FANNY LYE DELIVER’D

If there was a word that could describe what makes director Thomas Clay’s Fanny Lye Deliver’d work on so many levels, unpredictable would come to mind. It is a fair description of a drama available to see on Curzon Home Cinema guided by its small but convincing ensemble of actors representing several generations of actors, …

A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK

Woody Allen has been the subject of debate since the Me Too movement awakened allegations of sexual molestation of his daughter, with stars declaring regret working for him and Amazon Studios reneging on a four-film deal with him leading to a court case. One of those films that was part of the deal, A Rainy …

THE COUNTY

Icelandic director Grimur Hakonarson’s previous film Rams was such a strong and emotionally-charged work that it made my list of the top 50 films of the 2010s. One could understand then the pressure to make good of his follow-up, in this case The County, a seemingly against-all-odds account of the little people taking on the …

EMA

Pablo Larrain is one of the more interesting directors working in world cinema today with the likes of El Club and Neruda aiding his reputation and contributing to a hot streak of modern Chilean cinema. Here, his talent continues to shine with Ema, his third collaboration with Gael Garcia Bernal that is mainly guided by …

CAPONE

There is no doubt Tom Hardy is one of the most influential and talented British actors of his generation. But he is also one of those actors who is very much hit-and-miss as it seems for every good film he makes (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Warrior, Locke, The Revenant) there is a dud (This Means …

MICHEL PICCOLI: 1925-2020

This afternoon whilst browsing through what was trending on Twitter, I discovered the death of Michel Piccoli at the age of 94. It was only yesterday that I was thinking of one of his features, We Have a Pope, which made his passing all the more poignant. He established his presence as one of the …

EXTRACTION

For many, Chris Hemsworth is best-known for portraying a certain iconic hammer-wielding Norse god in franchise fare where he has no trouble finding enormous audiences at box office but outside of Marvel, it’s a mixed picture. There have been successes like Snow White and the Huntsman and Rush, bombs like Blackhat and In the Heart …

THE ASSISTANT

The MeToo movement has had such an impact on society in recent times that it appeared a matter of time before we would get films based on the harassment and bullying young women received by predatory men in power. Bombshell recently did so commendably with its retelling of the events that led to the downfall …

CALM WITH HORSES

The theme of loyalty is the driving force of Calm with Horses, a directorial debut within the crime thriller genre set in rural Ireland that sees the pairing of Cosmo Jarvis and Barry Keoghan. Here Jarvis portrays an ex-boxer nicknamed Arm who works as a violent enforcer for a tough drug-dealing family operating in the …

WHO YOU THINK I AM?

Juliette Binoche is one of the most reliable actresses working in the world today, her reputation cemented with cross-generational roles in films such as Three Colours: Blue, Hidden and Let the Sunshine In amongst others. This status continues with a lead performance in Who You Think I Am, a somewhat timely psychological drama revolving around …