B (out of 5) Luc Besson tries to recapture the spirit and look of his problematic but still superior Fifth Element with this adaptation of a comic book series, the most expensive film made in… Continue reading
BBB (out of 5) Emma Thompson plays a judge whose cases mostly involved minors and who frequently has to apply the law to cases that are sensitive (the film opens with her debating the… Continue reading
BBBBB (out of 5) British and French soldiers, approximately 400,000 in number, have been pushed back in battle to the French town of Dunkirk, their only possibility for evacuation the wide open sea… Continue reading
BBBB (out of 5) Jeremy Renner plays a hunter for the Fish and Wildlife Department whose job has him living in the snowy peaks of Wyoming, shooting the odd wolf that threatens local livestock.… Continue reading
BBB (out of 5) Michael Caine is summoned to the estate of famed detective novelist Laurence Olivier to discuss Olivier’s wife, with whom Caine is having an affair. Happy to be rid of her, Olivier… Continue reading
BBB.5 (out of 5) True story of Jimmy Gralton (Barry Ward), who returns to Ireland in 1932 after ten years of exile in America, a dedicated socialist with no religious sentiment; in an… Continue reading
BB.5 (out of 5) Robert Morley and Noel Langley’s play is adapted into pure film treacle, imagine an update of Cavalcade and you have an idea of what you’re watching. Spencer Tracy and Deborah Kerr are both… Continue reading
BBB (out of 5) A famous art critic (Tom Conti) lives in his aristocratic family’s country manor after having been gruesomely injured in a car accident that took both his eyes and left… Continue reading
BB.5 (out of 5) Dylan Thomas’ popular radio drama is adapted to film with a number of stars making brief and, in some cases, obscure appearances, including Peter O’Toole, Elizabeth Taylor, Glynis Johns, and Richard… Continue reading
BBB.5 (out of 5) Edith Evans is excellent as a woman who is slowly losing touch with reality thanks to the decay of age and her perpetual loneliness. Among her many delusions are her… Continue reading
BB.5 (out of 5) The closest Elizabeth Taylor ever came to starring in a horror movie was her appearance in this quickie thriller that has only a few brief chill-worthy moments. She is recovering… Continue reading
BB.5 (out of 5) With so many dead and so many mourning after the end of the Great War, Europe sees a rising interest in the occult thanks to people’s desire to communicate… Continue reading
BB (out of 5) Olivier and James are going on for a minibreak to Olivier’s summer home in the south of France and have brought along a last minute addition: James ran into… Continue reading
BBBB (out of 5) Orphaned Sam Claflin was raised by his loving, older cousin (also played by Claflin) who, once his ward has arrived at adulthood, spends his last few years in southern Europe… Continue reading
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Gemma Arterton rules this tribute to the spirit of British filmmaking and the spirit of Britain itself during World War II. She plays a newspaper copy editor who is advanced… Continue reading
BB (out of 5) Authorities pounding on the door of Joyce Vincent’s flat were determined to get into her apartment and demand the rent she had not paid in three years. What they found… Continue reading
BBB.5 (out of 5) True story of the kidnapping of Germany’s General Kreipe (played here by Marius Goring) by British soldiers stationed on the Greek island of Crete. Patrick Leigh Fermor, later to become… Continue reading
BB (out of 5) We move ten years past the events of Prometheus and find ourselves aboard the Covenant, a vessel carrying colonists to a distant planet where they will create a new civilization. A series of circumstances… Continue reading
BBBB (out of 5) Adaptation of the second half of D.H. Lawrence’s masterful novel that takes liberties with dramatization but has at its core the same essential focus, a relationship between mother and… Continue reading
BBB (out of 5) A group of low creatures enter an abandoned warehouse to do a deal with another group of low creatures, and the process should be simple: one bunch have boxes… Continue reading
B (out of 5) Earth is overcrowded and harvesting food has been outsourced to other celestial bodies manned by small crews, including a moon of Saturn where Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett live completely alone… Continue reading
BBBB (out of 5) For anyone who thinks that Shakespeare is meant to be a quiet and lofty experience, this delicious horror movie that celebrates the violence in his plays is a must-see.… Continue reading
BBB.5 (out of 5) Warsaw’s zoo is run by a happily married couple who see it destroyed in the September 1939 German invasion, then have it taken over by Nazi forces led by… Continue reading
BBBBB (out of 5) A woman who suffers for being too modern for her society is not new ground for director Terence Davies, whose House of Mirth, Sunset Song and The Deep Blue Sea have previously put… Continue reading
BBB.5 (out of 5) After suffering a heart attack on the job, a Newcastle construction worker (Dave Johns) tries to claim disability benefits and is plunged into nine circles of bureaucratic hell, constantly… Continue reading
