Love him or hate him: Tarantino is marmite. On the whole I love him; the violence is so stylised I can’t take it seriously: I particularly admire Pulp Fiction (obviously!)  Django Unchained and  Inglorious Basterds.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
Brad Pitt (L) and Leonardo DiCaprio
credit: Andrew Cooper/Sony Pictures

The trailer for this movie made my mouth water in anticipation […]

The big question for me in a film where the music takes centre stage is whether the star really sings and plays? Let me reassure you that 28 year-old EastEnders actor Himesh Patel did indeed. His audition was to play a Coldplay song, and he chose the lesser-known We Never Change– and bingo! Nevertheless he had to learn […]

Two films starring middle-aged women in a row! And, I’m sad to report, this is another disappointment. It is an almost scene-for-scene re-make, so I’m told as I didn’t see the original, of Chilean director Sebastian Lelio’s 2013 film of the same name. This time Julianne Moore who stars was also executive producer.

For me it’s […]

As my loyal readers will know I rarely see romcoms as they’re not my thing. In this case I make an exception as I am a sneaky admirer of Emma Thompson, with the proviso that she’s always playing herself. The clipped received pronunciation, the squiffy mouth (like mine, perhaps that the main reason I like […]

I am not a fan of film comedy, but when I saw the slew of Oscar nominations for Can you ever forgive me?, and recalled of Melissa McCarthy’s hilarious performance in Spy, I hastily booked a ticket.

Based on yet another ‘true story’, this time the book Memoirs of a Literary Forgerby Lee Israel, penned after her conviction for […]

It’s amazing what actors will do to win an Oscar. Christian Bale, renowned for his method acting (and good looks), put on 45 lbs to play Dick Cheney; the efforts have resulted in a spot-on resemblance to the real thing, due to the all-over prosthetics and an uncannily creepy performance, but also nominations for both […]

Everyone of a certain age remembers Laurel & Hardy’s famous piano removal scene. It comes in the 1932 hit The Music Boxwhen the comic pair were the toast of Hollywood, and of their producer Hal Roach. This film starts a few years later in 1937 when their star is beginning to wane.

Stan Laurel (an astonishing portrayal […]

The Favouriteis ‘loosely based’ on history. So what of the film is true I wonder? Was Queen Anne really a lesbian? Did the rivalry between Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough and her cousin Abigail really exist? Before writing this, I realised I knew nothing of Queen Anne, save that she was the daughter of James II, […]

Sequels are always tricky and normally flops.  John Madden has managed to pull off anything but second-best in his return to Jaipur and our jolly geriatrics living out their twilight years in Sonny’s Marigold hotel. With the engagement and impending marriage of proprietor Sonny (Dev Patel) to Sunaina (Tina Desai) as the main event in a […]

Woody Allen seems obsessed with Europe, setting six out of his last seven movies there (I gave up counting after that).  Given that all six of these European films were mediocre at best, compared with the on-form Blue Jasmine, where Woody rediscovers his American roots and Jewish humour, I wonder what the attraction is.

So here we […]