The opening scene is huge set piece, an explosion of song and dance by a load of young people stuck in a traffic jam on an elevated road in LA. It’s bold, sassy and brilliantly done. Emma Stone is reading her lines and Ryan Gosling is being ridiculously cool listening to jazz. The traffic clears … Continue reading
This is a hard film to review and it’s taken me some time to figure out how to write this. It was nominated for loads of awards and Casey Affleck received best actor at the Oscars, Golden Globes and Baftas. The screenplay was also highly praised, yet it was not an obvious prize winner; yet … Continue reading
I was a huge fan of Jim Jarmusch when he first started out. Down By Law is still one of my favourites, but have been less impressed with his more recent work. Adam Driver stars as a bus driver whose name is the same as the town where he lives, which is almost the most … Continue reading
This film starts deceptively slowly. Sasha Lane’s Star is a young woman with 2 young kids hunting through rubbish for free food seems to set the story for a tale of modern poverty, a single mum fallen through the welfare net. But she spots a van load of rowdy young men, and is invited by … Continue reading
Despite great reviews, I put off watching this film as I couldn’t figure out what it was. Filmed in New York in black and white, it seemed a quirky tale of trendy young things. So a bit ho-hum, and yet… I think it’s the first film I’ve ever watched that I immediately wanted to see … Continue reading
Here’s a piece by the brilliant Grace Dent in the i paper on the impact of celebrities opposing Trump. It’s also a lesson for politicians here, of course. When William Morris wrote “Nothing useless can be truly beautiful” he patently had never visualised an anti-Trump public service announcement starring the thinking woman’s crumpet Mark Rufallo … Continue reading
You couldn’t make this up – this is from the i paper a few days ago, headed ‘Why Kirk didn’t boldly go up against God’: It’s the greatest Star Trek movie never made – Captain Kirk and Jesus Christ slugging it out on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. Gene Roddenberry, the Star Trek creator, … Continue reading
This latest film by Ramin Bahrani is disturbing from the opening scene when Denis Nash, played by Andrew Garfield,discovers he has just worked for a fortnight and will not be paid as a company has gone bankrupt. And things only get worse as that makes it impossible for him to pay for his house and … Continue reading
