Young Ahmed review - jihadist drama misses the mark
Cannes Best Director-winner has its moments, but focuses on the wrong parts
Belgian filmmaking duo the Dardenne Brothers have long been darlings of Cannes Film Festival, winning awards for hardhitting dramas like La Promesse, Le Silence de Lorna and The Kid with the Bike. Their latest offering Young Ahmed is no different, a domestic terrorist tale which won them Best Director at 2019’s festival.
Clemency review - devastating death row drama
Alfre Woodard gives a powerhouse performance as a death row prison warden
“All we want is to be seen and heard,” explains a lawyer to a death row inmate, paraphrasing a line from Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man, from which Chinonye Chukwu’s new film Clemency takes inspiration.
Finding The Way Back review - 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).
Lynn + Lucy review - a bruising tale of female friendship
Fyzal Boulifa directorial debut is a stark, unforgiving portrait of modern Britain
British director Fyzal Boulifa makes his feature film debut with a bruising account of female-friendship torn apart by personal tragedies and gossipmongers, on a council estate in Harlow.
Birdsong, The Original Theatre Company online review – a gutsy experiment
Socially distanced version of Sebastian Faulks novel clips along at a fair pace
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks’ best-selling First World War novel, has been adapted quite a few times in its twenty-seven years.
A White, White Day review - white heat
Gripping Icelandic portrait of grief, love and vengeance
This Icelandic film begins in the titular land of steam, as rain and mist envelop an erratic car which soon tumbles to its doom.
Fanny Lye Deliver’d review - blistering English civil war western
Thomas Clay delivers a potent pastoral drama by way of a house-invasion horror
Ten years in the making, Thomas Clay’s third feature, starring Charles Dance and Maxine Peake, is a remarkable and potent example of genre-splicing British independent filmmaking.
The Luminaries, BBC One review - one of the most visually arresting dramas of the year
Based on the Booker Prize-winning novel, this new big budget murder mystery sparkles and shines
Alarm bells start ringing whenever you discover an author is adapting their own work for a screenplay. In the case of New Zealand novelist Eleanor Catton, the alarm proves to be false.