Happy as Lazzaro

A long, lyrical, and for me slightly depressing film which carried too much by way of religious symbolism, but regained some respect by highlighting the rotten economic realities and a truly ugly side of modern Italy. It carried echos of Vittorio De Sica. Everyday life of some of the country’s poorest people was observed in…

The Sisters Brothers

Oregon. 1851 and on the orders of a mysterious ‘Commodore’ (Rutger Hauer) a couple of seasoned bounty hunters are on the trail of young chemist Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed), who has apparently discovered a chemical which can signal the presence of  gold. It’s the first film in English by acclaimed French director Jacques Audiard,…

Wild Rose

They called her the Wild Rose, but her name was Rosa-Lynn (Jessie Buckley). Why they called her that was pretty obvious for her name was Rosa-Lynn ……and she was a bit wild. (Courtesy of Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue) Directed by Tom Harper this love letter to Country music showcased an impressive newish talent and…

Under the Silver Lake

Well it’s directed by David Mitchell (not that one), set in LA and Andrew Garfield is in it. But more than that I cannot say with any certainty. It starts with an attractive young woman attempting to remove some graffiti “Beware the Dog Killer”. Now this was probably enough to induce a mass walk out…

The White Crow

I have to say right up front, I don’t get ballet. This may go back to early childhood. My first PE teacher was heavily into interpretive dance and I can still here her voice screaming at me “You’re supposed to be a tree Holroyde. BE THAT TREE.” “But Miss shouldn’t we be playing football?” So…