LFF 2017: Mudbound ****
The storytelling is emotive in nature, as is to be expected. However, it is not drawn out for effect and exploitative in sentimentality.
Tag: Carey Mulligan
LFF 2015: Suffragette ****
As a female and a mother, the most sobering part of this film is at the very end. A list of nations rolls with the dates women got the vote. Some dates will profoundly shock. Others will not. Some women are still waiting. It’s the grand finale needed to drive the message home in a …
LFF 2013: Inside Llewyn Davis ****
Although the latest Coen Brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis, follows a tired-out character in the misfortunate Llewyn the musician, superbly played by actor-singer Oscar Isaac, the sumptuous-looking film is as fresh and Coen cool as any before. Mostly notably, it becomes one of the filmmakers’ most memorable with its musical renditions that pause the protagonist’s …
The Great Gatsby ***
You can imagine that a literary adaptation set in the self-indulgent Roaring Twenties about a fateful love story that’s given the Baz Luhrmann touch would be as extravagant as ever. Think Moulin Rouge. Indeed the flamboyant director does not hold back with his version of The Great Gatsby and even tries to shoehorn in a …
LFF 2011: Shame ****
Steve McQueen said the reason his latest drama isn’t based in the UK is trying to get sex addicts over here to open up proved nigh impossible during the research into the film. Sex addiction is still a dirty, sleazy subject, with connotations of men in rain macs lurking precariously in dark corners waiting for …
Drive ****
Beginning like an updated version of Gone in Sixty Seconds, Bronson director Nicolas Winding Refn’s new action drama Drive puts its slick wheels in motion for a supposed heist flick, but settles into a dark ride of disturbing but exhilarating control. Driver (Ryan Gosling) is a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman for …
LFF: Never Let Me Go – 3*
Alex Garland’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel, Never Let Me Go, is what film festivals and awards ceremonies were made for. Even though the film of the same name gracefully opened the 2010 BFI London Film Festival in October, delivering an example of understated, ethereal British elegance in its style and cinematography, it has …
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps – 3*
Wall Street, watch out: The Gekko is back, wiser, craggier-looking and more lethal, but with a soft spot that will always be his Achilles Heel. Wall Street creator Oliver Stone brings his anti-hero back to life and it’s thrilling to see the old dog sniffing around the green stuff again, whilst having an attack of …