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Directed by Alex Garland, he makes up for his terrible characterisation of women in Ex Machina (2014) with this epic female-led sci-fi. One of the first of many films, I suspect, sold directly to Netflix to avoid the cost of distribution outside the US, Annihilation is worth a look. Continue reading
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Hardly pausing to draw breath, this South Korean thriller by director Byung-gil Jung launches you into blood soaked action from the first unforgettable scene. Continue reading
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C’est La Vie! is a wry and heartwarming French comedy about love, napkin twirling and the frustrations you feel when nothing goes quite as planned. Continue reading
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Margot Robbie does a smashing job (no pun intended) at portraying the much maligned US Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in this quirky, openly contradictory telling of her story. Continue reading
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Amelie meets Dark City in this darkly whimsical fairy tale by Guillermo del Toro. Fairy tales are often equal parts sentimentality and tragedy and The Shape of Water weaves a long dance around these two elements. Continue reading
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There’s lots to love about this film from Martin McDonagh, primarily the remarkable performance of Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes. Mildred’s daughter was murdered ten months before and, frustrated at the police’s inability to find the perpetrator, she uses three billboards on a quiet road to stir up action. Continue reading
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Based on the graphic novel ‘The Coldest City’, this Cold War action thriller is engaging and entertaining and only occasionally lacks pace and plausibility. Charlize Theron is Lorraine Broughton, the atomic blonde of the title with a shock of white hair and the epitome of sangfroid. She’s an MI6 agent and is sent to Berlin to investigate the assassination of fellow agent and former lover James Gascoigne (Sam Hargrave). Continue reading
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Like Hotel Coolgardie, this is a documentary that positions us as silent viewers, watching everyday life unfold around us. In School Life, there is no context nor narration, we are dropped straight into a day at Headfort School, a boarding school for primary kids in Kells, Ireland. Continue reading
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I was completely charmed by this family comedy at the Japanese Film Festival. Yukio (Riku Ohnishi) must write an essay for a school contest about an adult in his family. His parents are too unexceptional so he chooses his infantile loafer of an uncle (Ryûhei Matsuda). Continue reading
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A slow burn of a film, A Double Life at first seems to be about the vagaries of a young girl, trying to find meaning in her life. Inspired by the work of French artist Sophie Calle, True Stories, it becomes instead a thoughtful and moving exploration of privacy, connection and compromise. Continue reading
