This is a western with a difference.  Opening in the present with the gruesome and mysterious discovery of two skeletons buried side by side, we are suddenly transported into the 1820s and a cantankerous beaver-trapping party. Cookie (John Magaro) is failing to do his job and comes across a naked Chinaman King-Lu (Orion Lee) whom he […]

How does a 20-year-old girl get to write and direct her own movie (written in fact when she only 15)? I guess it helps if you are Suzanne Lindon and your parents are the French stars Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlain, but it’s still an extraordinary achievement not only to pull it off but also […]

Hurray for the big screen again! In fact it’s the only place you can – quite rightly – watch Anthony Hopkins’ masterclass study of Alzheimer’s. Adapted from a play Le Pere, and co-scripted by Christopher Hampton, it does sometimes feel like that the drama is restricted to ‘home’ – albeit which one? His daughter’s flat? […]

As we came out of the cinema we turned to each other and said, what was that all about? The Doctor said – religion, the writer said relationships, I said ‘They fuck you up your mum and Dad’. The two writers are unsure whether we like it, the Doctor said it made her feel that […]

This film has been heavily criticised for being worthy and avoiding the big questions, for the lack of any real baddies, aside from the faceless (masked) torturers. It tells the  memoir of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Tahar Rahim, who found fame in the marvellous prison movie, Le Prophet), the eponymous Mauritanian. Two months after 9/11, he […]

This has to be one of the most over-hyped movies I have seen for a while. My Slovak friend and I (of Czech origin) had plumped for this having read and heard good things about it. She is a film producer and director and knows a thing or two.
So when I, after half an hour, […]

Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress: Nomadland won all these in the 2021 Oscars. Did it deserve them?
Nomadland’s docu-fiction classification is unique. It tells the story of Fern (Frances McDormand), a widow who has had to leave her life behind when the mine in her home-town in rural Nevada went bust. With no money […]

Ruben and Lou are a heavy-metal duo, musically and romantically, and they tour the US in their luxury RV. Their world falls apart when Ruben suddenly goes catastrophically deaf (hardly surprising really as their ‘music’ is cacophonous). Ruben is determined to save their band and relationship by regaining his hearing; Lou, with the help of […]

I admit to being flummoxed as to why this film has been nominated for Best Picture and Carey Mulligan as Best Actress in the 2021 Oscars. And it’s got three more nods in addition…screenplay, film editing and  best director: Emerald Fennell is better known as being Camilla in The Crown and a showrunner in Killing […]

Twenty-five years after the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the largest civilian massacre since the second world war, writer-director Jasmila Žbanić recreates the event with horrifying historical authenticity.
Interpreter Aida – a haunting  performance by Jasna Đuričić – is caught up in the UN’s betrayal of the Bosnian Muslims. Despite so-called assurances from Serb General  Ratko […]