The Good Liar
Pros and Cons
Well, the trailer certainly persuaded me. Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren giving naturalistic portrayals of ‘ordinary’ folk? The likes of Russell Tovey and Jim…
Film Reviews
The Dead Don’t Die
Yawn of the Dead
Anticipation was sky high for Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die. Understandable, considering the cast list. Fully aware this was its strongest…
Hilda
Dancing on the Edge
Hilda sets its stall out immediately. A brief pre-title sequence sees a young woman lost in movement among the neon lights of a dingy club. It’s pumping…
To Tokyo
Dream Demon
To Tokyo is intriguing on a number of levels. Firstly, it’s an entirely independent UK labour-of-love that alternates between urban Japan, and the…
Homeless Ashes
Mean Streets
The story of homelessness in the UK is one of rising numbers. It’s an inconvenient truth that exists in the shadows, ignored by so many. This…
Midsommar
Wicker Mania
Folk horror’s come of age recently. In the early days it was little more than a loose link between three works from the glory days of British horror, which…
Yesterday
Magical History Detour
There’s some sort of holy trinity within the creative DNA of Yesterday. An exploration of The Beatles songbook? Through a Richard Curtis script?…
Rocketman
Specs & Drugs & Rock & Roll
It’s like buses. You wait ages for a musical biopic of a prodigiously talented, flamboyant musical icon who peaked in the seventies …and then two come…
The Isle
Shore of the Dead
In a horror landscape terrorised by big-budget slasher remakes, twisting psychodramas and haunted doll sequels, you could be forgiven for thinking that…
The Favourite
Monarchy in the UK
Halfway through The Favourite, I realise it’s coming across like a sumptuous cross-breed of Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975) and the TV show The Thick Of It…
Stan & Ollie
Comic Timing
Biopics can be risky. The fame of the actor can itself become a barrier to accepting them as the subject. Thankfully, this is not a problem Stan & Ollie…
Roma
The Handmaid’s Tale
After the stratospheric exhilarations of Gravity (2013), Alfonso Cuarón’s next feature-length mission could hardly be more down-to-earth. In fact it’s hard to…
Suspiria
The Hex Factor
With the original representing the high watermark of the Italian ‘giallo’ style of horror movie, we might assume this 2018 update would slot straight into the…
Widows
The Art of the Steal
With his origins in the contemporary art of video installation, Turner prize-winning Steve McQueen’s gradual transition to popular cinema has brought….
Hunter Killer
Sub Standard
They say films reflect the times in which they’re produced. So no wonder I’ve just sat through a violent, militaristic prepostero-fantasy about the brink of…
Apostasy
Witness Statement
It may not sound like the most inviting proposition; bearing witness to the damage religion can do to a family’s interpersonal relationships. But in…
Hereditary
Curse of the Mummy
There’s much to admire in this full-blooded frightener from production-company-of-the-moment A24. But also, an equal amount that frustrates. We…
Leave No Trace
The Running Man
Ben Foster has been consistently delivering stand-out performances since his memorably psychotic turn in 2006’s Alpha Dog. His was the performance…
Matsuchiyo – Life of a Geisha
Memoirs of a Geisha
Forget the 2005 Japanesque Hollywood epic that’s inevitably donated its name for the subheading above… This film, truly and literally, is the memoirs of a…
Beast
Primal Suspect
Beast’s primary triumph is that it’s so impressive for a debut. Writer-director Pearce carves a singular niche with a spirit of originality that keeps you gripped…
Ghost Stories
Tales from the Triptych
The tiny sub-genre of the anthology or ‘portmanteau’ horror enjoys a unique status in the story of British film. Adored by its aficionados …but never taken…
Phantom Thread
His Dark Material
Daniel Day-Lewis has announced he’s to depart the fashion house of film after one final turn with former collaborator Paul Thomas Anderson. Such a reunion…
The Bromley Boys
Teenage Kicks
The Bromley Boys lovingly transports us back to the tatty football terrace of our youth, rekindling that first flush of infatuation with the beautiful game…
One Crazy Thing
Sex Tape and the City
You’ll be familiar with the traditional rom-com set-up. You know the one: Boy seeks girl. Boy meets girl. Boy has to explain that a sex tape from his previous…
Hostiles
Bale Rider
The post-Unforgiven (1992) era of westerns could be summed up by pointing to their decrease in quantity being more than compensated for by their increase…
