Napoleon

My My. The history book on the shelf ……remains unopened by director Ridley Scott in this barmy reconstruction of the life and times of Le Petit General. But fair play to him – he did manage to get the film made – a feat which famously defeated Stanley Kubrik. Apparently there is a 4hr cut…

Saltburn

Ever since a teenage Malcolm MacDowell stood on the roof of his public school and sprayed the quadrangle with machine gun bullets (If 1968), I’ve nurtured a fondness for what I believe are called ‘Eat The Rich’ films. So I was quite looking forward to Saltburn which had been described as ‘Brideshead But Blacker’. Now…

Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn.

At the risk of coming across as a bit of an Eric Morecambe, I’ve always thought that 19th Century classical composers, by and large, tend to use far too many notes. Its an absurd generalisation I know, but I simply cannot warm to the characteristic florid and fussy sound. To my ears it is neither…

May December

Todd Haynes is a very accomplished director. I thought Carol was one of the most sensitive and successful adaptations of a Patricia Highsmith novel, and I’m Not There perhaps the most original and ambitious biopic ever attempted. So I was keen to see how he approached his first film based on real events since the…

Anatomy of a Fall

This year’s Palme D’Or winner is a fascinating dissection of a troubled marriage, culminating in a lengthy and absorbing courtroom drama. But at 2hr 38 mins. everything about it needed to be spot on to justify this kind of attention and I’m not sure Director Justine Triet got it 100% right. I was keen to…

Dream Scenario

10 years ago a woman called Justine Sacco posted a casually racist comment on twitter and boarded a plane to South Africa. By the time she landed her post had gone viral and a salivating press corps was waiting to devour her. Her life imploded. You might remember it. I kept thinking about her as…

Goliath.

“This is not a true story. But any resemblance to real people and real events, is not accidental.” So begins Frederick Tellier’s impassioned and hard hitting eco expose. Set in rural Brittany this Franco/Belgian co- production is the story of Tetrazine, a chemical widely used in European agriculture, which has for many years exhibited carcinogenic…

Killers of the Flower Moon.

You know things have gone beyond sobering, when J Edgar Hoover emerges as the hero of a story. But first – a bit of background. In 1870 the Osage people were moved off their ancestral homelands and parked in the middle of Oklahoma. Where, 25 years later, oil was discovered, making a few thousand of…

The Killer

It seems a long time since we last saw Michael Fassbender, but he’s back in familiar territory in David Fincher’s latest, where he plays an apparently emotionless unnamed assassin. It’s undeniably entertaining and disturbing too, but whilst its always good to see Fincher deploying his patina of ruthless nihilism, the film seemed sadly devoid of…