This queen of the desert is not a bus named Priscilla. Rather she is a modern thinking, fiercely independent, headstrong and intelligent British woman named Gertrude Bell who is apparently right up there with the famed T E Lawrence as an important figure in contemporary Arab history. An explorer, writer, archaeologist and traveller, she had…
Haley Joel Osment spoke to dead people in The Sixth Sense, but Midnight Special is a different “other world” experience for the eight-year-old at the centre of this science fiction thriller. Much of the material is perplexing for a long time. The film starts off looking anything like it turns out. So, what do we…
I’m not a believer of those New Year’s resolutions which are traditionally made during a drunk moment. Usually they are long forgotten after a few months. However, I have a new resolution after watching The 5th Wave. I’m never ever going to watch another post-apocalyptic, teen film based on a youth book, where there’s also…
A sensitive and endearing tale that links three unlikely people – a student, a baker and an elderly woman – this Japanese movie was a selection for Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival. The title, An, refers to a sweet red bean paste, which is a favourite in Japan. Taciturn Sentaro (Masatoshi Nagase)…
Finally I was able to admire this highly anticipated feature film. Although, I wasn’t waiting impatiently for this new episode, like so many millions of other Star Wars fans. I always have to think hard while trying to situate this Star Wars movie in the whole saga. All that prequel, sequel or semi-sequel mumbo jumbo…
Geoffrey Rush plays a thoroughly dislikable character in The Daughter, a story inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, which screenwriter and director Simon Stone has also directed and adapted as a play. A slow-burn of a film, it is haunting and moody. In the last days of a dying logging town, Christian (Paul Schneider)…
Spielberg returns to the history of war long after War Horse, the story of a stallion with a Lassie attitude during WWI, but not with heroic images of the battlefield as in Saving Private Ryan. Bridge of Spies takes place during the Cold War, a period during which espionage was commonplace and super powers completely…
War may still be hell, but it’s changed remarkably as illustrated by Gavin Hood’s tense drama, Eye in the Sky. If your idea of warfare comes from Saving Private Ryan, Platoon or even Three Kings, this film will open your mind to some new – and quite frightening – ways in which nations project military…
Faith is put to the test in this tearjerker based upon a true story about a Christian family. It was Albert Einstein who said there are two ways to live your life – one as if nothing is a miracle and the other as though everything is. Many of us reach a crucial moment in…
An erotic psychological drama starring Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson, A Bigger Splash is a loose remake of Jacques Deray’s seductive 1969 film called La Picerne, which starred Alain Delon. Director Luca Guadagnino (better known for the gorgeous and visually sumptuous I Am Love) and writer David Kajganich (the dire Nicole Kidman sci-fi…
