 December 2020

After months of watching movies on computer screens, how delightful to have a press screening at the Waterloo IMAX cinema, albeit under Covid restrictions. Not so delightful was the realisation that Wonder Woman 1984 is crying out for some editing shears (151 minutes!

Blu-ray: The New World

Saskia Baron Tuesday, 15 December 2020

Terrence Malick completists might consider this Blu-ray of The New World the dream version. Criterion's three-disc release contains the three different cuts of Malick's 2005 opus, which critics either believe is an incomparable masterpiece or an overly lavish work of self-indulgence.

I'm Your Woman review - what's happening, indeed?

Matt Wolf Saturday, 12 December 2020

"What's happening?", or so Jean (Rachel Brosnahan) asks time and again in I'm Your Woman, voicing the very question posed by an audience. Bewilderment would seem to be a constant state of being in director and co-writer Julia Hart's film, which doesn't so much derive suspense from withholding information as revel in an opaque narrative that I, for one, tuned out of well before the close.

Comment

Mosul, Netflix review - gruelling story of Iraq's Nineveh SWAT team

Adam Sweeting Saturday, 12 December 2020

It may seem incongruous that a factually-based film about Iraqis battling against murderous Islamic State invaders should have been produced by the Russo brothers, famous for Marvel’s Avengers and Captain America blockbusters.

The Mole Agent review - leftfield and charming documentary

Demetrios Matheou Friday, 11 December 2020

The Chilean director Maite Alberdi makes warm, witty, empathetic, fly-on-the-wall documentaries, whose subjects are always surprising.

American Utopia review - the new age of the concert movie

Tom Baily Friday, 11 December 2020

American Utopia is not your average Spike Lee joint. He has teamed up with David Byrne of Talking Heads to make a concert movie based on Byrne’s lauded Broadway show of the same name, which opened in October 2019 in a limited run. After the success, Byrne invited Lee to direct this screen version.

The Midnight Sky review – flawed but moving apocalyptic sci-fi

Demetrios Matheou Thursday, 10 December 2020

The last time George Clooney was in a space movie, Gravity, he and Sandra Bullock were marooned above Earth and desperate to get home. The Midnight Sky has the opposite dynamic: here Clooney is Earthbound, urgently trying to warn incomers to stay the hell away. As science-fiction premises go, it feels rather apt.

The Prom review - merry Meryl in middling musical

Matt Wolf Wednesday, 09 December 2020

Four Broadway denizens resolve to change the world "one lesbian at a time" in the cheerful if often cheesy The Prom, the film adaptation of a recent Broadway musical that continually reminds you of at least a half-dozen similar...

Host review - Zoom seance triggers unspeakable consequences

Adam Sweeting Saturday, 05 December 2020

Lockdowns must be good for something, right?

Falling review - Viggo Mortensen's powerful directorial debut

Markie Robson-Scott Friday, 04 December 2020

“California is for cocksuckers and flag-burners. Did they know you were a fag in the army?” Willis (Lance Henriksen; best known as Bishop in Alien) asks his son John (Viggo Mortensen), now living in LA with his husband Eric and their adopted daughter Monica.

County Lines review - a scary descent into drug-dealer purgatory

Adam Sweeting Thursday, 03 December 2020

This debut feature by writer/director Henry Blake is a shocking and remarkably assured drama about the “county lines” trade, where children are used as drug traffickers.