A dark family secret explodes in Joachim Lafosse’s disturbing drama A Silence. Astrid Schaar (Emmanuelle Devos) has said nothing about the deeply disquieting matter for 30 years, but a figure from the past triggers massive concern. Astrid’s renowned, media-savvy lawyer husband Francois (Daniel Auteuil) has been fighting an incendiary, high-profile case for five years. He…
The Despicable Me series, created by French filmmaker Pierre Coffin, has developed and expanded over the past 14 years, and the franchise has grossed over $4 billion worldwide. Given its success it’s no great surprise that we now have a fourth film in the series (not counting the two stand-alone Minions movies). Over the course…
A divertimento is a light piece of music, written just to amuse. But it’s a slightly incongruous title for Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar’s portrait of the conductor and composer Zahia Ziouani, because the film tackles some pretty heavy themes. To use a current term, this is an “origin story”; telling how a teenage Ziouani went from the…
The Sitting Duck (La Syndicaliste) is a political thriller based in fact. Director Jean-Paul Salome and co-screenwriter Fadette Drouard craft their story around a trade union official and whistleblower who wasn’t believed after a violent personal attack. The central figure is Maureen Kearney (Isabelle Huppert). In 2012, she worked for a Areva, a French multinational…
Finally, a sequel I can get behind! Maybe it’s got something to do with the fact Pixar have taken nine years to come up with a sequel to 2015’s Inside Out, but they’ve delivered something pretty special with Inside Out 2. I think the main reason this film works is that it actually makes sense….
A former star actor with a dark past tries to make a comeback in Joshua John Miller’s The Exorcism. Russell Crowe plays the actor, Anthony Miller. He’s cast as a priest, Father Arlington, in a supernatural horror film involving an exorcism. Miller was an altar boy who was molested. His wife became very ill with…
“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education”: Albert Einstein In Matamoros, Mexico, an idealistic teacher by the name of Sergio Jaurez Correa arrives at Jose Urbina Lopez Elementary School. It’s 2012 in a neighbourhood where poverty is entrenched, crime is rampant and corruption omnipotent. In many cases, due to basic survival…
The Bad Boys action-comedy franchise dates back to 1995. Now the fourth film in the series – Bad Boys: Ride or Die – sees buddy cops Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett defending their former boss’s honour. Detective Lowrey (Will Smith) has married his physical therapist, Christine (Melanie Liburd). His partner, Burnett (Martin Lawrence), has had…
In these days of endless sequels, prequels, re-boots and re-imaginings, it often feels odd to encounter something out of left field. But you can always trust French cinema to deliver something out of the ordinary – and director Bertrand Bonello delivers just that with The Beast. Bonello and his screenwriting partners Guillaume Bréaud and Benjamin…
From Oscar winning filmmaker Kevin MacDonald (Touching The Void) comes High & Low. This revealing documentary charts the rise and fall of legendary iconoclastic fashion designer John Galliano; who has been acclaimed as one of the greatest designers of the twentieth century. Galliano rose to prominence in London in the 1980s during the New Wave…
