Film

Shades of Spielbergian energy cast an endearing silhouette over this airy but assured big-screen adaptation of Spain’s much-loved 1950s comic book series ‘Zipi y Zape’; an affectionately adventurous vigour that matches the irresistibly mischievous vim of José Escobar Saliente’s original strip. Sent away to summer school as a punishment for their unruly behaviour, the titular twins (Raúl Rivas & Daniel Cerezo) find themselves at the mercy of an oppressive teaching establishment that forbids all forms of recreation & entertainment. Determined...

By Wyndham Hacket Pain @Wyndhamhp With all the attention around Jackie – the Jackie Kennedy biopic currently in cinemas – it would be easy to forget that Chilean director Pablo Larraín has another equally interesting film ready for release. Pablo Neruda, a poet and politician who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, is as compelling a central figure as the former First Lady and more than worthy of our time and attention. Set in a conflicted post-war Chile,...

By Linda Marric @linda_marric In Graduation (Bacalauriat), Romanian director Cristian Mungiu is back with a powerfully complex drama about compromise, parental responsibility and the lingering remnants of the old Ceausescu regime. Mungiu, who won the Palme D’Or at Cannes in 2007 for the critically acclaimed 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), deals with themes of modernity and corruption in a country that has yet to learn to be part of a modern European society, resorting instead to old...

Think you know you cinema? It's time to put your knowledge to the test with this new graphic puzzle. Cineworld has put together an all-star audience to celebrate the line-up of films showing in IMAX in 2017, including Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Transformers: The Last Knight and Wonder Woman. Can you spot all the stars from the 10 IMAX blockbusters? With tickets reduced to £3 per film for the day, fans can see blockbusters brought back to the IMAX®...

There are many things one should say about The Eyes of My Mother, director Nicolas Pesce’s dark & disturbing debut feature, but it’s perhaps best to begin by declaring that this is not a film for the faint of heart. Indeed, even those with an unyielding tolerance for visual horror may find themselves squirming in their seats at times whilst watching this maliciously macabre, yet utterly mesmeric monochrome nightmare. If Hitchcock’s Psycho was to reimagined in a contemporary age, it...

The author Agatha Christie once described a mother’s love as being like “nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dates all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.” Few other quotes so sincerely encapsulate the everlasting power that stems from the maternal connection shared between a mother and her child, but in cinema, such profound renderings are more prevalent. From children’s classics such as Disney’s Bambi, through to the more mature...

By Michael McNulty You’re in the mood for something like Turner and Hooch or maybe K-9. But it’s Forgotten Film Friday so let’s flip the switch and unearth a film that’s wholly different, here’s this Friday’s film. White Dog initially found life in 1968 as a story in Life magazine, written by Romain Gary. Gary developed it into a novel which was published in 1970. It was later adapted for the screen with Roman Polanski attached to direct, before Samuel...

By James McAllister Those who are familiar with Kleber Mendonça Filho’s 2013 debut feature, Neighbouring Sounds, will no doubt recognise the impassioned socio-political discourse that emanates from the narrative ornamentations of his intriguing but inconsistent sophomore effort. Returning to his hometown of Recife in northeast Brazil, Aquarius sees the critic-turned-director once more take aim at the capitalist sharks who wish to gentrify areas of historic beauty (both in Brazil and across the globe) for their own financial gain, as a...

By Linda Marric @linda_marric In Another Mother’s Son, Jenny Seagrove plays a widow shopkeeper living in Nazi occupied Jersey during World War II. The film is a well meaning piece of historical drama, but sadly for its makers, this messy production is let down by way too much schmaltz and what can only be described as an overly descriptive narrative. Seagrove stars as Louisa a defiant woman who risks her own life and that of those nearest and dearest to...