The Prom review – Meryl Streep saves this party from disaster December 10, 2020 If there’s one thing we’ve seen a lot of this year, its celebrities making things all about them. Anyone who cringed their way through Gal Gadot and friends’ Imagine cover in March will know how the rich and famous can often misjudge the tone during hard times. With this in mind, Netflix’s expensive musical The [...]
Wolfwalkers is a charming animated film for the holiday season December 10, 2020 The festive season is usually a prime time for family movie spectaculars, and Apple’s streaming service is offering the highly anticipated new film Wolfwalkers from Cartoon Saloon, the company behind Song of The Sea (2014) and The Breadwinner (2017). Wolfwalkers is an animated fantasy set in 17th Century Ireland, in a city occupied the English [...]
10 of the most popular shows of 2020 December 9, 2020 Following a record-breaking year for streaming services as a result of the pandemic and two national-lockdowns, we take a look at 10 of the most streamed shows of 2020. The Witcher (Netflix) The first season of The Witcher is Netflix’s most successful show of the year, with around 76 million views. The fantasy show is [...]
Christmas is cancelled: Five festive traditions scuppered by Covid December 7, 2020 Coronavirus has a lot to answer for, and while being able to enjoy a few frivolities over Christmas isn’t at the top of the list, it’s still likely to put a downer on December. Here are some of the popular Christmas activities that have been curtailed by the pandemic, and some suggestions on how to [...]
Falling review – Viggo Mortensen family drama feels too familiar December 5, 2020 35 years after his big screen debut, Viggo Mortensen steps behind the camera for his feature debut, in a story he also writes and stars in. He plays John, a pilot who lives in California with his husband Eric (Terry Chen) and daughter Monica (Gabby Velis). His contented West Coast life is disrupted by the [...]
David Fincher’s Mank is a classic about a classic December 5, 2020 There is a sad irony to David Fincher’s love letter to Old Hollywood being a big new release for Netflix. Mank is the company’s big hope for Oscar glory, as films about the film business tend to go down well with the people in it (Birdman, La La Land, The Artist, Adaptation… we could go [...]
The Godfather Part III gets a new cut and a new title – The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone December 5, 2020 It’s not just superheroes that are getting a new edit. Thirty years on from its release, The Godfather Part III gets a new cut and a new title – The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Director Francis Ford Coppola and writer Mario Puzo’s original vision was a coda, rather than an official third [...]
The Mandalorian season 2 episode 6: S2E6 sees a legend return December 5, 2020 *** SPOILERS AHEAD: If you haven’t watched the most recent episodes of The Mandalorian Season 2, look away now*** After a few episodic adventures, the larger picture of this season of The Mandalorian seems to be coming together. Last episode we got a huge chunk of information about The Child – or Grogu, as he [...]
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at Tate Britain review: A playful enigma December 5, 2020 In an ideal world, you could write about the excellent Lynette Yiadom-Boakye exhibition at Tate Britain without mentioning race. Her enigmatic portraits, which have a Hockney-esque knack of capturing not just an expression, but an entire personality, don’t seem particularly concerned with race, beyond the fact they feature black people – something that’s still sadly [...]
Crock Of Gold – A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan: A tribute to a life lived hard December 4, 2020 When we first see the star of Crock Of Gold – A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan, the instinct is to feel sad. He looks ravaged by the excesses of his 62 years, wheelchair bound and pale. However, one of the first preconceptions this documentary smashes is the idea that the singer/songwriter is a tragic [...]