With a new year rolling around, and with it a new batch of film anniversaries, I thought I’d take a look at the type of event (often put on in celebration of anniversaries) that seems to have become increasingly popular in recent years: the presentation of a film, with its score played along live. Now,…
Spielberg. Hanks. Streep. A story about freedom of the press and women in the workplace. This is a film with high expectations, and high expectations that needed to be met. Thankfully (and predictably), The Post delivers in spades. The film details The Washington Post’s involvement in the leaking of the ‘Pentagon Papers’ in 1971. The…
In the latest film involving the events at Dunkirk, Joe Wright’s drama chronicling Winston Churchill’s first few weeks as Prime Minister uses an elevated pace to craft a film that frequently grips, but sometimes falters. The film begins with the decision to select Churchill (Gary Oldman) as the new prime minister, following a vote of…
I don’t usually talk about the Golden Globes; as hardly any of the nominated films have been released here yet, I can’t really have an opinion on the results (and I cannot watch the ceremony in full). However, this year’s ceremony seems to signify that MeToo and Time’s Up are going to be the game…
Another genre that has become a rare species – the western – is revived here in a fairly traditional manner, but with themes that are still sadly quite relevant today, over 100 years after when the film is set. Set in 1892, at the height of the ‘Indian Wars’, where brutality between the Native Americans…
After the release of Molly’s Game earlier this week, I’ve decided to take a look at the career of its star, and one of my favourite actors, Jessica Chastain. Having truly burst onto the scene at the start of the decade, Chastain is one to be relied on for strong, layered performances, in generally very…
After decades as one of Hollywood’s most well-known and distinctive screenwriters, Aaron Sorkin has stepped behind the camera for the first time with this, his directorial debut, chronicling the real-life rise and fall of Molly Bloom – the young woman who rose to run the highest stakes poker games in the world. We first meet…
You wait years for an original movie musical and then two high profile ones come along in the same year. Following on from the success of La La Land (and boasting its lyricists in its song-writing team), The Greatest Showman seeks to capture that old-fashioned spectacle and joy that only a musical can give. Its…
Disclaimer: These are films released in UK cinemas in 2017 (some may technically be 2016 films). I haven’t seen every single film this year but I have seen the vast majority of wide releases, and sought out smaller indies (most don’t come to where I live so despite my best efforts I couldn’t justify a…
It can be hard to predict which films will live on far past their year of release. Even the awards ceremonies can’t always be relied upon to point them out; there are plenty that haven’t quite retained the power that they had when they first came out. Some films will become classics, some will gather…
