romantic comedy
Almost, Maine, Park TheatreThursday, 18 December 2014
For a Christmas-weary Brit who's already had it up to here with commercial bonhomie and festive schmaltz, there were going to be barriers to overcome. Here is an avowedly sweet American play – actually nine playlets – on the subject of love, set in... Read more... |
DVD: The Adventures of Antoine Doinel - Five Films by François TruffautFriday, 12 December 2014
François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows is a classic. Not only is it one of cinema's best films and a foundation of French New Wave, it also affectingly and rivetingly depicts an anomie-filled childhood. Released in 1959, it was a comment on French... Read more... |
Say WhenThursday, 06 November 2014
Pretty in Pink featured an interesting example of female friendship between a teenager and a grown woman. A record shop owner imparts motherly advice to her employee while also getting to grips with her own identity. In a similar manner, Lynn... Read more... |
Life After BethWednesday, 01 October 2014
Zombies have feelings too. That's the message at the heart of writer-director Jeff Baena's debut Life After Beth, which begins its life as a sensitive indie comedy with a winning deadpan shtick and ends up salivating and snarling after developing an... Read more... |
Magic in the MoonlightWednesday, 17 September 2014
An ageing misanthrope is given a new lease of life and a fresh outlook by a pretty, young woman. Woody Allen wheels out this tired old trope for his 44th feature film set in his favourite era on the French Riviera with a light romantic yarn between... Read more... |
What IfWednesday, 20 August 2014
For an actor whose post-Potter CV has been so wide-ranging - an Irish cripple on stage one minute, a young widowed lawyer in a period horror film or the poet Allen Ginsberg the next - Daniel Radcliffe has developed a highly distinct acting style:... Read more... |
Some Like It HotSaturday, 19 July 2014
In what is undoubtedly one of the earlier recorded examples of the single entendre, the original ad campaign for Some Like It Hot yelled “Marilyn Monroe and her Bosom Companions”. Well, the posters may not have minced words, but there’s more than a... Read more... |
Miss and the DoctorsMonday, 26 May 2014
This low-budget Parisian dramedy about doctor-patient relations is as odd, timid and well-intentioned as its socially maladjusted protagonists. Miss and the Doctors is writer-director Axelle Ropert's second feature after 2009's The Wolberg Family.... Read more... |
The LunchboxThursday, 10 April 2014
A mouth-watering mixture of romance, drama and comedy is delivered in this fresh and impressive debut from Indian writer-director Ritesh Batra. A poignant and bittersweet relationship between a lonely housewife and a man on the brink of retirement... Read more... |
Funny FaceSaturday, 01 March 2014
For those who haven't seen it, the funny face of the title belongs to Audrey Hepburn. As preposterous as that seems for someone so iconically gorgeous and although when others fail to notice her beauty it seems insane, Hepburn was famously insecure... Read more... |
DVD: Enough SaidMonday, 17 February 2014
Nowhere near enough was said by James Gandolfini before he died at the age of 51 in 2013. His monument is of course Tony Soprano, but in this late role he unveiled a charming doughy side as the bruised romantic lead in Nicole Holofcener’s lo-fi... Read more... |
8 Minutes IdleThursday, 13 February 2014
The makers of 8 Minutes Idle have a kickstarter campaign to thank for the cinema release of their offbeat comedy, which was made in 2012 but has sat on the shelf since. It's a charming (perhaps knowingly so) low-budget romcom, adapted from his novel... Read more... |
