Paddington 2

What a shame that Paddington creator Michael Bond who died in June didn’t live to see this perfect realisation of his best loved bear. In a year that has continually confounded expectations in relation to sequels (Trainspotting T2, Blade Runner 2049), Paddington 2 stands out as another example which is as relevant, as funny and…

The Killing of a Sacred Deer

No deer was harmed in the making of this film! And that’s about the only thing I can say for sure about Yorgos Lanthimos’ second English speaking feature. Colin Farell is Stephen, an apparently successful heart surgeon at the Cinncinati General Hospital. He is married to Anna, also a doctor, played by Nicole Kidman and…

Thelma

You can track the antecedents of this film via Carrie and The Exorcist back to Children of the Damned, but even so director Joachim Tier manages to find something new in this Norweigian take on religious repression, sexual awakening and the strange, dangerous, super natural powers of a teenage girl. The opening scenes are especially…

Call Me By Your Name

There’s an awful lot to like and admire about Luca Guadagnino’s latest offering. It’s a lyrical and languorous film which has an uncommon naturalism, tenderness and grace. It meanders around the lives of 17 year old Elio (Timothee Chalamet) and Oliver (Armie Hammer) over the course of one summer in the early 80s. Elio is…

Murder on the Orient Express

Why? Oh why? Oh why? There was a moment in the opening scene of this film when Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) in his best comedy Belgian accent mused about his time in Stan Bull. I did an audible double take but my initial impression was soon confirmed as two more characters and Poirot himself once again…

Breathe

Andy Serkis has chosen an interesting venture for his directorial debut. For someone with his edgy credentials the story of Robin Cavendish’s (Andrew Garfield) twin battles against Polio and the medical establishment was an unexpectedly conventional choice. What was even more surprising was that he approached the task with such a very straight bat. There…

Filmstars Don’t Die in Liverpool

Paul McGuigan’s latest feature is an improbable love story between Gloria Grahame (Annette Bening) and Peter Turner (Jamie Bell) based on his autobiographical account. The action starts in 1978 which provides an interesting backdrop and is just the excuse needed to litter the soundtrack with some great contemporary tunes from the likes of Elvis Costello,…

I Am Not a Witch

I spent far too much time puzzling just what Screen Wales were up to sponsoring this strange but occasionally wonderful oddity. Shot in Zambia and boasting an all (except one) black African cast, director Rungano Nyoni’s debut feature tells the story of Shula (Maggie Mulubwa) an eight year old orphan who, on a very flimsy…

The Death of Stalin

At just what point must Armando Iannucci have realised that his mix of corruscating satire and low farce was no longer a viable vehicle with which to lampoon the contemporary political scene?  Mugabe? Berlusconi? Putin? Erdogan? Kim Jung Ill? Trump? St Teressa? Whatever proved to be his Damasean moment we can only rejoice that he…

Loving Vincent

Talk about a labour of love! Ten years in the making and employing the services of 125 artists to hand paint each of 65,000 frames in oils, no wonder this required two directors. But Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman have achieved something in this weird mix of live action and animation which is as unique…

Only the Brave

…….need attend this plodding and predictable film. Which is a shame because the real life exploits of The Granite Mountain Hotshots is a story well worth commemorating. They were an elite firefighting team who specialised in managing wildfires in the forests and scrubland around Phoenix Arizona. In 2006 a particularly lethal cocktail of weather, wind…