A throwback to a time of homophobia, paranoia and fear, 1985 is a heartfelt realist tale. Having been gone for three years, closeted advertising executive Adrian (Cory Michael Smith) returns to his Texas hometown for the Christmas holidays. As the title suggests, it’s 1985, during the first wave of the AIDS crisis. Burdened with an…
For a while there, they were the most popular double act in the world. Laurel & Hardy were superstars of slapstick during the 1930s and ’40s. But all good things have to come to an end sometime; and director Jon S. Baird takes a warm-hearted look at the twilight of their careers in Stan &…
Oscar winning actor Kevin Spacey’s fall from grace was quite spectacular. Not only was his performance as John Paul Getty in Ridley Scott’s drama All the Money in the World deleted and his performance re-shot with Christopher Plummer, but he was fired from his hit TV series House of Cards and his character was killed…
Last year we saw the excellent documentary RBG, a comprehensive and insightful look at the life and legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the diminutive lawyer and champion of human rights and gender equality who became the second woman ever appointed to the bench of the US Supreme Court. Ginsburg, who graduated at the top of…
It’s one of history’s great rivalries. The intriguing story of Elizabeth I and her cousin Mary Stuart certainly has all the elements of a great movie – war, intrigue, family ties and treachery. But while Josie Rourke’s feminist retelling of the tale in Mary Queen of Scots hits the high points, it strays from the…
Do you like your period dramas to be fussy affairs filled with ruffles, secret courtships and proper manners? If you said yes, then The Favourite probably isn’t for you. Compared to traditional costume dramas, this is the cinematic equivalent of a Molotov cocktail. Idiosyncratic Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos steps tentatively into the mainstream with this…
I was totally overwhelmed by the grandeur, elegance and excitement in Colette – undoubtedly one of the films of the year. Keira Knightley stars as the title character, a French novelist whose provocative debut in the written word was falsely credited to her larger than life husband (a role filled by Dominic West). After marrying…
Apart from some exaggerated teeth, Bohemian Rhapsody is an absorbing biopic of a man, his music and a complicated life. That man is of course Freddie Mercury, a supremely talented show pony. He fronted one of the most successful rock bands of all time in Queen and the film’s title is highly appropriate for what…
The Bookshop is set in the sleepy small coastal village of Hardborough in 1959. Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) is a war widow who relocates to this small town with the aim of opening a bookshop. She loves books and wants to share this love with the townsfolk. She takes possession of the decaying old residence…
The title is quite a mouthful, but The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a delightful British crowd-pleaser that combines the impact of war with true love. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, the film tells the story of Juliet Ashton (Lily James), a free-spirited, successful writer living in post-WWII…
