Cinema
Sexed-up pacifism
Big-screen documentaries never change the world. Blackfish has not shortened the queues to see maltreated killer whales leap through hoops…
To the maddest max
No one goes slack-jawed in wonder at the movies any more. In our cyber-enabled times, kid designers can mega-pixelate any…
To the maddest max
No one goes slack-jawed in wonder at the movies any more. In our cyber-enabled times, kid designers can mega-pixelate any…
Rock bottom
The oeuvre of Chris Rock may not be fully known in this parish. He was the African-American stand-up who made…
Rock bottom
The oeuvre of Chris Rock may not be fully known in this parish. He was the African-American stand-up who made…
Crowd pleaser
Firstly, a message to all Marvel fanboys: there is nothing for you here. Nothing. No CGI, no endless battles, no…
Crowd pleaser
Firstly, a message to all Marvel fanboys: there is nothing for you here. Nothing. No CGI, no endless battles, no…
Superheroic failure
Avengers: Age of Ultron is the second film in the Avengers franchise, as written and directed by Joss Whedon, and…
Superheroic failure
Avengers: Age of Ultron is the second film in the Avengers franchise, as written and directed by Joss Whedon, and…
Cold frames
A Little Chaos is a period drama directed by Alan Rickman and starring Kate Winslet as a woman charged to…
All that glitters is not gold
Woman in Gold feels rather like a Jewish version of Philomena as this too is about an older woman seeking…
Twenty/forty vision
Every time I sit down to a Noah Baumbach film I think I’m going to hate it, but I never…
Knuckle-headed
Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella is a Disney film based on a Disney film, so is double Disney, if you like. It…
Horror show
The Voices is ‘a dark comedy about a serial killer’, which is not an overcrowded genre, and I think we…
Brought to book
Suite Française is being billed as a second world war romance about ‘forbidden love’ and, in this regard, it is…
Moore or less
There’s always seemed something masklike about Julianne Moore’s face: she seems walled in by her beauty. When she smiles, the…
How J-Lo can you go?
Stateside critics, who panned Jennifer Lopez’s new film The Boy Next Door on its US release last month, may be…
Hand over fist
And so, in the end, I went with my sister, Toni, to see Fifty Shades of Grey and we saw…
Home truths
You will be wondering why I haven’t seen Fifty Shades of Grey as this is very much Fifty Shades of…
Stealing a march
Selma, the civil rights film that stars David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, undoubtedly contains the best and most powerful…
Cruel to be kind
Trash is the sort of film one desperately wishes to be kind about — heart supremely, if not burstingly, in…
Great coat
A Most Violent Year is a riveting drama even though I can’t tell you what it’s about, or even what…
Puke the line
Wild is yet another film based on a true story, as currently seems to be in vogue for some reason.…
Slowly, slowly, catchy, catchy
Foxcatcher is a crime drama (of sorts) that has already been dubbed ‘Oscarcatcher!’ as it barely puts a foot wrong.…
Birdbrained
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, which stars Michael Keaton as a one-time superhero movie star (just like Keaton himself), is audacious…
