Film review: SPOTLIGHT, from ‘Built For Speed’

Spotlight depicts the Boston Globe newspaper’s 2001 inquiry into allegations of child sexual abuse by members of Boston’s Catholic clergy. As a detailed dramatisation of a major piece of investigative journalism, Spotlight follows in the esteemed tradition of films like Zodiac and All the President’s Men. The film reveals how, in 2001, the Globe’s newly-appointed Chief Editor, Marty Baron (Liev

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Film review: THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, from Built For Speed

With the excellent Harry Potter film adaptations and the not so excellent Twilight films now done and dusted, the quest for the teen movie dollar falls to The Hunger Games series.  The first instalment, simply titled The Hunger Games, was moderately inventive, occasionally exciting and at times attractively shot but was let down by maddening use of wobble cam during

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Film review: THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, from Built For Speed

Robert Redford’s latest film The Company You Keep explores the aftermath of 60’s radicalism in the present day.  What initially seems like an intense political drama ends up as a well-made but tepid meditation on ageing, community, adult responsibility and the dimming fire of youthful idealism. Redford plays respected upstate New York lawyer and single father Jim Grant. Unknown to

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Film review: JACK THE GIANT SLAYER, from Built For Speed

Parents be warned, Jack the Giant Slayer is not as kid-friendly as you might expect.  Although it’s based on the Jack and the Beanstalk fable, it’s no cute fairy tale.  This is a loud, violent action fantasy that’s closer to Robert Zemeckis’ intense reimaging of Beowulf than any fairy story and may traumatise children under 12. The violence begins in

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