Like 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 moreBased on real events, legal drama Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway and Tim Robbins is a potent and vital (if occasionally clichéd) David and Goliath story that resonates with today’s ever-increasing concerns about the liveability of our environment. The film exposes some of the sinister chemicals that fill the modern world and the powerful corporate forces that put
Read moreAfter 11 years and a seemingly endless procession of ear drum and eyeball pummelling films, the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes to a close with the three-hour behemoth Avengers: Endgame. This collision of superhero action flick, high-tech sci-fi film, Tolkienesque fantasy epic and pompous Wagnerian myth has so far received reviews verging on the orgasmic with some
Read moreLike its predecessor, crime caper movie Now You See Me 2 is a flashy piece of cinematic confectionary; energetic like a sugar rush but mostly devoid of substance and at times nauseating. The first film’s stars Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo and Dave Franco return although Isla Fisher has departed and been replaced by Lizzie Caplan who plays Lula.
Read moreSpotlight depicts the Boston Globe newspaper’s 2001 inquiry into allegations of child sexual abuse by members of Boston’s Catholic clergy. As a detailed dramatisation of a major piece of investigative journalism, Spotlight follows in the esteemed tradition of films like Zodiac and All the President’s Men. The film reveals how, in 2001, the Globe’s newly-appointed Chief Editor, Marty Baron (Liev
Read moreAvengers: Age of Ultron is the 11th Marvel comics cinema adaptation and the series is feeling a little tired. The first Iron Man and Avengers films cleverly balanced dynamic action with cheeky humour and an inventive vision of futuristic technology but the many Marvel superhero films that have followed, including Age of Ultron, have, unfortunately, become tiresome and infuriatingly cluttered
Read more