Darkest Hour and Atonement director Joe Wright’s vibrant, occasionally awkward and sometimes moving Cyrano is an adaptation of the stage musical of the same name which was itself based on dramatist Edmond Rostand’s classic 1897 romantic tragi-comedy Cyrano de Bergerac. Through its title character, the story of Cyrano celebrates the arts of wit and rhetoric and the power of words
Read moreThe fiction film featuring the real-life rock band is a dicey venture. On one hand there’s Richard Lester’s 1964 classic A Hard Day’s Night which captured the fun, wit and energy of The Beatles. On the other hand, there’s the 1978 monstrosity KISS and the Attack of the Phantoms, a film so awful the band apparently forbade anyone from mentioning
Read moreThe moderately exciting, occasionally funny but mostly ridiculous Uncharted is based on a popular video game but this dubious mix of archaeological adventure and caper comedy owes just as much to a film like National Treasure. Uncharted is essentially a treasure hunt as bar tender and petty thief Nate Drake (Tom Holland) – a descendant of Sir Francis Drake, no
Read moreJapanese drama Drive My Car, which is based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, has been one of the most lauded films of the year. Nominated for both the Best Picture and Best International Feature Oscars and Best Director for Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, it marks the continued ascent and recognition of films from outside Hollywood and the west, particularly from
Read moreMoonfall follows in the noble tradition of Independence Day, Deep impact and Armageddon as a ludicrous ‘death from above’, global destruction sci-fi action flick in which the world can only be saved by jokey Americans. Astonishingly, this film is even more loopy than the films just mentioned. It comes from none other than Roland Emmerich who seems to have a
Read moreKenneth Branagh’s heartfelt, energetic, if familiar, Belfast is a semi-autobiographical family drama and childhood rites of passage film set amid the increasingly menacing environment of Northern Ireland during ‘the troubles’ in 1969. The film centres on nine-year-old Buddy (Jude Hill, in his feature acting debut), a likeable and precocious primary schooler living with his family in working class Belfast. His
Read more