In a crucial scene in Anatomy of a Fall, Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller) tells her son, “Everything you hear in the trial it’s just… it’s twisted. It wasn’t like that.” Indeed, a lot about Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winning drama isn’t what it seems. This multi-layered film presents a complex narrative web that invites its…
Starting in Georgia in 1909 and spanning 38 years, The Color Purple is based around the struggles of African-American woman Celie Harris (Fantasia Barrino). Celie and her sister Nettie (Halle Bailey), are brought up by their abusive father Alfonso (Deon Cole) since their mother died some time ago. Alfonso marries off Celie to an equally…
It’s been a boom time for new films from some of cinema’s great stylists. In the past 12 months, we’ve had new movies from the likes of Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese. Now we have a new release from Sofia Coppola in Priscilla; a layered, impressionistic portrait of the relationship between Priscilla Presley…
The sensitive fantasy-romance All of Us Strangers concerns two lost souls. Based on a novel by Taichi Yamada, the film is written and directed by Andrew Haigh (Lean on Pete). It’s a reflective, slow-burning and mysterious work. One night a triggered fire alarm sees screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) evacuate his apartment building temporarily. Staring up,…
The Iron Claw, which is based on a true story, sees a loving family is torn apart by a father’s “win at any cost” mentality. Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany) was a rising star of the wrestling circuit, but didn’t get the chance to be a world champion. Still, it is what continues to drive…
The movie musical of the Broadway musical of the movie of the book. That’s what we’ve got in 2024, with a film adaptation of the successful 2018 Mean Girls musical being released twenty years after the original hit movie penned by the wonderful Tina Fey. It made a household name out of Lindsay Lohan, and…
The Beekeeper is a wild ride – ultra-violent, over-the-top nonsense. But – dare I admit it – also a guilty pleasure. Some of the dialogue is horrendous. The scene that gets the plot going is extremely wooden. Plausibility is never in question because it simply doesn’t exist. And yet the choreographed action, with one man…
Alexander Payne doesn’t make movies all that regularly – only five full features between 2000 and 2020. But when he does, everyone takes notice. And while his previous film, Downsizing (2017) might have been a little underwhelming, there’s nothing disappointing about The Holdovers. Payne’s best-known film is probably Sideways (2004), and here he teams with…
A backyard pool all but becomes a living entity in the horror film Night Swim. The malevolent force does its worst early on before we settle into the main storyline, which loops back to what happened at the start. The appearance of a toy boat seemingly operating by itself in the dead of night portends…
On 14th August 1936, the US eights rowing crew did something very special at the Berlin Olympics. The Boys in the Boat is their story. The eight, plus an alternate and a cox were drawn from working class men during the Depression era. The team was handpicked by well-meaning and decent University of Washington coach…
