Recently, we had the fabulous The Wild Robot, which captured a world of beauty and innocence with an animation that was a treat for the eyes and all the senses. Now we have Flow, another animation from Latvia that would make for a perfect companion piece to the Dreamworks feature, for this simple yet incredibly…
Author: Stuart Wren
Black Bag
When The Holdovers was advertised last year, I wasn’t very excited, but I was pleasantly surprised, and it became one of my favourite films. I had the same initial thoughts when watching the trailer for Black Bag. It was very underwhelming. I should have remembered the Alexander Payne comedy drama because Steven Soderbergh’s second film…
Mickey 17
Not many directors whose names are attached to a movie make you sit up and take note. Spielberg, Scorsese and Nolan all have that power. Now we have Bong Joon Ho, who gave us the masterpiece Parasite. He is a modern filmmaker who instantly draws you to his movies. Just from his past reputation and…
The Last Showgirl
Las Vegas has been used as a backdrop to so many movies, mainly for the glitz and glamour. The Last Showgirl, from Gia Coppola, the granddaughter of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, has taken a different approach. This is a film about the death of old Vegas, with the kind of cabaret show that is…
The Monkey
Last year, Osgood Perkins produced one of the creepiest films, the psychological horror Longlegs. Continuing his trait with horror, we now have The Monkey, based on a short story by Stephen King and as different a film as you could get from his previous outing. While Longlegs is a film built around atmosphere and being…
I’m Still Here
One thing that cinema does so well is telling us about historical events that have either been forgotten or we knew little about. I didn’t know much about the Brazilian dictatorship in the early 1970s, but thanks to Walter Salles’s exceptional drama, I’m Still Here, I have become more aware. It also seems very appropriate…
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy
It was 24 years ago that Helen Fielding’s singleton creation hit the big screen and became a massive success for fans of romantic comedies. Now, after three previous movies, Bridget Jones is back, with what has been reported to be the final episode in her misadventures with life and love in Mad About The Boy….
Captain America: Brave New World
There was a time when Marvel was almost untouchable for making enjoyable, exciting blockbusters. Nearly every film before Avengers: End Game was of a very high standard in storytelling, world creation and the film’s general look. Ever since then, however, things haven’t gone their way, and the wheels started coming off the Marvel wagon, from…
September 5
The events of the 1972 Olympics in Munich, in which 11 Israeli athletes were held hostage in the Olympic Village, are still one of the most shocking events in history. Yet it has become a distant memory, even though it has been the subject of films such as Steven Spielberg’s Munich and the Kevin MacDonald-directed…
Companion
They say never judge a book by its cover. When I saw the trailer for Companion, I was less than impressed and thought, here we go, another horror that will try and be different. How wrong was I? This is not what the trailer is selling. In fact, this film offers so much more than…
A Complete Unknown
Musician biopics usually follow the same pathway. Troubled singer/performer who has a hard upbringing, leading to an angst-ridden career that may involve drinks and or drugs, sometimes a little abuse towards the opposite sex. A Complete Unknown, the biopic about Bob Dylan, refuses to follow that line. Instead, it covers a small period in his…
Hard Truths
Mike Leigh is one of the UK’s most revered and influential film-makers. His style allows his cast to work on their characters in a more free-forming manner where the script comes out of improvisation. In recent years, he has focused on historical events, like Peterloo and Mr Turner, but he has returned to the storytelling…
Stu Loves Film 