Chinese-American film The Farewell tells what initially seems like a predictable story of a family trying to cope with a loved-one’s terminal illness but infuses this with refreshing and often very moving honesty. In a wonderfully unaffected performance, Awkwafina, stars as Billi, a 30-year-old Chinese-American woman struggling to survive financially and succeed professionally in New York. Frequent phone chats with
Read moreThe vaguely titled Ben Is Back follows on from last year’s Beautiful Boy in examining the impact on families of a son’s drug addiction. While the film addresses an important topic and contains some poignant moments, it doesn’t have quite the impact it should as it plays like a more intense midday movie. Lucas Hedges (who was terrific in Boy
Read moreKidnapping drama Everybody Knows sees an impressive confluence of talent with esteemed Iranian director Asghar Farhadi at the helm and a cast led by Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. The film often lives up to the promise offered by this dream team but a little too frequently slips into soap operatic drama. Cruz plays Laura a mother of two who
Read moreBased on the combined biographies of author Nic Sheff and his father David, Beautiful Boy potently depicts Nick’s descent into methamphetamine addiction. Rising star Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name, Ladybird) plays Nic, an intelligent aspiring writer who, as a teenager, is still trying to come to terms with his father David’s (Steve Carell) break-up with his mother Vicki
Read moreThe road trip drama has long been a convenient cinematic device for forcing warring family members to cohabit and thrash out their issues while imbibing the attractive landscapes through which they travel. The low-key, low-budget film Kodachrome is a familiar road trip redemption story but one that benefits from better-than-average performances. Jason Sudeikis stars as arrogant and once successful record
Read moreCreepy, slow-burn supernatural horror film Hereditary is one of the more stylish additions to the genre of recent times and announces an impressive new filmmaking talent in writer/ director Ari Aster who makes his feature debut here. Hereditary sees the Graham family: Annie (Toni Collette), Stephen (Gabriel Byrne), late-teen son Peter (Alex Wolff) and 13-year-old daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) slowly
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