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The Bedford Incident
(1965)
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Chris Bennion
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... A thrilling Cold War drama adapted from Mark Rascovich's novel, which was loosely based on a real-life incident in 1962 and, satisfyingly, Moby-Dick.
Posted Sep 20, 2023
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An Education
(2009)
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Wendy Ide
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Adapted by Nick Hornby from a memoir by Lynn Barber, this is an enjoyably bracing portrait of a romantic misadventure.
Posted Sep 18, 2023
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3/5
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A Haunting in Venice
(2023)
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Jonathan Dean
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A Haunting in Venice knows exactly what it’s doing. More Christie, played by A-listers having fun in a cosy-as-a-cushion, teatime ITV-drama-on-the-big-screen way — catering for a cinema audience left behind by superheroes.
Posted Sep 18, 2023
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3/5
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Cassandro
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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In the end it’s almost as if Williams is relying entirely on the galvanising performance of his leading man to cement the film’s dramatic coherence and impact. Which, luckily for him, is just about workable.
Posted Sep 16, 2023
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2/5
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Bolan's Shoes
(2023)
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Ed Potton
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The plotting is muddy, the connection with Bolan’s music feels forced — even though there’s plenty of it on the soundtrack — and the whole thing is rather listless until the last half-hour.
Posted Sep 16, 2023
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4/5
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Fremont
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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This is a sweet, low-key charmer with a winning, achingly sympathetic performance from novice actress Zada at its centre.
Posted Sep 16, 2023
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2/5
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Brother
(2022)
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Kevin Maher
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There are fine performances on display and Johnson especially is perfectly nervy as Michael. But the storytelling here could have easily squeezed into a short film or, even better, a slickly shot music video.
Posted Sep 16, 2023
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2/5
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Rally Road Racers
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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This hyperactive Disney knock-off unfolds, for a while at least, like a demented cross between the pod race sequence from The Phantom Menace, Pixar’s Cars franchise and a pre-school Fast and Furious.
Posted Sep 16, 2023
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5/5
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Dead Man's Shoes
(2004)
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Ed Potton
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Meadows earns his “Scorsese of the Midlands” tag with eruptions of striking brutality. And the supremely unnerving Considine is his De Niro.
Posted Sep 16, 2023
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Captain Phillips
(2013)
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Wendy Ide
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Hanks is the casting coup here, and anchors (forgive the pun) the film with the sense of a normal, modest everyman who is in over his head.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Paris, Texas
(1984)
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Kevin Maher
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The panoramic vistas from the cinematographer Robby Müller are as breathtaking as any John Ford western, while the naturalistic performances and deft narrative structure make this the strongest movie in the career of its director, Wim Wenders.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
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The Two Faces of January
(2014)
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Wendy Ide
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While this cool, crisp thriller may not have the complexity and polish of Anthony Minghella’s film, it does have a lean, urgent economy of storytelling that makes for a watchable yarn.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
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4/5
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The Pigeon Tunnel
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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It’s only 90 minutes long. Yet with a subject this complex and commanding, that’s almost too short.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
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The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
(1994)
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Kevin Maher
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Stephan Elliott’s film is an LGBT milestone, a highlight of Australian cinema’s quirky renaissance and the finest display of lip-syncing this side of Milli Vanilli.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
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The Evil Dead
(1981)
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Kevin Maher
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Sam Raimi’s 1981 breakout feature remains profoundly unsettling due to the gonzo vigour with which he attacks his subject.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
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2/5
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A Haunting in Venice
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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For there is a real crime at the heart of this latest (and hopefully final) Christie adaptation — and it’s also a murder. They’ve killed the fun.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
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Manhunter
(1986)
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Wendy Ide
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This slick thriller has been overshadowed by The Silence of the Lambs, but it is a compelling piece of film-making.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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The Remains of the Day
(1993)
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Chris Bennion
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Anthony Hopkins is magnificent as Stevens, with his blinkered code of honour, and Emma Thompson his match as the housekeeper.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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5/5
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Past Lives
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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The performances are impossibly strong and awards-season ready. Anything other than a best actress Oscar nomination for Lee will be criminal.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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3/5
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The Nun II
(2023)
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Ed Potton
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Here’s another helping of lavish pseudo-religious hokum...
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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4/5
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A Life on the Farm
(2022)
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Ed Potton
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Harding’s masterstroke is showing how Carson is made into a cult hero by the subculture of Americans who celebrate strange video content.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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4/5
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Once Upon a Time in Uganda
(2021)
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Ed Potton
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Czubek treads a delicate line, managing to avoid patronising Nabwana or portraying Hofmanis as a white saviour, and the ending is worthy of Hollywood and Wakaliwood.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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4/5
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The School of Rock
(2003)
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Ed Potton
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Yet there are subversive details that elevate it beyond standard feelgood fare, notably Black’s insistence on treating his young charges like battle-hardened veterans...
