One of the things about watching movies is that you do get to learn quite a bit about lives you had no idea about. Take The Testament of Ann Lee, the new film from the husband and wife team behind The Brutalist. They have taken the story of a woman who founded a religious group…
Tag: reviews
The Secret Agent
Movies can deliver a straightforward plot with very little in terms of themes or storytelling experimentation, while others go all out to make the experience worthwhile. The Secret Agent, a near-on three hour Brazilian movie from writer and director Kleber Mendonça Filho, does the latter. You think it is one thing, then it throws in…
Nouvelle Vague
The French film Breathless is regarded as a milestone in cinema history. A French New Wave classic by controversial director Jean-Luc Godard, it was a film that threw the rulebook of storytelling and filmmaking out the window. It has since become an influential film for filmmakers and film students alike. Richard Linklater, the director of…
The Voice of Hind Rajab
It’s not often you sit in a cinema with a packed audience in stunned silence during the end credits (unless there is some sequence you are expecting). Still, it happened with The Voice of Hind Rajab, a powerful, gut-wrenching drama based on actual events during the Israeli-Gaza war, that doesn’t need to be seen; it…
Hamnet
The awards season is upon us, and one of the front-runners for major awards is Hamnet, based on a best-selling book by Maggie O’Farrell and directed by Oscar-winning Chloe Zhao, returning to human drama after dabbling with the big-budget Marvel flop, Eternals. It has to be said that this isn’t a film if you are…
The Ice Tower
One of my fears about cinema has always been the lack of originality and the way movie makers rely on stories already told. This could be said of The Ice Tower, an unusual retelling of The Snow Queen, which has already inspired a huge adaptation in Disney’s Frozen. Yet this is as far removed from…
The Roses
Take two of this country’s finest and highly respected actors, the director of the Austin Powers and Meet The Parents movies, the writer of The Favourite and Poor Things and a film based on a best-selling book that has already been made into a popular movie from 1989, and what do you expect you will…
The Life Of Chuck
When it comes to film adaptations of books, no one has had a chequered career than Stephen King. The master of horror has some outstanding film versions from Carrie (the original 1976 version) to The Shining (although King himself hates it) to more recently It (the first part). Where he has scored highly is the…
Bring Her Back
A few years ago, Australian directors and twin brothers, Danny and Michael Philippou, gave us the intriguing and compelling horror film, Talk To Me, about a mummified hand that conjured spirits. What made that film work so well was its originality and the fact that the directors gave us characters we cared about. Now they…
Flow
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…
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…
Conclave
When you look at Conclave on paper, you wouldn’t think it was the most exciting movie idea for mainstream audiences. A film about the voting for a new Pope. At first, it looks like something that arthouse cinemas would thrive on. However, this is not what you think. Yes, it’s about voting for a new…
Stu Loves Film 