Cinema

Gardeners’ world: Alan Rickman (Louis XIV) and Kate Winslet (Sabine De Barra) at Versailles

A Little Chaos review: Kate Winslet emotes her little socks off

18 April 2015 9:00 am

A Little Chaos is a period drama directed by Alan Rickman and starring Kate Winslet as a woman charged to…

Ryan Reynolds and Helen Mirren in ‘Woman in Gold’

Woman in Gold review: even Helen Mirren is weighed down by the script’s banalities

11 April 2015 9:00 am

Woman in Gold feels rather like a Jewish version of Philomena as this too is about an older woman seeking…

Portrait of a director: Robert Altman

I always think I'm going to hate Baumbach's films and never do: While We're Young reviewed

4 April 2015 9:00 am

Every time I sit down to a Noah Baumbach film I think I’m going to hate it, but I never…

Lily James's Cinderella is more of a doormat than my actual doormat

28 March 2015 9:00 am

Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella is a Disney film based on a Disney film, so is double Disney, if you like. It…

The Voices review: a hateful, repellent, empty film

21 March 2015 9:00 am

The Voices is ‘a dark comedy about a serial killer’, which is not an overcrowded genre, and I think we…

Suite Francaise review: what is this film playing at, when it comes to Jews in attics?

14 March 2015 9:00 am

Suite Française is being billed as a second world war romance about ‘forbidden love’ and, in this regard, it is…

Still Alice review: you can see why Julianne Moore won an Oscar but the film’s still boring

7 March 2015 9:00 am

There’s always seemed something masklike about Julianne Moore’s face: she seems walled in by her beauty. When she smiles, the…

The Boy Next Door reviewed: a terrible new J-Lo movie that's disturbingly enjoyable

28 February 2015 9:00 am

Stateside critics, who panned Jennifer Lopez’s new film The Boy Next Door on its US release last month, may be…

Fifty Shades of Grey, review: ‘Use a condom!’ my sister shouted

21 February 2015 9:00 am

And so, in the end, I went with my sister, Toni, to see Fifty Shades of Grey and we saw…

A humdinger of a plus: Alfred Molina and John Lithgow in ‘Love Is Strange’

Love Is Strange review: subtle and nuanced in ways which, I’m assuming, Fifty Shades is not

14 February 2015 9:00 am

You will be wondering why I haven’t seen Fifty Shades of Grey as this is very much Fifty Shades of…

King maker: David Oyelowo in ‘Selma’, the best performance of the year not nominated for an Oscar

Selma review: rich, nuanced, heartbreaking

7 February 2015 9:00 am

Selma, the civil rights film that stars David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, undoubtedly contains the best and most powerful…

Trash, review: trash by name, trash by nature

31 January 2015 9:00 am

Trash is the sort of film one desperately wishes to be kind about — heart supremely, if not burstingly, in…

A Most Violent Year, review: mesmerising performances - and coats

24 January 2015 9:00 am

A Most Violent Year is a riveting drama even though I can’t tell you what it’s about, or even what…

Wild made me want to puke

17 January 2015 9:00 am

Wild is yet another film based on a true story, as currently seems to be in vogue for some reason.…

Channing Tatum and Steve Carell

Foxcatcher: piercing, shattering, spellbinding

10 January 2015 9:00 am

Foxcatcher is a crime drama (of sorts) that has already been dubbed ‘Oscarcatcher!’ as it barely puts a foot wrong.…

Birdman: plenty to see, little to feel

3 January 2015 9:00 am

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, which stars Michael Keaton as a one-time superhero movie star (just like Keaton himself), is audacious…

Agnes Kittelsen as Thor Heyerdahl’s wife, Liv — one of the film’s many blondes

If you like bland films full of blondes, you’ll love Kon-Tiki

13 December 2014 9:00 am

Kon-Tiki is a dramatisation of Thor Heyerdahl’s 4,300-mile, 101-day journey across the Pacific by balsa-wood raft, which took place in…

Too lovable: Bill Murray and Jaeden Lieberher in ‘St. Vincent’

St. Vincent: too much lovability and not enough roguishness from Bill Murray

6 December 2014 9:00 am

Is Bill Murray fit for sainthood? Certainly his fans have him figure as some sort of lesser divinity, maybe one…

Paddington review: put your mind at rest - no one gets marmalade up the bum

29 November 2014 9:00 am

‘Please look after this bear,’ reads the famous label hanging round Paddington’s neck, and this film does that, admirably, handsomely,…

Just because The Homesman has a few women in it doesn’t make it a ‘feminist western’

22 November 2014 9:00 am

The Homesman, which stars Hilary Swank and Tommy Lee Jones and is set in the Nebraska territory in the 1850s,…

Railly, railly posh: Keira Knightley as Joan Clarke

The Imitation Game: a film that's as much in the closet as Alan Turing was

15 November 2014 9:00 am

The Imitation Game is a biopic starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician who broke the German’s Enigma…

Like Star Trek turned up to 11

Interstellar: like Star Trek – but dumber and more tiring

8 November 2014 9:00 am

Christopher Nolan’s futuristic epic Interstellar isn’t a clever film, or even a dumb film with a clever film trying to…

Mr Turner: the gruntiest, snortiest, huffiest film of the year - and the most beautiful too

1 November 2014 9:00 am

Mr Turner may be the gruntiest film of the year, possibly the gruntiest film ever. ‘Grunt, grunt, grunt,’ goes Mr…

Brad Pitt with the crew of the Sherman tank, Fury

Fury: the men blow stuff up, then Brad Pitt takes his top off

25 October 2014 9:00 am

Fury is a second world war drama that plays with us viscerally and unsparingly — I think I saw a…

The Best of Me is more of a sleepie than a weepie - especially when our old friend No Sexual Chemistry makes an appearance

18 October 2014 9:00 am

Take tissues to The Best of Me, I’d read, as it’s such a weepie, so I took tissues, being a…