Roundup Reviews: Greta and Red Joan

Greta ★★★☆☆ Dir: Neil Jordan When Frances McCullen (Chloe Grace Moretz) returns a handbag she found on the subway, she becomes friends with a lonely older woman named Greta (Isabelle Huppert). When she discovers some disturbing things about Greta and tries to cut off contact, Frances finds that her new friend isn’t so easy to shake. Neil Jordan’s first film since the underseen Byzantium is a bit of a throwback. 90s nostalgia is in at the moment, and this film...

Loro: Bunga bungargh

★★☆☆☆ Italian director Paolo Sorrentino charts the dealings and plotting of Italian businessman and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in his latest film Loro. The film begins not with the notorious politician but with the young and self-assured Sergio Morra (Riccardo Scamarcio), who traffics escorts and bribes politicians in the small coastal city of Taranto. Sergio has grand plans and in an attempt to get the attention of the country’s most powerful person he hires a villa next to Berlusconi’s and...

Mid90s: A stylish coming-of-age gem

★★★★☆ From Superbad to The Wolf of Wall Street, Jonah Hill has long proven to be a comedic maestro, but with his debut feature Mid90s, he’s reinvented himself as a serious voice in cinema. This film takes viewers on a nostalgic trip back to 90s L.A., where 13-year-old Stevie (Sunny Suljic) befriends a group of rowdy skateboarders. Over one summer, he gets his first taste of freedom and learns a handful of life lessons along the way. Mid90s is not...

Hellboy: And to Hell he can go

★☆☆☆☆ It’s probably best to establish, right up front, my engagement with Mike Mignola’s character, Hellboy. I never read the comics, so my only knowledge of the character comes from the two films made by Guillermo Del Toro in 2004 and 2008. I understand that Mignola was happy with them, but I have no idea whether those films or this one cleave closer to his work. Nor do I especially care. A film adaptation is a work distinct from a...

Little: As in not much

★★☆☆☆ In Little, director Tina Gordon presents a deeply contrived, narratively flawed and criminally mirthless high concept comedy about a female tech boss who is transformed into her younger self when the pressures of being an adult become too much to handle. Starring Regina Hall, Issa Rae and Marsai Martin (the child actor from the TV show Black-ish), Little first made the headlines when it was revealed that Martin, who came up with the idea for the film after watching...

Wild Rose: She can do anything

Glaswegian Rose-Lynn Harlan (Jessie Buckley) has just got out of prison after a 12 month sentence. Returning home, she’s greeted by her mother Marion (Julie Walters), who has been looking after her two young kids. She takes a job as a cleaner, but all Rose-Lynn really wants is to go to Nashville to be a country singer. When her employer Susannah (Sophie Okonedo) offers to help, it seems that opportunities might be opening up, but also that life might get...

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