A brilliant, intricate script, outstanding direction and superb acting by an A-list cast are the hallmarks of The Gentlemen, one of the year’s best films (I know it comes out on 1st January, 2020, but I reckon I am allowed one day’s leeway). It takes concentration to follow the web of deception woven, but the…
Feel good entertainment in a good, old-fashioned pub – what could be better than that? Well … simple, really – feel good entertainment in a good old-fashioned pub on stage, with no shortage of audience participation. That is the show and the group known as The Choir of Man – nine talented singers and musos….
Killing crooks with kindness. That is the concept behind this original animated feature, which turns traditional methods of spying on its head. Lance Sterling (the voice of Will Smith) is an elite loner – the best of the best, who does things others can’t. Mind you he doesn’t always follow the instruction of the agency…
Feeling and sensitivity pervade every fibre of the sensual and artistic work by French auteur Céline Sciamma (Girlhood). We’re in Brittany, France in 1760. Slow-moving but compelling, Portrait of a Lady on Fire concerns a secretive and developing relationship between a painter, Marianne (Noémie Merlant) and her subject, Héloïse, (Adèle Haenel), who has just left…
There’s a great deal of warmth and good humour in filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu’s (who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for Shoplifters) wry new dramedy The Truth. It is his first film abroad in a language not his own and he worked with a totally French crew. It also marks the first time beloved Academy…
By the end I was bawling like a baby. CATS, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical as a Tom Hooper-directed and co-written (with Lee Hall) film, is a triumph of theatrics – costuming, make-up, choreography, colour and emotion. In the original 1980s stage musical, CATS takes place on the night of the annual Jellicle Ball, when…
The offspring of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) trying to resolve deep-seated familial issues is front and centre in this official close of the Skywalker odyssey. A largely masked Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is given the opportunity to be the unchallenged galaxy leader, with power and control…
The original Jumanji (1995) concerning a board game coming to life, which starred Robin Williams, was a rolled gold winner. The reboot – two years ago – was in my eyes an unmitigated disaster, notwithstanding its box office success. This sequel is slightly better than that, but still basically very, very silly. Give me the…
Superlatives are inadequate to describe a truly mesmerising performance from a woman of grace, charm and sublime talent. Bernadette Robinson in Songs for Nobodies inhabits upwards of 10 characters – English, American, Irish, French and Italian – like a second skin. She weaves stories and sings popular tunes and opera as five ordinary folk rub…
Quite the epic, Little Women – directed by Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) – is a moving adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s award-winning novel. The story unfolds as the author’s alter ego, Jo March (Saoirse Ronan), reflects on her fictional life. It is the tale of four young women – sisters Jo, a writer, Meg…
