With the Oscar nominations rolling in last week, this year’s batch features quite a few noticeable entries that stand out as untypical Oscar fare, which, based on plot and content alone (i.e. excluding buzz and praise), you wouldn’t immediately think the Oscars would be interest in. There are a huge number of indies in this…
Once again, we have reached the beginning of the fever pitch of Awards Season; the announcement of the Oscar nominations. As was to be predicted, The Shape of Water has taken the lead with 13 nominations (almost tying with the record), followed by Dunkirk with eight, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri with seven. The…
Playwright-turned-filmmaker Martin McDonaugh’s work is characterised by its pairing of darkly comic sensibilities with crime led drama, and he continues that thread here. Three Billboards is an astonishing film whose story is derived from a tragic event, yet the film manages to be equally laugh-out-loud hilarious, and utterly heartbreaking. Seven months on from the rape…
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…
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…
An aging Hollywood film star and a young Liverpudlian theatre actor isn’t exactly a pairing you might expect, but this true tale proves it is one that happened. Showcasing a wonderful partnership between Annette Bening and Jamie Bell, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool delivers a tender love story about the unlikely pair. Plotting the…
*This is a modified repost of my LFF review* The latest from Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, tells the true story of the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, and elevates itself from the kind of sports movie it could have been, through its exploration of the…
Sean Baker’s follow-up to his acclaimed Tangerine swaps the iPhone for 35mm, but keeps the focus on marginalized members of society. The way he chooses to tell this story makes it one that is at once joyous, and entirely heartbreaking. The film centres around six year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), who lives in the budget motel…
