Life movie review: how not to be famous
A smart, wistful exploration of art, ambition, and celebrity, with appealingly melancholic performances by Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan.
based on fact
Everest movie review: peak experience
A spectacular, heart-stopping adventure that has you catching your breath and gasping in shock. See it in IMAX 3D for an enrapturing you-are-there feeling.
Legend movie review: badfellas
Tom Hardy is fab, but this is GoodFellas-lite, depicting violent sociopaths as glamorous, even amusing, and lacking all understanding of what made them tick.
Straight Outta Compton movie review: men’s anger, but only when it makes them righteous
The seething rage radiating from the screen elevates this above similar movies. But that rage is truncated in ways that are hard to ignore.
13 Minutes (aka Elser) movie review: the ultimate what-if
This intense dramatization of the true story of a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in 1939 is an unpleasant experience but a provocative one.
London Road movie review: the real world’s a stage
No one has done a musical like this before, keeping an uneasy beat to craft a dark replica of scared community spirit in the wake of a shocking crime.
McFarland USA (aka McFarland) movie review: run and deliver
“Put Kevin Costner in it and you’ve got a sporty Stand and Deliver. The script writes itself.”
In the Name of My Daughter movie review: suspenseless Riviera
Not even Catherine Deneuve can save this dramatically inert soap opera of corruption and obsession, which does not even resolve its central mystery.
The Connection (La French) movie review: not-so-good fellas
With supercool 70s chic and a smart crime thriller vibe, this is a welcome throwback to action dramas of the past, before they chose spectacle over story.
Black or White movie rating: yellow light
This inspired-by-fact tale of the custody battle over a mixed-race grandchildren only just skims the many provocative issues it touches on.
