23 Walks promised much but delivered little. It ends up being scenic but manufactured pap for the elderly. Two lonely people connect after a shaky start and try to make something of their relationship. Of course, it wouldn’t be a movie without a number of obstacles. Dave (Dave Johns) is a retired mental health nurse…
A largely predictable romantic drama, Love Sarah centres around three generations of women who go into business together in a culturally diverse area of London’s Notting Hill. The Sarah of the title (Candice Brown) and Isabella (Shelley Conn) are best friends who were about to open a sweet-focused bakery together, but then tragedy struck. Sarah,…
The Irish drama-thriller Calm with Horses features a brutal but poignant script, skilful feature directorial debut and a bravura lead acting performance. Douglas “Arm” Armstrong (Cosmo Jarvis) is a former boxer who fell in with a ruthless family. The family’s two no-nonsense brothers, Paudi (Ned Dennehy) and Hector Devers (David Wilmot), rule with an iron…
Some names need no introduction. And when it comes to the world of fashion, Pierre Cardin is one of those. But what’s behind the name motivates filmmakers P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes in their documentary The House of Cardin. This reverential doco sources both archival footage and contemporary interviews, including with Cardin himself (he…
The opening scenes of 7500 are silent, showing airport security footage of a group of people about to board a commercial night flight from Berlin to Paris. Take note of who you are seeing. American pilot Tobias Ellis (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is tasked to transport eighty souls on what is a regular shuttle, the one hour…
A man haunted by his past is forced to face his demons in the slow-moving horror film, The Vigil. Yakov Ronen (Dave Davis) is a shadow of a man in the aftermath of a tragedy that befell his younger brother. He was present; but he didn’t intervene and before he knew it, it was too…
I find Richard Linklater a frustrating filmmaker sometimes. I mean, I love some of his films (School of Rock and Bernie, for example); but can’t get into others (like Boyhood and Last Flag Flying). His latest release here, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, falls into the latter category for me. This weirdly structured and ultimately thin…
Pete Davidson was a bit of an unknown quality for me. I was aware he was on Saturday Night Live, and I’d seen some of his stand-up – experiences that frankly left me nonplussed. But he’s been in a heap of movies, even if most of them haven’t been released here. His latest acting foray,…
Okay, this is a tough one. Shirley is out-there cinema for the dedicated cinephile. If you like a nice logical, linear plot with likeable characters, well, I’m afraid this isn’t for you. Director Jennifer Decker crafts an imagined portrait of the acclaimed writer Shirley Jackson that bathes in both the American Gothic that Jackson championed,…
We get to see very few Scandinavian films outside of film festivals in this country. The Icelandic film industry produces around 5 or 6 films a year, and several directors have gained an international reputation. Recently many major Hollywood productions, including Star Wars: Rogue One and Prometheus, have taken advantage of the country’s strikingly remote…
