Film

Stéphane Brizé’s adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s novel, A Woman’s Life (Une Vie in French), is a strangely affecting film that circles the sink hole of despair telling the life story of Jeanne (Judith Chemla), a young woman in 19th century France. Recently returned from her convent boarding school, Jeanne begins her adulthood as a well of unbridled hope and joy. There is a child-like innocence to her as she whiles away warm afternoons gardening with her father. With the...

Lili Fini Zanuck’s latest film is a rock-doc that chronicles the turbulent life of Eric Clapton. The connection between director and subject goes back at least a quarter-century with Clapton scoring the only other film she has directed, Rush in 1991. The documentary the pair have created is engaging for the first 90 minutes but ends up losing its way. The film opens with the early life of Eric Clapton, which was in his own words “blissful” until a horrible...

Grief isn’t an emotion that can be easily managed, or simply placed into a box and thrown to the back of the downstairs cupboard. It isn’t an emotion that is fleeting; it lingers, manifesting itself through our actions and often making them appear irrational and suspect. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri explores this idea in a character study that is at times both volatile and devastating. We first meet Mildred Hayes, mother of murdered teenager Angela Hayes, driving alone on...

Where Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk looked at the British Army’s retreat from the European mainland almost exclusively from the perspective of the service men involved, Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour looks at the same events from the perspective of politicians behind it. Opening with Neville Chamberlain’s (Ronald Pickup) resignation as Prime Minister, the film covers Winston Churchill’s (Gary Oldman) first month in office. Generally mistrusted by his own party, but seen as the only person that Parliament at large will accept, Churchill’s...

It’s fortunate that 1993 was a great year for movies. I turned 12 that year, and was just starting to go from a kid who had an interest in films to developing the full blown obsession with movies that, eventually, led me to start writing about film and, I guess, to this series. Over the course of 2018 I’ll be spotlighting some of 1993’s best and most significant films for their 25th anniversaries. We’ll be going in release order and,...

Jonathan Levine’s sophomore feature, The Wackness, released two years after his easily dismissible All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and three years before 50/50, despite (or perhaps in spite of) winning the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, was met by a mixed critical reception.  But, this 90s’ set, weed fuelled coming of age story is a gem that should be treasured. Set across a hot summer in recently elected Giuliani’s New York, circa 1994, The Wackness is the...

Oil tycoon J. Paul Getty was the richest man in the world when his grandson was kidnapped on the streets of Rome in 1973. It is an intriguing episode that serves as inspiration for Ridley Scott’s latest feature, All the Money in the World. The film begins with the kidnapping and quickly details the events leading up to it, showing us how J. Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer) made his riches, as well as the breakdown of his son’s marriage. By...

The idea of Ben Stiller playing a self-pitying white dude is not a particularly original one, yet here he finds himself once again in this new film by School of Rock writer, Mike White. Essentially a comedy drama, Brad’s Status is a film that yearns to be thought-provoking and rewarding, but how much you buy into this is dependent on how much you care about Ben Stiller’s titular character. Stiller plays Brad Sloan, a 47 year old in the grips...

The Last Jedi is in a difficult spot in Star Wars history. The Force Awakens survived by cannibalising the beloved storyline of A New Hope and capitalising on nostalgia. Wisely, The Last Jedi focused less on legacy and more on forging its own path forward in its own small ways. Episode Eight was less of a shock to the system than Rogue One, but a decisive step towards a new vision for the Star Wars universe. Space casino maguffins aside,...