Senna (2011) Documentary charting the rise and tragic demise of Ayrton Senna, Brazilian Formula 1 racing superstar and "the best driver who ever lived". Rating: MMMM Director: Asif Kapadia Starring: Ayrton Senna,...
Whip It (2010) Coming of age sports movie Whip It is the directorial debut of actress turned producer Drew Barrymore. Rating: MMMM Director: Drew Barrymore Starring: Ellen Page, Kristen Wiig, Marcia Gay Harden,...
Invictus (2010) Rating: MMMMM Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Invictus tells the story of the true events that followed the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa, and Mandela’s subsequent...
Avatar (2009) Rating: MM Review of James Cameron's uber-blockbuster and long anticipated space adventure epic, Avatar. Director: James Cameron Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi, Zoe Saldana,...
Me & Orson Welles (2009) Rating: MMMM Review of Richard Linklater's 1930s set period piece about the great Orson Welles' theatrical triumph - his version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Director: Richard Linklater Starring:...
Rating: MMMM
Review of extra-terrestrial sci-fi thriller District 9 produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) and directed by Neil Blomkamp
Director: Neil Blomkamp
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Vanessa Haywood, Jason Cope, Louis Minnaar, David James
Running time: 112 mins
Rating: MMM+
Review of Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film, Broken Embraces (Los Abrazos Rotos), starring his current screen muse Penélope Cruz.
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Penélope Cruz, Lluis Homar, Blanca Portillo, Tamar Noves, José Luis Gómez
Running time: 127 mins
Rating: MMMM
Review of Coco Avant Chanel, biopic of French fashion designer and style icon,
Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, starring Audrey Tautou and Alessandro Nivola. French with English subtitles.
Director: Anne Fontaine
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Alessandro Nivola, Benoit Poelvoorde, Marie Gillain
Running time: 105 mins
Currently finishing airing on BBC2 is HBO’s ‘reconstruction’ of the cop show, ‘The Wire’ (2002-2008), which for me has set a new standard in television drama. Not since ‘The West Wing’ have we seen such a rich and frankly rewarding series.
Rating: MMM
Review of the latest film of the Harry Potter franchise, sixth film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which sees Harry and Dumbledore unite to search into Voldemort’s past in an effort to discover secrets that will lead them to destroy him.
Director: David Yates
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson
Running time: 153 mins
Rating: MMMM
Review of Michael Mann’s ‘biopic’ of the notorious American criminal, John Dillinger.
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, David Wenham, Stephen Dorff
Running time: 140 mins
Rating: MMM
Review of Push first published in a March 2009 issue Spark*, the newspaper of Reading University Students’ Union.
Director: Paul McGuigan
Starring: Chris Evans, Camilla Belle, Dakota Fanning, Djimon Hounsou
Running Time: 111 mins