Disney’s Moana was a justifiable smash hit. A cute, charming and extremely visually inventive animated adventure that drew on the familiar Disney trope of the feisty but sensitive young woman going on a journey of self-discovery. It was distinguished, however, by its South Pacific island setting (the fictitious island of Motonui) and its references to Polynesian history, culture and mythology.
Read moreWicked is the hotly anticipated cinema adaptation of the hugely successful musical theatre production of the same name. I haven’t seen the stage version and all I knew was that it was a prequel of sorts to The Wizard Of Oz that involved origin stories for the good witch Glinda and the wicked witch Elphaba. The filmmakers certainly believe in
Read moreThe thinly plotted but generally fun and family friendly fantasy Harold and the Purple Crayon is based on the 1955 children’s book by Crockett Johnson. The slightly meta story has the character Harold (Zachary Levi) living in the two-dimensional book world created by Crockett Johnson. There, Harold can use a magical purple crayon to create any object he needs including
Read moreLike David Lynch in the 1990s and 2000s, Yorgos Lanthimos has brought dark humour and surreal artistry at least a little closer to mainstream cinema. He’s skewered relationships and social conformity in The Lobster, elitist power structures in The Favourite and the suburban family in The Killing Of a Sacred Deer. Now, he turns his darkly comic gaze to sexism
Read moreWish, which has been released as part of Disney studios 100th birthday is a cute, occasionally charming but underwhelming animated musical fantasy that attempts to pay homage to Disney classics. Like many Disney and other animated features of the last few years, it’s about a feisty but uncertain young woman empowering herself through a fight with a nasty authority figure.
Read moreThe aroma of chocolate filled the air as an eager Sunday morning preview audience filed into the Rivoli cinema for a screening of Wonka a mostly fun, good natured but thinly-plotted musical origin story for the mercurial chocolate maestro Willy Wonka. This is not an adaptation of any specific work by author Roald Dahl whose 1964 novel Charlie and the
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