Film Reviews

FILM OF THE WEEK

HARD TRUTHS
Marianne Jean Baptiste is reunited with Mike Leigh for the first time since the award-winning SECRETS AND LIES and delivers one of the best performances of the year. She is hilarious as Pansy, a woman plagued by contradictions, the original misery guts who complains about everyone and everything. Her long-suffering husband Curtley (David Webber) and her sad, overweight son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) struggle daily to keep away from her wrath and vitriol. Her younger sister Chantelle (Michelle Austin) is a single mother and works as a hairdresser but with a much more positive approach to life – “Why are you so angry all the time?”- she asks her sister during a conflicting moment when Pansy continues to whine about something totally trivial and irrelevant…
Mike Leigh’s brilliant new film is one of his best of recent years; it is impeccably directed with fully fleshed characters. It is basically a Jewish comedy set in the black community of North London and it sparkles with smart and very funny dialogue.
Baptiste’s Pansy is a wonderful creation and apart from having a go at everyone who comes close to her proximity, she shares some tender and hard truth moments with her sister Chantelle. Highly recommended!

PRESENCE
Steve Soderbergh’s stylish supernatural thriller boasts the busiest steady cam of recent memory. David Koepp’s screenplay follows the story of a family of four who move into a large suburban house inhabited by a “presence”. The whole action is seen from the Presence’s point of view thus the manically steady cam that never stops.
The marriage of Rebecca (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan) is on the brink of divorce, while their younger daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) is still grieving for her best friend’s Nadia’s recent death and believes that the presence she feels in her bedroom is her friend’s spirit…
It is an intriguing film, well-acted and it recalls the style of find footage films, particularly the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise.

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN
James Mangold, the bravura director of WALK THE LINE and FORD V FERRARI, brings to the screen the story of Bob Dylan (Timothee Chamalet) at the time when he was a 19-year-old. This fresh-faced young man arrives from Minnesota to Greenwich Village carrying his guitar and with his mind full of dreams and ambition. On arrival his first stop is to visit his hero Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) in hospital, that’s where he meets Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) and this first encounter becomes instrumental to his future career and success…
It is a brilliant film – Chamalet has never been better, not only he inhabits the heart and soul of this legendary man, but also sings Dylan’s classic songs to perfection. His shares a tremendous chemistry with Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, the iconic singer and lover.
A real treat not just for music lovers!

MARIA
The celebrated Chilean director Pablo Larrain follows JACKIE and SPENCER with another brilliant portrait on iconic women. Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie), the world’s greatest female opera singer spends her final days in 1970s Paris and longs to have one more chance to perform on a grand stage.
Steven Knight’s ambitious script plays with time, and we see Maria in black and white sequences at the peak of her career, either performing or being courted by Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer). The flashback sequences work better that those in Paris where Maria is overpowered by self-pity…
Even though this is an uneven film it is still very moving and is very much worth seeing.

WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL
Another little gem from Nick Park and Aardman animation in which Gromit begins to feel that his loyal services are not fully appreciated especially after Wallace invents a robotic garden gnome called Norbot. Things get even more chaotic when Norbot is reprogramed in an act of vengeance by Feathers McGraw, the master thief penguin…
It is hugely enjoyable, and it affectionately pays homage to many movies including CAPE FEAR. Perfect family entertainment. (BBC iPlayer & Netflix)

JACKPOT!
The reputation of Paul Feig, the director of BRIDESMAIDS and SPY is threatened to be eclipsed by this way over the top action-comedy. In the not-so-distant future in California the life of a “Grand Lottery” winner is in jeopardy and whoever kills them before sundown automatically inherits their multi-billion-dollar jackpot. Katie (Awkwafina) accidentally finds herself with the winning ticket and has no alternative but to join forces with amateur protection agent Noel Cassidy (John Cena)…
The first half hour of this crazy comedy is promising with a fun premise but as the action develops it loses total credibility as well as its sense of humour. (Prime Video)

THE FUTURE TENSE
Irish filmmakers Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor are well known for their powerful independent movies like HELEN, MISTER JOHN and JULIE PLAYS JULIE. This project was made during lockdown and since they were unable to hire professional actors, they play themselves in this tale based on their own experiences. It is staged as a series of voiceover sessions where they explore mental illness, parenting as well as their own thoughts about their forthcoming project which was to become ROSE’S WAR (original title BALTIMORE) released last year.
A fine document of two great artists at work. (MUBI)

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