BANNED! Visions of Ecstasy

In this ongoing series, Sam Inglis casts a retrospective look on films that were banned from exhibition by the British censor. Usually, for a series like this, there is a limited set of issues to cover. Films are generally supressed, cut or outright banned for reasons of sex, violence or a combination of the two. Not so Nigel Wingrove’s nunsploitation short Visions of Ecstasy, which is the only film to have been banned in the UK for blasphemy. The film...

Men In Black International: Entertaining yet wipeable

★★★☆☆ The fourth instalment in the iconic Men In Black franchise sees Liam Neeson and Chris Hemsworth joined by Hemsworth’s Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers co star Tessa Thompson in a sequel which isn’t half as bad as many would have expected it be.  Directed by F. Gary Gray and written by Matt Holloway and Art Marcum, Men In Black: International also stars Rebecca Ferguson (The Greatest Showman), Rafe Spall (Shaun Of The Dead) and the voice of Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon...

Freedom Fields: An Arab League of their own

★★★★☆ The reality of living at the intersection of what is essentially a war-zone and having to continue with everyday life makes up a great deal of Arebi’s insightful documentary about the fight to bring women’s football to Libya. Desperate for recognition and acceptance from both the government and the public, the team train hard with their sights set on actually playing a first international match. As talented as they may be (and they are clearly skilled players), the team...

X-Men Dark Phoenix: The ashes of a franchise

★★☆☆☆ It’s been a tumultuous decade for the X-men franchise, following the refreshing 2011 reboot, First Class, which saw the series revived after the dire X3, The Last Stand. The new cast led by James McAvoy & Micheal Fassbender followed this up with the even more acclaimed Days of Future Past. The cracks started to appear in 2016’s Apocalypse, but with the inevitable Disney Fox merger on the horizon, could the franchise sign off with one final stand (pun intended),...

Diego Maradona: The first hand account

★★★★☆ This third documentary feature from Asif Kapadia in some ways combines themes from his first two; the sporting adulation of Ayrton Senna, and the drug fuelled descents of Amy Winehouse. Diego Maradona opens with a car chase, combining with a electro beat to ground the audience in the high octane eighties. After a difficult spell at Barcelona, Argentinian superstar Diego Maradona has arrived at luckless Napoli, a team in Italy’s poorest city and without a single league title to...

Eating Animals: A sobering account of the modern farming industry

If you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the closed gates of big corporate farming companies, you might find the truth even more shocking than you could have imagined. In a new documentary feature titled Eating Animals which is set to open this weekend, director Christopher Quinn attempts to lift the lid on the barbaric and secretive ongoings behind some of the biggest factory farming companies in the States and around the world. Adapted from American novelist Jonathan Safran Foer's...

Now on Netflix: See You Yesterday and RBG

See You Yesterday ★★★★☆ In the last year or so we have seen several films that suggest the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement on cinema. See You Yesterday is something of a departure in that rather than sticking to a realistic setting it folds its message into a genre film. CJ (Eden Duncan-Smith) and her friend Sebastian (Dante Crichlow) are very, very smart. For their upcoming science fair, the pair have been working on - and have just...

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