Even the Rain

An interesting if ultimately over ambitious attempt by first time director Iciar Bollain to marry a modern documentary style account of grassroots protest against water privatisation (hence the title), with a recreation of Chistopher Columbus’ original landing in the Americas. As if this wasn’t difficult enough, he ratchets things up with a third element involving…

La La Land

And the award for best publicity and marketing campaign goes to……… This is a film with comendable ambition. It boasts winning performances from Emma Stone as Mia and Ryan Gosling as Sebastian, as well as a sharp eye for style and spectacle and a clear affection for Hollywood’s golden age. So why didn’t I like…

Hacksaw Ridge

I may be wrong but I think the first few moments of this film feature director Mel Gibson as a US infantry grunt. His head leans in sideways from the right hand side, soon occupying the whole frame. From his grimy countenance and haggard expression we can deduce that he is in the midst of…

The Unknown Girl

The latest offering from those masters of minimalist filmmaking, the Dardenne Brothers, is set in a dogearred suburb of modern day Liege. Here Dr Davin (Adele Haenel) is mentoring a trainee doctor in a small but busy practice where she enjoys a scarcely believable rapport with her patients. It’s an oddly inert performance which is…

Silence

Panicking to come up with a replacement for Bakeoff the BBC has apparently been considering some increasingly unlikely pitches, including one from Alan Partridge provisionally called “Christian Cooking”. Well don’t wait for the box set because Martin Scorsese has got there first with Silence – his evocation of the life and times of a pair…

Manchester by the Sea

Not the story of the birth of the Manchester Ship Canal which I had been eagerly anticipating. Instead writer/director Kenneth Lonegan has given us a carefully crafted contemporary family drama set mainly in Manchester Massacheucetts, built around an assured central performance from Casy Affleck.  The film opens in Boston where Lee Chandler (Affleck) is a…

The Birth of a Nation

In 1831 a black evangelical preacher called Nat Turner is pushed beyond breaking point and leads a violent uprising which rocks the status quo in South Virginia, briefly threatening all out race war. Starring and directed by Nate Parker, The Birth of a Nation seems a deliberate counter weight to DW Griffith’s 1915 silent classic…