Any film which opens with ‘Based on a true story’ incites a desire to know just how true to life the plot is. Director James Marsh attempts to keep King of Thieves as verbatim as possible and you can be assured that there is little glamorizing of this story. The crooks in this film, led by Michael Caine, are surprisingly vicious and callous with a good deal of incontinence thrown in.
Single location films aren’t easy to pull off and on the rare occasion when done right (like in 2010’s Buried) they can be quite engaging and fast-paced. The Danish-set The Guilty, without a doubt, falls into the engaging category, but not only does it keep our adrenaline pumping, it unfolds layer upon layer with a situation you don’t see coming and will leave you assessing what our protagonist (and the audience) has had to deal with after the final credits roll.
Taron Egerton is a shoe-in for the world-renowned iconic artist Sir Elton John in the upcoming biopic about the singer’s life, Rocketman.
It would be remiss of this reviewer to discuss the psychological drama Vox Lux without commenting on the abhorrent manner which pop-star Celeste is endowed by fame; a by-product of a culture obsessed with celebrity in a system that benefits from the exploitation of trauma.
You’d think it’d be a pie in the face for Sony Pictures Classics to release a film about iconic comedy duo Laurel and Hardy without having their stage name in the title but in the case of Stan & Ollie, it speaks a testament to the genius of the pairing both on and away from the spotlight.
Arctic is an unforgiving yet inspirational story about a man stranded in the middle of the Antarctic wilderness, who must use every ounce of survival instinct to stay alive in a place without any remorse for human life.
Russell Crowe won an Academy Award for his role in Gladiator (2000); a spectacle film containing chariot races, battles to the death, and scenes involving Crowe stroking wheat in a field. In a film that promises all the joy of caressing plants without any of the Gladiator action, At Eternity’s Gate enters this year’s award season as a little-known film that could potentially garner Willem Dafoe his first (overdue) Oscar.
Two years after winning Best Picture at the Oscars for Moonlight (2016), director Barry Jenkins follows up with his slightly inferior, but nonetheless strong feature If Beale Street Could Talk.
The new William Shakespeare biopic All is True sees an outstanding cast that includes Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen tell the untold story of the famous poet.
Despite a catalogue of action films that suffer from sameness, Liam Neeson is an anomaly amongst action greats with his rise to superstardom being celebrated in a way that other legends in the genre (we see you Bruce Willis) are not.
Capharnaüm opens with our protagonist Zain (Zain Al Rafeea), impossibly tiny in his handcuffs, suing his parents for giving him life.
On the Basis of Sex is a legal biopic that does little justice to the work of Ruth Bader Ginsburg; a pioneer in the field of gender-based discrimination law in the United States.
Olivia Wilde plays a vigilante taking the law into her own hands to avenge domestic-abuse victims in this upcoming indie action-thriller.
Singer/actor Jessie Buckley stars as an aspiring musician with a sketchy past in the upcoming music themed film Wild Rose.
I left the screening of The Mule Googling “how old is Clint Eastwood?” (88) and “is Clint Eastwood a good actor or have we all been duped?” (undecided).
A feel-good film that pulls at the heartstrings, Green Book is a beautiful adaptation of a true story, delivered by director Peter Farrelly in such a way as to remind us to open our arms in welcome of all.
