Radioactive (15A) Camille Paglia once said: “There’s no female Mozart because there’s no female Jack the Ripper.” The comment was inaccurate but typical of her penchant for sensationalism. (I liked Julie Birchill’s comment: “The ‘g’ is silent in Paglia. It’s the only thing about her that is.”) Something else that’s often said to be…
Dark Waters (PG) There are two ways of looking at a film like this, which is based on fact. On the one hand you commend Todd Haynes for resisting the temptation to give it a ‘wow’ factor, i.e. the obligatory scene in the underground car park where the hero’s life is threatened. Or when he…
Jihad Jane (PG) The title of this engrossing documentary was the name given to a blonde, blue-eyed Texan woman called Colleen LaRose. She herself appears to have been the first person to use it. That fact led to many of her problems. She was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in 2009 for a plot to kill…
Richard Jewell (15) You’ve got to hand it to Clint Eastwood – at 89 years old, he’s still churning out great films. I’d never heard of Richard Jewell before seeing this. In July 1996, the overweight security guard noticed a suspicious-looking knapsack under a bench at Atlanta’s Olympic Games. It turned out to contain a bomb.…
Just Mercy (12A) In 1987, an innocent African American man called Walter McMillan (Jamie Foxx) was sentenced to death for the murder of an 18-year-old girl in Alabama. He was convicted on nothing more than the false evidence of criminal Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson) who was offered a commutation of his sentence for furnishing…
Cinemas usually experience the celluloid equivalent of haemophilia at this time of year, either due to ritualistic hibernation, post-festive lethargy and/or the sedentary hangover of a Yuletide addiction to television. To draw patrons away from the sofas to which they seem to become almost surgically attached over the 12 days of Christmas – if not…
Uplifting films of the year included Breakthrough, which dealt with the power of prayer to move mountains. Chrissie Metz is traumatised by the death of her 14 year old son and prays fervently for him to be returned to life. The Last of Us told the story of missionary Graham Staines. He died in India…
The Biggest Little Farm (PG) “They told us we were crazy,” says narrator John Chester of his ambition to create a farm with his wife Molly that would be totally in harmony with nature in this fascinating documentary set in Ventura County, “and they were right.” It started with Todd. That’s their wide-eyed dog. His…
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…
Aubrey Malone