Film Reviews
Cannes 2019: Pain and Glory review - a dour, semi-autobiographical portraitSunday, 19 May 2019
There’s a touch of Fellini’s 8 ½ in Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film. It’s a forlorn, confessional tale, with Antonio Banderas starring as Salvador Mallo, a director in the latter stages of his career. Read more...
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Tucked review - dispiriting British drag queen dramaSunday, 19 May 2019
It would be great to herald this low-budget drama about an elderly drag queen and his friendship with a young gay singer-songwriter as a little gem of British indie cinema. Read more... |
Birds of Passage review - mesmerising Colombian family sagaSaturday, 18 May 2019
“Do you know why I’m respected?” demands Ursula (Carmiña Martinez), a Wayuu matriarch in La Guajira in northern Colombia, of Rapayet (José Acosta), who wants to marry her daughter Zaida (Natalia Reyes, soon to star in James Cameron’s Terminator reboot). “Because I’m capable of anything for my family and my clan.” Read more... |
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum review - mayhem in ManhattanFriday, 17 May 2019
Keanu Reeves’s hitman franchise is blossoming into a delirious little earner. Read more... |
Beats review - Scottish boys seek raveThursday, 16 May 2019
Achingly nostalgic for rave culture, Beats will likely appeal to anyone whose formative experience of ardent friendships and communal joy peaked in a transcendent musical setting with or without the help of Ecstasy. Read more... |
Diamantino review - loopy satire slaps BrexitSaturday, 11 May 2019
Imagine Cristiano Ronaldo, virtuosity intact, as buffed, blinged, and coiffed as ever, but with the sophistication and sexual maturity of an average seven-year-old, and you have a fair idea of Diamantino’s protagonist. Read more... |
The Hustle review - rotten scoundrelsSaturday, 11 May 2019
This third version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ yarn of rival, class-warring con artists on the French Riviera is just something for Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson to do till a better gig comes along.... Read more... |
Destination Wedding review - a misanthropic modern-day romanceSaturday, 11 May 2019
Recently, Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder have found themselves in a career renaissance. Reeves has made a remarkable comeback as the dog-loving action-hero John Wick, while Ryder won audiences over as the grief-stricken mother, Joyce Byers, in Netflix’s 80s nostalgia-fest Stranger Things. Read more... |
Pokémon Detective Pikachu review - a cute commercialFriday, 10 May 2019
This is the Who Framed Roger Rabbit? of the Pokémon franchise, bringing the video game’s cute critters into a live-action, ... Read more... |
Madeline's Madeline review – American indie heralds an astonishing new starThursday, 09 May 2019
“You are not the cat. Read more... |
High Life review - Claire Denis boldly goes where she hasn't gone beforeThursday, 09 May 2019
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Arctic review - The Martian on iceWednesday, 08 May 2019
This is the first feature film by Brazil-born director Joe Penna (previously best known for his hit YouTube channel MysteryGuitarMan), but you’d never have guessed. Clocking in at a crisp and chilly 98 minutes, Arctic is an immaculately controlled exploration of the theme of man versus the elements, assisted immeasurably by having Mads Mikkelsen as its protagonist, Overgård. Read more... |
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile review - pedestrian Ted Bundy biopicSaturday, 04 May 2019
Why make a feature film about Ted Bundy, the notorious 1970s serial killer when you’ve already made Conversations with a Killer, a four-part factual series for Netflix about him? Read more... |
Vox Lux review – music biz drama with big ideasSaturday, 04 May 2019
Common to the recent spate of films about aspiring singers, the theme of fame’s corrupting influence is hardly new. Read more... |
Woman at War review – timely comedy-drama about an eco-warrior with a differenceSaturday, 04 May 2019
What is it about Nordic women and the environment? Read more... |
Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition, Design Museum review - immersive detailFriday, 03 May 2019
Who would have known that the word “Kubrickian” only entered the Oxford English Dictionary last year? You’d have thought that one of the great film directors of the 20th century would have earned his own epithet long ago. Read more... |
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