Director: Angela Schanelec Stars: Maren Eggert, Clara Moeller, Jakob Lassalle Abderrahmane Sissako's superb 2014 film Timbuktu opens and closes with imagery of a dashing springbok. In that film, the animal acts as a kind of totem for the irrepressible spirit of the Mauritanian people and their desire to escape Jihadi impingement. A fitting visual metaphor … Continue reading Review: I Was at Home, But…
Director: Aude Léa Rapin Stars: Adèle Haenel, Jonathan Couziníe, Antonia Buresi There are multiple ghosts haunting Aude Léa Rapin's narrative feature debut which, on the heels of a mixed reception at Cannes in 2019, has belatedly surfaced on MUBI in the UK. A quixotic mockumentary of sorts, Heroes Don't Die begins with Joachim (Jonathan Couziníe) … Continue reading Review: Heroes Don’t Die
Director: Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese Stars: Mary Twala, Jerry Mofokeng, Makhaola Ndebele Lesotho sits in the midst of South Africa; a landlocked island on a continent whose cinema seldom makes it to our shores. A vast area of filmmaking effectively silenced by poor distribution and widespread apathy to what it has to say. This makes any … Continue reading Review: This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection
Director: Bi Gan Stars: Huang Jue, Tang Wei, Sylvia Chang In a very specific but entirely fitting sense, Bi Gan's Long Day's Journey Into Night exists outside of time for me. The film was released in China on the last day of 2018. It received its (very limited) UK cinematic release in the last week … Continue reading Review: Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Director: Tom Hooper Stars: Francesca Hayward, Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift When I was 16 I took LSD for the first and only time in my life. I had anticipated, thanks to TV and film, to suddenly see conjured pink elephants and gateways to other dimensions. Time-lapsed flowering mushrooms and the like. That didn't really happen. … Continue reading Review: Cats
Director: J.J. Abrams Stars: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega You could feel it coming; a disturbance in the force. Gradually, as the press junkets for The Rise of Skywalker began, different members of the cast started speaking fondly of how Abrams' return felt so welcome. Abrams himself joined the fray. You could sense the urge … Continue reading Review: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Director: Sophia Takal Stars: Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Cary Elwes In an early scene of Sophia Takal's unfairly derided Black Christmas, Imogen Poots' Riley is selected in her classic literature class to suppose a writer's intention. She responds that the context-free quote speaks of how men think and women feel; that because of this it is a man's … Continue reading Review: Black Christmas (2019)
Director: Greta Gerwig Stars: Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson There's a scene in Noah Baumbach's Mistress America in which Greta Gerwig's character Brooke has to pitch her idea for New York restaurant called Mom's. The place would have big chunky furniture; where at the end of the night the chef and the service staff joined the … Continue reading Review: Little Women
The top ten If Beale Street Could TalkUsMadeline's MadelineThe Farewell The Irishman/I Heard You Paint HousesEighth Grade Monos Burning Support The GirlsHomecoming - A Film by Beyoncé Film Of The YearIf Beale Street Could Talk "In a very real sense If Beale Street Could Talk is one of the most ecstatic expressions of romance to … Continue reading The Best of 2019
Director: Jake Kasdan Stars: Karen Gillan, Danny DeVito, Awkwafina When, in combination, The Greatest Showman and Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle took more money for Sony than the last Bond film, it seemed inevitable that at least one of them would be franchised as quickly as possible. Jumanji was the obvious choice. After all, it was … Continue reading Review: Jumanji: The Next Level
Director: Mati Diop Stars: Mame Bineta Sane, Amadou Mbow, Nicole Sougou The Senegalese peninsular city of Dakar is one of West Africa's extremities, reaching out to the Atlantic. The city itself is eager to broaden its appeal to the developed world. In this earnest endeavour, disparities between rich and poor are ripe for observation, and … Continue reading Review: Atlantics
Director: Noah Baumbach Stars: Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Scarlett Johansson Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) were a happily married couple living in New York, until they weren't. Noah Baumbach's latest film - a mix of emotionally wrought drama and excruciating farce that plays out like a career summation - unpicks a marriage as … Continue reading Review: Marriage Story
Director: Elizabeth Banks Stars: Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Banks, Ella Balinska Brie. Edgar Bosley (Djimon Hounsou) - one of the handlers at the Townsend International Academy of Badassery (my name for it) - likes brie. We learn this some way into the movie. And its suitable, really. Actor/writer/producer/director Elizabeth Banks' rejuvenation of Charlie's Angels is the soft … Continue reading Review: Charlie’s Angels (2019)
Director: Stanley Kubrick Stars: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack If being a cinephile is a form of addiction (and it often feels like it is) then the films of Stanley Kubrick are its gateway drugs. Not Kubrick alone, granted, but there are a clutch of 'great' directors whose work is easily available, who open … Continue reading Review: Eyes Wide Shut (20th anniversary)
Director: Rian Johnson Stars: Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig, Toni Collette I had a disquieting experience going to see Knives Out which I think I want to talk about if you'll indulge me. Before the feature started, during the previews of coming attractions, the trailer for Taika Waititi's Nazi satire Jojo Rabbit played. A man - bald, … Continue reading Review: Knives Out
