The Grinch ***
Solid family entertainment that may feel lacking in wider, original narrative, but borrows or mimics the elements that made the previous kids classics like Despicable Me and The Secret Life of Pets so highly successful.
Category: Comedy
BFI LFF 2018: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs ****
These bite-size stories are certainly a labour of love for the Coens, a romantic jaunt back to a time when a country was being born and was strikingly volatile, with many stark parallels to present-day USA.
Show Dogs **
Show Dogs does exactly what it says on the tin; feeds fans of such family entertainment but with little meaty substance. As much as you want to feel satisfied in laughs, the effect is as short-lived and superficial as some of the talent contest paraphernalia.
Sherlock Gnomes **
If there is a third outing, it does need a good screenwriting hand. These characters became little treasures out of nowhere before seven years ago, and there is still a feeling they should be preserved for future audiences to enjoy.
LFF 2017: The Square ****
The Square likes to hold the supposed ‘aspirational’ middle-class Scandinavian lifestyle to account and provoke it in a darkly sinister fashion. Östlund achieves this goal in a beautifully scripted and well-crafted film.
Peter Rabbit ***
Older fans of Peter Rabbit stories from their childhood may find this modern-day, ramped-up version from writer-director Will Gluck a little ‘chaotic’ to bear.
LFF 2017: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri *****
If you like your comedy pitch-black and controversial but with a lot of heart and soul, you can do no better that to catch this film: Believe its billboard poster ratings – like the ones in the film, they speak the absolute truth.
Pitch Perfect 3 ***
Film 3 does not add anything new – apart from the odd action scene, it just fills us in on the next saga in the girls’ lives. Not a bad thing for any fan, really.
The Disaster Artist ****
The Disaster Artist turns life’s losers into winners; it is inspiring, tragic, painful and courageous all at once. This is one performance the Franco brothers get spot on.