The Homesman

A film as cantankerous and unpredictable as its 2 main characters. It has divided critical opinion but it’s clear at whose door the plaudits or brickbats must be laid. Tommy Lee Jones co produced, co wrote, co stars and directs this unusual period drama, sharing the screen with Hillary Swank and a rather odd looking…

Paddington

What a wonderful Christmas surprise. Director Paul King, who cut his teeth on the ground breaking TV comedy The Mighty Boosh, has conjured an enchanting and charming adaptation of Michael Bond’s much loved children’s classic. It mixes a sharp-as-a-claw script with stunning visuals and special effects, courtesy of animators Framestore, but never plays it too…

Leviathan

A cryptic look at the state of modern Russia in the guise of a family drama set on the estuary shores of the Kola peninsular. Andrey Zvyagintsev uses slow moving or static cameras to capture the bleakly beautiful landscape outside the windows of Kolya’s (Alexsey Serebyankov) rambling, dilapidated, wooden-framed house which has been in his…

Winter Sleep

Clocking up a running time of 195 minutes, boasting a soundtrack largely by Schubert and giving writing credits to Shakespeare, Chekhov, Voltaire and Dostoyevsky, this is clearly a seriously heavyweight project. It had that seductive appeal which has become a trademark of Nuri Bilge Ceylan films, based on a meticulous observation of the minutiae of…

Set Fire to the Stars

It’s 1950 and the world of literature’s enfant terrible, Dylan Thomas, (Celyn Jones) is lured to America to perform some of his incendiary poetry. The tour is to be managed by dry as dust academic John Malcolm Brinnin (Elijah Woods) who has devised an itinerary which encompasses all the great Ivy League seats of learning.…

The Theory of Everything

First things first. This is a very skilful performance from Eddie Redmayne as Steven Hawkins. To say he inhabits the role is an understatement. He doesn’t grow into it, it grows into him and the depiction of the onset and advance of motor neurone disease is brilliantly and convincingly realised. I know that he received…

What We Do in the Shadows

This is a mockumentary based on the conceit that the (fictitious) New Zealand Documentary Board has secured safe passage for a team of filmmakers to move in with a houseful of Vampires and chronicle their daily lives in a Wellington suburb. It’s a one joke premise which proves hilarious for about 30 minutes until the…

The Drop

Michael R Roskam’s first English language picture is based on a Dennis Lehane’s short story “Animal Rescue” and I did feel that the material was stretched a little thin. That said there was much to enjoy in Tom Hardy’s fine central performance as Bob Saginowski, an apparently diffident bar tender with a sentimental streak. Bob…

Exodus: Gods and Kings

Moses discloses his togas are bogus. No one does epic quite like Ridley Scott and once you get over the excruciating incongruity of the early dialogue “What the hell. I think that’s going to be problematical”, there was much to enjoy and admire here. The 3D was surprisingly unobtrusive. The plagues of Egypt scenes were…

Human Capital

Italy’s 2014 entry for best film in a foreign language at the Oscars is a slyly enjoyable tale of unexpected consequences from Paulo Virzi. Human Capital, a somewhat mysterious title – eventually explained in the after titles – is a well balanced feat of simple storytelling, which, despite its opulent setting, brought back memories of…