Matthew Anderson

★★☆☆☆ There’s only so much gravitas a Morgan Freeman voiceover can bring to a project. As Stephen Campanelli’s Momentum (2015) opens, he proclaims: “We are to engineer an event to shape the destiny of our country.” Platitudes and a handful of telephone calls aside, the power-hungry senator has little impact from the wood-panelled corridors of…

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★★★★☆ Perhaps more so than any other popular medium, sport is an effective means of bringing about social change. Cricket might not be at the top of that list for some but a group of young men from Kenya had other ideas. With a story as enchanting, life-affirming and soulful as it is unusual, first…

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★★★★☆ An irrational fear of the number thirteen is not a concept that many will be familiar with. Unlucky or not, the word in of itself held no particular meaning for convicted murderer Nick but is representative of the process of learning, self-education and personal enlightenment he achieved through a voracious appetite for books while…

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★★☆☆☆ In Al Gore’s 2006 sobering documentary An Inconvenient Truth the man who “used to be the next President of the United States” relied heavily on charts, infographics and statistics to shock viewers into a collective sense of responsibility when tackling global warming. In the wake of her best-selling book of the same name, Naomi…

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★★★☆☆ A cursory Google search for ‘Charlie Hebdo’ reveals that the satirical magazine continues to fly dangerously close to the sun. Less than a week since the Sinai plane crash, a cartoon equating debris falling from the wrecked fuselage with the continuation of Russia’s bombing of ISIS has sparked a predictably vehement backlash. The controversial,…

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★★★☆☆ Davis Guggenheim opens his latest documentary, He Named Me Malala (2015), with its most essential element – the voice of Malala Yousafzai. Instantly recognisable, she narrates the animated story of an Afghan heroine who spoke out against the invasion of British forces at Maiwand in 1880. Leading the Pashtun to a great victory, she…

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★★★★☆ In the opening moments of Karen Guthrie’s understated and extremely moving The Closer We Get (2015) her car glides along darkened roads at twilight, the way ahead lit only as far as low beams will permit. The notion of driving into the unknown and of unseen elements hidden in obscure surroundings is a clear…

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★★☆☆☆ A meticulously coiffed Bradley Cooper cruises around town on a superbike. Haute cuisine relies just as heavily on presentation as actual substance and Cooper still looks the part in John Wells’ Burnt (2015) – even as a recovering addict and bad boy superstar chef. Jon Favreau’s Chef (2014) provided welcome chicken soup therapy with the…

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★★★☆☆ With a nostalgic, wry smile Pete Townshend admits not wanting to have been in a band to such a ripe-old age and reminisces that whilst they may have been irreverent in their youth, The Who “did give a fuck”. The band’s longevity, says the now legendary guitarist, is thanks to a team ethos instilled…

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★★★☆☆ Director Sacha Jenkins’ Fresh Dressed (2015) harks back to the early 1990s, the nascent days of hip-hop and the change in fashion engendered by an entirely new musical form. Beneath the bold, multi-coloured graffiti-inspired designs, baggy pants and bling there’s more to this stylish documentary than initially meets the eye. There is some crossover…

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