A surreal nightmare, Titane pushes the boundaries of taste. Still, it’s intriguing throughout and doesn’t let up for its entire 100 minutes plus. A father (Bertrand Bonello), who turns out to be a doctor, is having trouble controlling his seven-year-old daughter Alexia (Adele Guigue) in the back seat of their car while driving. She makes…
Polished performances, magnificent mashups, elegant and evocative sets, colourful and creative costumes, and charismatic choreography are the highlights of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Set at the turn of the 20th century, Christian (Des Flanagan) is a young, penniless British singer songwriter who has just arrived in Paris and goes straight to Montemarte. There he chances upon two…
A Boy Called Christmas is about overcoming tragedy and obstacles. Nikolas (Henry Lawfull) is a Finnish boy who lost his beloved mother and is being raised by his woodcutter father Joel (Michiel Huisman) in a small cabin. They have little. One day, Joel receives an invitation to visit the king (Jim Broadbent). The king acknowledges…
Special effects wizardry, violence and a dollop of humour drive Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The storyline is almost incidental, but split personalities are at the heart of it. Tom Hardy reprises his role as former journalist Eddie Brock, now host to bad alien symbiote Venom. When I say “host”, I mean that literally –…
Accompanied by a lone cellist (Thomas Veitch) and dressed in period costume, Michael Veitch weaves a deeply personal and tragic tale with aplomb. It is one he wrote with Peter Houghton. In August 1852, Michael’s great great grandfather, James William Henry Veitch, was the surgeon on board the emigrant clipper Ticonderoga when it sailed from Liverpool…
Jonathan Larson wrote the smash hit Broadway musical Rent. How he got there is the subject of Tick, Tick … Boom!, the new film from Lin-Manuel Miranda. Larson (Andrew Garfield) dreams of being a Broadway musical writer. His creativity is recognised by his close and loyal friends, but he is on the cusp of 30…
Aimed at Gen Z, Zola has attitude but, arguably, few smarts. The premise is straightforward enough, namely how two twenty-something women fall out. Zola (Taylour Paige) works at a fast-food restaurant. She’s befriended by Stefani (Riley Keough) who she serves at the diner. Both are pole dancers and they have a night out in a…
In the wake of The Sopranos (1999-2007) – one of the most popular and acclaimed TV series of the noughties – comes a cinematic prequel in The Many Saints of Newark. While the film is about the emergence of The Sopranos’ central character Tony, it centres around his uncle, Dickie Moltisanti* (Alessandro Nivola). It opens…
Eternals is the 25th special effects extravaganza in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). But its storyline doesn’t sustain its bloated running time. That storyline, which introduces ten new superheroes, harks back to the return of half the population in Avengers: Endgame (2019). The return ignited “the emergence”. Now, the Celestials, who have secretly lived on…
Discomfort looms large as two old school friends reunite after 12 years in Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut, Passing. It’s the 1920s. Irene (Tessa Thompson) is the wife of a doctor, Brian (Andre Holland) and mother of two school age sons, Ted (Justus Davis Graham) and Junior (Ethan Barrett). They live in Harlem, where she volunteers…
