Oct 17
Directed by: Jonathan Levine
My whiskers start twitching when I hear a movie is “inspired by a true story” since it so often means a moralising slice of selective observations about idealised people. Thus it was a surprise to find that 50/50, based loosely on the experiences of writer Will Reiser and his real-life friend Seth Rogen (who co-stars), is an almost unalloyed pleasure. Read more
Oct 14
Directed by: Matt Reeves
Chloë Moretz goes from Kick Ass to Bite Neck, establishing a bit of a trend for starring in movies whose age-rating means they are unwatchable by her (unlike her latest movie, Hick, which was simply unwatchable by anyone). In fact, she also gets to do some ass kicking in this movie, which is a remake of the Swedish film Let The Right One In.
In a snowy Los Alamos, New Mexico, a man is admitted to hospital, his face horribly burned. Before he can be fully interviewed by the police, he manages to throw himself from his hospital-room window… Read more
Directed by: Tomas Alfredson
London, 1973. Control (John Hurt), the head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) chairs his last meeting of the Circus, his most senior officers: Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), Toby Esterhase (David Dencik), Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds) and George Smiley (Gary Oldman). Edgy, paranoid, and scoffed at by his government masters over his belief that there is a Soviet mole operating within the Circus, Control has initiated an operation to meet a defecting Hungarian general in Budapest, and get information from him about the mole. But the mission has gone wrong … Read more
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Refn’s movie tells the story of Charles Bronson, the name assumed by one Michael Peterson, who has (at the time of writing) been held in prison almost continually since 1974. But this is no political prisoner or serial killer. The movie describes him, however, as Britain’s most dangerous prisoner and on the basis of the evidence shown to us it’s easy to believe the claim. Read more
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
By day, the Driver (Ryan Gosling), whose name we do not learn, works as an auto repairman, and as a stunt driver for the movies, and dabbles in low-end auto-racing. You’d think three jobs would keep a guy busy enough, but in his spare time the Driver also works as a getaway specialist (“I give you a five minute window” is his proposition to the armed robbers he transports to and from their gigs). He is a super-cool supplier of driving services, largely expressionless and almost mute. Read more
Directed by: Joe Johnston
1942, New York. Puny, asthmatic Steve Rogers (Leander Deeny) wants to join the army but is repeatedly rejected, until a refugee German scientist Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) spots him at a recruiting station and decides he’s just what the army needs for its top secret weapons program. So he’s injected with bright blue serum and the power output of a large part of the city, and emerges stronger, taller and much better looking (and now “bodied” by actor Chris Evans). Read more
Directed by: Tomáš Lunák
1989, the eve of the dismantling of the Berlin wall. In a remote part of Czechoslovakia, a desperate man tries to evade border guards, but is eventually captured. At a nearby train station lives railwayman Alois Nebel (Miroslav Krobot). Withdrawn and disconnected, he rarely speaks, and draws comfort from reading railway timetables. Read more
Directed by: Nick Broomfield
This documentary begins with an unsuccessful attempt by Broomfield to get an interview with Palin herself, and returns to the attempt a few times over the 90 minutes running time. The amount of time spent on this is one of two weaknesses with the film, the other, more serious one, being an increasingly obvious partisanship on the film-maker’s part. Read more
Linen Theme by The Theme Foundry
Copyright © 2024 . All rights reserved.