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Film screening season 2015

off we goThree movies so far and another on Thursday...

Sara Nathan ● 3990d85 Comments

An old-fashioned film, bit bread-and-butter, bit plain-vanilla. Given that the events took place in 2001/2, I wondered why it took so long to make. Ten years ago it would have had a freshness of which a decade of horrible revelations about paedophile priests have robbed it.

Susan Kelly ● 3851d

I loved this film. It's hilarious. Though it's really a tragedy about the financial crisis of 2008, it is told with such panache and meta-fiction storytelling that there is never a dull moment.

Susan Kelly ● 3856d

... A huge disappointment. As is so often the way. I ask you, all those awards for the unwatchable Revenant But nothing at all for Carol. Only Mark Rylance of my nominees in performance Won. Beyond that, just Inside Out in animation and Morricone for music. Otherwise a complete wipe-out.Ho him.Democracy - just so over-rated

Sara Nathan ● 3859d

The cinematography on this is breathtaking. Plus, ladies, we have some full frontals of Ralph Fiennes. The story is absorbing and it's not obvious where it's going to lead, though you figure that it probably won't end well.Marianne -- the wonderful Tilda Swinton -- is a rock star resting her vocal cords after an operation, recuperating on an idyllic (except for the would-be refugees!) Italian island. Only then her ex turns up and invites himself and the young woman who claims to be his long-lost daughter to stay. No spoilers. Let's say that things get tense.

Susan Kelly ● 3861d

I saw this yesterday and thought it was great - really gripping and well acted.

Chris Hurley ● 3874d

It feels like a cross between Moon and Gravity....can't quite see how it won best comedy in the Golden Globes...though there are a few laughs.Basically it's Castaway without oxygen, sunlight or Tom Hanks. But with Matt Damon and Jeff Daniels and Sean Bean and Jessica Chastain and lots of other folk in very small parts like Chitiwel Ejiofor.Directed by Ridley Scott with amazing special effects. I quite enjoyed the middle when Matt Damon is colonizing Mars but the first quarter is a sort of disaster movie (which getting left behind on Mars would be) and the last quarter is the rescue mission. Which is a rescue mission.Not my thing and too long (2 hrs and 24 minutes)but I bet it does well at the Oscars.

Sara Nathan ● 3874d

The backstory to Despicable Me from the dawn of time to 1968. Narrated by Geoffrey Rush and starring Sandra Bullock Jon Damm. Steve Coogan and Jennifer Saunders as The Queen (OK just their voices)I thought it great fun and with a wonderful soundtrack. Too silly of course but that's what you would expect. Oddly obsessed by English tea-drinking too.Inside Out ought to win the category but this is very jolly.

Sara Nathan ● 3880d

Finally saw this on Friday night and enjoyed it, although I am not a Redmayne fan. I thought the wife was played brilliantly by Alicia Viklander and the settings were beautiful. I hadn't realised it was based on a true story which made it all the more moving.

Chris Hurley ● 3881d

This documentary about the ballet company focuses on the acid attack on the artistic director three years ago. Interesting enough but the bits I liked best were the actual dancing and some historical footage of ballerinas gyrating for Uncle Joe and his cronies.One dancer describes the Bolshoi as like a bag of snakes, which does seem to be the case, unless they're all paranoid. The company seems heavily politicised with plenty of outside interference from government for this top Russian brand: Bolshoi and the kalashnikov, as the narrator says, are the two best known.

Susan Kelly ● 3881d

This is incredibly slow and wholly incomprehensible.But it's so beautiful, you forgive it that. Lots of magical realism in this story of Chinese provincial wars set in the 9th century. That's as far as I got with the plot. The heroine, though a trained killer, is rather principled and tends not to assassinate quite a bit of the time.It's mesmeric and calming. But really quite long.

Sara Nathan ● 3881d

Not being a fan of cowboys and Indians, not yet survival epics, So this wasn't likely to be one for me. Beautifully Shot in fabulous locatIons But not for me

Sara Nathan ● 3881d

I drooled over the costumes and the art deco interiors but found that I cared very little for the central couple.