The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
Shooting Game
Following on from his pincer-sharp adult fairy tale The Lobster (2015), Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a more menacing…
Geostorm
Storm Warning
Even the time in which Geostorm is set is patently ludicrous. In the future, the nations of the world have come together to construct a globe-spanning…
The Death Of Stalin
The Late Dictator
Supreme Leader of The Satirical Party, Armando Ianucci, switches focus historically and geographically for his latest. The patent inanities of TV hits…
Loving Vincent
True Colours
Vincent Van Gogh has always stood apart from his Post-Impressionist peers by being so …expressive. A key instigator of the late 19th century art movement…
The Ritual
The Petrified Forest
We are knowingly hiking into familiar horror terrain with this tale of bachelor party backpackers getting drawn off the beaten track and into the wilds of…
Baby Driver
Tyre Tracks
Deciding what delicacy to serve up after the sweet and refreshing ‘Cornetto trilogy’ was always going to be a tall order for Edgar Wright. Forged in the…
Ghostroads: A Japanese Rock ‘n’ Roll Ghost Story
Screamin’ J-Rawkins
Who knew that the formative spirits of rock ’n’ roll like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley still haunt the downtown clubs and back alleys of…
London Symphony
Concrete Concerto
The popularity of BBC4’s ‘ambient TV’ strand might reflect a growing and pervasive desire to escape the relentlessness of the digital age. It could…
A Monster Calls
Tree Stories High
It’s reasonable to assume that this adaptation of Patrick Ness’ lauded coming-of-age novel would be targeted at those of the same tender age as the boy at its…
Silence
Faith/Off
Scorsese’s latest could not take us further away from the mean streets of New York mob violence that we associate with his name. Silence, epic adaptation…
Sully
The Miracle Man
Profiling all-American heroes has become something of a motif for Clint Eastwood the director. The nationalistic patriotism of American Sniper…
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Death Star
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a film about the Death Star, and the biggest star in it …is dead. Its premise realises the mythic raid to steal the plans of…
Edith
Lone Survivor
BAFTA long-listed short Edith offers an authentic and emotive glimpse into one of the most prevalent but heart-breaking taboos of our times, loneliness in…
Nocturnal Animals
A Night’s Tale
For the second night in a row I find myself watching Amy Adams front a drama with something profound to reflect on the human condition. Nocturnal…
Arrival
Close Encounters of the Word Kind
The fantasy of alien invasion is an oddly comforting staple of the movies, stretching back to The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), The War of…
Changeover
Grief Encounter
Amazon’s first runaway feature success, Manchester by the Sea (2016), made a strong contender for the Best Picture Oscar. Meanwhile, a smaller-scale…
The Girl On The Train
Loco Motive
To those who don’t know the enormously successful book, The Girl On The Train’s tagline is enough of an engine to pull in the casual onlooker by…
The Neon Demon
Fashion Victim
You get the feeling that Drive (2011) set Nicolas Winding Refn free. Free to navigate any cinematic route he chooses. It was his getaway vehicle to…
Love & Friendship
Class Act
While the period drama is a singularly popular genre, boasting a fine number of British gems, the sub-genre of period comedy is severely less populated by…
The Jungle Book
Tale of Tails
A small pack of live action upgrades of Disney’s The Jungle Book has emerged from the undergrowth, blinking nervously, on a few previous…
Midnight Special
Son Light
Midnight Special’s advance poster beautifully represents the movie (other) world on offer. The unearthly glow shining out from behind…
Anomalisa
The Best Neurotic Marionette Hotel
Stepping into a movie world curated by Charlie Kaufman guarantees a visit to the left field of cinema. Often to virgin territory. His is one of the few…
My Feral Heart
Tell Tale Heart
In the immediate aftermath of the shocking Brexit result, I was lucky enough to catch a micro-budget British indie at the East End Film…
High-Rise
Multi Story
Robert Laing is going up in the world. He’s just moved into a stark and imposing tower block on the edge of some nameless conurbation…
The Witch
Into the Woods
It’s been noted in horror fan circles that the 17th Century is a period scarcely visited by the genre, despite being rooted in such dramatically…