Category: Films
Joy review – warm and intensely English portrayal of the birth of IVF
There is sympathy, warmth and directness – though perhaps not much in the way of explicit joy – in this intensely English true story that [more…]
‘More important than going to the moon’: Bill Nighy, James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie on their film about the birth of IVF
‘It’s just so weird, having children,” says Bill Nighy. “The whole thing is like science fiction. Human beings make decisions and have ideas and choose [more…]
Terrifier 3: this low-budget film makes audiences vomit. Why is it No 1 at the US box office?
Name: Terrifier 3. Age: Three days old. Appearance: A clown putting a chainsaw up a man’s bum. I don’t understand. Is this a metaphor? No. [more…]
Milisuthando review – a life haunted by, and isolated from, the horrors of apartheid
In Milisuthando Bongela’s self-titled documentary, which spans 30 years of her life, memories are slippery, fragile, and even dangerous. Born in apartheid-era South Africa, she [more…]
Kathleen Is Here review – cuckoo-in-the-nest drama-thriller has a properly nailbiting ending
Irish actor Eva Birthistle has given successful performances in Ken Loach’s Ae Fond Kiss, Peter Greenaway’s Nightwatching, and David Keating’s Wake Wood. Now she pivots [more…]
Kulej. Dwie Strony Medalu review – glossy boxing biopic is Poland’s answer to Raging Bull
This is a glossily shot but overlong biopic of two-time Olympic gold-winning boxer Jerzy Kulej that tries to position him as a kind of errant [more…]
Haunted Ulster Live review – mock Halloween broadcast evokes the spectre of Ghostwatch
On Halloween in 1992, the BBC spooked the nation with the mockumentary Ghostwatch, an apparently live broadcast from Britain’s most haunted house. Despite its being [more…]
‘An incredible echo of today’: Kevin Macdonald on his film about John Lennon and Yoko Ono
From sit-ins for peace to avant-garde happenings and covert surveillance of revolutionary sympathies, the world of John Lennon and Yoko Ono can seem removed from [more…]
‘I need to feel alive’: Julianne Moore on family, friendship and mortality
Yesterday Julianne Moore was on the subway in New York, listening discreetly to strangers. “I was sitting there and I heard one woman say, ‘Well, [more…]
Endurance review – search for Shackleton’s Antarctic wreck overshadowed by history
Here is a frustrating film that tries to tell two stories at once, and succeeds with neither. It’s the story of explorer Ernest Shackleton’s epic [more…]
