Film

By Linda Marric @linda_marric Hailed as one of the most talented and prolific directors of his generation, it is deeply satisfying to see how Ben Wheatley manages to come up with the goods year after year. Fans and critics alike can breathe a sigh of relief to discover that his latest offering is every bit as exhilarating as his earlier work. After a brief absence during the making of his critically acclaimed adaptation of J.G Ballard’s High-Rise, Wheatley is back...

One could contemplate, for hours, the arguments for & against the judgment of director Rupert Sanders & his Hollywood moguls to cast a very caucasian Scarlett Johansson in the lead role of a live-action remake that’s based on an adored Japanese property, but the conclusion would ultimately be the same; no matter who they picked to play the iconic Major of Section 9 squadron, it wouldn’t make this drab & inert sci-fi thriller any more involving. Indeed, Johansson is arguably...

By Linda Marric In A Quiet Passion, Terence Davies’ delivers one of the wittiest and most accomplished screenplays of his career. This semi-biographical account of American poet and famous recluse Emily Dickinson, features a wonderfully eclectic cast and stars Cynthia Nixon as Dickinson herself and the excellent Catherine Bailey as the outspoken Miss Vrylling Buffam. Also known as Miss VB, Buffam’s friendship with Dickinson is often credited for taking the usually introverted poet out of her sombre humdrum life, and...

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...