Cinema
Effie Gray can effie off
Effie Gray, which has been written by Emma Thompson and recounts the doomed marriage of Victorian art critic John Ruskin…
David Fincher plays Gone Girl for laughs - at least I hope he is
Gone Girl is David Fincher’s adaptation of the bestselling thriller by Gillian Flynn, a relentless page-turner which I’ve heard people…
Outnumbered: The Movie (But Crap)
What We Did On Our Holiday is written and directed by Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton, the pair who created…
20,000 Days On Earth: is Nick Cave the missing link? Or the next stage in evolution?
Inspired by Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never (2011), Katy Perry’s Part of Me (2012) and One Direction’s This Is Us…
Ignore the simplistic politics, Pride will make you laugh and cry
1984 and all that. Which side were you on? The side of Margaret Thatcher, her hairdo and person standing rigid…
Before I Go to Sleep prefers creepy car parks to feelings
Before I Go To Sleep is Rowan Joffe’s adaptation of S.J. Watson’s bestselling thriller of 2011, but whereas the book…
Night Moves – the opposite of a Dan Brown film
Night Moves is a film by Kelly Reichardt, who also made the heart-wrenching Wendy and Lucy (2008), which may be…
Lucy: the shoot-outs, car chases and mysteries of the universe
Here’s an idea for an article: The Tree of Life (2011) is the most influential film of the past decade.…
The Inbetweeners 2 is as filthy as a teenage boy – and it's hilarious
The first Inbetweeners film made £45 million at the box office, and was such an unexpected smash there was always…
Allergic to blockbusters? See Wakolda
Wakolda is not a sunny film for a sunny day, just so you’re aware, but as there is so little…
Moon Indigo: an all-you-can-eat buffet for the eyes - but your brain will feel famished
Your enjoyment of Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo may entirely depend on how much visual whimsy you can take, what your…
The Lunchbox: a love story based on food and free postage
Was Kate due a grounding after the awards extravaganza of Revolutionary Road and The Reader? Because Labor Day (12A) slipped…
The problem with Believe is you simply won’t believe any of it - unless you’re a child
The trouble with Believe is that, unless you are ten years old or under, which I’m assuming you are not,…
How did a New York nanny become one of the great photographers of the 20th century?
Finding Vivian Maier is a documentary about the American nanny who led a wholly secretive life as a photographer and…
A miracle: a three-hour film that flies by
Richard Linklater’s observational chronicle, Boyhood, was 12 years in the making and is 166 minutes long — that’s nearly three…
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window and Bloody Well Should Have Disappeared
If it were up to me this would be called ‘The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window, Fell, and…
Walking on Sunshine: the feel-ennui musical of the year
As far as ‘jukebox films’ go, Mamma Mia! was a riot, Sunshine on Leith was tolerable, just about, while Walking…
A funny weepie that paints itself into a contrived corner
The Fault in Our Stars, which is based on the bestselling young-adult novel by John Green, is about two teenagers…
Belle has everything going for it – except for a decent soundtrack or script or plot or acting
Belle is based on the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate, mixed-race daughter of a sea captain and…
Grace of Monaco: a big, glistening, strutting, irresistible turkey
Grace of Monaco, the Grace Kelly biopic starring Nicole Kidman, is an absolute joy, and I highly recommend it. Unless…
I suspected Maleficent would be terrible from the very first shot
If a gang of knife-wielding toddlers ever presses you for the name of the best Disney film, Sleeping Beauty (1959)…
Avoid the latest commercial juggernaut and go off-road with Run & Jump
When you see the latest corporate entertainment juggernaut hurtling at you, what are your options? When I saw X-Men: Days…
The humans in Godzilla are so bland and dull you may well find yourself rooting for the monster
Godzilla is from the director Gareth Edwards, a Brit whose first film, Monsters, truly put him on the map, as…
‘Sometimes audiences applauded Frank; sometimes they threw stuff at him’
Frank is a music biopic, but only of sorts, as it is not at all like your average music biopic.…
Blue Ruin is unwatchable, bloody – but, from what I saw, rather good
Blue Ruin is a low-budget yet highly accomplished revenge thriller although whether you have the stomach for it is another…
