Compelling performances drive Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, a love story between an older woman and a young man. I’m not talking about just any older woman. But let me go back and explain. In late September 1981 Peter Turner received a phone call that would change his life forever. His former lover, Hollywood actress Gloria Grahame,…
Peter Berg’s Patriots Day looked at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the massive police manhunt for the terrorists that followed. Berg gave the material an almost documentary-like feel as he explored the stories of many of the people involved. Many more tales from that atrocity however have gone untold. Stronger tells a more personal…
I have no idea why a director of Clint Eastwood’s standing would associate himself with such a poor quality movie as The 15:17 to Paris. Maybe because it features three heroes who play themselves? But let’s face it, they’re not actors and this isn’t a documentary. I’m talking about Anthony Sadler; National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos; and US…
Who would have thought that one of the biggest – and tawdriest – sports scandals of the 20th Century could play out as Greek tragedy? But Australian director Craig Gillespie (The Finest Hours) manages that – and a lot more – with I, Tonya. This ingeniously devised film delves into the life of Tonya Harding,…
All the Money in the World is prolific filmmaker Ridley Scott’s dramatization of the real life kidnapping of J Paul Getty III. He was the 16-year-old grandson of oil magnate J Paul Getty, the richest man in the world (Christopher Plummer). In 1973, the teenage Getty (Charlie Plummer, no relation to Christopher) was living in…
Andrew Garfield’s representation of a severely disabled polio victim in Breathe reminded me of Eddie Redmayne’s Oscar-winning portrayal of Stephen Hawking in 2014’s The Theory of Everything. Andy Serkis’s directorial debut tells the true story of Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield) and his wife Diana (Claire Foy), starting in 1957. This is a couple that refuses to give…
If The Room isn’t the worst commercially released movie of all time, I don’t know what is. It’s badly acted and directed, and its script doesn’t make any sense. Against all expectations though, it has developed a cult following, with midnight screenings around the world selling out. Made for a reported US$6 million (of writer, director,…
There have been a few great films about heroic firefighters, and the best of them is, arguably, Ron Howard’s Backdraft. Others include Irwin Allen’s star-studded disaster movie The Towering Inferno and the 1968 Hellfighters, which starred John Wayne as fictitious version of the legendary Red Adair. And while Only the Brave is a moving homage…
The insidious use of power in an unlikely setting is the basis for The Teacher, a wickedly clever black comedy. The film is inspired by the true story of a Communist-era schoolteacher who manipulated her pupils and their families for unprecedented personal gain. Jan Hřebejk (Divided We Fall) directs. It is the early 1980s and the…
I thoroughly enjoyed Winnie-the-Pooh as a child, and the movie behind the creation of the characters is equally satisfying. Goodbye Christopher Robin provides a rare glimpse into the relationship between beloved children’s author Alan Alexander Milne (played here by Domhnall Gleeson) and his son Christopher Robin (Will Tilston). After returning from the First World War, Milne was left…
