Extremely contrived, but feel good entertainment, The Confirmation is a story about a divorced man, an alcoholic carpenter, who is struggling to get by and his intelligent and perceptive young son. Clive Owen plays the down-on-his luck Walt, whose God-fearing ex-wife Maria Bello has remarried. She and her new husband Matthew Modine head off to…
Massively shaky camera movements and terrifying sounds are the order of the day for Blair Witch, a follow-up to the highly successful The Blair Witch Project, which was released to much acclaim in 1999. It’s been 20 years since James’s sister and her two friends vanished into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland while researching…
An attractive and engaging feminist film that allows us – the audience – to really care for the characters, La Belle Saison (which translates as Summertime) is also a period piece. The year in 1971. Delphine (Izia Higelin), the daughter of hard-working farmers, moves to Paris to break free of the shackles of her parents…
One of the prospects that drew director Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind) to this famous story was the opportunity to give a new generation a glimpse at what happened to launch this extraordinary phenomenon. The baby boomers grew up with The Beatles and their children perhaps only know them vicariously through their parents. As the…
No this is not a remake of the fluffy and lightweight 1966 rom-com that starred Elvis Presley as a part-time NASCAR driver. Rather, this is a raucous, at times bawdy and crude Ocker comedy along the lines of Barry McKenzie Holds His Own, Dimboola, Stork and even the more recent A Few Best Men. There’s…
Bridget Jones’s Baby, the third installment of the romantic fantasy about a woman not afraid to reveal her flaws and insecurities is a crowd pleaser. The original director Sharon Maguire returns but they have introduced a couple of new writers, including one of the stars, Emma Thompson. Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth are joined by…
Disney seem intent on remaking live action versions of their back catalogue of animated classics, and we’ve had the likes of The Jungle Book, Alice In Wonderland, Cinderella and even Beauty And The Beast undergo this treatment. For the most part they have been very successful and put a new spin on familiar stories. And…
Some books grab you and don’t let go. Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry is one of them. Here’s the blurb: When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s…
One of the most extraordinary, engaging and intriguing documentaries I have seen, I couldn’t seem to get enough of this erudite American politician who appears to be a slave to his sexual fantasies. Not surprisingly, Weiner claimed the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Anthony Weiner (born in Brooklyn, New York on…
If you want proof that Scientology is a cult and not a religion then you should see the fascinating first-hand documentary, Louis Theroux: My Scientology Movie. I say first hand because Louis Theroux is front and centre throughout. He wanted to get inside the so-called Church of Scientology and interview people associated with it. When…
