The GuardianFilm (UK) A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon review – an out-of-this-world delightThe Guardian - Wendy IdeDizzyingly inventive and playfully visual, the sequel to the 2015 Shaun the Sheep feature film expands the scope of the original with a new story that extends way beyond the hedges of Mossy Bottom Farm
The GuardianFilm (UK) Meet the new directors who lit up the film festivalsThe Guardian - Introduction by Wendy Ide, interviews by Kathryn Bromwich, Simran Hans and Wendy IdeIt’s tough out there on the festival circuit for the newbie director. First-time film-makers frequently face an uphill battle getting noticed amid the noise and the circus of a film festival, and even
The GuardianFilm (UK) Official Secrets review – Keira Knightley excels in Iraq war whistleblower dramaThe Guardian - Mark Kermode, Observer film critic“Just because you’re the prime minister doesn’t mean you get to make up your own facts.” So says Keira Knightley’s whistleblower in Gavin Hood’s “based on true events” drama, an on-the-nose revisiting
The GuardianFilm (UK) What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire? review – powerful social documentaryThe Guardian - Wendy IdeFilmed in 2017, in African American communities in Mississippi and Louisiana shaken by a series of murders, beauty and chaos collide in this documentary by Roberto Minervini. Shot in stark black and white,
The GuardianMichael Hutchence Mystify: Michael Hutchence review – enlightening and affectingThe Guardian - Wendy IdeThere’s a kinship between this charged portrait of the charismatic INXS frontman Michael Hutchence and Amy, Asif Kapadia’s Amy Winehouse documentary. It’s not so much the shared tragic trajectory of the
The GuardianFilm (UK) Non-Fiction review – intriguing publishing dramaThe Guardian - Wendy IdeThere are moments in Olivier Assayas’s publishing-industry drama Non-Fiction that are so enragingly mannered that you are tempted to go on a book-burning rampage just so the cast of this literary talkathon
The GuardianFilm (UK) Quentin Tarantino won't censor Once Upon a Time in Hollywood for China – reportThe Guardian - Victoria Bekiempis in New YorkQuentin Tarantino will not edit Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to placate Chinese censors, the Hollywood Reporter said. Tarantino has maintained a firm “take it or leave it stance” after Chinese regulators
The GuardianFilm (UK) The Peanut Butter Falcon review – an emotional rideThe Guardian - Wendy IdeIt could have been so corny. The heart of The Peanut Butter Falcon beats to a rhythm that harks back to the ragged romanticism of a Huck Finn adventure, a time when outlaws were armed with charm rather
The GuardianShia LaBeouf 'It was like lighting yourself on fire': how Shia LaBeouf's co-star changed his lifeThe Guardian - Danny LeighMy life had exploded again and I was in deep shame. This film saved me People tell me to stay away from Shia. They don't understand the real him. I tell them I won't Where do you start with Shia LaBeouf?
The GuardianFilm (UK) Streaming: Meryl Streep kicks off a season of starry Netflix offeringsThe Guardian - Guy LodgeAutumn is upon us, and with it the long, often tedious publicity trail to the Oscars. The late-summer film festivals, from Venice through to London, have had their say, while nomination lists for some
The GuardianDaniel Kaluuya Daniel Kaluuya to produce live-action Barney the Dinosaur movieThe Guardian - Benjamin LeeDaniel Kaluuya and Mattel are teaming up to make a live-action Barney the Dinosaur movie. The Oscar nominated star of Get Out will produce the film based on the children’s TV character who hosted Barney
The GuardianFilm (UK) Singin' in the Rain review – simply splashingThe Guardian - Peter BradshawYou can charm the critics but have nothing to eat! That’s the shrewd warning from Donald O’Connor’s character Cosmo Brown in his legendary song Make ’Em Laugh, in the equally legendary 1952 musical Singin’
The GuardianKatharine Gun Official Secrets review – Keira Knightley shines as a very British whistleblowerThe Guardian - Peter BradshawThere’s something interestingly tough and forthright about this slow-burner from director and co-writer Gavin Hood. It is a beady-eyed spy drama that has shrewd things to say about the British establishment’s
The GuardianFilm (UK) The Peanut Butter Falcon review – Shia LaBeouf brings soul to odd-couple adventureThe Guardian - Peter BradshawThere is a gentle sweetness to this goofy, big-hearted comedy written and directed by feature first-timers Tyler Nilson and Mike Schwartz: a film that doubles as a modest homage to Mark Twain. Zack Gottsagen,
