To Chiara is the brainchild of Jonas Carpignano and the third in his Calabrian trilogy. But you don’t need to have seen the other two to appreciate this latest instalment. We are in Gioia Tuara in Southern Italy with the Guerrasio clan. Chiara (Swamy Rotolo), 15, is the middle child of a close-knit family. Family…
Director John Madden is a bit of an enigma. The Englishman is of course best known as the director of Shakespeare in Love. He’s also done some fine work in films like Proof (2005), The Debt (2010) and Miss Sloane (2016). But he also has Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Killshot on his resume. His new…
Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) is back with a breathtakingly beautiful film about childhood, loss and memory. Petite Maman (which translates to Little Mummy) focuses on an eight-year-old girl’s relationship with her mother. Nelly (Josephine Sanz) has just lost her grandmother. She and her mum Marion (Nina Meurisse) and father (Stéphanie Varupenne)…
Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife* is a story of hardship and resilience. This magnificently shot film follows a woman living in the Australian bush trying her best to raise four young children. Purcell plays Molly Johnson, a woman living in the Snowy Mountains in 1893. Molly’s husband – as the title suggests – is a…
Those with long memories might recall the consternation back in the early 2000s when storied horror director Sam Raimi – of Evil Dead fame – was tapped to direct Marvel’s Spider-Man (2002). Of course, it all turned out fine. After three Spider-Man movies, Raimi returned in a more limited way to his horror roots. Now…
The final film from director Roger Michell (whose drama The Duke is currently screening in cinemas), Elizabeth: A Portrait in Part(s) is a documentary about Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning British monarch. The documentary has been released to coincide with her platinum jubilee. While this may not be the definitive portrait of Queen Elizabeth…
Creator Julian Fellowes seems determined to squeeze every last drop out of the Downton Abbey saga. The popular television series set in the impressive titular stately rural mansion home of the wealthy Crawley clan finished its run in 2015, but Fellowes revived it with a stand-alone film (also titled Downton Abbey) in 2019 that brought…
Artificial intelligence is in the spotlight in the sensitive science fiction drama After Yang. Yang (Justin H. Min) is a highly evolved bot bought as a culturally appropriate big brother for young Chinese adoptee Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja). Mika is daughter to Jake (Colin Farrell), who runs a tea shop, and Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), a…
I’m just gonna say it – The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is the greatest Nicolas Cage movie ever. That might be because it’s basically every Nicolas Cage movie ever, but still… the greatest! Writer-director Tom Gormican and co-writer Kevin Etten have created a film that celebrates everything that’s wonderful about Cage (at least his…
Director Robert Eggers previously gave us the supernatural stylings of 2015’s The Witch and 2019’s austere and claustrophobic The Lighthouse. Now, with The Northman, he gives us a violent, gory tale of revenge and morality set in 10th century Iceland that takes its cues from Shakespeare’s classic tale Hamlet. King Aurvandill War Raven (Ethan Hawke)…