Susan Kelly ● 3882d

This Danish film stars the spin doctor from Borgen as an army officer stationed in Afghanistan, summoned home to face accusations of war crimes against civilians. Meanwhile, his wife in Copenhagen struggles to raise their three children alone, especially the elder boy.The film is well worth seeing, if a little ponderous. It's in two parts: out at the front line and then in the courtroom. I think the message is that unless you've been on the front line yourself, then you haven't a clue.

Susan Kelly ● 3886d

I finally saw this last night. Lovely period detail, fine acting. But I agree too long and not action packed, to put it mildly!

Chris Hurley ● 3894d

I agree, Sara. The most over-hyped film of 2015.

Susan Kelly ● 3894d

Nominated for best special effects - not my favourite category.Just too silly for words. Must have been well paid though as it has Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas....and some very expensive-looking special effects

Sara Nathan ● 3894d

How on earth did this slow, self-indulgent movie get short-listed when Rams didn't, nor the second mother - both much better.A middle-class Swedish family go on a skiing holiday to France (why?)where they are not hurt by an earthquake, not lost in a snowstorm and not driven off a mountain (though you can see the temptation). But the father is a cad who puts himself first. Yawn.

Sara Nathan ● 3894d

means I have another ten movies to see before the beginning of February to be able to vote in all categories.The Revenant, Ex Machina, Sicario, The Martian, Hateful Eight, Minions, The Assassin, Force Majeure, Mad Max and Ant-man.Not sure where to start....Susan?

Sara Nathan ● 3896d

Wasn't he great - and I too loved that as a catchline. I don't even like spy stories and this was pretty much my favourite flic of the season. The lighting and atmosphere was so brilliant.Shortlist is announced at 0725 tomorrow morning.

Sara Nathan ● 3897d

A good story well told, and a sell-out at the Watermans on a Thursday afternoon, mostly with 70-somethings on a nostalgia trip(?). A bit too long, of course. Are directors paid by the minute?I think I shall adopt Rylance's character's laconic reply to any question as to whether he was worried: 'Would it help'?

Susan Kelly ● 3897d

Took me right back to the late 70s, not least because the plot was so similar. Too long, of course, but an enjoyable way to pass a couple of hours.

Susan Kelly ● 3898d

I am glad you enjoyed it - wasn't she great?Definitely got one of my best actress votes....

Sara Nathan ● 3899d

I found it hard to fault this short, tightly-scripted film, which stars Lily Tomlin as the eponymous grandma, depressed and angry after the death of her long-tern partner. It's both funny and poignant and, at 75 minutes, carries no excess weight.

Susan Kelly ● 3899d

Ok, very Sunday afternoon-ish. But who could resist? No dialogue because I suppose sheep don't speak much (but then do they build vehicles, organise escapes or draw pictures, so that's no reason. Third sheep movie of the season. Is this a trend?Fab animation of course. Some deft and humorous touches and a great score. Rather jolly if daft.

Sara Nathan ● 3901d

I only watched this because I felt like a comedy and was low on British films. But, while not a player in best picture etc, it was very much more enjoyable than I had expected. A Simon Pegg vehicle with London playing a starring a role - from Waterloo and the South Bank to the cosier suburbs. Starred Lake Bell - an American with an English accent to compare with Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma or Sliding Doors (and talking of which Paul Dano as Pierre in War & peace - who would think he's a yank?) Anyhow, a rom com  based on mistaken identity on a blind date so perfect for a Sunday afternoon while it rains and the day before work starts again.Submit

Sara Nathan ● 3901d

I saw the play when it was on at the National and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I'm really not sure why they made a film of it though.

Chris Hurley ● 3902d

this is the film of the successful National Theatre play about a serial killer of  (more) prostitutes in Ipswich. It's all based on transcripts from the time. And a lot is sung a la Jerry Springer. But it's not a movie at all really. Which means even Olivia Colman (practically My favourite British actress) can't redeem it. Rather like going to of the live relays I suspect.

