Once upon a time, cinema was the vanguard of daring ideas. In 1957, for example, Ingmar Bergman had his protagonist play chess with the Grim Reaper. Popular cinema always dominated the box office (then as now), but in the late 2010s, daring films seemed to have been pushed to the very margins. The pandemic has…
Unlike a lot of filmmakers, Steven Soderbergh seems quite content being part of the streaming revolution. Alongside The Laundromat, the director booked another film for Netflix. High Flying Bird is rather more subdued than The Laundromat, but it shares some of that film’s DNA. Both are concerned with corporate power; and although the earlier release…
In 2009, Heath Ledger won a posthumous Oscar for his remarkable performance as the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Now, Joaquin Phoenix is destined for the 2020 Academy Awards in a similar guise, as the lead in Todd Phillips’ crime-thriller Joker. This is an unusual origin story set in the early 1980s. Joker…
If you liked Deadpool 2 but were put off by the graphic language and violence, then Once Upon a Deadpool is for you. This teen-friendly version is surprisingly inventive and, in some respects, works better than the original. As you might imagine, cutting out a lot of the swearing and gore has trimmed the movie…
Marvel’s most, um… inappropriate, superhero returns in Deadpool 2. And if you liked the original’s blend of raunchy humour and super doings, this has more of the same. David Leitch (Atomic Blonde) replaces Tim Miller in the director’s chair but the difference in style is largely imperceptible. Deadpool 2 offers pretty much a re-run of…
