Tenet review - a heady delight

★★★★ TENET A heady delight

Nolan's ambitious high concept head-spinner will have you going back for more

Go back over Christopher Nolan’s films and count the clocks. He has an obsession that would give a horologist a run for his money. Time is a continual motif of his body of work and it finds its zenith in his latest work Tenet. Beneath the highly polished spy-thriller aesthetic lies a head-spinning, temporally warped plot, laced with concepts and conceits that will delight and baffle in equal measures. 

Finding The Way Back review - alcoholism on the rebound

★★★★ FINDING THE WAY BACK Alcoholism on the rebound

Ben Affleck delivers a great comeback performance as a recovering alcoholic

Gavin O’Connor has made a career out of sturdy films that make grown men cry. His best was Warrior - a hulking, tear-jerking tale of male fragility and addiction. His latest Finding The Way Back is a potent, raw drama that explores similar terrain and reunites him with Ben Affleck (they last worked together on The Accountant).

The King of Staten Island review - Apatow's best work in a decade

★★★★ THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND Apatow's best work in a decade

Judd Apatow and Pete Davidson are a winning combination

The master of crowd-pleasing comedy, Judd Apatow, returns with another on-brand tale of arrested development with The King of Staten Island. While it's near his signature anarchic charm, this comedy-drama shows that even a veteran director/writer/producer like Apatow has room for growth. 

The High Note review - Tracee Ellis Ross shines in so-so music dramedy

★★★ THE HIGH NOTE Tracee Ellis Ross shines in so-so music dramedy

This musical lacks originality but Tracee Ellis Ross and Dakota Johnson save the day

Nisha Ganatra’s musical dramedy, penned by first time screenwriter Flora Greeson, isn’t going to win any prizes for originality and is almost unforgivably corny. But the feel-good vibes and winning combination of Tracee Ellis Ross and Dakota Johnson are still likely to win audiences over.

Blu-ray: Destry Rides Again

Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart shine in the nostalgic 1939 town-tamer Western

A calculatedly nostalgia-infused town-taming Western, 1939's Destry Rides Again out-sparkled Errol Flynn's contemporaneous light “oaters" and anticipated noir-tinged classics like My Darling Clementine (1946) and The Gunfighter (1950).

Romantic Comedy review - a not-so-guilty pleasure

★★★★ ROMANTIC COMEDY Tough yet passionate look at joys & flaws of romcoms

Elizabeth Sankey's tough yet passionate look at the joys and flaws of romcoms

Only those who really love you can deliver the hard truths, and for filmmaker Elizabeth Sankey, that one love is romantic comedies. Better known as one half of band Summer Camp, Sankey is a self-confessed romcom expert, having watched nearly every film from the 80s onwards.

The Assistant review - riveting #MeToo drama

★★★★ THE ASSISTANT Riveting #MeToo drama

Julia Garner is the newbie personal assistant whose boss is a sexual predator

Harvey Weinstein is never mentioned in The Assistant, but the former movie mogul and convicted rapist looms large over this savagely relevant drama, which offers a vivid picture of what life might have been like for every one of the employees – male as well as female, victim or no – trapped in Weinstein’s evil little world. 

Downhill review - American remake wanders off-piste

Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell on a skiing break: it's an uphill struggle

It’s hard to believe that Jesse Armstrong (Succession, Veep) co-wrote the screenplay for this feeble American remake of Swedish director Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure (2014). Where Force Majeure is subtle, dark and original (never have electric toothbrushes seemed so significant) Downhill is an unfunny flop in spite of comedy stars Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (she’s also a co-producer) as leads.

Oscars 2020: a 'Parasite' love-in caps a night of firsts

OSCARS 2020 A 'Parasite' love-in caps a night of firsts

South Korean triumph dominates a generously-spirited Oscar night

The 92nd Academy Awards saved its surprises for a final stretch that saw Parasite make history as the first foreign language film ever to win the Oscar for Best Picture, pipping to the post the presumptive favourite, the World War One drama 1917 (pictured below).