Reviews
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Film Review: ‘He Named Me Malala’
★★★☆☆ 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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Film Review: ‘The Closer We Get’
★★★★☆ 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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Film Review: ‘Burnt’
★★☆☆☆ 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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Film Review: ‘Brooklyn’
★★★★☆ John Crowley’s Brooklyn (2015) is based on a novel of the same name by Colm Tóibín, a man considered by many to be the finest writer Ireland has produced since John Banville. His novel has, however, been digested by Nick Hornby, who produced the screenplay. In the process, it has been stripped of any…
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Film Review ‘Brief Encounter’
★★★★☆ Back on the big screen across the UK in conjunction with the BFI’s ‘Love’ season is one of the most well-known cinematic contemplations on the consequences of a simple question; “What if?” Celebrating the seventieth anniversary of its initial release, Brief Encounter (1945) still holds a special allure, some kind of now-nostalgic emotional restraint…
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DVD Review: ‘Terminator Genisys’
★★☆☆☆ It’s a problem that has plagued more than one studio in the past 24 years: how to continue the Terminator franchise after James Cameron’s brace of sci-fi landmarks. So far, every attempt has, to some degree, been a failure – two films, Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines (2003) and Terminator Salvation (2009) were…
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DVD Review: ‘Slow West’
★★★★☆ There are two types of western: those that build up the myth of the Old West – Rio Bravo (1959), The Searchers (1956), Shane (1953) – and those that break it – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966), Unforgiven (1992) and High Plains Drifter (1973). With John Maclean’s astonishing debut feature, the…
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DVD Review: ‘Manglehorn’
★★★★☆ There’s a moment near the end of David Gordon Green’s Manglehorn (2014) where the titular character sums up the kind of angry person he is, telling his would-be suitor that if he burns toast he’ll throw out the toaster. It’s a simple but revealing line about a contradictory figure, earning our sympathy one moment…
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DVD Review: ‘The Man in the Machine’
★★★☆☆ Despite passing away in 2011 there still remains a vibrant fascination with the visionary, celebrated but divisive cultural figure that was Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Spanning biographies, documentary and fictional retellings of his life and career, from the unfortunate Ashton Kutcher turkey Jobs (2013) and the upcoming Aaron Sorkin scripted Steve Jobs (2015), Jobs…
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DVD Review: ‘Lambert & Stamp’
★★★☆☆ 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…