Movies

Going to the movies

in Features

A new year is here and as January bites these big screen offerings 
are the pick of the midwinter bunch. 

Paul Anderson is an Arts broadcaster, radio presenter, producer and journalist. He’s known for work on BBC 6 Music, Xfm, Capital as well as hosting his own one-hour film show ‘At The Movies’ on Smooth Radio. Paul is also a member of the London Film Critic’s Circle. Follow him on Twitter @afilmguy

1917: 15

Sam Mendes is back in cinemas and has directed this tale of two British soldiers at the height of the First World War. The boys (George Mackay and Dean-Charles Chapman) are given orders to complete a ridiculous mission which involves crossing enemy lines. Impossible and suicidal. A thrilling race against time ensues, to deliver a message that will halt a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers including one of the boys’ own brother.  A strong cast completes the line up including Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, and Colin Firth.  

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD: PG

AAce satirist and comedy genius Armando Iannucci is back with his rich take on the life of one of Charles Dickens’ best loved characters. Iannucci is not only a fan of Dickens but believes he is owed a debt of gratitude for the comedy he has gifted the world. Dev Patel plays David a good hearted and kind young man desperate to be a writer and surrounded by misery, wickedness and kindness in equal measure. The overall tone is upbeat without the acerbic and caustic nature of much of the director’s work. There is poverty and wealth and a lot of fun with Iannucci’s regular screenwriting partner Simon Blackwell giving Peter Capaldi’s Mr Micawber some delicious material. For example, when asked if he’s homeless, Mr. Micawber replies, “We do primarily exist alfresco,” cheerily adding, “Every meal is a picnic! Patel and Capaldi are alongside a fine cast including Ben Wishaw, Paul Whitehouse,  Tilda Swinton and Hugh Laurie.

Also look out for…

DARK WATERS :  PG

Inspired by the true story of a tenacious attorney played by Mark Ruffalo who uncovers a shocking dark secret that connects a growing number of unexplained deaths due to one of the world’s largest corporations. In the process, he risks everything; his future, his family, and his own life in order to expose the truth. As with the Oscar winning Spotlight this is the kind of film that is not often made and is likely to stay with you a while. The cast also includes Anna Hathaway, Tim Robbins, and Bill Pullman. Todd Haynes directs. 

BOMBSHELL: 15

Fox News is just as famous for the occupant of the White House talking about it on social media a lot as it is for its news output. It found itself making the news recently thanks to the behaviour if its CEO Roger Ailes. Fox is one of the most powerful and controversial of media empires and the man who created it is the centre of a scandal thanks to the courageous women who brought him down with their exposure of his sexual harassment. Margo Robbie, Nicole Kidman Charlize Theron and John Lithgow all star in a film for our times, directed by Jay Roach  

Download and subscribe to the Gibraltar Insight: At The Movies – available on both Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and smart speakers.

Movies

in Culture Insight

Paul Anderson is an Arts broadcaster, radio presenter, producer and journalist. He’s known for work on BBC 6 Music, Xfm, Capital as well as hosting his own one-hour film show ‘At The Movies’ on Smooth Radio. Paul is also a member of the London Film Critic’s Circle. Follow him on Twitter @afilmguy.

Download and subscribe to the Gibraltar Insight: At The Movies – available on both Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and smart speakers.

JOKER : 15

As with Hamlet in the theatre, the role of The Joker on screen is fast becoming the defining role for male actors. It is all Heath Ledger’s fault for setting the bar so high and even with a gargantuan talent and presence such as Joaquin Phoenix that bar remains just out of reach. Todd Phillips is the director and gave us The Hangover, if you’re expecting laughs there’s nothing to be seen here. Arthur Fleck is just out of hospital clutching a veritable jamboree bag of medication. He has the Tourettic affliction of involuntary unstoppable laughter. Arthur works as a clown by day and as the worst stand up you’ve ever seen or heard at night. He has dreams of dating Sophie who lives in his block and cares for his sick mother. One day he gets beaten up and acquires a gun. He’s fired by the clown boss for taking the gun into a children’s ward at a hospital. Arthur becomes more unhinged and reliant on the Joker persona eventually killing some boys on a train. He is lured into the Gotham underworld and kills repeatedly. Phoenix is brilliant at playing unhinged and his ability as a physical actor is underrated. However, without Batman to rail against, be the nemesis of and seek to destroy, Joker lacks bite. It is an adequate study of the psychopathic tendencies of a truly disturbed character and the seductive nature of the underworld in a city such as Gotham, but it is no superhero movie. Phoenix is genuinely jaw-droppingly brilliant at times and Robert De Niro superb as chat show guy Murray Franklin. But yes, Heath Ledger is looking over your shoulder.  

