Steve McQueen blows up the heist movie with Widows. Then he picks up the pieces and puts them back together with an Allen key. This fascinating jigsaw of a movie is definitely not what you might expect, but it’s also one of the most intriguing films of the year. It’s almost like McQueen decided to…
The most festive of the traditional Christmas family film offerings this year is Diney’s live action stunner, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. With writing credits including the original Nutcracker storyteller, ETA Hoffman and a score of whimsically re-arranged motifs from Tchaikovsky’s much-loved ballet of the same name, this new film adaptation is a little…
Sometimes trailers can be misleading; but sometimes they’re spot on. Like the trailer for Robin Hood, for example. Its trailer made it look, well, dreadful. And it was completely accurate. Director Otto Bathurst has jerry-rigged a kinetic mess of a movie. Tightly choreographed fight scenes and a thumping score reminded me Guy Ritchie’s more bombastic…
The Harry Potter franchise has been one of the most successful in movie history. Not content with having all the books adapted though, J. K. Rowling expanded the “universe” in 2016 with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Now Rowling takes the series further with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Rowling does the…
David Lowery is a hard director to pin down. His versatility means he’s equally at home in a bleak crime drama (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints), a supernatural love story (A Ghost Story) or a family-friendly adventure (Pete’s Dragon). Now he brings us The Old Man and the Gun, a kind of family-friendly crime drama and…
Ignorance is bliss, they say. And in the case of Fede Alvarez’s The Girl in the Spider’s Web, they might just be right. The film is a continuation of the so-called Millennium saga, originating from Steig Larsson’s books. You’re probably familiar with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was made into both Swedish (2009)…
Journey’s End The true horrors of war feature in the somber WWI film, Journey’s End. The movies tells the story of a company led by the war-weary Captain Stanhope (Sam Claflin), waiting to take its turn in the front-line trenches in northern France. A German offensive is imminent and the officers (played by Paul Bettany,…
Watching Boy Erased is hard work. It’s a downbeat look at a religious doctrine absolutely committed to outlawing homosexuality. You pity the poor souls who face indoctrination aimed at exorcising what is regarded as a vile sin. Boy Erased tells the true story of Jared Eamons (Lucas Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in…
As the director of delicate human dramas like Call Me by Your Name, Luca Guadagnino probably wasn’t the obvious choice to direct a remake of Dario Argento’s blood-spattered cult favourite, Suspiria (1977). But that’s exactly what he’s done and the results are impressive. Guadagnino hasn’t gone for a straight remake. This is a marked departure…
The future world looks fairly simplistic. Mankind has been transformed into a superficial society in which the truly kindhearted population has nestled in one or another oasis, while the riotous part indulges in looting and hanging out in a striptease/dance temple or drug centers. Also choosing names will be simpler in that period, as it…
