New cinema releases are thin on the ground these days. A few brave souls are still calling “action” instead of “cut” as they seek to revive a form of entertainment that, like so many others these days, seems dangerously close to being on life support. Chemical Hearts chronicles the teenage romance of two high school…

I’ve been getting DVDs from John Andrushkoff for over ten years now. I imagine I’ve bought over a thousand from him during that time. He claims to have dealt with that many dealers in his career as a collector. He has an excellent range of films from all genres, including religious ones, and charges just…

Going to ‘the pictures’ during the pandemic isn’t much different for film reviewers. We usually experience social distancing at press shows anyway – what’s different is the hygiene regimen, the sanitisation, the often eerie silence. And of course the contactless payments. I feel like Jeff Bezos flashing my Visa card around. It will be difficult…

You may have been reading about Fatima, a film that deals with the Fatima apparitions, in recent months. Its release was delayed due to the coronavirus, but this wasn’t seen as a problem by its producer, Natasha Howes. “People have more time to listen to the story now,” she says. Its release in 2020 is…

I recently mentioned some Christian-themed films you can watch on Netflix. There are many others as well, some of which you may have already seen, like The Two Popes. It got a lot of publicity at the time of its release. It has Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict and Jonathan Pryce as the future Pope…

As cinemas – like churches, bars, restaurants, hair salons etc. – begin the arduous process of trying to accommodate the public and still keep them safe during the time of Covid-19, we’re promised a rehash of old classics as the new releases are pushed back to mid-August at least. At home we can watch our…

With cinemas still closed because of lockdown restrictions, websites continue to provide for those of us with a hunger for good movies. One of the most powerful ones I got was Winter Sleep, an epic from Nuri Bilge Ceylan about the problems encountered by a landlord in a small Turkish village after the son of…

Ida is a Pawel Pawlikowski film about an 18-year-old orphan girl raised in a convent. As she prepares to become a nun she learns she’s a Jew. Her parents were murdered during the Holocaust. She has to put doubts about her vocation behind her as her cynical aunt helps her explore her roots. Shot in…

I grew up believing Jean Harlow died of renal failure in 1937 because her Christian Science mother wouldn’t allow her have a blood transfusion. That story was subsequently debunked. A few years ago, I reviewed the Emma Thompson film The Children Act on these pages. It dealt with a boy who refuses to have a…

Covid-19 has made us all change the way we watch movies. Those of us lucky enough to have computers can cope easily enough with online purchases. Others have to be more innovative; I saw a news report about a man in Fermoy recently who’s showing films on walls for his neighbours. Desperate situations require desperate…