Sara Nathan ● 3902d

this is billed as a comedy but I am too easily shocked to find the transsexual prostitution And accompanying violence very funny. Or at all funny. I wonder who the target audience might be. I thought it offensive without being amusing. Not good

Sara Nathan ● 3902d

essentially a two-handed for Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling (with a tiny part for Geraldine James) this is a tiny movie about the week before a couple's 45th wedding anniversary and the trauma caused by some odd news. It's baswe on a book apparently called "In another country", which if you know the wHole quote, would be much more helpful. Charlotte Rampling is Fabulous and still stunning at nearly 70. She steals the rather small show.

Sara Nathan ● 3902d

a bizarre dystopia Where if you are single, you have 45 days to partner up or get turned into an animal. The subversives aRe the loners hiding in the woodsThe dystopia rendered more disconcerting  By a translated Greek script and what looks like a joint Greek/Irish production.Fantastic ensemble cast including  Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen, Ben Whishaw and this year''s bond girl. So we have Mrs James Bond playing against his Bond girl and around  'Q' . Quite small the local film

Sara Nathan ● 3903d

I do give up more easily at home - but didn't for Timbuktu and Did for pigeon. I really liked the former and thoughT the male Bedouin for instance had very moving eyes and acting.

Sara Nathan ● 3903d

Now this was a rare case when I gave up at the cinema, walking out after 45 minutes. I couldn't stand the complete lack of affect from the actors: they might have been reading the telephone directory. Is this the local acting style?

Susan Kelly ● 3903d

I was no wiser as to what it means to be human after seeing this, but found it fascinating, unfolding in short scenes, reminiscent of the Theatre of the Absurd. The two lugubrious novelty salesmen could have come out of Beckett. Even at one hour, forty, it didn't drag.Does anyone else find it only too easy to give up on a film on DVD whereas you'd give it a proper chance in the dark of the big screen?

Susan Kelly ● 3903d

This is out of sync - it made it to the Oscars last year but not to the BAFTAs - which is why I am seeing it now.The Jihadists arrive in Timbuktu where they come up against local Islam, local practices and a real communication problem. Though the Sharia policies are beyond appalling, the Jihadists somehow are not caricatures of evil. Interwoven with the tragedy of what happens to a Bedouin family in their midst. Beautifully shot, compelling and very troubling.

Sara Nathan ● 3903d

This is beyond weird. 39 vignettes with no plot and almost no connectivity. And very Swedish: miserable with mordant humour.And accordian music. And vampire false teeth.Didn't get to the end.

Sara Nathan ● 3903d

This is an oddity, certainly, and too long but enjoyable enough. Joy's situation at the start of the film is almost comically miserable, as if she were Job. And there's never any doubt that everything will turn out fine after suitable obstacles have been cleared and her useless family told to take a hike.One critic said it was the best film he'd seen about the invention of a new type of mop; can't argue with that!

Susan Kelly ● 3903d

This uses all sorts of clever tricks to try and explain the banking and sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2007/8 and tells the stories of those who made money by betting against the (it now turns out) flawed and corrupt mortgage bonds.It brings in celebs to explain the bond mechanisms by comparing them to fish stew or casinos - which I felt I understood at the time but don't think I can explain a couple of hours later. It's a difficult and not very filmic subject which reminded me of Spotlight (qv) rather but has to explain much more. Interesting if complicated and with a good ensemble cast (including Brad Pitt unrecognisable behind the beard and specs.)

Sara Nathan ● 3904d

Do you remember the original? Julie Christie, Peter Finch and Alan Bates (1967)This is shorter and less steamy from what I recall. It's also all outside in glorious Dorset countryside. And stars Carey Mulligan, who is rather fab. Interestingly, novelist Frederic Raphael wrote that screenplay and novelist David Nicholls did this one.Matthias Schoenaerts (who is everyone's romantic lead this year) is the dogged Oak by name and nature...without a Dorset accent but without much of a Dutch one either. Michael Sheen, behind a very bushy beard is one of the others.It's very straight, which I like when dealing with Hardy, and rather beautiful and I liked the music too - sort of cod Vaughan-Williams meets George Butterworth. Slushy but tuneful.

