Film Reviews

Journeyman review - Paddy Considine wins on points

Jasper Rees Friday, 30 March 2018

Boxing movies are often about redemption in the ring. From Somebody Up There Likes Me to last year’s Bleed for This via Rocky, the story stays the same: boxer seeks peace though punching. In Journeyman, Paddy Considine travels along a different path.

Ready Player One review - Spielberg goes back to the future

Adam Sweeting Thursday, 29 March 2018

Suddenly Steven Spielberg movies are plopping off the production line like Ford Fiestas or Cadburys Creme Eggs.

The Islands and the Whales review - masterful, sensitive eco-documentary

David Kettle Wednesday, 28 March 2018

A feature-length documentary on whaling in the Faroe Islands: you might think you can see it unfolding already. Hardy Viking fishermen battling the elements, gruesome killings of majestic sea creatures, implied or outright condemnation of the shocking brutality.

Scottish director Mike Day’s masterful film is no shock-factor exposé,...

Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words, BBC One review - emotional nomad with a fragile gift for joy

Jasper Rees Tuesday, 27 March 2018

Ever nursed an immoderate fondness for Ingrid Bergman? In Her Own Words, a bio-documentary released in the cinema then on DVD in 2016 and shown last night on BBC One as part of the Imagine...

I Got Life! review - fresh French comic realism

Saskia Baron Saturday, 24 March 2018

I Got Life!, originally released in France as Aurore, is a lovely, funny low-budget comedy that should definitely appeal to female movie-goers with a fondness for quirky, feisty women d’un certain age. It’s the kind of film that one would probably go to with a...

Crowhurst review - plucky indie wins race with rival

Jasper Rees Saturday, 24 March 2018

Perhaps it’s fitting that Donald Crowhurst should once more find himself in a race. Even more aptly, it’s a race against himself. You wait half a century for a biopic about the round-the-world yachtsman who disappeared off the face of the earth, and then two turn up at once. This sort of clash sometimes happens in film, and one movie always ends up trouncing the other.

The Third Murder review - unpacking a crime enigma

Tom Birchenough Friday, 23 March 2018

Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu offers up mystery aplenty in his new film The Third Murder, enigma and riddle too. He also moves away from the territory of family drama for which he is best known. There’s similar intensity in some of the relationships between characters here as in his previous work, and it’s engrossingly atmospheric – some visual elements speak as strongly as anything the director has made, while Ludovico Einaudi’s piano/cello-dominated score is almost a player...

Unsane review - Claire Foy in bonkers horror satire

Jasper Rees Thursday, 22 March 2018

Steven Soderbergh has always been capable of a big Hollywood moment – Magic Mike, Oceans etc. But much of his filmography consists of curious sideways glances. He’s particularly drawn to the shifting distribution of power between the genders. From sex, lies and videotape to Haywire, by way of Erin Brockovich and Out of Sight, he has rifled through the genres to find fresh and intriguing stories about men and women. It comes up again in...

Mary Magdalene review - potent, feminist revisionism

Nick Hasted Saturday, 17 March 2018

Mary Magdalene’s story hasn’t suddenly become the second greatest ever told, despite its radical expansion here. Garth Davis’s follow-up to Lion is, though, a profoundly thoughtful and convincing telling of the Christian main event.

The Square review - stylish, brilliantly acted satire

Saskia Baron Friday, 16 March 2018

One of the oldest pleasures of cinema is the opportunity it gives us to look at beautiful people in beautiful places, possibly having beautiful sex. Often audiences get exactly what they came for but sometimes it isn’t exactly straightforward. Take The Square, the Oscar-nominated film from Swedish ...

Annihilation, Netflix review - not quite a sci-fi masterpiece

Adam Sweeting Thursday, 15 March 2018

Mild controversy hovers over the new film by Alex Garland, the novelist-turned-screenwriter-turned-director. Garland’s 2015 directing debut, Ex Machina, was a slow-burning hit which found favour with critics and film festival juries.

My Golden Days review - a mesmerising tale of heartbreak

Owen Richards Wednesday, 14 March 2018

Arnaud Despelchin’s My Golden Days is a strange beast; it is both a sequel and prequel to the gloriously titled 1996 film My Sex Life…or How I Got into an Argument. Yet it tells its own story in the life of Paul Dédalus (Mathieu Amalric).

DVD/Blu-ray: Shiraz

Tom Birchenough Tuesday, 13 March 2018

The subtitle of Franz Osten’s 1928 film, A Romance of India, says it all: this Indian silent film is a tremendous watch, a revelation of screen energy and visual delight. An epic love story-cum-weepie with lashings of action and intrigue thrown in, it was an Indian-British-German coproduction (a curious...

Wonder Wheel review - Woody Allen and Kate Winslet channel O'Neill

Jasper Rees Friday, 09 March 2018

In recent months Woody Allen has been publicly disavowed by a conga line of major film stars. The latest who seems to have expressed regret for working with him – if not by name – is Kate Winslet. She stars in his latest film, and may also feel slight regret for artistic reasons.

You Were Never Really Here review - a wild ride to the dark side

Adam Sweeting Thursday, 08 March 2018

The gripping paradox of Lynne Ramsay’s terse, brutal thriller is suggested in its title.

Scott and Sid review - self-absorbed vanity project

David Kettle Tuesday, 06 March 2018

There’s a Big Reveal that comes right at the end of this new indie movie from first-time writer/producer/directors Scott Elliott and Sid Sadowskyj (whose names, in retrospect, should have given the game away right from the start). For (complete spoiler alert!) this is Elliott and...