Movie Reviews 507 results

Jay Stone and Katherine Monk. Definitive reviews. Trusted critics.

5Score

Black Panther Plays with Ancient Yarns

Movie Review: Black Panther Hollywood dons its first pair of progressive lenses with Ryan Coogler's fiercely entertaining rewrite of superhero stereotype that helps correct old vision problems
4Score

In the Fade Rubs Out Boundaries of Moral Behaviour

Movie Review: In the Fade Diane Kruger won best acting honours at Cannes for good reason: her performance as a grieving mother and widow in the wake of a terrorist attack takes us from a noble quest for justice to the cellar of revenge
3Score

Movie review: Happy End is Haneke at his most elusive

Movie review: Happy End The story of an unhappy French family follows the director's usual pattern of dysfunction and brutal motives, but there's not much to keep us watching
3Score

Movie review: Happy End is Haneke at his most elusive

Movie review: Happy End The story of an unhappy French family follows the director's usual pattern of dysfunction and brutal motives, but there's not much to keep us watching

Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool Resurrects Tinseltown’s Golden Aged

Movie review: Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool Annette Bening pours pathos into a champagne glass as Gloria Grahame in Paul McGuigan's moody portrait of the feminine mystique and its martyrdom at the grabby hands of Hollywood  

Bening Becomes Legend in Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool

Movie review: Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool Annette Bening pours pathos into a champagne glass as Gloria Grahame in Paul McGuigan’s moody portrait of the feminine mystique and its martyrdom at the grabby hands of Hollywood Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool 4/5 Starring: Annette Bening, Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Vanessa Redgrave, Kenneth Cranham Directed by: Paul McGuigan Running time: 1 hr 45 mins Rating: Restricted By Katherine Monk She had a starring role in It’s a Wonderful Life, but Gloria Grahame had anything but. As one of the leading femme fatales of the 20th century, Grahame was a prisoner of her pin-up image, sentenced to the shadows of sexually charged parts in an era that regarded a woman’s libido as a moral liability. Sexuality was her ticket to the gleaming world of Golden Age Hollywood, but in Paul McGuigan’s emotionally detailed portrait based on Peter Turner’s memoir, we can see how her biggest gift also became her biggest ...

War, Disasters and Quiet Passions: Jay Stone’s Top Ten Movies of 2017

Movies: Top Ten 2017 Greta Gerwig's coming-of-age gem, Lady Bird, garners big Stone praise amid a cluster of small diamonds about outsiders, loss and the elusive power of hope By Jay Stone Lady Bird: Pretty well the best time I had at the movies this year came from this small, exquisitely observed story that we’ve seen a million times: a young woman comes of age in a small town, fights with her parents and dreams of glory in the big city. But writer/director Greta Gerwig — drawing on her own life — turns this familiar material into a sweet, caustic, and authentic tale of growing up, aided by great performances from Laurie Metcalfe as the exasperated mother and Saoirse Ronan as the complicated young woman. A true gem. The Florida Project: Filmmaker Sean Baker takes a step up from his previous movie (Tangerine, which was shot on an iPhone) but doesn’t sacrifice any of the grit in the story of people living on the edge of the American dream, in every sense: they inhabit a ...
4Score

In the Fade Rubs Out Boundaries of Moral Behaviour

Movie Review: In the Fade Diane Kruger won best acting honours at Cannes for good reason: her performance as a grieving mother and widow in the wake of a terrorist attack takes us from a noble quest for justice to the cellar of revenge
3Score

Maze Runner Loses Route in Frantic Final Chapter

Maze Runner: The Death Cure Dylan O'Brien returns as Thomas, a talented and genetically gifted teenager who leads a renegade group of kids looking to overthrow the wicked world of grown-ups in this final chapter of James Dashner's saga.
2Score

Den of Thieves Leaves a Manly Stink

Movie Review: Den of Thieves Testosterone fuels this bank heist vehicle as Gerard Butler plays a tough, self-loathing cop who sacrificed his inner goodness to catch the bad guys