The Aeronauts (12A) Every so often – if you’re lucky – you see a film star who takes your breath away and immerses you in their ambience. Felicity Jones is that person here. She’s Amelia Wren, the widow of an aeronaut. She’s trying to prove to herself that she can overcome her fears of travelling…
The Day Shall Come (15A) Chris Morris has been here before. Ten years ago he made Four Lions, a film that satirised terrorism. Is this a good idea? In my view, no. Some subjects shouldn’t be laughed about and terrorism is one of them. The Day Shall Come plays out as a kind of Elia…
Judy (12A) “If I’m a legend,” Judy Garland said once, “why am I so lonely?” Maybe that was precisely why. “I was born,” she said, “at the age of 12 on the MGM lot.” A tendency towards weight gain caused Louis B. Meyer to put her on a punishing regime of slimming tablets. An addiction…
The Kitchen (16) Two women in a kitchen spells trouble, as the saying goes. Here there are three. And it’s not the kind of kitchen you might be thinking of. No, this is 1979 in Hell’s Kitchen in New York, a stronghold of the Irish Mafia (The Murphia?). The men in these women’s lives have…
Downton Abbey (12A) For many moons now, people have been wondering when the Crawley family would hit the big screen. What better way to do it than with a plotline featuring a king and queen? Michael Engler’s film is based loosely on a royal visit to a Jacobean mansion called Wentworth Woodhouse that took place…
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (18) For many people, the 60s didn’t end on December 31, 1969, but rather on August 8 of that year. That was the date Charles Manson and his ‘family’ butchered a number of people in 10050 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles. The most famous of these was the 28-year-old actress…
A Million Little Pieces (16) There have been so many great films made about alcohol addiction you wonder what new angle they could possibly come up with. For me the most moving moment in Days of Wine and Roses, one of the best of the genre, was when Jack Lemmon – who’s responsible for…
Dora and the Lost City of Gold (PG) Hollywood ‘girlpower’ gets another airing in this high energy venture which sees the title character showing the menfolk of the piece a thing or three about survival as she searches for her parents (Michael Pena and Eva Longoria) in a rain forest. Adapted from Dora the…
International films are having a field day on our screens at the minute. Blinded by the Light takes up where Yesterday left off, giving us the story of a disaffected young Asian man becoming liberated by music. Bob Dylan once said that hearing Elvis Presley for the first time was like “busting out of jail”.…
Pavarotti (12A) Peter Ustinov remarked once of Pavarotti, “Luciano is difficult to pass at the net in tennis – even when he’s not playing”. His appetite was so large he asked for kitchens to be added to the hotel rooms he stayed in. A man for whom the term ‘larger than life’ would have…
Aubrey Malone