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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2/5
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Green Border
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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Shooting misery porn is initially effective and incendiary. But there needs to be something else. And here, alas, there is not.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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4/5
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Enea
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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Sergio Castellitto, writes, directs and stars — acing all three categories — in this melancholic Rome-set crime drama that’s “loosely” (very loosely) based on Virgil’s Aeneid.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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4/5
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Io Capitano
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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Garrone, ever the stylist, can’t seem to help himself and shoots the Sahara in godlike wides and the claustrophobia of the Mediterranean Sea crossing like peak Hieronymus Bosch.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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4/5
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Hit Man
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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... An effervescent comedy from Richard Linklater that simultaneously snubs its nose at the entire genre while easily nabbing the honour of most purely entertaining film to grace the Lido so far.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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2/5
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My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3
(2023)
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Ed Potton
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It’s amiable enough, but devoid of real surprise or jeopardy and full of hokey guff about accepting people for who they really are.
Posted Sep 07, 2023
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4/5
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Coup de Chance
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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Coup de Chance is indeed the best thing that Allen has made in years, certainly since Blue Jasmine in 2013.
Posted Sep 04, 2023
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4/5
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Priscilla
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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Elvis fans will undoubtedly be appalled. But, well, they’ll always have Luhrmann.
Posted Sep 04, 2023
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3/5
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The Killer
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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There’s a hint of the self-righteous “incel” about him (see the Smiths fetish), which is what makes the movie interesting.
Posted Sep 04, 2023
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0/5
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The Palace
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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An eye-scorching atrocity that is instantly one of the most egregious film-making failures of the year, possibly even the decade.
Posted Sep 03, 2023
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5/5
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Maestro
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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An astonishingly beautiful film, by turns heartbreaking, tragic and tender, one that is fully constructed around two incessantly committed career-high performances.
Posted Sep 02, 2023
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4/5
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The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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The book, of course, is one of the sweetest Dahls written (see Henry’s surname). And it’s now become a perfectly precise blast of finest Anderson.
Posted Sep 01, 2023
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4/5
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All of Us Strangers
(2023)
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Ed Potton
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This is Scott’s film, though. His performance is intelligent and quietly moving, and he deserves more meaty leading roles like this.
Posted Sep 01, 2023
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4/5
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Passages
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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... A forensic analysis of the ebb and flow of power in all relationships, and the psychological make-up of those who wield it best.
Posted Sep 01, 2023
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2/4
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Apocalypse Clown
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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It’s hit and miss. Mostly miss.
Posted Sep 01, 2023
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2/5
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Maigret
(2022)
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Kevin Maher
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Depardieu, controversial off screen, remains charismatic on it. But not, in this case, charismatic enough.
Posted Sep 01, 2023
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4/5
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Klokkenluider
(2022)
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Kevin Maher
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The film owes a substantial debt to Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges, especially when two bickering, gun-toting bodyguards arrive, delightfully played by Tom Burke and Roger Evans.
Posted Sep 01, 2023
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2/5
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Cobweb
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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This American horror too is built around the “creature in the walls” concept, but here the dominant theme is parental guilt. Which is nice, because there’s little else to engage with... [Full review in Spanish]
Posted Sep 01, 2023
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5/5
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Poor Things
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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Expect an Academy Awards deluge.
Posted Sep 01, 2023
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When a Man Loves a Woman
(1994)
|
Geoff Brown
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Although roses ultimately grow round the door in the usual Hollywood way, Ronald Bass and Al Franken's script avoids the pitfalls of extreme melodrama, and gives novel emphasis to the pain that follows detoxification.
Posted Sep 01, 2023
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2/5
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El Conde
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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Thus the joy that El Conde takes in its own premise is slightly disproportionate to the thrills and provocations it claims to deliver.
Posted Aug 31, 2023
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4/5
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The Equalizer 3
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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Washington, typically, sells it all with another masterful blast of minimalism. His McCall is a performance of ferocious calm... so grounded and granite-like, in fact, that some very occasional smiles and casual chuckles seem almost indecently revealing.
Posted Aug 31, 2023
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2/5
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Ferrari
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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Adam Driver is back in Italian biopic mode... to play Enzo Ferrari in this handsomely made, competently performed but ultimately quite empty drama from the veteran film-maker Michael Mann (Heat).
Posted Aug 31, 2023
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Beauty and the Beast
(1991)
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Geoff Brown
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This is full-blown, full-blooded animation, lacking only the special finesse and charm that stamped Disney's work in the Forties. Children of all ages, start queuing now.
Posted Aug 30, 2023
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White Men Can't Jump
(1992)
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Geoff Brown
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Towards the end, Shelton's plot twists become too convenient. But so much life roars through this film that it can easily stand a few smacks of artifice.
Posted Aug 30, 2023
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2/5
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Comandante
(2023)
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Kevin Maher
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A deeply strange endeavour that has elements of perfume commercial and magic realist fable all contained within a propaganda message machine that never stops bleating about the singular greatness of “this wonderful chaos that is Italy”.
Posted Aug 30, 2023
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This Is Spinal Tap
(1984)
|
Ed Potton
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Rob Reiner’s mockumentary deserves plaudits for the British accents alone.
Posted Aug 29, 2023
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Skyfall
(2012)
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Wendy Ide
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... This picture, directed by Sam Mendes, contains some crucial elements that are all too frequently lacking in the average action movie.
Posted Aug 28, 2023
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