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Locarno 2019: The Girl with a Bracelet review
★★★☆☆ A young girl is accused of a terrible crime and her family must come to terms with how much they really know about her in Stéphane Demoustier’s sober courtroom drama The Girl with a Bracelet, which premiered at Locarno. A family day at the beach can end in any number of unpleasant ways, but…
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Tarantino’s finest moments
With Once Upon a Time in Hollywood enjoying rave reviews and the dubious status of – allegedly – being Quentin Tarantino’s penultimate movie, there is still no doubt that those who have never seen his films before are left with a lasting impression. From the off, his first offering Reservoir Dogs begins with his own…
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Film Review: Notorious
★★★★★ Notorious is a masterclass of suspense, romance and technical craft. Featuring two of the most classic screen presences in Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, their on-screen chemistry plays into Hitch’s thematic obsession with desire. Kickstarting the BFI’s two-month-long retrospective on the Bristolian actor, and the film’s recent 4K restoration, Notorious returns to the big screen…
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Film Review: Holiday
★★★☆☆ Summer and holidays on-screen conjure up iconic images of characters bathed in a splendour of heat; Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast, Alain Delon in La Piscine and Charlotte Rampling in Swimming Pool. Adding her unique spin on this unique period of supposed relaxation, Isabella Eklöf’s directorial debut Holiday is an assured feature brutal gaze…
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Film Review: Une Femme Douce
★★★★★ Touring as part of the Cinema Rediscovered festival, Robert Bresson’s 1969 classic finds its way back on to UK screens. Structured in flashback, Une Femme Douce explores how young woman Elle (Dominique Sanda) comes to kill herself outside her husband Luc’s (Guy Frangin) Parisian apartment. A white scarf flutters through the warm Paris air as the…
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Film Review: Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw
★★★☆☆ Supporting characters from previous Fast & Furious instalments, former DSS Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and rogue spy Shaw (Jason Statham) are given the keys to their own star vehicle in this quasi-sequel spin-off. Despite its lunkish, ludicrous – and frankly cynical – qualities, this entry retains much of the appeal of previous entries. The meta-story of the Fast…
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DVD Round-up: Jun-Jul 2019 edition
Across June and July, there has been an enormous volume of home releases, all worthy of mention. Due to the high volume of releases, a selection has been reviewed below, while the rest are summarised here. Criterion continues in its mission of delivering high quality, boutique packages for prestige cinema. In time for the 50th…
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Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s five best roles
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has starred in some pretty spectacular movies over the years. Although he primarily started as a professional wrestler and didn’t get into acting until his early thirties, The Rock is one of the highest-grossing actors of all time and currently one of the most influential people in Hollywood. Here are the…
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Film Review: Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love
★★★★☆ Prolific documentary maker Nick Broomfield returns with another musical project, this time choosing a more personal topic: the relationship between Leonard Cohen and Broomfield’s close friend Marianne Ihlen. “I was born,” Leonard Cohen once remarked, “with the gift of a golden voice.” Viewers of Broomfield’s new documentary Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love will…
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Film Review: The Current War
★★★☆☆ A stylishly shot period drama, charting the race to provide the world with electricity, should have been compulsive viewing. Instead, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s The Current War, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Nicholas Hoult and Michael Shannon, fails to ignite. Inventor Thomas Edison (Cumberbatch) has already stunned America with his light bulbs but needs to find a way…
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