6 years ago
The Oscars that never were
It’s easy to make fun of the Oscars, so let’s get started. No matter what awards they give tonight (February 2015) in Hollywood (or lunchtime Monday for us), they will …
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8 years ago
The Shawshank religion
Who would have thought that the most beloved film of the last 20 years would be the story of a man ‘who crawled through a river of shit and …
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8 years ago
The rise of the teenage bitch movie
Cue Joan Crawford in The Women, from 1939. ‘There’s a name for you ladies, but it isn’t used in high society – outside of a kennel’.
It is …
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9 years ago
The digital babysitter: toddlers and media
Do cartoon crocodiles make your child stupid? I had the chance recently to observe two children watching a cartoon, something that was both a pleasure and a shock for …
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9 years ago
Swearing in movies
This column is going to be about swearing in movies. So if you don’t like it, as Billy Connolly used to say at the start of his shows, ‘f— …
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Recent Reviews
Bad people doing bad things
Detour
Written and directed by Christopher Smith
97 minutes, rated MA 15+
3 stars
There’s no such thing as originality, but that doesn’t mean you stop aiming for it. Detour …
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An elegy for Emily D.
A Quiet Passion
Written and directed by Terence Davies
125 minutes, rated PG
4 stars
When one artist makes a film about another artist, you can be reasonably sure that …
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Kartoonish Korean ultra-violence
The Villainess
Directed by Jung Byung-gil
Written by Jung Byeong-sik and Jung Byung-gil
122 minutes, rated R
3.5 stars
The Villainess is a high-octane Korean thriller about a young woman …
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Fascinating half-true story
Monsieur Chocolat
Directed by Roschdy Zem
Written by Cyril Gely, Olivier Gorce, Gerard Noiriel and Roschdy Zem
114 minutes, rated M
4 stars
This is the fascinating true story of …
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Black and white and red
Get Out
Written and directed by Jordan Peele
104 minutes, rated MA 15+
4 stars
A guide to African–American horror films would be a slim volume. There are black people …
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Fine and brave
Don’t Tell
Directed by Tori Garrett
Written by Anne Brooksbank, Ursula Cleary, James Greville, based on a book by Stephen Roche
108 minutes, rated M
4 stars
Child abuse. …
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Gurinder’s personal Partition
Viceroy’s House
Directed by Gurinder Chadha
Written by Paul Mayeda Berges, Moira Buffini and Gurinder Chadha
106 minutes, rated PG
3 stars
Where to begin with this fascinating, infuriating, entertaining …
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Pablo Neruda as fantasy
Neruda
Directed by Pablo Larrain
Written by Guillermo Calderon
Rated MA 15+, 108 minutes
4 stars
A chubby man with a comb-over (Luis Gnecco) sits bare-chested in front of a …
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