Official Secrets, 2019. Directed by Gavin Hood. Starring Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Ralph Fiennes, Rhys Ifans, Conleth Hill, MyAnna Buring, Jack Farthing, Katherine Kelly, Adam Bakri, and Tamsin Greig. SYNOPSIS: The true story of a British whistleblower who leaked information to the press about an illegal NSA spy operation designed to push the […]
2019 BFI London Film Festival Review – Deerskin
Deerskin, 2019 . Directed by Quentin Dupieux. Starring Jean Dujardin, Adèle Haenel, Albert Delpy, Pierre Gommé and Marie Bunel. SYNOPSIS: A man’s obsession with his designer deerskin jacket causes him to blow his life savings and turn to crime. Sometimes a film comes along which is simply impossible to pigeon-hole. It refuses to nestle into […]
Second Opinion – Moana (2016)
Moana, 2016. Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. Featuring the voice talents of Auli’i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Jemaine Clement, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, Alan Tudyk, and Nicole Scherzinger. SYNOPSIS: In Ancient Polynesia, when an terrible curse incurred by Maui reaches an impetuous Chieftain’s daughter’s island, she answers the Ocean’s call to seek out the demigod to set […]
60th BFI London Film Festival Review – Elle (2016)
Elle, 2016. Directed by Paul Verhoeven. Starring Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Laffite, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling, Christian Berkel and Jonas Bloquet. SYNOPSIS: Michèle seems indestructible. Head of a successful video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business. However her life takes a dramatic turn when she is raped in […]
60th BFI London Film Festival Review – Personal Shopper (2016)
Personal Shopper, 2016. Directed by Olivier Assayas. Starring Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz, Anders Danielsen Lie and Ty Olwin. SYNOPSIS: Maureen serves as a personal shopper for the rich and famous. Residing in Paris, she also practices as a medium with the hope of contacting her recently deceased twin brother. Channelling two greatly conflicting lifestyles, soon […]
60th BFI London Film Festival Review – Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Manchester by the Sea, 2016. Directed by Kenneth Lonergan. Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges and Tate Donovan. SYNOPSIS: An uncle is forced to take care of his teenage nephew after the boy’s father dies. Densely absorbing and richly enveloping, writer-director Kenneth Lonergan’s third feature is a melancholic but undeniably human portrait of grief, […]
Movie Review – Hell or High Water (2016)
Hell or High Water, 2016. Directed by David Mackenzie. Starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges, Dale Dickey and Gil Birmingham. SYNOPSIS: A divorced dad and his ex-con brother resort to a desperate scheme in order to save their family’s ranch in West Texas. The appeal of David Mackenzie’s sweltering Texan noir is understandable. Harnessed […]
Second Opinion – Things To Come (2016)
Things To Come, 2016. Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve. Starring Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob and Sarah Le Picard. SYNOPSIS: A philosophy teacher soldiers through the death of her mother, getting fired from her job, and dealing with a husband who is cheating on her. Disarmingly simple in execution, yet overwhelmingly rich in thematic complexity, director […]
Second Opinion – Café Society (2016)
Café Society, 2016. Written and Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively, Steve Carell, Corey Stoll, Parker Posey, Ken Stott and Jeannie Berlin. SYNOPSIS: In the 1930s, a young Bronx native moves to Hollywood where he falls in love with the secretary of his powerful uncle, an agent to the stars. […]
Movie Review – Morgan (2016)
Morgan, 2016. Directed by Luke Scott. Starring Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rose Leslie, Toby Jones, Paul Giamatti, Boyd Holbrook and Jennifer Jason Leigh. SYNOPSIS: A corporate risk-management consultant must decide whether or not to terminate an artificially created humanoid being. Silver screen representations of artificial intelligence are hardly unfamiliar; in fact they are as frequent […]
