A soulful and savagely beautiful meditation on the end of the world, Australian director John Hillcoat adapts Cormac McCarthy’s tale of despair and faith with great delicacy and care. At the opposite end of the movie spectrum from the other recent apocalypse tale, 2012, this is simple and bleak, intimate and touching and follows the […]
In a scenario that sounds eerily familiar, the sparkling British satire In The Loop begins with the British Prime Minister and the United States President unofficially keen on launching a war (with whom isn’t important) despite the protestations of their respective advisers, Minister for International Development Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) and Lieutenant General Miller (James […]
Boasting an incredible female cast, Rob Marshall’s film of a musical of a film (Fellini’s classic 8 1/2) has moments of drama (in particular its promising cinematic opening), moments of sassy sexiness (for some Penelope Cruz’ solo dance number might be worth the ticket price alone), and moments of tenderness, thanks to a sensitive performance […]
It may seem that an Italian-Glaswegian who spent three years working on a failed doctoral thesis about Milton’s Paradise Lost is the least likely person to put in charge of a biting contemporary film about transatlantic politics, but Armando Iannucci has long been observing and parodying the behaviour of those in charge. “At school I […]
The word ‘departures’, the leaving for places new, could easily be the title of the George Clooney comedy currently playing in cinemas, but in the case of the Japanese film and 2008 Foreign Language Oscar winner, Departures, the word represents much more weighty subject matter – death. Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) is a struggling cello […]
I have to admit a certain trepidation whenever Americans adapt things that are terribly English. Think what Disney did to poor Winnie the Pooh, or NBC to The Office. They just don’t seem to, well, understand. (Back in 2003, acclaimed director Guillermo Del Toro departed the set of an aborted attempt to adapt The Wind […]
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