Kills on Wheels

The charming if somewhat makeshift Fisher Theatre in Bungay (Suffolk) was the unlikely venue for this rousing and raucous Hungarian thriller, directed by that splendid Magyar maestro Attila Till. The film is a very welcome product of a time, some 5 years ago, when the director was volunteering with disabled organisations to raise funds and…

Red Sparrow

I saw this just as the Russian Nerve Agent attack in Salisbury was plunging Anglo-Russian relations to a precariously low level, which is the only reason I can conceive that it has attracted such interest and performed so well at the box office -because this is a seriously terrible film. I don’t  just mean that…

A Fantastic Woman

I went for my usual pee before the screening. As I left the gents, a woman I didn’t know exited the ladies opposite. We both hesitated momentarily before, inexplicable, she held her door open for me to enter. I looked at her quizzically before she, slightly flustered, shook her head and said “What am I…

I, Tonya

An entertaining account of events surrounding the attack on US Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in 1992, which temporarily incapacitated her and was eventually traced back to the door of her long time rival Tonya Harding. I remember thinking it was weird at the time, but it has taken Craig Gillespie to show just how…

Roman J Israel Esq

A film almost as unwieldy as its title. It hard to believe that the creative force behind this wilfully unconvincing film was none other than Dan Gilroy, who gave us such a treat in 2014 with Nightcrawler. There were some surface similarities, such as the LA setting and the presence of a unifying central performance…

The Mercy

The cautionary tale of Donald Crowhurst is so well known that I was interested to see whether director James Marsh could find anything new to say about it. He devotes the first 30 minutes to the Crowhurst family life in Teignmouth. It’s a picture of apparant suburban normality; but there is a significant worm in…

Loveless

Zvyagintsev is it again with another shattering examination of the state of modern Russia. It starts classically; a monochrome series of static shots showing gothic, snow covered trees reflected in water, accompanied by a single minor note tapped out on the piano. It’s a bleak, mournful overture which sets the tone for what is to…