It has taken writer and director Carol Morley six years to bring to the screen the story of Audrey Amiss, a woman suffering from severe mental health issues who was a hidden gem in the art world. Typist Artist Pirate King is a fictional tale of two women who may seem so different yet are…
Author: Stuart Wren
The Burial
If there is one genre that suffers from cliches, it has to be the courtroom drama. Real courts rarely have as much drama, as many extended monologues or as many over-the-top moments as they do in the movies. Yet, they fascinate and often get the blood pressure rising with their levels of excitement and enjoyment….
The Great Escaper
At the prime of their successes, Michael Caine and the late Glenda Jackson were the darlings of British cinema. He was the king of action and adventure, many hits including The Italian Job, Zulu, the Harry Palmer movies, and The Man Who Would Be King. She was the Oscar-winning actress in Women in Love and…
The Creator
You have to give kudos nowadays when a director produces an entirely original blockbuster, not part of a franchise or reboot. That is precisely what director Gareth Edwards has done. Instead of heading down the easy option of producing something already out there, he has come up with The Creator, a science fiction action movie…
Dumb Money
Something extraordinary happened at the height of the pandemic in America. A videogame store became the focus of Wall Street when its shares went through the roof, all generated by a mild-mannered blogger and YouTuber. Dumb Money is a story told most simplistically by the director of I, Tonya and a cast that does a…
A Haunting in Venice
Hercule Poirot and his double moustache are back for a third thriller from Agatha Christie, and unlike Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, director, producer and star Kenneth Branagh has gone for a story not previously filmed, and in a sense, this is all the better for the movie, as this…
The Nun II
Do you remember the 2018 Conjuring spin-off, The Nun? No, neither do I. The film was obviously a success, otherwise Warner Bros wouldn’t produce this sequel, which continues the story set up in the original film. If you can’t remember that film, then you are going to be a little confused, for while this could…
The Equalizer 3
Robert McColl is back in Antoine Fuqua’s third and what promises to be his final Equalizer movie. The quiet, former intelligence officer who takes on the big guy for the little one finds himself taking on his biggest threat yet: the mafia. While this will never be groundbreaking or change the face of action thrillers,…
Meg 2: The Trench
Oh, Ben Wheatley! Regarded as one of this country’s best independent filmmakers, Mr Wheatley has, over the years, produced some excellent cross-genre movies like the gangster/horror Kill List, the black comedy Sightseers, and the deconstruction of an action movie, Free Fire. Now he tackles his first big blockbuster movie, Meg 2: The Trench, the sequel…
The Beanie Bubble
There seems to be a current trend in looking back at commerce from the past that we have connected with. We had Air, about the Nike trainer; Tetris, about the computer game and Blackberry, about the mobile phone. Now we have The Beanie Bubble, a tale of the Beanie Babies phenomenon, the bean-stuffed toys that…
Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan has become as big a name as the movies he directs. You know that when you see one of his films, you will get quality, a filmmaker who produces thought-provoking, often head-scratching tales. After his last movie, the complicated Tenet, we now get a biopic, of sorts, in the story of the Father…
Barbie
This weekend saw something I thought I would never see again. A cinema foyer packed with screens sold out. The reason behind this phenomenon is this weekend saw the release of two of the year’s biggest and most anticipated movies: Oppenheimer and Barbie, or as it has now been renamed, Barberheimer. Two completely different movies…
Stu Loves Film 