One of the truisms of gambling says the house always wins. However, with The House – a supposed comedy about an ordinary family that set up an illegal underground casino in the leafy streets of suburbia – it’s the audience who are the losers. Let’s face it – when was the last time Will Ferrell made…
Passionate and affecting, Lady Macbeth is a tale full of lust and betrayal set in rural England in 1865. Katherine (Florence Pugh) is stifled by her loveless marriage. Her husband Boris (Christopher Fairbank) is a bitter man more than twice her age (she is 17 and he 40). His cold, unforgiving family only add to…
Finding your place in the world is hard enough for most. But when dealing with teen angst and sexuality, it can be harder still. Writer/director Kerem Sanga (The Young Kieslowski) explores these fraught issues in First Girl I Loved. Anne Smith (Dylan Gelula – TV’s Casual) is a bright high school senior. She’s best friends with a…
A lively French box-office hit, Monsieur Chocolat details a fascinating rise-and-fall story. This is the tale of the first popular Afro-Cuban artist on the French stage. His real name was Rafael Padilla; but he became known as Chocolat. Padilla was only nine years old when sold into slavery. He then escaped to a different life. Set…
With the successful Despicable Me franchise, new kids on the block, Illumination Studios, have rivalled animation giants Pixar and Dreamworks who once set the bar. The success of the Despicable Me franchise is largely due to the scene-stealing antics of the mischievous, diminutive and simple minded yellow creatures known as the minions, who talk in gibberish. The…
A low-rent noir thriller with some questionable acting, Detour nevertheless keeps the twists coming. The film focuses on Harper (Tye Sheridan – X-Men: Apocalypse), a tense, privileged young law student. The young man suspects his stepdad, Vincent (Stephen Moyer) caused a car accident, leaving Harper’s mother in a coma. Harper is livid that Vincent has barely visited his…
Director Terence Davies continues his love affair with the woman he regards as America’s greatest poet in A Quiet Passion. Born into privilege in 1803, Emily Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon) spent most of her life on her parents’ estate in Armherst, Massachusetts. In her youth, Dickinson is shown as a fiercely intelligent young woman who exchanges forthright…
A slow-moving, intense jigsaw puzzle, a mood of unease permeates nearly every scene in UNA. Based on David Harrower’s Olivier Award-winning one-act play Blackbird, the film follows a young woman’s journey to reclaim her past. Fifteen years ago, 13-year-old Una ran away with and had sex with an older man, Ray – a crime for which…
If you can follow the intricate (at times maddening) plot in Transformers: The Last Knight then “You’re a better man than I, Gunga Din!”. At least that is until Anthony Hopkins’ character pulls together the threads well into the film. It is the fifth film in the series, following on from 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction. …
Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is not a rookie anymore. Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers and one in particular – the cocky and arrogant Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer) – the legendary Piston-Cup champion finds himself suddenly pushed out of the sport he loves. While Lightning is still the same self-assured car audiences fell in love…