BB (out of 5) After losing their son in battle, a Berlin couple decide that Nazi ideology is not worth believing in if the cost is to be so high. He (Brendan Gleeson) continues his work… Continue reading
BBBB.5 (out of 5) A magnificent shoot-out in mid-fifties Mississippi ends with dead bodies everywhere, the one survivor a gorgeous femme fatale (Robin Givens) who makes away with the loot, a trunk full of… Continue reading
BB.5 (out of 5) Louis XIV (Alan Rickman, who also directed) is moving his court to Versailles to appease France’s nervous aristocracy, turning the former hunting lodge into a glorious palace with a… Continue reading
BB (out of 5) Lars von Trier’s proposed trilogy of observations of American society starts out strong with Dogville but moves on to a much less interesting second chapter (the third has yet to be… Continue reading
BB.5 (out of 5) J.K. Rowling exploits her fans for all they’re worth in this original screenplay based in the world of her megahit Harry Potter series, taking place decades before the action… Continue reading
BBBB (out of 5) Mildred Jeter (Ruth Negga) tells her boyfriend Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton) that she’s pregnant; he is pleased with the news and immediately buys a plot, begins building a house in their rural… Continue reading
BBB (out of 5) Trash should always be this fun. Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Caine have no end of fun camping it up in this melodrama, in which they play a married couple who have their… Continue reading
BBBB (out of 5) Conor is loaded with adolescent angst and a burgeoning longing to get in with girls, so when he spots a gorgeous older lass after school, he tells her that he’s the leader of… Continue reading
BB.5 (out of 5) A Canadian spy (Brad Pitt) working for the British forces during World War II is sent to Casablanca, where he plays house with a French agent (Marion Cotillard) until they… Continue reading
BBB.5 (out of 5) They smoke too much, they drink too much, they have no respect for any person or institution and they spend money while hardly bothering to make it: in short, they… Continue reading
BBBB (out of 5) Sophie is lonely in her London orphanage, beset by the misery within its walls and what she senses are possible monsters outside her window. She dares to look beyond the curtain and… Continue reading
BBB.5 (out of 5) A Glasgow bus driver (Robert Carlyle) intercedes when a woman with poor English skills named Carla (Oyanka Cabezas) is accosted by a fare inspector for not buying a ticket, getting… Continue reading
BBBB.5 (out of 5) A group of petty thugs and criminals are sentenced to community service, among them a bright but beleaguered young man named Robbie, whose newborn baby inspires him to want to… Continue reading
BBBB.5 (out of 5) This lyrical, robust documentary sees Ken Loach examining the spirit of socialism that grew in England in the aftermath of World War II, through to its destruction by conservative… Continue reading
BBBB (out of 5) Ken Loach can turn even manipulative melodrama into compelling interactions that have a documentary feel, here adapting David Mercer’s play about a young woman so pressured by her parents’… Continue reading
BBBB (out of 5) A young woman (Agyness Deyn) grows up on a farm under the oppressive tyranny of her abusive father (Peter Mullan, who rarely plays anything else), watching as he dominates… Continue reading
BBBB (out of 5) A lawyer (Brad Dourif) and a former documentary filmmaker (Frances McDormand) are investigating allegations of abusive behavior by British Security Forces in Northern Ireland on behalf of the civil… Continue reading
BBBB (out of 5) Terence Davies’ fictional films have often had a deep, resonant preoccupation with his beloved birthplace of Liverpool and the post-war era that he witnessed in his childhood. Coming after… Continue reading
BB (out of 5) Richard Burton and Rex Harrison have been living together for over twenty years, running a barbershop downstairs and bickering constantly upstairs, with Burton taking care of his aging and infirm… Continue reading
BBB.5 (out of 5) Michael Bond’s delightful character creation, a veritable institution in England that was inspired by the sight of refugee children arriving in London in World War II, is brought to… Continue reading
BB.5 (out of 5) Established but not quite yet venerated author Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) shows up at the home of an old tar (Brendan Gleeson) and begs to be told the story… Continue reading
BBBBB (out of 5) A department store clerk (Rooney Mara) catches the eye of a beautiful, wealthy housewife (Cate Blanchett), which leads very quickly to lunches together and, before long, evenings in front of the… Continue reading
BB.5 (out of 5) Arthur Conan Doyle’s eternal detective hero has seen better days when this film begins, a now frail old man (portrayed by Ian McKellen) who has left Baker Street and… Continue reading
BBB (out of 5) Carey Mulligan is perfectly cast as Thomas Hardy’s modern-minded heroine, a woman who refuses to be held back by marriage and prefers her own run of her property. After rejecting… Continue reading
