Not only do recent Christmas movies tend to be more narky and mean spirited, but they also seem to be hitting cinemas earlier. Even though it is only November we have three Christmas themed films in our multiplexes. There’s Bad Moms 2, the home invasion black comedy Better Watch Out, and now we get Daddy’s…
I thoroughly enjoyed Winnie-the-Pooh as a child, and the movie behind the creation of the characters is equally satisfying. Goodbye Christopher Robin provides a rare glimpse into the relationship between beloved children’s author Alan Alexander Milne (played here by Domhnall Gleeson) and his son Christopher Robin (Will Tilston). After returning from the First World War, Milne was left…
The 1980 Wimbledon Men’s Final is widely regarded as one of the great tennis matches in sporting history. It was an epic five-set encounter between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. Ice-cool Swedish champion Borg, the world number one, was attempting to win a record fifth consecutive Wimbledon title. Brash American upstart McEnroe, known as the “super…
There’s a poignant and melancholy quality to the sweet-natured Lucky. It serves as the swansong for revered actor Harry Dean Stanton, who passed away in September this year at the age of 91. Stanton delivers one of his finest performances in this low key independent drama. The film is an existential meditation on mortality and…
Do you like your movies light and fluffy? Maybe with a little romance thrown in? Yes? Then stop reading now, because The Killing of a Sacred Deer is not for you. Director Yorgos Lanthimos is best known for his magnificently bizarre The Lobster (2015). Now he brings his particular (and peculiar) vision to one of…
I’m well and truly over superheroes battling mega tyrannical villains, causing loud, elongated mass destruction. Now I enter the cinema to see one of these box office fancies fearing the worst … and so it was with Justice League. In this one, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) has a restored faith in humanity, inspired by Superman’s selfless…
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is a genteel look at the ménage à trois behind the creation of iconic feminist superhero Wonder Woman. Its direction fittingly boasts a decidedly feminine touch. Truth is stranger than fiction in this origin story outside the norm. Harvard psychologist and inventor Dr William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) was the…
A middle-aged man gazes inward and doesn’t like what he’s seeing. That’s the premise of Brad’s Status, a bittersweet comedy from writer/director Mike White (The Good Girl). Ben Stiller plays Brad Sloan, a bloke on the edge of a meltdown. He’s reevaluating his life’s worth and achievements. A trip to Boston with his college-bound son Troy…
Based on fact, but filling in the blanks with some licence, Detroit centres on the Detroit riots of 1967. The summer of that year was a pivotal moment in modern American history. The country was beset by growing political and social upheaval. The escalating US military engagement in Vietnam and decades of racial injustice and repression feulled the…
Agatha Christie is the world’s best-selling author. Some 2 billion copies of her crime and mystery novels have been sold. She wrote 66 novels; 33 of which feature her famous creation, the arrogant but brilliant Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. Many of her books have been filmed to varying degrees of success, although apparently Christie herself…
