Fun, feisty and politically incorrect, Me and My Left Brain is a throwback to a different era. The film is a charming, if sometimes heavy-handed, boy-meets-girl story. Arthur (Alex Lykos) is in love with Helen (Chantelle Barry). He seeks advice from his best friend Vivien (Rachael Beck) but is constantly hounded by a voice in…
Growing old isn’t for sissies, they say. Netflix’s excellent series The Kominsky Method proves the axiom; but does it in a remarkably empathetic way. Television legend Chuck Lorre is behind the series. Apart from the behemoth that is The Big Bang Theory, Lorre produced series like Roseanne, Dharma & Greg and Two & a Half…
Poms is a comedy in which senior citizens act like teenagers. Martha (Diane Keaton) has cancer. So she sells up her belongings in the city and retreats to a sprawling retirement community where residents are promised the time of their lives for the rest of their lives. But Martha isn’t your typical resident – she…
Recently we’ve had a number of female-centric remakes of films with the likes of Ghostbusters, Ocean’s 8 and the atrocious What Men Want hitting cinemas, all of which were vastly inferior to the original. Now we get this female centric remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the hilarious 1988 comedy that teamed Michael Caine and Steve…
When my kids were younger, they loved Pokémon. They’ve now outgrown that phase but the undeniably cute characters remain with them – and me I guess. I can’t say I was ever a huge fan, but they were a social phenomenon for a while there. The Pokémon wave however crested some time ago, so the…
The classic tale of Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw is a crowd-pleaser for all ages. The latest production by the New Theatre is no exception. It’s a story that’s been told in many versions since it was written in 1912, the most loved being My Fair Lady. The play’s title is apt, named after the…
In the tradition of Forrest Gump, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir is a wild ride, which combines coincidence with circumstance. It’s a quirky cross-cultural fantasy about a good-natured thief who makes good. Aja (Dhanush) is a poor young fakir (or magician) from the streets of India, being brought up by his single mother, whom…
Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810 – 1891) was the master of smoke and mirrors; the ultimate flimflam man. Although often down on his luck and short of money, he always managed to find a way out. That had something to do with his vivid imagination and a lot more to do with his grounded wife, Charity….
Based on the hoary chestnut of opposites attracting, Long Shot is a far-fetched comedy that, by and large, works. I dare say it will appeal to many fans of the two leads, Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen, because a) they’re in it and b) it is so unlikely a tale, born of the #MeToo generation….
Movies about weddings, with all their inherent potential for high drama and comedy, are a popular choice for both filmmakers and audiences. Top Wedding, directed by Wayne Blair (The Sapphires), should prove a crowd-pleaser in this country although whether it will translate to overseas audiences will be interesting to watch. Marketed as a romantic comedy,…
