mon 23/12/2024

Film Reviews

Greener Grass review - American suburbia goes haywire in surreal dark comedy

Markie Robson-Scott

The pink, turquoise and orange world of Greener Grass is a riot of derangement. Here is the suburban dream gone haywire, where, out of politeness, a woman gives her baby to her friend because she admires it. Every adult wears braces, hair bleeds when you get it cut and a boy turns into a golden retriever (his father is delighted – at last he’s willing to run for the ball).

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Frozen II review - the allure cools off

Demetrios Matheou

Frozen is possibly the most beloved Disney movie since the studio rediscovered its mojo in the 1990s. While picking up a couple of Oscars and laying waste to box office records, it had young girls immersing themselves in favourite characters and performing the songs on a dime.

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Permission review - suspenseful melodrama of a true-life event

Negar Esfandiary

Permission tells the story of Afrooz, the captain of Iran's National Futsal Team, who is stopped from joining her team at the Asia Cup Final because of the last minute whim of her estranged husband.

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21 Bridges review - police corruption thriller sets a cracking pace

Adam Sweeting

Thanks to a powerful cast and crisp direction from Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones, Luther), 21 Bridges drives home its story of good cops, bad cops and a Big Apple rotten to the core with bulldozing force.

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The Report review - searing political drama

Joseph Walsh

It should come as no surprise that the writer of Side Effects and Contagion, Scott Z. Burns, is capable of directing a whip-smart drama like The Report.

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Marriage Story review - superior weepie

Demetrios Matheou

Forty years after the classic, multi-Oscar winning Kramer v Kramer comes another divorce drama involving two young Americans and a son caught in the crossfire. And this one is even better. 

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Last Christmas review - for the stocking, not the tree

Demetrios Matheou

Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke stars in this awkward but sweet Yuletide romcom as Kate, a chaotic, George Michael obsessed twenty-something in London who’s lost her way following a serious illness.

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Le Mans '66 review - nicely revved up

Demetrios Matheou

For a sports movie to work for more than just the fans, it has to have drama off the pitch, track or field, with characters to root for, personal demons, a good underdog. Based on a true story that also involves high-speed danger and tragedy, James Mangold’s Le Mans ‘66 duly obliges.

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The Good Liar review - the grey pound dipped in acid

Nick Hasted

Ian McKellen, his Mr Holmes director Bill Condon and Helen Mirren play clever, nasty games with conman clichés and presumptions about the elderly in this sometimes absurdly twisty thriller.

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Midway review - gung-ho heroes battle moribund script

Adam Sweeting

Director Roland Emmerich has been trying to make this movie since the 1990s, and battled hard to raise its $100m budget from individual investors. But why?

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The Irishman review - mobster masterclass

Demetrios Matheou

Much has been made of Martin Scorsese’s recent dismissal of Marvel films.

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The Aeronauts review - up, up and okay

Joseph Walsh

Wild Rose director Tom Harper blends fact with fiction in a charming Victorian ballooning adventure that reunites Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones for the first time since The Theory of Everything.

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Brittany Runs a Marathon review - believable body positive parable

Nick Hasted

Brittany (Jillian Bell) is the unhappily overweight life of the party, numbing her lonely life with booze and acerbic one-liners as she nears 30.

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After the Wedding review - a high-tension gut punch

Owen Richards

How long can one decision follow you? How long can you hide from it? This is what underpins After the Wedding, a remake of Susanne Bier’s Efter brylluppet.

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Sorry We Missed You review – Ken Loach's unapologetic assault on the gig economy

Demetrios Matheou

If the recent period of British history that has involved recession, austerity, the hostile environment and Brexit is to have chroniclers, who better than Ken Loach and his trusty screenwriter Paul Laverty. Their blend of carefully researched social realism and nail-biting melodrama is angry, shaming, essential.

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Doctor Sleep review - heartfelt return to the Overlook Hotel

Nick Hasted

Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining ended in ice, Stephen King’s in fire which consumed the Overlook Hotel. King’s frightening, emotionally rich novel was written by an alcoholic about an alcoholic, Jack Torrance, and his suffering family.

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