Based on a true story, Till is a film full of pain, grief, anger. It’s a powerful howl of outrage against a blatant miscarriage of justice that has never been rectified. In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall) was holidaying with his cousins in Mississippi. A native of Chicago, Emmett was an outgoing, high spirited,…
We are in Paris in 1899. Take the best actor in the world, in this case a middle-aged woman with a particularly healthy ego that is constantly being stoked. Her last stage role was a critical success but failed to sell tickets. This is a woman who doesn’t hold back – who always speaks her mind. She spends what…
What a phenomenal piece of writing by Andrew Bovell (who wrote the powerful Australian film Lantana, which debuted in 2001). When the Rain Stops Falling is a magnificently rendered, complex work that continually shocks and surprises. Its drip feed narrative comes together to form a most disturbing picture. It is only when the full truth outs that you…
I am faced with a predicament that I can’t say I have confronted too many times after a few decades of reviewing. I have just seen a compelling piece of theatre, which I am about to highly recommend, but I will resist going into detail about the plot. I choose not to do so because of political…
Set in the English coastal town of Margate during the turbulent early 1980s, Empire of Light is a sensitive romantic drama. Hilary (Olivia Colman) is manager of the local cinema, the Empire, situated across from the beach. She gets along well with her fellow workers, who include projectionist Norman (Toby Jones) and the diplomatic Neil…
After retiring from the ring three years ago, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) lives to fight another day in Creed III. The film starts back in the day when 15-year-old Creed (Thaddeus James Mixson Jr) was running around with his best friend, 18-year-old Damian Anderson (Spence Moore II), a boxing prodigy. Then a violent incident…
Lonesome is the sexually explicit sophomore feature from writer/director Craig Boreham, one of our finest exponents of queer cinema at the moment, and it follows his 2016 debut Teenage Kicks. The low-budget film looks at the commonality of the LGBTQI+ young men drawn to the big city and the allure of bright lights and excitement…
Aftersun is a sensitive, heartfelt and naturalistic film by debut writer-director Charlotte Wells. This beautifully reflective piece concerns an 11-year-old girl, Sophie (Frankie Corio) and the last holiday she took with her father Calum (Paul Mescal) two decades earlier. They travel from Scotland to a fading resort in Turkey. They swim, sunbathe, play pool, go…
The internet features prominently in the compelling new psychological thriller Missing from writer-directors Will Merrick and Nicholas Johnson. The film starts in San Antonio on April 13th, 2008. As caught on video camera, a father, James (Tim Griffin), is playing with his young daughter June (Ava Lee) when a trickle of blood is seen coming…
Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap opened in London’s West End on 25th November 1952 and has been running continuously (save for the COVID lockdown) ever since. It is fast approaching 30,000 performances, making it by far the longest running show (of any type) in the modern era. The play is also known for its twist ending – the audience asked…