The GuardianFilm (UK) A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon review – a sheepquel for all agesThe Guardian - Cath ClarkeAardman’s Shaun the Sheep – a silent film star with the chops of Keaton and Chaplin – returns for another dottily daft big-screen family adventure. In his 2015 film, Shaun and his mates rescued their from
The GuardianFilm (UK) The Laundromat review – Steven Soderbergh gets caught in a spinThe Guardian - Peter BradshawHere is a movie with right on its side. But that hasn’t stopped it being messy, unsatisfying and dramatically redundant: a laborious Ted-talking satire delivered with the same air of smirking self-satisfaction
The GuardianFilm (UK) Ken Loach – all his films ranked!The Guardian - Andrew PulverKen Loach’s contribution to this short-film package of film-makers’ responses to 9/11 is a perfectly serviceable account of a different September 11: an activist’s letter to America about the coup against
The GuardianFilm (UK) Paul Feig: 'Male humour always devolves into homophobia and name-calling'The Guardian - Rebecca NicholsonPaul Feig has a tendency to make films that are difficult to talk about until you have seen them. The trailers for Spy, The Heat and A Simple Favour, for example, paint pictures quite different from the
The GuardianFilm (UK) Eli review – schlocky Netflix horror devolves into supernatural sillinessThe Guardian - Benjamin LeeOffloaded to Netflix by Paramount, who reportedly couldn’t figure out how the heck to market it, supernatural horror flick Eli arrives with a number of question marks eerily circulating. In a hugely profitable
The GuardianFilm (UK) Drugstore Cowboy at 30: is this the best film ever made about addiction?The Guardian - Scott Tobias“Most people don’t know how they’re going to feel from one minute to the next. But a dope fiend has a pretty good idea. All you gotta do is look at the labels on the little bottles.” That’s Matt Dillon
The GuardianBatman Paul Dano to play the Riddler in The BatmanThe Guardian - Benjamin LeePaul Dano will take on the villainous role of the Riddler in The Batman, a new noirish take on the DC story. The There Will Be Blood star, who was recently nominated for an Emmy for his performance in
The GuardianFilm (UK) Ladyworld review – teen sleepover descends into apocalyptic deliriumThe Guardian - Phil HoadSeth Rogen’s This Is the End imagined the apocalypse as an out-of-hand fratboy party, and now Amanda Kramer’s sophomore feature does something comparable for an all-female cast. Her end-times sleepover
The GuardianFilm (UK) Tell Me Who I Am review – amnesia documentary is like a psychological thrillerThe Guardian - Cath ClarkeThis desperately upsetting Netflix documentary, a portrait of a troubled family, is best watched knowing as little possible. Director Ed Perkins slickly pieces his story together like a psychological –
The GuardianFilm (UK) Maleficent: Mistress of Evil review – panto fun is missing in actionThe Guardian - Peter BradshawThis sequel has got a great cast. It’s not just Angelina Jolie reprising her post-fairytale turn as Maleficent from the 2014 film, the wicked witch from the Sleeping Beauty story who isn’t quite as wicked
The GuardianFilm (UK) Lost Lives review – requiem for victims of the TroublesThe Guardian - Mike McCahillFew films released in 2019 have seemed as timely or as urgent as Lost Lives. Documentarists Michael Hewitt and Diarmuid Lavery have come up with an immensely powerful film about a remarkable artefact:
The GuardianFilm (UK) Darkness Visible review – mystery and murder on the streets of KolkataThe Guardian - Leslie FelperinThe dialogue is a bit stilted sometimes, and, once all the wrapping is off, the big reveal is slightly silly, but this rare instance of a western-style horror film set in India is an intriguing, largely
The GuardianFilm (UK) Home review – gutsy doc charts harrowing, heroic journey by seaThe Guardian - Cath ClarkeThe British adventurer Sarah Outen has made an introspective and emotionally brave film about her awe-inspiring journey around the world. She travelled 20,000 miles in four years, powered entirely by own
The GuardianMartin Scorsese 'Of course Marvel is cinema!' Why the Scorsese backlash is justifiedThe Guardian - Ben ChildWho decides what qualifies as “real cinema”? Martin Scorsese, possessor of perhaps the most potent reputation (as cineaste and film-maker) in Hollywood, has apparently decided that it is him. After describing
The GuardianFilm (UK) Corpus Christi review – from parole to the priesthoodThe Guardian - Leslie FelperinOften moving but also disquieting and even intermittently funny, this drama unfurls a spiritual parable that is uniquely Polish but accessible to all. Bartosz Bielenia, an actor with burning blue eyes
