Film

By Stephen Mayne @finalreel What happens when you discover you’re not who you’re meant to be? In that fine Scandinavian tradition, Force Majeure ruthlessly picks apart familial relationships by teasing out a thread and pulling until everything unravels. That it’s done against a beautifully rendered postcard setting and with a wicked streak of dark humour is all to director/writer Ruben Östlund’s credit. The cinema of our northern European friends is particularly good at finding emotional weak points and exploiting them...

By Stephen Mayne  @finalreel The problem with gaudy revenge flicks, the type Liam Neeson has been padding out the pension pot with in recent years, is the need to establish sufficient mythology around the near invincible hero. John Wick neatly sidesteps the issue starting Keanu Reeves’ title character as a living legend while filling in sparse details only when absolutely necessary. Nothing must detract from the wildly kinetic orgy of violence he’s about to embark on. And nothing does. Wick,...

SAVE THE DATE: ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK Season 3 premieres Friday, June 12. Viewers can catch up on Seasons 1 and 2 at netflix.com/OITNB. Alex is back in the clink with poor Piper, Red, Crazy Eyes, Taystee, Poussey, Sophia, Daya, Gloria, Big Boo, Pennsatucky and all of the other delightful Litchfield's ladies.  Can't wait? Neither can we.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njy0dFFlpAc&feature=youtu.be

By Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada The beer magnate Freddy Heineken was kidnapped in 1983 and held hostage for three weeks leading to the largest ransom payment of Dutch history. This dramatisation of the events stars Anthony Hopkins as Heineken and sets out as an action-packed thriller, but then frays out into a dull succession of shouty bouts of bickering between the kidnappers. They are portrayed as a scruffy bunch of Dutch ne'er-do-wells who hope to strike big with the spontaneous idea...

by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada Ethan Hawke lends his tortured face to the despairing former fighter pilot Major Tom Egan in Good Kill, a drama about drone warfare. Although an experienced soldier, he finds it hard to treat blowing people up like a normal day job, driving home from the army base every evening to throw barbecue parties and help his children with their schoolwork. Superficially he can't complain: At least he gets to see his family at all, and he...

By Ellery Nick @Ellery__Nick Viggo Mortensen stars alongside the scene-stealing rocks of Argentina’s Patagonia region as he sets off to reclaim his daughter Ingeborg who has lost herself to the desert and arms of a young lover. Mortensen plays Gunnar Dinesen, a Danish Captain as rusty as his sword; more interested in the native birds than the dark work he has been commission to perform. Stranded in a distant land, he frets over his eerie child who’s been making eyes at...

By Anna  Power  @TLE_Film First look at Amy Winehouse documentary with the release of a teaser trailer. From BAFTA award-winning director Asif Kapadia (Senna), AMY tells the incredible story of six-time Grammy-winner Amy Winehouse - in her own words. Featuring extensive unseen archive footage and previously unheard tracks, this strikingly modern, moving and vital film shines a light on the world we live in, in a way that very few can. A once-in-a-generation talent and a pure jazz artist in...

By Anna Power @TLE_Film Cast: O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Aldis Hodge, Neil Brown Jr. Directed by: F. Gary Gray Produced by: Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Matt Alvarez, Tomica Woods-Wright In the mid-1980s, the streets of Compton, California, were some of the most dangerous in the country. When five young men translated their experiences growing up into brutally honest music that rebelled against abusive authority, they gave an explosive voice to a silenced generation. Following the meteoric rise...

By Anna Power  @TLE_Film Editor “ I take it, I take it and I flip it.” James Brown Get On Up is a moving and suitably energetic homage to the legend that was James Brown, The Godfather of Soul. Much more than a rags-to-riches tale and avoiding the usual drab pitfalls that standard syrupy colour-by-number biopics fall into, Director Tate Taylor delivers a riveting portrait of a remarkable talent and an extraordinary life. A poor boy born in the rubble,...