Leo (Javier Bardem) lies in bed, confused and lost in his thoughts preoccupied by the uneasy sense that people no longer take him seriously. With proverbial tender loving care, his daughter Molly (Elle Fanning), accompanies him to New York. Even though her job is on the line, she sticks with her chaotically minded father who […]
Continue readingRocks
Stripped down, urgent, and bristling with energy, Sarah Gavron’s latest film tells the story of a teenage girl who has her foundations yanked out from under her. Shola (Bukky Bakray), known as Rocks, lives in a London council flat with her younger brother Emmanuel (D’angelou Osei Kissiedu) and their single mother. Mum is busy and […]
Continue readingThe Personal History of David Copperfield
Starring Oscar nominee Dev Patel with an exceptional supporting cast, including Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, and Ben Wishaw, this is a gloriously entertaining careening through 19th-century England, tracking its hero’s zigzag destiny. Born six months after the death of his father, David (Patel) is lucky to be raised by a loving mother. But when Mum […]
Continue readingMisbehaviour
These are the true events of a historic day, when four normal women – determined, passionate, a little unprepared – took on the establishment and were catapulted onto the world stage, disrupting the most-watched TV event on the planet. More than just the usual spectacle and “glamour” of a beauty pageant, the 1970 Miss World […]
Continue readingHope Gap
William Nicholson tackles the difficult question of how to survive a moribund marriage and accept your relationship to love in his second directorial effort. Grace (Annette Benning) and Edward (Bill Nighy) deliver exquisite performances playing a married middle-class couple who have grown apart. When Edward announces that he’s in a relationship with another woman, both […]
Continue readingRare Beasts
Mandy (Billie Piper) is a mess. A single mum to a young son, she’s constantly conflicted about her ultra-competitive media career, clashing with her unhappy parents, and attracted to the wrong men. She’s also smart and self-aware. Acutely conscious of the demands placed on women to “have it all,” she is still weighed down by […]
Continue readingDiego Maradona
Asif Kapadia’s previous award-winning documentaries (“Senna”[2010] and “Amy”[2015]) are expertly woven, archival tapestries exploring cultural icons worthy of single name titles. His new film, however, on arguably the world’s greatest-ever footballer, needs both his first and surnames because friends and family know him as Diego, the sweet-natured, insecure street kid from Buenos Aires; and then […]
Continue readingWHITE RIOT
The Clash’s visceral punk anthem is an apt title for this passionate tribute to the grassroots movement Rock Against Racism, which countered the surge of the British neo-Nazi National Front in the 1970s. In a turbulent time of social unrest and unemployment, easy scapegoats were the fading Empire’s immigrant communities – Afro-Caribbean, Asian – with […]
Continue readingResistance
‘Chaplin, not Hitler’ is the refrain of an unexpected resistance, inspired by a spirit of imagination. The story of aFrench secret network which saved the orphaned children of Jewish families from the Nazis, and the legendary mime who was part of its ranks. Marcel Marceau (Jesse Eisenberg) is the iconic silent hero, who sustained children’s […]
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