Film Reviews

Atomic Blonde review - ferocious female action franchise

Nick Hasted Wednesday, 09 August 2017

Bowie’s “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” plays as Charlize Theron’s Lorraine Broughton makes her entrance. She’s the last Cold War super-spy, a female Bond sent to Berlin as the Wall crumbles. “Killer Queen”, prominent on early trailers, would have done just as well.

Maudie review - intriguing and irritating in turn

Matt Wolf Friday, 04 August 2017

The little-known Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis is the Maudie of the title of Aisling Walsh's grim-faced biopic, which feels frustratingly incomplete where it really counts.

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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets review - Rihanna on pole can't save tiring space opera

Saskia Baron Thursday, 03 August 2017

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets starts promisingly: there’s Bowie’s Space Oddity on the soundtrack (a bit clichéd but evocative) and a sly montage of personnel handovers at an international space station over the decades.

The Ghoul review - quietly unhinged British horror

Nick Hasted Wednesday, 02 August 2017

The Ghoul is an occult British thriller about depression, with a bleakly poetic view of London, and a seedy sadness at its core. This sensibility is greatly helped by its star Tom Meeten, who as police detective Chris is haggard and run-down, ready to flinch at the world.

Williams review - much more than a film about motor racing

Adam Sweeting Wednesday, 02 August 2017

The sobriquet “the greatest living Englishman” has been applied to such diverse individuals as Keith Richards, Winston Churchill and Alan Bennett, but the bookies would surely offer reasonable odds on Sir Frank Williams. Having founded his current motor racing team in 1977, Williams has provided rapid transit for an array of world champions, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill among them.

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The Wall review - action undercut by too much talk

Adam Sweeting Friday, 28 July 2017

Movies which essentially consist of a central character trapped in a difficult predicament can be great (Tom Hardy in Locke), or more likely not so great (Colin Farrell in Phone Booth or Ryan Reynolds in Buried).

The Big Sick review - enchanting romcom about mixed marriages

Jasper Rees Wednesday, 26 July 2017

The Big Sick is an enchanting film from the Judd Apatow comedy production line. Don’t be put off by the terrible title. There are two forms of sickness on display in the story of Kumail Nanjiani, a Pakistani American who plays himself in his own autobiographical romantic comedy.

Victim review - timely re-release for attack on homophobia

Graham Fuller Sunday, 23 July 2017

Victim was released in 1961. Six years would pass before the passing of the Sexual Offences Act cautiously exempted from prosecution men over 20 who had consensual sex in private.

Dunkirk review - old-fashioned filmmaking on the grandest scale

Jasper Rees Thursday, 20 July 2017

What is the Dunkirk spirit? It has been so thoroughly internalised by the national psyche that, 77 years on, it’s as much a brand, a meme or a slogan as the product of a historical fact: that at the start of World War Two 330,000 soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force, cornered on a French beach, strafed and bombed by the Luftwaffe, were ferried to safety by a plucky flotilla of pleasure...

David Lynch: The Art Life review - authentic and revealing

David Kettle Monday, 17 July 2017

"You drink coffee, you smoke cigarettes, and you paint. And that’s it." So goes David Lynch’s memorable description of what he calls "the art life" in Jon Nguyen’s frank and engaging documentary. It’s a life that Lynch imagined himself living as a student and a young man – surrounded by the detritus of a disorderly studio, working all hours at his latest visual creation.

The Beguiled review - silly but seriously well-made

Matt Wolf Friday, 14 July 2017

An isolated girls' school finds its hermetic routine shattered by the arrival of Colin Farrell, who wreaks sexual and emotional havoc as only this actor can.

War for the Planet of the Apes review – long on budget, short on ideas

Adam Sweeting Tuesday, 11 July 2017

There’s been talk about the way this latest instalment of the rebooted Ape franchise, and the one which brings the story of the brainy messianic ape Caesar full circle, is an allegory of Isis’s onslaught in Iraq or the rise of Donald Trump.

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The Last Word film review - Shirley MacLaine's spit and vinegar remain intact

Matt Wolf Friday, 07 July 2017

If you're going to cobble together an entirely pro forma film, it's not a bad idea to give Shirley MacLaine pride of place. At 83, this redoubtable pro is no more capable of falsehood now than she ever was. It means that, although individual moments of The Last Word may find you rolling your eyes, its central performance rivets attention from first to last.

Spider-Man: Homecoming review - fresh, funny version of the arachnid avenger

Adam Sweeting Wednesday, 05 July 2017

First introduced into the burgeoning “Marvel Cinematic Universe” in last year’s Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland’s incarnation of Spider-Man is another triumph for this exuberant franchise (even if some might feel a pang for the fine and still-recent pairing of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone under director Marc Webb's helmsmanship).

Baby Driver review - thrill-ride runs out of road

Nick Hasted Thursday, 29 June 2017

Baby drives like a deranged bullet. Edgar Wright’s “diegetic action-musical” choreographs the bank-heist getaways of angel-faced Baby (Ansel Elgort) as physically exhilarating pure cinema, a rush that’s rare.

Risk review - Assange unravels

Nick Hasted Wednesday, 28 June 2017

Julian Assange’s white hair marks his public persona. To some he’s an unmistakably branded outsider, or a lone white wolf hunting global injustice. Hollywood would cast him as the coolly enigmatic superhero who’s revealed as the supervillain in the last reel.