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Tales of the First World War relayed to Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall) by his grandfather, Alfred Mendes, form the spine of this gripping action film. Taking us from the British trenches to behind enemy lines, all in two seemingly continuous shots, Mendes puts his characters - and us - through the wringer, as they desperately try to forestall a massacre.
Fresh off the critical and commercial success of Lady Bird, and a clutch of major film awards, writer-director-actress Greta Gerwig had the pick of the bunch when selecting a new project. As it happened, a new adaptation of LM Alcott’s 1868 novel Little Women which she had authored for Sony Pictures was in need of... Continue Reading →
Merab (Levan Gelbakhiani) is one of the star performers at an elite dance academy in Tbilisi. He’s struggling to provide for his family, but is going steady with his girlfriend Mary (Ana Javakishvili), and seems primed for a spot in Georgia’s touring company, taking their traditional national dance around the world. Then Irakli (Bachi Valishvili) walks in, flashes a smile, and Merab’s professional and personal future suddenly seems far less certain.
Directed by comedy legend Armando Iannucci, and co-written by frequent collaborator Simon Blackwell, The Personal History of David Copperfield keenly adapts Dickens' famous autobiographical tome into a slim, crowd-pleasing comedy of manners; and although some of the richness of its source material has been lost, the power of its social conscience and humanist themes remains. Cruelly separated... Continue Reading →
It’s a boom time for allegorical science fiction movies which frame their galactic journeys as personal quests, a test of emotional endurance as much as physical, where the prize is a long-awaited epiphanic moment for their psychologically constipated heroes.
In 1994, the Oscar-nominated film Quiz Show (directed by screen legend Robert Redford) dramatised the case of the Twenty-One quiz show scandal of 1958 - in which an investigation found that producers, colluding with their corporate sponsors, had been supplying correct answers to the show’s participants to boost ratings. This triggered a series of revelations,... Continue Reading →
The eagerly anticipated It: Chapter Two gives us almost three hours of clownery, a sprawling runtime that pays tribute to author Stephen King's notorious logorrhoea in a very literal way.
In the early 1980s, a young woman from a wealthy background enrols in a prestigious film school in London. Julie (Honor Swinton-Byrne), from a incredibly privileged background, is struggling with her ambition to make a film about an impoverished family in Thatcher's Britain, but finds her cosy life upended when she enters a romantic relationship... Continue Reading →
Waves, Trey Edward Shults' follow-up to his acclaimed debut Krisha and mainstream breakthrough It Comes at Night, has finally dropped a trailer. The film, a journey through a South Florida family's healing after a loss, has already been acclaimed following screenings at Telluride and will also play at Toronto. Peter Debruge of Variety noted that... Continue Reading →
Despite the immaculate dress sense, wild salt-and-pepper hair and a certain similarity in their choice of subject matter, Antonio Banderas isn't portraying movie director Pedro Almodovar here. But as Salvador Mallo, beloved director of Spanish cinema, you'd be forgiven for making the mistake.
