Snowdon

A film which leaves you wondering just what sort of a world we are living in. One where a talented and fiercely patriotic young man, who tells the truth, is rounded upon by the state and driven to exile. Career, lover, family and home seemingly lost for ever. Whilst an old man in charge of…

Passengers

A humongous space ship called Avalon is racing across the universe towards a planet 120 light years away known as Homestead II. On board, in a state of suspended animation, are 5000 would-be colonists and 258 crew members. 30 years into the mission they encounter a meteor storm which penetrates the protective shield and inflicts…

The Eagle Huntress

I felt obliged to see The Eagle Huntress after hearing a radio interview with Otto Bell, the young director who sank everything he had into the making of this documentary. It almost foundered as he ran out of money on the home straight and was only completed thanks to the benevolence of Morgan Spurlock who…

Life Animated

Roger Ross Williams’ fabulous documentary tells the story of Owen Sukind a 23 year old American who has had a quite extraordinary journey through life. A normal infancy was brought to a shattering halt when, aged 3, he started exhibiting symptoms of autism (specifically Pervasive Developmental Disorder) and retreated to a place almost beyond the…

The Innocents

Well it’s not Ida but it does shine a very welcome light on an aspect of warfare which is often overlooked. This is a story based on real events, but it has been significantly sanitised by French director Anne Fontaine whose previous work (Coco before Channel and Gemma Bovary) doesn’t suggest that she is a…

A Monster Calls

A bit of a curiosity from JA Bayona who has assembled a largely British cast and a largely Spanish crew to tell the story of Conor O’Malley (Lewis McDougall) a withdrawn 12 year old and his terminally ill mother (Felicity Jones). It’s based on an award winning book by Patrick Ness based loosely on the…

The Wailing

Right I’m not even going to attempt a plot synopsis. Believe me we could be here all day. It if you want a film which builds very quickly to a frenzy and then maintains that same fever pitch for over two and a half hours then Hong-Jin Na’s South Korean odyssey is for you. Starring…

A United Kingdom

Cornier than a corned beef sandwitch covered in corn flakes and served with a side order of corn-on-the-cob dripping in corn syrup. Following Belle in 2013 Amma Asante has given us another period romance with a racial twist, unearthing a fascinating historical incident and sucking all the power and significance from the story by her…

Bleed For This

Reputedly made for only $6M Ben Youger’s unpretentious account of the life and times of Vinny Pazienza (aka The Pazmanian Devil) has a claim to be the best pound for pound boxing film since Raging Bull and it was interesting to see Martin Scorsese attaching his name to it as executive producer. The film features…