Sara Nathan ● 3904d

We really enjoyed it - in a gloomy Icelandic way.And I forgot to mention the starring roles played by some amazing knitwear. Bring on the jumpers.

Sara Nathan ● 3905d

Sounds like a must see for those of us who like sheep!

Chris Hurley ● 3905d

I haven't seen a lot of Icelandic movies- nor that many about sheep for that matter (except Shaun ovvie, Chris) And this one is about two brothers on next door farms who haven't spoken in forty years. Somehow I didn't expect much dialogue. Scenery, yup, sheep natch, snow probably. But such speech that was uttered, was rather telling. Huge suspense: will Scrapie (like or same as foot and mouth I think) bring the feuding brothers together as they try to save the breed? Compulsive and compulsory viewing for those who thought A Shepherds Life the book of the year.

Sara Nathan ● 3905d

With the reunion of the Silvet Linings Playbook team of Jennifer Laurence, Robert de Niro and Bradley Cooper (who everyone but me seems to think is the ultimate cool actor), written and directed by David Russell, this should be the best film of the season. And it's sort of OK - after The first half hour. The problem with a sort-of-true story is that it has to be set up - and honestly, it's not that compelling. Huge improvement when we get to QVC shopping channel.The problem is that Jennifer Laurence at, what, 25, couldn't possibly be the original Joy so the suspension of disbelief is troubliMy throughout. It's a bit leaden and disappointing though I thought nothing like as bad As some of the critics aver.

Sara Nathan ● 3905d

Not Sean!

Chris Hurley ● 3907d

What goes on in the brain of an 11 year old? This cartoon is set  in her warring emotions and the Pixar animation explores the mind...through memories...the input of joy and sadness, the imagination world and the (rather brilliant) abstract thought land.It's a very clever idea and beautifully animated. Not sure if it's aimed at children or adults, probably both. A bit psychology 101 but quite enjoyable - though it was beginning to pall as an idea by the end. My daughter loved it, has seen it twice and would happily do so again. I think I will move on/back to minions, snoopy and sean (or is it shaun) the sheep.

Sara Nathan ● 3907d

Steven Spielberg's latest is a Cold War drama - not exactly a thriller - about spies and how they were treated, based on a true story but still really dramatic. It stars Mark Rylance as the British-born Russian spy in New York and Tom Hanks as his lawyer. And it's really, really good.The script is thoughtful and funny, the acting brilliant and the lighting and cinematography ace.I watched it with a range of men and women aged 26 - 87 and everyone really enjoyed it.

Sara Nathan ● 3907d

Well, this is a lot more British. And the opening sequence is amazing. In fact it is rather symmetrical with extraordinary helicopter sequences top and tail. But this is all guns blazing and on a more human scale than Star Wars would want to be. It's not as engaging as Skyfall, maybe because of the loss of Judi Dench's M, but I am ever keener on the geeky Q and the loyal Miss Moneypenny. Wholly daft plot of course but isn't that the point?  Only slightly irritating thing was all that promotion about the feminism of having a 'Bond Girl' in her fifties - because Daniel Craig is now 47. She has precisely two scenes before being replaced by a younger model (an actress 17 years younger than Craig and unashamedly playing someone young enough to be his daughter.) I wouldn't have minded except for the self-congratulating publicity when the casting was announced.Still, it's an entertaining romp through two and a half hours, ending on Westminster Bridge... London and the stiff upper lip come out of it rather well.

