Most film franchises seem to run out of inspiration before too long, but the Mission Impossible series seems to have gone from strength to strength. The Brad Bird-helmed Ghost Protocol was arguably the strongest film to date. Rogue Nation took the series in a slightly different direction under the direction of Christopher McQuarrie (Oscar winning…
Based upon the literary classic by Thomas Hardy, this film tells the story of Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan – An Education), a fiercely independent and spirited young woman. She starts out as a simple country girl, who inherits her uncle’s farm. Financially autonomous (a rarity in Victorian times), beautiful and headstrong, she attracts three very different…
Director Azazel Jacobs (The Lovers) marks his territory in French Exit. That territory is squarely in the realm of Wes Anderson and his ilk, albeit with some of the quirkier edges buffed off. Coincidentally – and perhaps confusingly – Anderson’s new film is called The French Dispatch. Jacobs weaves a compelling story of love and…
It is a credit to the writers and production team of 13 Reasons Why that this groundbreaking teenage Netflix drama made it all the way to a fourth season. The previous three seasons relied heavily on the repercussions of a teen suicide in season one, and it seems to have been an interminably long school…
A Dodgeball Named Desire is a clever, creative and involving hoot, contrasting the literary with the sporting. It is a decidedly fresh take on A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. First performed on Broadway in December 1947, that is the story of former Southern belle Blanche DuBois, whose personal circumstances have changed for the worse. An…
What was the overall feeling after watching Atomic Blonde? For me it was a mixture of confusion and excitement at the same time. Confusion because of the complex story with a multitude of twists and spy-related mumbo jumbo. To be honest, I always have that with this kind of movies. So you can assume that…
Mothering Sunday is a period drama about doomed love which comes across like an edgier variation on Upstairs Downstairs. The film is set mainly in the spring of 1924. The central character is Jane Fairchild (played by Australian actress Odessa Young), a maid working for the aristocratic Niven family. Jane is an orphan and although…
For better or worse, there’s only one Woody Allen. The master of that dry, self-deprecating New York wit is back with Café Society, a film that strikes me as possibly one of his most personal — as it serves as a kind of love letter to two things Allen clearly cares deeply about – old movies…
I went from thinking I was watching a badly acted telemovie to forming a genuine attachment to the British dork at the centre of this recreation of events that led to Eddie the Eagle soaring at the 1988 Winter Olympics. Inspired by truth, this is a feel-good story about Michael “Eddie” Edwards (Taron Egerton –…
Anyone afraid of snakes and creepy crawlies should probably look away now. In the vein of Arachnophobia and Eight Legged Freaks and their ilk comes yet another horror film featuring a nasty and lethal spider. Sting is the work of writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner, who specialises in low budget horror films like 2014’s Wyrmwood: Road of…
