Film Reviews

It would be far too easy to sneer, mock and feel a little exasperated by its saccharine sweet narrative, but Bill Holderman's new romantic comedy Book Club remains one of the most groundbreaking films of its genre, regardless of how contrived or predictable it might seem to some. Staring Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen as members of a book club who find a new lease of life thanks to the introduction some unlikely new reading material,...

In a colonial-era South America, bureaucrat Don Diego de Zama (Daniel Giménez Cacho) is trapped in Asunción, continuously rejected transfer by his bosses. In an attempt to break out of his Kafkaesque existence Zama takes part in a dangerous mission to capture bandit Vicuña Porto (Matheus Nachtergaele), on the promise of freedom and glory if he succeeds. In spite of the stifling surrounds closing Zama in, this is a film that can leave a viewer cold. There is a clear...

If someone had told me two weeks ago that the best film I would see at this year’s Cannes Film Festival would be a garish, blood-soaked exploitation thriller starring Nic Cage, I probably would have snorted at you with the sort of jeering derision reserved almost exclusively for certain members of the Cannes press corp. And yet, here we are. Directed by Canadian-Italian filmmaker Panos Cosmatos, this blistering rock ballad of a movie is the sort of euphoric cinema experience...

Nadine Labaki’s Capharnaüm isn’t a subtle film, but it’s one that will hit you hard. The story of a young boy navigating the slums of Beirut, it’s an idealistic but well-intentioned attempt to try and confront some of the pre-established socio-political structures within Lebanon; a country where you need a piece of official paper just to prove you exist. It begins, however, as something almost satirical. 12-year-old Zain (Zain Al Rafera) is in jail, convicted of stabbing a neighbour for...

Coercive Control - a form of abuse in a relationship that works not through physical violence but threats and other means of controlling a partner’s behaviour - only became a crime in the UK in late 2015. I don’t think it’s a commonly used description, or a crime, in much of the US, but Allure touches on it in some chilling ways. Laura (Evan Rachel Wood) is about 30 and works for her Dad’s house cleaning company. On her first...

Debuting at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where first time director Léonor Serraille won the Camera d’Or prize, Jeune Femme is a restless look at the turbulent life of its protagonist Paula (Laetitia Dosch). She is struggling to come to terms with a break-up following a 10 year relationship with a successful photographer and is ricocheting from one impulsive decision to another. We first see her attempting to break into the apartment of her ex-boyfriend Joachim (Grégoire Monsaingeon). Her efforts...

Bounding along some five months after the release of The Last Jedi, Solo: A Star Wars Story is a film that appears to have been reverse engineered in the hopes of appeasing those few asinine fanboys who are still reeling from Rian Johnson’s forceful attempt to do more than simply pay homage to their beloved saga. Adopting the spirit of a plucky underdog, Solo is a scrappy, sweet-natured entry into the franchise, but one that never feels entirely sure of...

One wonders what it was about The House That Jack Built that persuaded Cannes director Thierry Fremaux to offer devious provocateur Lars von Trier a reprieve from his enforced exile. Presumably it wasn’t the scenes of duckling mutilation and toddler taxidermy that convinced him to change his mind, more likely it’s the fact that the whole thing comes across as a conceited exercise in navel-gazing that the festival’s programmers seem so keen to lap up. Still, at least the reports...

“Dis joint is based upon some fo’ real, fo’ real sh*t.” The story of Colorado detective Ron Stallworth is one of those true-life tall tales that’s just so strange it couldn’t be fiction, and in the hands of Spike Lee it proves to be pure dynamite – the director returning to the Croisette for the first time since 1991, to inject some much-needed energy into a somewhat lifeless Cannes Film Festival. Stallworth – played with charismatic charm by John David...