Saturday, 30 December 2023

May December is uncomfortable viewing – rightly so

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It would be all too easy to get the tone wrong in a film about grooming and child sex abuse, but Todd Haynes’s  May December  makes for unco...
Tuesday, 26 December 2023

The Boy and The Heron is an utter joy

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A “big fantastical film”  written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, legendary co-founder of the legendary Japanese  Studio Ghibli,  The Boy an...
Monday, 25 December 2023

Bradley Cooper is a maestro with this Leonard Bernstein biopic, but Carey Mulligan is outstanding

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If you’re not careful, “you’ll die a lonely old queen”. That’s a warning from  Felicia Montealegre to her husband, iconic American , compose...
Saturday, 23 December 2023

Barbie – so much better than expected

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A Sindy child myself – albeit more on the basis of my mother’s choice rather than mine –  Barbie  was not a film I expected to want to see. ...
Friday, 15 December 2023

Wonka is a (Paddington) bear hug of a movie

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Paul King has found a formula – and it’s every bit the equal of any chocolate treat that Willy Wonka can confect. Having hit the jackpot wit...
Tuesday, 12 December 2023

Bernarda Alba – a warning from Spanish patriarchy and fascism

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Frederico Garcia Lorca completed   The House of Bernarda Alba , his final play, in June 1936. On 16 August, he was arrested by the fascists ...
Tuesday, 5 December 2023

Drag as protest in award-winning doc Queendom

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“I just hope people get it and don’t think I’m some sort of propaganda freak,” says Gena Marvin, as they prepare to take their performance a...