JUDY : 12A

Renée Zellweger tends to do extraordinary in most of her performances and in her role as icon Judy Garland she does it again. The movie centres mainly on Garland’s attempted comeback at ‘The Talk of the Town’ nightclub in London. In so doing it relies on flashbacks to establish her childhood struggles during the filming of The Wizard Of Oz; which included being fed a cocktail of pills to help her sleep and keep her from gaining weight (Ahh, the glory days of the studio system eh?) So, begins a journey of bad habits and child custody battles, temporary homelessness and demeaning work for money way below her worth. Hence the offer snapped up to appear in London, complete with a minder (Jesse Buckley) to try and keep her in order. A barnstorming performance from Zellweger is Oscar worthy, and if anything, it feels as if that was the reason for the whole thing. Garland’s life is well documented, the drugs and booze battles alongside the incredible talent; hats off to Zellweger for studying for a year with a vocal coach although she could already sing. She’s funny, oozes personality and just about captures the essence of Garland. Judy has an excellent supporting cast with Rufus Sewell as ex-husband Sid Luft. Directed by top notch theatre guy Rupert Goold, the movie is all about Zellweger and worth the admission fee alone for that joyous performance. C’mon Get Happy!  

Movies

in Culture Insight/Features

Paul Anderson is an Arts broadcaster, radio presenter, producer and journalist. He’s known for work on BBC 6 Music, Xfm, Capital as well as hosting his own one-hour film show ‘At The Movies’ on Smooth Radio. Paul is also a member of the London Film Critic’s Circle. Follow him on Twitter @afilmguy.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: 18

It’s 1969 and the air is full of pot, hippies, and great music. This is a love letter to both Hollywood and Los Angeles and if it is Tarantino’s last film, his ninth, then it’s a beauty to go out with.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is everything you want from a Tarantino film if you are a fan of his film making. Leonardo di Caprio plays a veteran movie star who believes his career is over and he’s a has been washed up no hoper. His stuntman is Brad Pitt who is now his PA but he is still in his corner cheering him on.  The cast is huge and brilliant. Margot Robbie plays Sharon Tate, Al Pacino as a wonderfully greasy Hollywood agent. It’s almost 3 hours long so take a cushion and don’t drink too much but there are enough surprises to keep you entertained. Plus, some lovely scenes with a pit bull called Brandy and Brad Pitt; and Damien Lewis as Steve McQueen.

As with all the best Tarantino movies there are multiple storylines, so the faded western star Di Caprio is just one. The Sharon Tate/Roman Polanski story and the emergence of Charles Manson and the Family – Lena Dunham pops up as a member and that maybe is one of the less believable aspects. A bit like Pulp Fiction we bounce around the one-off stories, but it isn’t as good as that movie. It’s a unique approach and will keep you on your toes but it is thrilling.

A killer soundtrack from the era including Neil Diamond, The Stones, Paul Revere and The Ravers, Mamas & The Papas. Lots of swearing and sexual references from what may seem a Jurassic age; and some drug references so not family viewing. One criticism of Tarantino of late, is his reliance on cartoon violence and bloodbaths and there are plenty here. He is brilliant with dialogue though and the closest cinema has to Elmore Leonard. There is a darkness in the background which is not brought to the front and you could say the Manson storyline is not properly explored and developed. 

It is unapologetically nostalgic and, in its way, beautiful to look at with some sumptuous overhead crane shots. The chemistry between Pitt and Di Caprio is brilliant and Robbie is superb with little to do. It’s muscular and masculine and if you like that stuff, you’ll love it.

