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The Post – Steven Spielberg ****

Tweet    The Post – Steven Spielberg **** The Post is good; occasionally very good and well worth seeing. That it does not live up to the hyperbole of its promotion is due to many factors; not least Steven Spielberg himself. Spielberg is unsurpassed as a storyteller especially of adventure and action narratives. He is […]

Molly’s Game – Aaron Sorkin *****

Tweet  Molly’s Game – Aaron Sorkin ***** Aaron Sorkin doesn’t so much write dialogue, as compose it.  He hears music in the rhythms and patterns of our speech and with it fashions scenes, dialogue and the occasional ‘solo’ monologue with all the care of a composer with a clear sense of not just narrative intent […]

Battle of The Sexes **** – Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Tweet   Battle of The Sexes **** – Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris In my lifetime the presumed sexual hegemony of heterosexual relationships has first been questioned, then doubted, undermined and finally fragmented to the point where gradually we are beginning to embrace the idea that individual, personal human relationships should be valued by the […]

Star Wars – The Last Jedi **

Tweet   Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi: Rian Johnston ** George Lucas is the Michael Palin of movie producers. No matter how many times we poke and prod the Star Wars franchise and beat it mercilessly on a hard critical surface producing not a glimmer of life; nothing will persuade him, like […]

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri – Martin Mcdonagh ***

Tweet Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri – Martin McDonagh *** Some movies wear their pitch on their sleeves.  This movie is technically first class: writing, direction, cinematography, even the occasional evocative country music insert – all work well to create a sharp, black, ironic and at times scabrously funny film. However, McDonah, unlike his previous […]

Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool – Paul McGuigan ****

Tweet    Film stars Don’t Die In Liverpool – Paul McGuigan **** There is a brief scene late on in this film that lifts it above what had thus far been a simple touching and poignant if unlikely, age-gap romance between Oscar-winning Hollywood actress Gloria Grahame (Annette Bening) and young scouse actor Peter Turner (Jamie […]

Our Last Tango – German Kral

Tweet   LAST TANGO – GERMAN KRAL Love doesn’t make the world go round: desire does. Love is a state of being; desire a life force that sustains it. Transcending both is passion: love and desire conjoined to create a power that can both enhance and even threaten life itself. The extraordinary Maria Nieves Rego […]

The Revenant – Alejandro González Iñárritu

Tweet   The Revenant – Alejandro González Iñárritu Verisimilitude is not Art. The universal critical acclaim The Revenant is attracting, reflected by its 12 Oscar nominations is surpassed in absurdity only by the bewildering 10 nominations for Mad Max – Fury Road. That is beyond parody. The Revenant, if successful on the night will be […]

* 45 Years – Andrew Haig Patronising, Depressing Stereotypes

Tweet      45 Years – Andrew Haig  * (Beware – semi-spoiler alert) “I think it needs a new ballcock”.  If there is a film that can survive giving space to this deathless line – 45 Years isn’t it.  In one if their periodic moments of collective lunacy, UK critics have unanimously awarded 5 stars […]

DOMINION – Poem Sousse

Tweet   DOMINION It is time, in all conscience Human conscience Not to pray. In God’s name deny Next world promises Man-made lethal lies Of a Man-imagined paradise Heaven’s rivers in spate with hate run red with human blood Murderous metaphysics multiply Myriad-worded menus Without a scrap of food And blood for wine Sustain Man’s […]