Mike Leigh continues his gritty filmmaking endeavours with his 23rd film, the tragicomedy Hard Truths. Middle aged Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Secrets & Lies) is a perpetually angry and desperately unhappy woman. With a series of claimed ailments, she pays out regularly on her plumber husband Curtley (David Webber) and their 22-year-old son, Moses (Tuwaine…
It is 2054 and Earth is in trouble, so droves of people are taking up the opportunity for interplanetary relocation. A man who has gotten himself into trouble and is financially destitute is Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson). Without digging too deeply, he seizes the chance to start afresh, as a new human colony is about…
A gritty piece about the travails of an ageing Las Vegas showgirl and those around her, The Last Showgirl feels real. Back in the day, decades ago, Shelly (Pamela Anderson), was one of the headline acts in Le Razzle Dazzle, which was fashioned on erotic Paris shows, like the Lido. Now, at 57, she is…
What a joy laden movie. This could just be the best of the four Bridget Jones films, that date back to 2001 and we have had to wait nine years since the last one. Mad About the Boy, which Jones also narrates, is filled with laughter, romance and reverence. Best of all, she (Renee Zellweger)…
A supernatural force is present in the house Rebekah (Lucy Liu), her husband Chris (Chris Sullivan) and their teenage children Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang) move into. Tyler is an elite swimmer and it is at his mother’s insistence to maximise his future prospects that they purchase the home. Tyler is Rebekah’s favourite…
It was the day live sports coverage became live news coverage of the most heinous kind. That was September 5, 1972. The setting: the athletes’ village in Munich at the 20th summer Olympics. Terrorists affiliated with militant organisation Black September captured and killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. September 5, the movie, tells the story…
Lauded American born Greek opera singer Maria Callas’ (2nd December 1923 – 16th September 1977), final days are captured in Maria. By then her famed soprano voice has gone and she hasn’t performed in years. As played by Angelina Jolie, she is holed up in her luxury Paris apartment. With her are her two loyal…
Be careful what you wish for. That is one of the takeaways from the psychological thriller Companion. It is a decidedly awkward first meeting at the supermarket for Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid), but their connection is immediate. Iris falls hard for Josh and they become a couple. Sometime later, they take a…
To the outside world she has the perfect life. She is CEO of her own company that is going places. She has a doting theatre director husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas) and two daughters, Isabel (Esther McGregor) and Nora (Vaughan Reilly). But she has a metaphorical itch that has long needed scratching. And in the most…
A moving tale of rehabilitation, featuring many convicted criminals playing themselves, it is based on a theatre group at the notorious Sing Sing prison. Sing Sing is a maximum-security jail for men, some 50 kilometres north of midtown Manhattan, in New York City. The central character is John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo), a foundation…