Sara Nathan ● 3912d

So i saw the first one - which felt like an eternity ago and certainly far, far away. But have skipped the ones since....so not an addict then.But I can see why - from this one - why some are: the visual effect and the amazing effects are stunning - especially in 3D. The music is overwhelming. there are a few laughs and lots of tension.And much if it is rather quaint: cowboys v indians; the third reich versus the allies; Sir Lancelot against, oh, some other knight. Even the hi-tech is allied with some astonishingly low tech. I mean, scavengers and beast-drawn carts and general low-life drinking in a bar I swear was filched from the Harry Potter set.I liked the new young stars and Carrie Fisher seems to have recovered from her traumas. Shame Harrison Ford got all the good lines...So, really not for me but lots of people seem very happy with it and I am glad we went. James Bond tomorrow (with the lure of mulled wine and mice pies....)

Sara Nathan ● 3913d

This is sweet and funny and moving and reminded me irresistably of Juno (which I loved) - though I am not sure why. Young man with no self-confidence and who hates school is made to hang out with Rachel who has leukemia.It's delightful almost all the time though a bit heavy on teen male angst. Definitely worth seeing.

Sara Nathan ● 3914d

American cinema strangely obsessed with coming of age movies - this one about a lonely freshman in New York who is unlucky in love but gets swept up by a slightly older and much more sophisticated woman.Directed by Noah Baumbach and thus with a serious pedigree, this has laugh out loud moments but not quite enough of them. Not bad but not fab.

Sara Nathan ● 3914d

I was happy to see a subject approached from an oblique angle -- not Hollywood's usual style at all. Fassbender and Winslett were both superb and the script was witty and fast-paced if you can't always believe that someone would have come up with such a bon mot at just the right moment. People keep telling Jobs that he's an a-hole but I started to warm towards him after a while.

Susan Kelly ● 3914d

documentary about Taliban-resisting Pakistani schoolgirl and her pushy Dad. Much enhanced by some very classy animation on the back story and on her Name and what it meant.Well done but I think Amy or a Syrian love story will win

Sara Nathan ● 3915d

Agu lives in the no-mans land in an unspecified African country riven by civil war. Inevitably he becomes a child soldier and witnesse and does some unspeakable things (a tad hard to watch things too)He is every boy. His commandant is played by Idris Elba (who was Mandela in the Long Walk to Freedom and comes from Hackney|)It's gripping if repellent and half an hour too long (how many atrocities is too many?) The boy is played by Abraham Attah brilliantly. He has already shared one award with the lad in Room and is a real star.

Sara Nathan ● 3916d

A film so obscure, not even IMDB has heard of it. And that has NEVER happened before.Elliptical too - though lovely to look at. Apparently three inter-linked stories about the artist Brancusi which are inter-linked - though so diffcult to follow, it's hard to be sure. If you don't know mch about the artist to start with, it's jolly hard to follow and there are these three weird gurus or angles floating about - which made it harder. And a LOT of beards.Just too hard to grasp to be enjoyable, but it did look lovely.

Sara Nathan ● 3916d

A Bedouin boy in the early part of the 20th Century gets involved with the warring alliances somewhere in Arabia.it's all doomed and a bit bloody but the scenery is beautiful and the boy great. The subtitles make very little difference as there is a very tiny amount of speech.Definitely worth seeing - partly for the camels who all have the hump.

Sara Nathan ● 3916d

Maybe - but there were also several other rather appealing screenings and masses of parties last night.Hoping for more at Beasts of No Nation on Sunday morning.

Sara Nathan ● 3917d

The lack of interest may have been down to the fact that it's already been shown on BBCs 2&4.

