Arctic film review: A grim but powerful slog through the frozen wilds June 28, 2019 A minimalist tale of man-versus-nature, Joe Penna’s debut feature immerses us in the daily routine of Overgard (Mads Mikkelsen), the survivor of a cargo-plane crash in the Arctic (actually, Iceland). How long he has been stranded in the frozen wastes is uncertain, as we join his story in media res, but his missing toes suggest [...]
The Damned at Barbican review: More of the same good stuff from Ivo Van Hove June 28, 2019 The Damned continues Dutch theatre director Ivo van Hove’s obsession with adaptations, with his oeuvre now including four Bergman screenplays, versions of Oscar-winning films Network and All About Eve, and now four works from Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti. And while this French-language play occasionally veers close to a van Hove ‘greatest hits’ compilation, it’s excellently performed by [...]
Yesterday review: A chilling account of the harrowing symptoms of one man’s brain injury June 28, 2019 The phrase “feel-good comedy of the summer” should cause no small amount of bile to rise in your throat, but Yesterday is inescapably just that. A movie that seems algorithmically laser-targeted for success, it arrives just as ravenous audiences are lifting their faces from the dessicated carcass of last summer’s Mamma Mia 2, and are [...]
Toy Story 4 review: A visually stunning nostalgia fest that lives up to the franchise legacy June 28, 2019 The question on my lips when Toy Story 4 was announced was: why? Toy Story 3 seemed like the perfect finish to a trilogy that never made a misstep. As the film ended, the sight of Woody, Buzz Lightyear et al with their new owner, Bonnie, as their original one, Andy, drove off to college, [...]
The Hunt at the Almeida review: A powerful but uncomfortable film adaptation June 28, 2019 The Hunt, a tale of a man’s world crumbling around him in the wake of false accusations of paedophilia, is so utterly harrowing it barely qualifies as entertainment. It’s two hours of nauseating tension, each escalation arriving like a physical blow. It’s a nightmare given solid form, and its transition from screen to stage only amplifies the [...]
Never Look Away review: New film from The Lives of Others director is a bloated, pretentious mishmash June 28, 2019 Fifteen years after his masterful The Lives of Others, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has returned to his native Germany with a bungled, overwrought epic set across the three defining political epochs of the 20th century. Over 188 minutes, we follow Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling), who experiences the Third Reich as a child, communist East [...]
Bret Easton Ellis interview: an audience with the most hated writer in America June 17, 2019 Bret Easton Ellis is concerned about the noise. We’re sitting in the lounge of a fancy hotel, and he’s worried my tape recorder won’t pick him up. “We can find another if you’d like. Tell me what you want to do.” It’s hard to reconcile his graciousness with his reputation as the one-time enfant terrible [...]
Diego Maradona biopic a strikingly candid antidote to airbrushed world of modern football June 13, 2019 “Peace,” says a young Diego Maradona when asked, five minutes into Asif Kapadia’s candid new film about the troubled Argentinian genius, what he is hoping for from his impending transfer from Barcelona to Napoli. There is precious little of that in his seven tumultuous years in the fervent southern Italian city, which form the basis [...]
E3 2019: The biggest games, trailers and announcements June 12, 2019 Watch Dogs Legion British politics has now well and truly seeped into the cultural groundwater. According to the game’s French publisher Ubisoft, the latest entry in the Watch Dogs series is set in a dystopian vision of “post-Brexit” London. The Grand Theft Auto-alike allows you to freely drive and roam around a near-future version of [...]
Gloria Bell review: Julianne Moore stars in this beguiling but frustrating retread June 7, 2019 This beguiling, frustrating film is noteworthy for two reasons: a gleaming performance by Julianne Moore, and the fact that it is a remake by Chilean director Sebastian Lelio of his own film, 2013’s Gloria. Save the surname appended to the title and the new LA setting, Lelio has changed little from the original. Moore stars [...]