Argylle ★★½ IT HAD to happen eventually…British director Matthew Vaughan has made a bad film. Well, not necessarily a bad film, just nowhere near as good as the other seven he has made since debuting with Layer Cake in 2004. Vaughan is best known for his three Kingsman films which […]

Argylle is Vaughan’s first blemish

May/December ★★★½ ONE of the biggest omissions from the recent Academy Awards’ nominees was Todd Haynes’ May/December. At the least I would have placed it above both Barbie and Maestro and given nods to Natalie Portman and Charles Melton over Annette Benning in Nyad and Ryan Gosling in Barbie. Before […]

May/December has lingering impact

Manhunter ★★★★ ANTHONY Hopkins’ portrayal of Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs is one of the most chilling supporting performances ever in a horror film. Some critics would have you believe that Brian Cox’s portrayal of the same character three years earlier in Michael Mann’s Manhunter is better. They’re […]

Lector still shades Lektor

All of Us Strangers  ★★★★ BRITISH romantic drama All of Us Strangers is billed as a film that will particularly resonate with a certain audience due to the fact its two main characters are gay males. That may be true, but it resonates with everyone who reflects on choices they […]

Warning…there will be tears

Force of Nature ★★★ JANE Harper has successfully tapped into the form of crime mystery that features a character who is forced to confront their own past during a current investigation. You know the type of story – there are probably 20 versions in European television series on Netflix right […]

Force of Nature stays close to formula

Sick  ★★½ SCREAM writer Kevin Williamson may be behind the 2022 American slasher film Sick, but it doesn’t equal success. It’s set during the COVID years but for much of the running time you’re wondering why. We then have a couple of twists that initially seem quite novel. But when […]

Covid-set slasher doesn’t quite cut it

The Holdovers  ★★★★ TWO decades after Sideways, Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti have triumphantly reunited for The Holdovers. This film is a joy from start to finish, beautifully combining comedy and drama in a story that effortlessly crosses age, class and race divides. Giamatti has previously shown that there is […]

Triumphant reunion for Giammati and Payne

22 July ★★★½ IT’s hard not to compare Paul Greengrass’ 22 July from 2018 and Justin Kurzel’s Nitram (2022). Both films deal with actual massacres of unsuspecting civilians – 22 July on the 2011 events on an island off Oslo in Norway and Nitram on the 1996 tragedy at Port […]

The trouble with depicting true crime

The Iron Claw ★★★★ SEAN Durkin’s The Iron Claw isn’t just about professional wrestling, so don’t let that deter you from watching this entertaining film. It’s more about ‘family’ than all the Fast and Furious action films which seem to love throwing that word around with careless abandon. The Iron Claw […]

Tragic story of family resilience

The Beekeeper ★★ I THINK I’m allergic to bees. Not too much. I don’t blow up like the Elephant Man, but I do get a little woozy when I’m stung. They say it’s not the actual sting that causes the problem but the immediate reaction you have where you slap […]

Stung by Statham

Finestkind ★★★½ WRITER/director Brian Helgeland returns to his roots for the drama Finestkind. Yes, that’s one word, not two. The fact Helgeland knows this vernacular for “the best” shows the Massachusetts born director is at home in a story set within the local fishing industry. It has a strong cast […]

Fishing family drama a good catch

Prison 77 ★★★½ SPANISH film Prison 77 is several things. It starts as a prison drama, becomes a socio-political drama and finally a prison escape thriller. Occasionally the transitions are a little jarring and perhaps it’s a little long, but mostly it successfully blends an engrossing and exciting story with examination […]

Three times the prison drama