Reviews in a nutshell
Tried and tested on stage from Paris to London to Broadway, New York, Yasmina Reza’s successful play God of Carnage was always going to present a challenge being adapted for film by the playwright herself. However, the key to the story – shortened to Carnage – is the power of the acting talent assigned to …
It’s Hawaii – but not as we know it. Writer-director Alexander Payne has set one of star George Clooney’s most anticipated releases, The Descendants – since its unveiling at the BFI LFF 2011 – in paradise. But it’s a paradise of a viewing kind that is the perfect combination of dramedy, tragedy and familiar fallouts …
Jonah Hill may appear to have grown up in Moneyball, and got some intellectual credibility in an adult environment, but he reverts back to the same self-depreciating man-boy role we all know him for in David Gordon Green’s new mainstream comedy, The Sitter. It’s really a half-hearted, mischievous Noughties twist on zany 1980s comedy adventure, …
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle might be turning in his grave at the use of his work, but if he had a sense of humour, he might appreciate Guy Ritchie’s more contemporary, humorous interpretation of his British sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, and certainly admire Robert Downey Jr’s eccentric turn as the infamous detective again. What is certain …
The sound of those rapid-fire, squeaky voices are enough to send some grown-ups running for the hills. Others will take a deep breath and prepare for the super-cute onslaught at the cinema – there has been a two-year respite after all. But once you’ve tuned into the inane Chipmunk banter, Film Three in the series, …
Shrek’s journey has been one of highs and lows, and was running out of interesting places to go that even Shrek the Third director Chris Miller would agree with. Concentrating on another of Shrek’s travelling companions was always going to be a tall order; making a supporting character stand alone in a film can go …
More penguins, more dancing set-pieces is what Happy Feet writer-director George Miller gives us again, probably because they make for vibrant family entertainment. Short of the penguin musical, the second film that had some huge boots to fill after the Award-winning first is rather a colourful, sing-song whirl of incoherent plot-lines and snatched, throwaway character …
A comedy about bird watching – or ‘birding’, as it’s officially known – is such a random concept that it must surely be one of great mockery of the pastime. But Marley & Me and The Devil Wears Prada director David Frankel’s The Big Year manages to give it a little eccentric charm and grounded purpose, …
It’s gems like filmmaker Colin Clark’s memoir of his personal experience with an icon that make the best screen stories, the ones that delve deeper into the celebrity’s persona to prove, disprove or enlighten our knowledge further and make for a more honest and intimate affair. My Week With Marilyn, the name of said memoir …
