Cinema
Selma review: rich, nuanced, heartbreaking
Selma, the civil rights film that stars David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, undoubtedly contains the best and most powerful…
Trash, review: trash by name, trash by nature
Trash is the sort of film one desperately wishes to be kind about — heart supremely, if not burstingly, in…
A Most Violent Year, review: mesmerising performances - and coats
A Most Violent Year is a riveting drama even though I can’t tell you what it’s about, or even what…
Wild made me want to puke
Wild is yet another film based on a true story, as currently seems to be in vogue for some reason.…
Foxcatcher: piercing, shattering, spellbinding
Foxcatcher is a crime drama (of sorts) that has already been dubbed ‘Oscarcatcher!’ as it barely puts a foot wrong.…
Birdman: plenty to see, little to feel
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, which stars Michael Keaton as a one-time superhero movie star (just like Keaton himself), is audacious…
If you like bland films full of blondes, you’ll love Kon-Tiki
Kon-Tiki is a dramatisation of Thor Heyerdahl’s 4,300-mile, 101-day journey across the Pacific by balsa-wood raft, which took place in…
St. Vincent: too much lovability and not enough roguishness from Bill Murray
Is Bill Murray fit for sainthood? Certainly his fans have him figure as some sort of lesser divinity, maybe one…
Paddington review: put your mind at rest - no one gets marmalade up the bum
‘Please look after this bear,’ reads the famous label hanging round Paddington’s neck, and this film does that, admirably, handsomely,…
Just because The Homesman has a few women in it doesn’t make it a ‘feminist western’
The Homesman, which stars Hilary Swank and Tommy Lee Jones and is set in the Nebraska territory in the 1850s,…
The Imitation Game: a film that's as much in the closet as Alan Turing was
The Imitation Game is a biopic starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician who broke the German’s Enigma…
Interstellar: like Star Trek – but dumber and more tiring
Christopher Nolan’s futuristic epic Interstellar isn’t a clever film, or even a dumb film with a clever film trying to…
Mr Turner: the gruntiest, snortiest, huffiest film of the year - and the most beautiful too
Mr Turner may be the gruntiest film of the year, possibly the gruntiest film ever. ‘Grunt, grunt, grunt,’ goes Mr…
Fury: the men blow stuff up, then Brad Pitt takes his top off
Fury is a second world war drama that plays with us viscerally and unsparingly — I think I saw a…
The Best of Me is more of a sleepie than a weepie - especially when our old friend No Sexual Chemistry makes an appearance
Take tissues to The Best of Me, I’d read, as it’s such a weepie, so I took tissues, being a…
Effie Gray can effie off
Effie Gray, which has been written by Emma Thompson and recounts the doomed marriage of Victorian art critic John Ruskin…
David Fincher plays Gone Girl for laughs - at least I hope he is
Gone Girl is David Fincher’s adaptation of the bestselling thriller by Gillian Flynn, a relentless page-turner which I’ve heard people…
Outnumbered: The Movie (But Crap)
What We Did On Our Holiday is written and directed by Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton, the pair who created…
20,000 Days On Earth: is Nick Cave the missing link? Or the next stage in evolution?
Inspired by Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never (2011), Katy Perry’s Part of Me (2012) and One Direction’s This Is Us…
Ignore the simplistic politics, Pride will make you laugh and cry
1984 and all that. Which side were you on? The side of Margaret Thatcher, her hairdo and person standing rigid…
Before I Go to Sleep prefers creepy car parks to feelings
Before I Go To Sleep is Rowan Joffe’s adaptation of S.J. Watson’s bestselling thriller of 2011, but whereas the book…
Night Moves – the opposite of a Dan Brown film
Night Moves is a film by Kelly Reichardt, who also made the heart-wrenching Wendy and Lucy (2008), which may be…
Lucy: the shoot-outs, car chases and mysteries of the universe
Here’s an idea for an article: The Tree of Life (2011) is the most influential film of the past decade.…
The Inbetweeners 2 is as filthy as a teenage boy – and it's hilarious
The first Inbetweeners film made £45 million at the box office, and was such an unexpected smash there was always…
Allergic to blockbusters? See Wakolda
Wakolda is not a sunny film for a sunny day, just so you’re aware, but as there is so little…
