Cinema
Pride and prejudice
1984 and all that. Which side were you on? The side of Margaret Thatcher, her hairdo and person standing rigid…
Brain drain
Before I Go To Sleep is Rowan Joffe’s adaptation of S.J. Watson’s bestselling thriller of 2011, but whereas the book…
Dambusters
Night Moves is a film by Kelly Reichardt, who also made the heart-wrenching Wendy and Lucy (2008), which may be…
Superhuman Scarlett
Here’s an idea for an article: The Tree of Life (2011) is the most influential film of the past decade.…
Into the bush
The first Inbetweeners film made £45 million at the box office, and was such an unexpected smash there was always…
Monster in our midst
Wakolda is not a sunny film for a sunny day, just so you’re aware, but as there is so little…
All whimsied out
Your enjoyment of Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo may entirely depend on how much visual whimsy you can take, what your…
Summer viewing
Was Kate due a grounding after the awards extravaganza of Revolutionary Road and The Reader? Because Labor Day (12A) slipped…
The trying game
The trouble with Believe is that, unless you are ten years old or under, which I’m assuming you are not,…
Private eye
Finding Vivian Maier is a documentary about the American nanny who led a wholly secretive life as a photographer and…
Stuff happens
Richard Linklater’s observational chronicle, Boyhood, was 12 years in the making and is 166 minutes long — that’s nearly three…
Run away
If it were up to me this would be called ‘The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window, Fell, and…
Hit and miss
As far as ‘jukebox films’ go, Mamma Mia! was a riot, Sunshine on Leith was tolerable, just about, while Walking…
Teen spirit
The Fault in Our Stars, which is based on the bestselling young-adult novel by John Green, is about two teenagers…
Petticoats galore
Belle is based on the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate, mixed-race daughter of a sea captain and…
Irresistible turkey
Grace of Monaco, the Grace Kelly biopic starring Nicole Kidman, is an absolute joy, and I highly recommend it. Unless…
Land of Overkill
If a gang of knife-wielding toddlers ever presses you for the name of the best Disney film, Sleeping Beauty (1959)…
Love actually
When you see the latest corporate entertainment juggernaut hurtling at you, what are your options? When I saw X-Men: Days…
Visual bombast
Godzilla is from the director Gareth Edwards, a Brit whose first film, Monsters, truly put him on the map, as…
Out of the ordinary
Frank is a music biopic, but only of sorts, as it is not at all like your average music biopic.…
Shock and gore
Blue Ruin is a low-budget yet highly accomplished revenge thriller although whether you have the stomach for it is another…
Insult to women
The Other Woman is not just an extremely bad film but also a wholly reprehensible one (she says, with her…
A leap too far
Have you seen that pizza with a cheeseburger crust? If not, just imagine a normal pizza, except where the pizza…
Road to redemption
If the very first scene of Calvary doesn’t immediately draw you in there’s every chance there is something seriously wrong…
Double trouble
I should warn you that if you go see The Double it is one of those films that will trouble…
