At Berkeley review
Frederick Wiseman’s four hour documentary on the University of Berkeley is an outstanding achievement in the peeling back of multiple layers. A masterpiece in telling a story through documentary filmmaking in a way in which the text becomes richer and more absorbing as we find ourselves more and more involved in the machinations and minutiae … Read more
Inside Llewyn Davis review
“If it was never new, and it never gets old, then it’s a folk song” One of the first lines in the Coen Brothers’ exceptional new film helps to set up this incredibly smartly structured story of a folk singer in 1960s Greenwich Village who is striving for success within his creative field. He doesn’t … Read more
Tom at the Farm review
Xavier Dolan, the writer, director and star of Tom at the Farm – there are more Dolan credits but they are far too numerous to mention here – is not even twenty-five but already has four films to his name. His latest, Tom at the Farm, follows the incredibly compelling and visually astute Laurence Anyways, … Read more
Captain Phillips review
Paul Greengrass’ latest thriller is an almost unbearably tense two hours spent alongside Tom Hanks as Richard Phillips, a captain whose American container ship is highjacked by Somali pirates. Hanks is superb as the captain struggling to stay alive and, at first, keep his crew safe, and in the film’s final moments he gives one … Read more