Greta Gerwig has previously proved herself as an actor and writer, and now she adds director (Academy-award nominated, I might add) to her skillset. With Lady Bird, she infuses a beautifully observed tale of teenagehood with such heart and humour; it’s hard not to find yourself falling for it. We encounter the titular Lady Bird…
I, Tonya begins by stating it is ‘based on irony-free, wildly contradictory, totally true interviews with Tonya Harding and Jeff Gillooly’, and the multiple perspectives this provides, combined with a snappy script and darkly comic sensibility, makes I, Tonya a blast of a film that entertains, whilst also humanising the figure at its heart. Whilst…
Arriving with an impressive 13 Oscar nominations, Guillermo del Toro brings us another fantastical tale, one featuring an amphibian man, that, despite its other-worldly qualities, is a deeply human tale of love. It is pure cinematic magic. Set in the 1960s, during the Cold War, the film follows Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute woman who…
The latest from Paul Thomas Anderson is hard to categorise. Yes, it is a period piece, it is a romance, but it is also, in some sense, a comedy of psychological games that eventually pushes its characters to the verge of absurdity. It is an entrancing and intriguing piece, prepared to challenge its audience. Set…
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 convert 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…
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…
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