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT: 12A

More nostalgia, this time from the 80s, and not in Hollywood but Luton. Javed lives with his parents and two sisters and is bored out of his brains. He is trapped between his father’s expectations of him as a good Muslim and his own friends around him at school who are listening to pop music and, more importantly, dating girls. When he gets to college, he befriends a Sikh called Roops who is a fanatical Bruce Springsteen fan; suddenly Javed here’s Bruce talking to him in his lyrics. 

The director is Gurinder Chadha from Bend It Like Beckham, based on the memoir of journalist and author Sarfraz Mansoor, called Greetings From Bury Park (as opposed to Asbury N.J). 

It was a time of high tension with far-right marches and graffiti strewn all over the houses of Pakistani families, some being spat on and punched in the street. Some of this nostalgia is uncomfortable viewing but forms the authentic background to Javed’s desire to escape. The film is, in part, a musical with street scenes akin to west side story and even Rob Brydon pops up as Javed’s best friend’s dad who runs a market stall and is also a huge Bruce fan, and joins in the singing.

Javed is desperate to be a writer and his dad thinks he is doing economics at college, but his creative writing tutor, played by Hayley Atwell, encourages him to continue and use his voice through his writing.  Blinded By The Light is a wonderfully uplifting film that could easily be the feel-good movie of the summer. It helps if you’re a Springsteen fan, but there are plenty of 80s pop to keep your toes tapping. All performances are universally good with Viveik Kalra a standout as Javed. A lovely, funny, clever uplifting movie perfect for summer.

Check listings at leisurecinemas.com

Movies

in Culture Insight/Features

Paul Anderson is an Arts broadcaster, radio presenter, producer and journalist. He’s known for work on BBC 6 Music, Xfm, Capital as well as hosting his own one-hour film show ‘At The Movies’ on Smooth Radio. Paul is also a member of the London Film Critic’s Circle. Follow him on Twitter @afilmguy.

MEN IN BLACK
INTERNATIONAL: 12A

Seven years after MIB 3 we have Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson who are the secret agents protecting us from alien invasion. The plot loosely resembles the first film in 1997, with Thompson playing the raw recruit to Hemsworth’s troubled veteran. Controlling them are Liam Neeson and Emma Thompson, as the heads of MIB offices in London and New York. This version has had a ton of money thrown at it and amazing digital special effects that would have been too fantastical in 1997. But, for all this it still fails to tell us an engaging, or even particularly coherent, story. The leads are familiar from Thor Ragnarok and Hemsworth is good at the slapstick and strong-arm comedy, however it’s overlong and mostly unfunny.

X MEN: DARK PHOENIX: 12a

Here we go again with the flashback generations. The 19-year-old, 12 film franchise comes to a substandard halt with this saga of Jean Grey (Sophie Turner). Teenage Jean’s mutant gifts inadvertently caused the fatal car crash that killed her mother, landing her in the care of wheelchair-bound Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), who recognizes the traumatized orphan’s telepathic/telekinetic skills. Enter a shape-shifting alien entity named Vuk (Jessica Chastain) who begins twisting Jean’s mind by asking, ‘Are you a scared little girl who answers to the man in the chair, or are you the most powerful being on the planet?’  So, then we get the whole, ‘You’re stronger than you know. You’re special’ malarkey which inevitably leads to disaster, causing grumpy Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to resurface in his remote, rural hut. There are Fleeting visits from Hank/Beast (Nicholas Hoult), Nightcrawler (Kobi Smit-McPhee), Quicksilver (Evan Peters) and Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and a prolonged appearance from empowered Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) notes that the X-Men should become the X-Women because “The women are always saving the men around here.”

ROCKETMAN: 15

The story of how Reg Dwight became Elton John. In a recent interview about the film’s rating Eton said I haven’t led a PG 13 life and the best part about the film and certainly the thing that makes it superior to Bohemian Rhapsody the Freddie Mercury biopic, is that it doesn’t hold back. The early stuff is emphasized, mixing genius Reginald Dwight’s stunted suburban childhood with his arrival as a nimble songwriter, upon meeting lyricist Bernie Taupin, played by Billy Elliot’s Jamie Bell. We also meet a remote, homophobic father (Stephen Mackintosh), a self-absorbed mother (Bryce Dallas Howard) and a protective granny (Gemma Jones). These figures haunt Reg, an energetic and vocally talented Taron Egerton. There’s a neat conceit of a choreography of jumbling songs into multiple time frames.

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