Special Feature: The Best Films of 2011
The New Year is nearly upon us, and so to celebrate the denouement of what has been a fantastic 2011, CineVue’s top staff writers...
★★★☆☆ It’s 1918, and the elderly woman that terrorised the screaming youths of X is still a tender young thing, stuck on her parents’ farm and dreaming of a life of stardom in faraway Hollywood. How far removed from that wizened psychotic killer this cherubic vision now stands.
★★★★☆ There is tragedy and there is comedy, but the hinterland has never really received a proper definition. Melodrama suggests histrionics and musical accompaniment milking the emotional teat. Drama is too broad. And anyone who suggests “dramedy” should be punished. It would be “dramedic”.
★★★★☆ One year on from the events of the previous franchise entry, Ghostface is up to their old tricks again, slicing and dicing their way through a new batch of shrieking victims, the action now shifted to New York. With the new generation of Screamers now firmly installed, headed by the Carpenter sisters Sam and Tara (Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega), can the ghost(face)s of the past be laid to rest?
★★★☆☆ His heavyweight champion status secured, the now-retired Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) spends his days lounging around his Hollywood mansion, having tea parties with daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent) and running his gym with coach Little Duke (Wood Harris). But when a long-forgotten figure from Adonis’ past returns, his future is thrown into question.
★★★★★ Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Remi (Gustav De Waele) are best friends. At 13, they are intelligent and autonomous enough to be allowed a certain freedom, but still full of the childish and spontaneous joy of being and imagining. They pretend villains are attacking the castle, run through the flower fields, and have so many sleepovers together that Leo’s mum wonders aloud if he’ll ever come home.
★★★☆☆ “Family isn’t a word…it’s a sentence”. So ran the tagline to The Royal Tenenbaums. For Hirokazu Kore-eda it could be argued that it’s a whole career. From Still Walking to the Palme d’Or-winning Shoplifters, the Japanese auteur has spent the greater part of his career delineating the lines of attraction and repulsion, the dynamics of duty and care that make up families – both real and alternative.
The New Year is nearly upon us, and so to celebrate the denouement of what has been a fantastic 2011, CineVue’s top staff writers...
We’re extremely happy to announce that CineVue has been nominated for Best UK Film Blog Site 2011 at this year’s Richard Attenborough Film Awards. Voting...
★★★★☆ The idea of a second film adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo so soon after Neils Arden Oplev’s 2009 movie...
★★☆☆☆ Director Brad Bird is perhaps best known for Pixar efforts The Incredibles (2004) and Ratatouille (2007), but has now turned his hand to live...
★★★★☆ Starting its life as a successful children’s book by British writer Michael Morpurgo before consequent adaptations as a hugely successful international theatrical hit and...
The majestic surroundings of Manchester Town Hall played host to the final See Film Differently event of 2011, an exclusive preview screening of Phyllida...
★★★☆☆ Over three months on from its theatrical release – and as we approach its DVD/Blu-ray release on 26 December – it’s still difficult...
★★★☆☆ The Final Destination franchise, which began its life over a decade ago with the release of the 2000 original, holds a special place...
★★★☆☆ Wreckers (2011), written and directed by first time filmmaker D.R. Hood, is a technically accomplished drama starring the ever popular Benedict Cumberbatch –...
★★★★★ Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) – Vincente Minnelli’s timeless classic now rereleased by the BFI – is like an old friend you...
★★★★☆ Perfectly rounding off an exceptionally strong year for documentary filmmaking in style, Carol Morley’s Dreams of a Life (2011) is a warm-hearted and...
★★★☆☆ British director Guy Ritchie returns this week with steam-punk sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), with Robert Downey Jr. reprising his...
How do you review a film that you’re not allowed to talk about? New film releases are generally placed under an embargo of some...
★★☆☆☆ The First Movie (1999) is an ultimately disappointing, overly self-reverential documentary from filmmaker and journalist Mark Cousins, whose recent More4 TV series The...