Under The Stadium Lights: An achingly familiar high school drama May 12, 2021 Religion and sport have a funny way of crossing paths in cinema. The former has inherent gravitas, the latter excitement, and produced surprise hits such as Oscar winner The Blind Side. Of course, for every box office smash there are numerous failed contenders, boasting familiar faces and vaguely inspirational titles such as When The Game [...]
The Secrets We Keep: Noomi Rapace leads tense drama-thriller May 12, 2021 Noomi Rapace, star of Prometheus and the original adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, leads this tense drama-thriller which keeps you guessing until the end. Set in the suburbs of Post-War America, Rapace plays Maja, a Romanian immigrant happily married to mild mannered doctor Lewis (Chris Messina). Their content existence is shattered when [...]
Mortal Kombat is the latest video games adaptation to pop May 6, 2021 A few years ago, the accepted wisdom was that video games don’t make good movies. You could point to Street Fighter, Super Movie Bros, Hitman, Need For Speed, Assassin’s Creed, or any number of flops that failed to capture the magic of their pixelated inspiration. In the last few years, however, the code seems to [...]
The United Way is a timely doc on the Manchester football giant May 5, 2021 Depending on your view, this is the best or worst time to release a documentary about Manchester United. It arrives days after fans invaded the Old Trafford pitch, demanding the removal of current owners The Glazer Family as the fallout from the European Super League fiasco continues. With the club in turmoil, it may not [...]
The Mitchells Vs The Machines is the feel-good film of 2021 April 29, 2021 It’s rare to find an original film that generate a lot of hype in this sequel and ‘shared universe’ obsessed industry. However, when there’s a new film from the producers of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs and the much-adored Into The Spider-Verse, people sit up and pay attention. Netflix certainly did, paying big money [...]
The Artist’s Wife review – an indie drama lacking inspiration April 29, 2021 Acting legends Leno Olin and Bruce Dern star in a film about the pressures of supporting greatness. Olin plays Claire Smythson, the wife of celebrated painter Richard (Dern). Living comfortably in their old age, Claire keeps their lives running while Richard is allowed to surround himself with painting and teaching. When he begins to show [...]
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse: Michael B Jordan in so-so thriller April 29, 2021 The latest in the long line of cinema releases that have migrated to streaming, Michael B Jordan hopes to kick off another franchise in an adaptation of this Tom Clancy novel, itself a spin-off of the Jack Ryan series. He plays John, a committed Navy SEAL who is part of a raid in Syria that [...]
Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation review April 29, 2021 There have been many documentaries in recent years that take the form of audio-visual mosaics. Asif Kapadia’s Amy, Listen To Me Marlon, and last year’s Billie brought to life the journeys of famous faces through archive footage and lost conversations. Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation looks at the lives of Truman Capote and Tennessee [...]
Falcon and Winter Soldier Episode 6 finale review April 23, 2021 *** WARNING! This contains spoilers for all episodes of Falcon and Winter Soldier *** So, we come to the big finale, where everything will be resolved and all loose ends tied up. Just kidding, this is Marvel after all, but amid the teasers for forthcoming attractions we can hope for some kind of resolution. We [...]
The Oscars 2021: Our predictions for the big winners April 22, 2021 Hollywood’s big, back slapping Oscar party arrives on Sunday, but as with other awards ceremonies, the film industry will have to congratulate itself from a distance. It will be a different kind of awards, with a rumoured additional venue in London, but the same amount of anticipation regarding who will take home a gold statuette. [...]