Last orders
Ken Loach has said The Old Oak will be his last film – he’s 87; the golf course probably beckons.…
Gods and monsters
The Lesson is a literary thriller that is occasionally heavy-handed but also menacingly entertaining, plus you get Richard E. Grant…
Wet, wet, wet
A Haunting in Venice is Kenneth Branagh’s third Poirot film (after Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the…
A drama without drama
Past Lives is an exquisite film made with great precision and care about what could have been, even if what…
Crimes of Paris
Georges Simenon’s lugubrious detective Maigret has appeared in umpteen screen adaptations and dozens of actors have played him. Now it’s…
Fighting spirit
Scrapper is a film about a working-class kid who, after her mother dies, has to look after herself. I know…
Going to the dogs
Based on the poster showing two cute dogs – a border terrier and a Boston terrier – I had assumed…
Splitting headache
Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant quantum physicist and ‘father of the atomic bomb’ who…
Feminist phooey
Finally, the Barbie film is here, for which we must be thankful, as the tsunami of pre-publicity meant you probably…
Breaking the sound barrier
You’d have to have a heart of stone to not be moved by Name Me Lawand. It’s a documentary about…
Business as usual
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth and final film in the franchise so it’s Harrison Ford’s…
False notes
Chevalier is a biopic of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, whom you’ve probably never heard of, as I hadn’t. He…
A fight to the Finnish
When I went into the Sisu screening I knew only that it was a Finnish film, so was expecting an…
Girl’s world
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is an adaptation of Judy Blume’s seminal young adult novel (1970) about an…
The end is in sight
Plan 75 is a dystopian Japanese drama about a government-sponsored euthanasia programme introduced to address Japan’s ageing society. Aged 75…
Hook up
Peter Pan & Wendy is Disney’s latest live-action remake (the animated version was in 1953) and it’s quite the sombre…
To be a pilgrim
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is an excellent adaptation of Rachel Joyce’s bestselling novel (2012) about a retired old…
Second worst person in the world
Sick of Myself is a satire from Norway that skewers the ‘look at me, look at me’ generation addicted to…
A grievous and murderous hatred
I first discovered writer Patricia Highsmith (Strangers on a Train, Carol, the five Ripley novels) as a young teenager working…
Mummy’s curse
There are some films that you know will be quality simply by the actors who have agreed to be in…
Domino effect
The Beasts is a rural psychological thriller from Spain that has won many awards across Europe and even though we…
Alan key
Allelujah, based on the stage play by Alan Bennett, is set in a geriatric ward in a Yorkshire hospital and…
