The Duke Rating: Some of the screenings at this year’s Venice Film Festival are not for the faint-hearted. Last night saw the world premiere of Pieces Of A Woman, a shattering drama starring Vanessa Kirby (Princess Margaret in the first two series of The Crown) as a young mother who loses her baby. But who … Read more
Mulan (Disney+, 12A) Rating: Verdict: Colourful but humourless I’m Thinking Of Ending Things (Netflix) Rating: Verdict: Great acting, grim tale Mulan, Disney’s latest live-action remake of one of its own hit animations, was meant to be one of the two summer blockbusters, along with Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, to breathe fire back into the wounded dragon … Read more
An American Pickle (In cinemas, 12A) Rating: Verdict: Sweet and sour Young Ahmed (Curzon Home Cinema) Rating: Verdict: Powerful and timely Papicha (VOD platforms) Rating: Verdict: An auspicious debut The comic premise of the innocent abroad has a long cinematic heritage and comes in many forms: Woody Allen in Sleeper, Peter Sellers in Being There, Paul … Read more
This week, I conclude the ten-week countdown of my 100 favourite English-language films. So I’m taking a little more space than usual, both to champion my Top 10 and to remind you of the full list. I’m aware that I’ve left out lots of all-time classics. There’s no Citizen Kane or It’s A Wonderful Life … Read more
Best In Show (Amazon Prime, 12) Verdict: Barking parody Rating: A Mighty Wind (Amazon Prime, 12) Verdict: A hurricane of silliness Rating: Waiting For Guffman (Amazon Prime, 12) Verdict: Small-town spoof Rating: Over in that parallel universe without Covid-19, the 73rd Cannes Film Festival would be drawing to a close this weekend and I would … Read more
The Assistant (various streaming platforms, including Curzon Home Cinema, 15) Verdict: Subtle but powerful Rating: The Assistant is not the first film to broach the subject of sexual harassment by powerful men in the entertainment industry, which spawned the #MeToo movement, and it certainly won’t be the last. But it will always be one of the … Read more
It’s a mystery… but let’s not panic just yet: Emergence of a new strain of coronavirus that targets children is ‘incredibly unlikely’, writes Professor RUSSELL VINER By Professor Russell Viner For The Daily Mail Published: 22:13 BST, 28 April 2020 | Updated: 22:31 BST, 28 April 2020 The first thing I want to stress about … Read more
Extraction (Netflix, 15) Verdict: Violent and derivative Rating: Extraction. It seems fitting that a film that sounds like a dental training video should set your teeth on edge. It stars Chris Hemsworth as that staple character of modern action movies, the former ‘special ops’ soldier, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, now working as … Read more
Bacurau (Amazon Prime, 18) Verdict: Genre-defying but terrific Rating: Who You Think I Am (Curzon Home Cinema, 15) Verdict: Sexy and beguiling Rating: The Host (various streaming platforms, 15) Verdict: Psycho rip-off Rating: The pick of this week’s homestreaming options is a pair of foreign-language films. The strange but compelling Bacurau, plunging us into the … Read more
Four Kids And It (PG, Sky Cinema) Verdict: Forced whimsy Rating: Elephant (PG, Disney +) Verdict: One shade of grey Rating: A new film that families can enjoy together is a precious commodity at the moment, rather like a bumper pack of loo rolls. Moreover, Four Kids And It (on Sky Cinema) combines the storytelling … Read more