Susan Kelly ● 3918d

This rather poignant documentary was shot over four years with a Syrian revolutionary family. the parents had met in jail and, at the start of the movie, mum is back there for writing what Bashmar Assad's mob deemed a seditious book.She is released eventually but the family has to flee first to Lebanon and then France.This puts strains on everyone and all relationships - which the film documents. Some think this is done exploititively but I thought the parents at least fully aware of what they were doing and why.Enjoyable is the wrong word - but, after a slow start, it is compelling and informative, as documentaries should be.Only about ten of us in the screening though - made the Q&A afterwards rather hard going (as is the director)

Sara Nathan ● 3918d

This did terrible business in the USA and I can quite see why - even with its pedigree, the American public is never going to see that one of its greatest heroes has feet of such clay that they practically reach his armpits.the premise is that he was a sh*t, if a genius and you don't necessarily have to be both.Amazing cast with Michael Fassbender (I give you versatility - Macbeth and this in one season?), Kate Winslett, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels etc. And a script by Aaron Sorkin so very sharp and lots of talking while walking along corridors a la West Wing. And directed by Danny Boyle.Husband loved it. I was glad to have seen it but found it quite hard work given it seems to be essentially a three act play (though written for the movies) around three successive product launches between 1984 and 1998. Clever way of telling a story but not engaging.

Sara Nathan ● 3919d

This is a romantic comedy - without much romance or enough laughs.It's a danger sign when the star also wrote and co-produced. But this was directed by Judd Apatow so should have been good.It was far too long and apparently Amy Schumer is better as a comedienne. I do hope so.

Sara Nathan ● 3919d

Was a real-life script-writer doing ever so well in Hollywood. But he was also a Communist at just the wrong time, and we know that didn't go so well. This movie is based on the life of Donald Trumbo who died in 1976 but didnt get his last Oscar until the mid-nineties - he had had to write under an assumed name while on the black list.A very interesting and enjoyable movie, cleverly directed and with a fittingly witty script. Bryan Cranston is excellent in the starring role. Helen Mirren plays the wicked gossip monger with relish and John Goodman has one fabulous scene. To be released in February.

Sara Nathan ● 3920d

The husband was no better. Seemed to double as a pusher.Poor girl - in he end she seemed to depend on her bodyguard for most human contact.

Sara Nathan ● 3921d

I saw this on the plane to California. Desperately sad and the father came across as a money grabbing idiot. No wonder he tried to stop it being shown.

Chris Hurley ● 3921d

So this fills both this year's themes: single word title and not heterosexual...It's a Lily Tomlin vehicle - golly, she is 76 - who would have thought it. Here she plays a not wholly conventional grandma, drafted in to help grand-daughter sort out her abortion.It's a sort of road movie over just one day. For me, the highlight was the confrontation with the boyfriend...I was cheering her on. I enjoyed the script and her performance, indeed the whole film, and rather more than Carol which is going to do much better.

Sara Nathan ● 3922d

documentary directed by the chap who did Senna - so it was going to be good. And amazing access even to the shittiest People in her short but talented life. Interestingly directorial decision to have all the interviewees Out of vision - so there's masses of Amy and quite a lot of music... And though dead, in every frame. Presumably because she grew up to fame As recording every moment on your phone became Possible and That's what she and her mates did. Tragically inevitable: she was being treated for depression by her early teens. Compelling and sad.

Sara Nathan ● 3923d

Dramatised true story of how (and why) the investigative team at the Boston Globe researched and exposed the extent of paedophiles and abuse in the Catholic Church. Interesting angle about the role of the outsider in exposing Corruption.with Stanley Tucci which gives it a head start.Quite difficult to get Into but quite gripping once in.. And no melodrama.

Sara Nathan ● 3923d

"What bloody man is that?" says Duncan at the beginning of the real play. And the answer here is bloody all of them. I have never seen so much Kensington Gore spread around to so little effect."Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?" asks Lady Macbeth. You can only agree.But it's the character and the words which are really macerated. The only ingredients that come out well are the Highlands (thanks Creative Scotland for all that money) and the hair and make-up woman who is a whizz with braids.Michael Fassbinder and Marion Cotillard with impeccable Scottish accents spouting gobbets but in shortened form, are OK. the witches are rather cool.But it's difficult to follow, very compressed with lots of accents and beards: the Scottish play is so thickly Scottish my companion found it difficult to even hear what was left of the words.If you have avoided it so far, keep doing so.

