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…
So far over the top, but fun, Flight Risk is a guilty pleasure. It is all about carrying a government witness across hostile terrain to testify against a mob boss when everything that could possibly go wrong does. Madolyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) is a Deputy U.S. Marshal. She is tasked with escorting crooked, scared, chatterbox…
Stunning. A masterpiece. The Brutalist is a richly woven tale of pain and perseverance. It is the film of the year that, at the very least, deserves the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. Three hours 35 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission (with a countdown clock built into the movie one hour…
Bob Dylan is his own man, someone who has forged his own path in music, not restricted by convention. A Complete Unknown focuses on what he did and how he did it between 1961 to 1965. Arriving unannounced, with guitar in hand, as a 19-year-old, Dylan seeks out the legendary Woody Guthrie, who is in…
We Live in Time may well be renamed The Cruel Price of Love, for this is a bittersweet romance, featuring striking performances. Set in London, Almut (Florence Pugh) is a 34-year-old master chef, highly dedicated to her profession. She used to be a champion figure skater. In short, Almut is not afraid to speak her…
A striking musical drama, written and directed by Jacques Audiard, Emilia Perez constantly shocks and surprises. Rita (Zoe Saldana) is an overqualified and undervalued lawyer at a Mexican firm that is more interested in getting criminals off the hook than bringing them to justice. After one such case, she is sought out by whispered, gravelly…
What should and does one do if one’s loving husband/father turns into a wild animal – I mean literally a wild animal? In a nutshell, that is Wolf Man. It is 1995 and we are in remote woodland in Central Oregon. Former military man and single father Grady Lovell (Sam Jaeger) is bringing up his…
Subterfuge and tension abound in the compelling papal thriller Conclave. The Pope has died and cardinals have been summoned from around the world to elect his successor. The man charged with the responsibility of seeing the process through to finality is the College of Cardinals dean, Brit Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes). Of late, he has…
Paddington (the voice of Ben Whishaw) gets back to his roots in a rollicking adventure with the Brown family in Paddington in Peru. The intelligent bear remains living comfortably with the clan, although there is now little connection between the parents and their two children. Judy (Madeleine Harris) is applying for university entrance and mum…
Atmospheric, Nosferatu puts the bite on an impressionable youngster, who carries her commitment to Dracula into her marriage, with terrifying consequences. Writer and director Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse) is at the helm of this supernatural horror film. He was inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula (1897) and by the screenplay for Nosferatu: A Symphony of…
