Tag: british film
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Thursday, August 18th, 2022 Film Reviews,Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is that rare cinematic beast – a two-hander. The very nature of the cinema prompts filmmakers to stuff plays with extra scenes and characters when adapted for the screen. The worry is that audiences will feel bored by long conversations between two people, or miss the usual […]
The Forgiven
Friday, July 29th, 2022 Film Reviews,No-one is ever really “forgiven” in a film scripted and directed by John Michael McDonagh, or his brother, Martin. Like the Coens or Jim Jarmusch, the McDonaghs specialise in overturning the cinema’s age-old storytelling conventions. In a James Bond movie, for instance, a large part of the audience’s pleasure comes from watching the same predictable […]
Benediction
Thursday, June 9th, 2022 Film Reviews,Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare. But the past is just the same–and War’s a bloody game… Have you forgotten yet?… Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget. […]
Last Night in Soho
Friday, November 26th, 2021 Film Reviews,Every movie made by British director, Edgar Wright, feels like a classic hits compilation album. With pop songs of the 1960s and 70s being belted out at regular intervals it gives the impression the action has been tailored to match the soundtrack. Baby Driver (2017) took its title from a Simon and Garfunkel song, and […]
Downton Abbey (the movie)
Thursday, September 12th, 2019 Film Reviews,While the world had a collective orgasm over the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May 2018, Julian Fellowes would have been enjoying his own private celebration. After six highly successful seasons of the TV series, Downton Abbey, Fellowes could see the Royal nuptials creating a highly receptive environment for his next […]
Sometimes, Always, Never
Wednesday, March 13th, 2019 Film Reviews,Bill Nighy is one of those actors who tends to polarise his audience. Some viewers can’t get enough of him, others find him mannered and irritating. After watching Nighy go through his paces on many occasions I can only conclude that the mannerisms are down to the man, not the role. His self-conscious blend of […]
On Chesil Beach
Friday, August 10th, 2018 Film Reviews,Ian McEwan has complained about the difficulty of writing screenplays, and may have even sworn he’d never do it again. Nevertheless, here he is, adapting his own slender novel of 2007, On Chesil Beach. The book is not one of his best, being largely a sketch that revolves around a single, terrible night that changes […]
Goodbye Christopher Robin & The Teacher
Friday, November 24th, 2017 Film Reviews,Two films released this week look at the damage that may be inflicted on children by parents and teacher. Goodbye Christopher Robin shows us how A.A.Milne virtually destroyed his son’s life by making him the hero of the best-selling Winnie the Pooh stories. The Teacher, set in Bratislawa in 1983, is a much darker affair, […]
Lady MacBeth
Friday, July 7th, 2017 Film Reviews,Never underestimate the power of boredom. In Nikolai Leskov’s novella, Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk (1865), we hear about “that peculiarly Russian boredom, the boredom which… it is said, makes even the thought of hanging oneself seem a cheerful prospect.” In his debut feature, British director, William Oldroyd, transposes the Leskov’s Gothic tale from provincial Russia […]
Hysteria
Saturday, July 14th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing, Uncategorized,For centuries hysteria was one of the most mysterious conditions known to medical science. The ailment was exclusive to women, and is believed to have been first diagnosed by the ancient Greeks. Plato echoed the belief that its diverse symptoms were due to a “wandering womb” that floated throughout the body causing all sorts of […]