Spoiler Alert: stories of good men dying young will always make you cry, but sometimes they can leave audiences looking for more. It feels oddly harsh to critique Michael Showalter’s Spoiler Alert as it is based on a true story of the same name, written by Michael Ausiello. It tells the story of how he lost his husband to cancer, and follows their relationship from its inception, through their gro...
“…and I felt saddest of all when I read the boring chapters that were only descriptions of whales, because I knew that the author was just trying to save us from his own sad story, just for a little while.” A crumpled essay read a thousand times over, an allegedly broken webcam and a very sad story are at the centre of Darren Aronofosky’s The Whale, an adaptation of another author’s semi autobiogr...
Cate Blanchett is note perfect as the lead in Todd Field’s much anticipated drama Tár, but is it a film that is too wrapped up in itself to appeal to the average Joe? Tár tells us the haunting story of titular Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett), a conductor on the verge of her biggest achievement, and potentially her own undoing. The “Maestro” (Tár) is the severe and demanding conductor of the Berlin orc...
Like the elephant in the opening scene that relaxes its sphincter and covers one of its handlers in liquid filth, Damien Chazelle puckers up and explodes all over his audience for three hours in Babylon, a love/hate letter to debaucherous early Hollywood that’s as ambitious as it is unbalanced. This polarising epic is drawing 5-star reviews from some and 1-star from others, seemingly depending on ...
The official blurb for the movie THE FABELMANS is: “Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth”. This is an accurate description of the story, but movie you will experience has somewhat more going on. The ficti...
You don’t need to have read the book (A Man Called Ove) or seen the original film adaptation in Swedish to be, frankly, underwhelmed by A Man Called Otto. This new adaptation had the same emotive storyline that tugs on the heartstrings, but the americanisation makes it a tad more… bland. It is based on the heartwarming story of an elderly widowed curmudgeon Ove (renamed ‘Otto’ and played by Tom Ha...
It has been eleven years and Antonio Banderas (Desperado, Shrek 2) returns as the titular outlaw along with Selma Hayek (Hitman’s Bodyguard, House of Gucci) as Kitty Paws and Harvey Guillen (Archer, Harley Quinn) as newcomer Perrito, a want to be therapy dog masquerading as a cat. If that last bit sounds amusing, then director Joel Crawford (The Croods: New Age) has a treat in store! Before we rea...
Welcome to a beautifully bizarre exploration of a souring male friendship brought to a comedic and melancholy end point – you’ve arrived at The Banshees of Insherin. Banshees is the latest offering from writer-director Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, 2018), who brings back the stars of his 2008 debut In Bruges, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, to create this deli...
My love for this movie “resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary”, to quote Emily Brontë’s most famous work Wuthering Heights. Emily, directed by Andrew Dominik, spins us a creative interpretation of the titular author’s short life and the deeply personal motivations behind her most famous work. Emily, portrayed by Emma Mackey (Maeve in Sex Education) ...
Definitely do not have meat for dinner if you’re going to see the new coming of age thriller Bones and All, directed by Luca Guadagnino. Set in the 1980s Midwest, it is an adaptation of a novel with the same name by Camille DeAngelis. It follows two beautiful and oddly relatable young cannibals as they seek out the secrets of their pasts that lay hidden across a myriad backroads of the Midwest, a...
A confronting, all too authentic account of the early days lock picking the Pandora’s box surrounding Miramax’s open secret. Enlightening, infuriating, and victorious. She Said, written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz and directed by Maria Schrader, took a risk going in. It could have been a disservice to the now historical events surrounding the #metoo movement that swept the world on the back ...
In cinemas from this week, The Woman King stars Viola Davis (The Suicide Squad) as General Nanisca, John Boyega (Star Wars The Force Awakens) as King Ghezo, Thuso Mbedu (The Underground Railroad) as Nawi and Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) as Izogie. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard) and written by Dana Stevens, The Woman King takes the historically murky backdrop of 1823 Dahomey, W...