Sara Nathan ● 3930d

I thought this everything A Little Chaos was not in a historical drama, based on real events. There were more real events, true, but it had a naturalism and plausibility wholly lacking in the other movie.The debate was interestingly nuanced too, I thought, with Brendon Gleeson playing the not wholly repulsive police/spy with a background countering the Fenians. Carey Mulligan was as wonderful as ever. She really is an exceptional actress. And Helena Bonham Carter was less mannered than usual (and I enjoy her manneriams but they were right to mute them) Plus Anne-Marie Duff in another nuanced performance and Romola Garai with a small, posh part. Meryl Streep has the tinyest cameo as Mrs Pankhurst to get the name above the title (and maybe the funding?)I found it engaging and involving, even though you know what happens (my husband said he did as soon as he heard one of the wimmin called Emily but it passed me by) Shot on location on London mostly and the better for it.

Sara Nathan ● 3933d

Alan Rickman had a LOT to do with this film. Which is good as he is ace. But I always have me doubts about one of the actors being the director too - and in this case he co-wrote the script.So who would have thought that those lovely gardens at Versailles were actually designed and built by a woman? Well, quite, they weren't as far as anyone knows. Or not this one played by Kate Winslett. Who looks worried but alluring and a rather horny-handed daughter of toil. Alan Rickman is Louis XIV (no delusions of grandeur for this director!) With the ubiquitous Matthias Schoenaerts (in Danish Girl too)as boss gardener and love interest. Plus Stanley Tucci which is always a bonus. It's pretty and beautifully costumed and designed but historical tosh of course. Quite fun but NO suspension of disbelief. Oddly, I think the choreographer taught me to dance a galliard, pavane and minuet in 1983/4. There's a thing.

Sara Nathan ● 3936d

Goodness this movie is on trend - The true story of a married Danish artist in 20s Copenhagen who Thinks he's a woman inside. Beautifully shot and cOstumed with stand out performances by Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Viklander. Directed By Tom Hooper so it should be fab but strangely unengagIn and somewhat irritating in its introspection

Sara Nathan ● 3936d

I found it a little slow but there's a great deal to enjoy in it. Not least everyone exclaiming in disbelief when Bennett paid a massive 30k for his house in 1970.

Susan Kelly ● 3941d

As ever with the Alan Bennett/Nick Hytner team, this is a film version of a play already put on at the National. though this feels less like it somehow - maybe it's because it's actually shot in and around the house where the indomitable Miss Shepherd (Maggie Smith reprising her stage role)takes up her place in the drive for a few months only leaving - feet first as they say - 15 years later. It is surprisingly resonant of the Miss Naismith story from Chiswick: bith educated and fine pianists living rough. But Miss Shepherd had a friend and chronicler in Alan Bennett, whereas the Chiswick-based Miss Naismith does not seem to have done so well.I really enjoyed it - partly because it was quite taut - and in current terms quite short too.I would have thought Maggie Smith a shoo-in for Best Actress with Cate Blanchett in Carol the only serious contender otherwise.The WHOLE cast of the History Boys (same writer/director/producer)is featured in bit parts - though I only spotted four. Though of course, the late lamented Richard Griffiths couldn't be. But as Nick Hytner pointed out in the q&a, there is a young cellist featured - fortuitously called Richard Griffiths. Apparently they were really chuffed about that.

Sara Nathan ● 3941d

Just saw it today and loved it. Didn't spot Anne Hathaway though!

Chris Hurley ● 3950d

I thought it was Anne Hathaway - though uncredited and unheralded. I wonder what the story is.

Sara Nathan ● 3951d

I really enjoyed this, not having expected it to be funny. I even enjoyed Walters' performance despite generally regarding her as a terrible old ham.My big problem with the story is the same that I had with the novel: I get no sense that Eilis is in love with either of the men in her 'triangle' so don't care which one she settles for.There was an actress who looked very familiar. Maybe a Hathaway lookalike?Loved Miss Kelly, the evil grocer. Clearly some relation.

