Exodus: Gods and Kings movie review: whites only
Simultaneously the dullest and the most insulting version of itself it could possibly be. If only it had managed to be campy, that’d be something…
drama
Whiplash movie review: music as a savage beast
If you didn’t think music could involve actual blood, sweat, and tears, this breathtakingly visceral coming-of-artistic-age drama will set you straight.
American Sniper movie review: a pawn in the game, misplayed
A banal, bland tribute to things no one questions as laudable (though it has to misrepresent its subject to do so). But Bradley Cooper is very good.
The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death movie review: orphan blech
Thinks it’s hitting notes of subconscious dread, but it’s just swinging a sledgehammer of tropes and hoping one of them sticks. (Spoiler: None do.)
Unbroken movie review: where war movies have gone before
Jack O’Connell is the most exciting young actor to break out in years, and he makes this overly familiar film worth your time… if only just.
Wild movie review (London Film Festival)
A film full of spectacular landscapes of both the natural world and the human spirit. This is what it looks like when women get to be people onscreen.
Electricity movie review (London Film Festival)
Model-turned-actor Agyness Deyn is strange and lovely in a visually innovative and dramatically unexpected tale of personal adventure.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies movie review: there and back again… at last
I fear that Peter Jackson has been suffering from a similar affliction to the dwarf king’s “dragon sickness”: a compulsive lust for epicness.
Eastern Boys movie review: pretty boy
Repugnant drama about the tender relationship between a man who pays for sex and the boy he hires. At least Pretty Woman pretended to be a fairy tale.
Pioneer movie review: there will be oil
What is intended to be a suspenseful period drama of paranoia and conspiracy is far too slow-moving and meandering to truly engage.
