Just how far can artificial intelligence take us? Can it deliver genuine companionship and more for the lonely, elderly and ailing? Those questions are answered in the resounding affirmative by playwright Jose Rivera in his dramatic and comedic work Your Name Means Dream. Aislin (Caroline Lee), of Polish Irish extraction (and whose name means dream…
The Red Turtle is a dialogue-free animated film from the renowned Studio Ghibli, which has given us Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away. But this is an international co production between France and Japan, and is the first non-Japanese film produced by the revered animation studios. This is a richly emotional and resonant exploration of…
Shakespeare-like high drama melds with anthropological study in Birds of Passage. Directors Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra (Embrace of the Serpent) skillfully examine how modern issues affect the lives of an isolated clan of indigenous people in remote northern Colombia. The results are shocking yet sadly familiar. The people in question are the Wayuu. They…
Bridesmaids pretty much set the standard for the R-rated raunchy “girls misbehaving” comedy, and we have seen a lot of these female-centric versions of The Hangover. But subsequent films in this subgenre, like the recent Rough Night, Bad Sisters and even Sex And The City 2, have continually lowered the bar. And now we get…
With the 50th anniversary of the moon landing in our very recent past, why not stage a space themed circus? Why not, indeed? And the producers of the hit shows The Illusionists, Circus 1903 and Le Noir, have done just that. Several of the acts in the two-hour production, including interval, that is Cirque Stratosphere…
Hercule Poirot step aside; for Chief Inspector Jules Maigret is on the case. In director Patrice Leconte’s Maigret, Gerard Depardieu takes on the title role as an ageing, unwell cop trying to track down a murderer. It’s Paris, 1953 and a young woman has been found dead. The victim, Louise Louviere (Clara Antoons), is no…
A sad and angry man is rescued by a most unlikely source in the moving A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood. For more than three decades (1968 to 2001) Fred Rogers was the most beloved figure on US television. He imparted words of kindness and wisdom to millions of children on PBS’ long-running program Mister…
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,…
Midsommar is one of the most bizarre and perverse movies I’ve seen. The second feature film from writer and director Ari Aster (Hereditary), is a journey into the heart of darkness – a hallucinatory and disquieting fairy tale. During a getaway with academic mates to a bucolic Swedish village, American couple Dani (Florence Pugh) and…
A Boy Called Christmas is about overcoming tragedy and obstacles. Nikolas (Henry Lawfull) is a Finnish boy who lost his beloved mother and is being raised by his woodcutter father Joel (Michiel Huisman) in a small cabin. They have little. One day, Joel receives an invitation to visit the king (Jim Broadbent). The king acknowledges…