Susan Kelly ● 3952d

So Myrtle aged ten is sent away from home on the outback and comes home 25 years later, a very accomplished dressmaker. But why had she gone and was she a murderer?SHe comes back to Brueghelesque array of bizarre characters and feuds and oddness. Is she cursed?That all sounds a bit heavy but we roared with laughter for the first half at least - it does twist rather and there are odd dissonances in the age of the characters.But it is fun and the frock are fantastic. As is Kate Winslett. Although she, in person and in a flurry of press attention, welcomed us t the screening and said no more than a couple of enigmatic sentences before disappearing again.Movie a good watch - but a tad long.

Sara Nathan ● 3954d

OK, this may not be the most intellectually challenging movie of the year (but it does have the requisite one-word title)And like the Prince, it is rather charming. Cate Blanchett as the stepmother...Lily James (Rose in Downton)as Cinders and cameos from Derek Jacobi as the King and Helena Bonham Carter as the fairy godmother - it's worth waiting through the credits to hear the latter singing bibbety-bobbety boo from the original cartoon soundtrack. Fab special effects and a moral "Have courage, be kind". It is as sweet as you would fear but sugar not saccharine in my view.

Sara Nathan ● 3955d

This is very much a film of two halves. The first part was riveting but the second half became slow and unfocussed and had me glancing at my watch. Wonderfully weird; the work of either a madman or a genius.

Susan Kelly ● 3955d

Just seen this rather strange dystopian future film with Colin Farrell. Rather long but kept my attention - apart from the bits I just couldn't bear to watch.

Chris Hurley ● 3958d

Rooney Mara. Exquisite. I did like it more than you did although, like most American films, it's 20 minutes too long. Cinematography is beautiful.

Susan Kelly ● 3958d

This is based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith and set in 1950's New York. The first shot is wonderful, redolent of period detail and atmosphere. Indeed the sets, costumes and cinetomography are all ace. So is Cate Blanchett. And her co-star -can't recall her name - channels Audrey Hepburn astonishingly.Inevitable sex scene 1 and a quarter hours in. And it Is a good 20 minutes too long.I quite liked it, Susan much more I think

Sara Nathan ● 3958d

Written and directed by the man who made "The Great Beauty" (which I hated but I think won best film not in the English Language a couple of years ago) This is an ace movie about old-age and what is important, played out mostly in a Swiss spa hotel. It stars Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Paul Dano, Rachel Weicz plus Jane Fonda, Paloma Faith and Ed Stoppard in bit parts. The leads are fantastic - especially Michael Caine. It has surreal sequences, as you might expect from this director but is more grounded than TGB.The sound track and music are stunning - just as well as its the story of a retired composer/conductor and his film director friend.  Composer/conductor husband says it's so good, there's no point in going to any more screenings this season.And we sat knee to knee with Michael Caine at the Q & A afterwards so his happiness was complete.

Sara Nathan ● 3981d

The book was amazing

Chris Hurley ● 3990d

Maybe it's just a year of one-word titles.We loved this little documentary about Sienna's famous 90 second horse race and the shenanigans behind it.But then, husband is a fierce supporter of the Torre contrada and so anti the Goose and beyond partisan.

Sara Nathan ● 3990d

Already I'm wondering if this is the year of the "straight" rendering of popular books.This was thoroughly enjoyable though my companion says, rather a simplistic, un-nuanced take on the book by Colm Tóibín (I've not read it) Nick Hornby wrote the screenplay.Stars Saoirse Ronan and has some fab cameos by Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent. And I was sure I saw Anne Hathaway - but she doesn't seem to be credited - which is odd.Anyone else spot her?

Sara Nathan ● 3990d

Based on the book by Emma Donaghue and script by her too. It's about a woman, abducted by a neighbour and kept as a sex slave for seven years....but mostly it's about her son - the book is apparently told by him, the film is not.An amazing performance by the boy (Jacob Trembley) and good one by his "ma" played by Brie Larson.It's very straight and quite a good watch. Lots of silence.

Sara Nathan ● 3990d