#Raindance2017: Black Hollow Cage, Stuck, Mukoku
Quick takes from the 25th Raindance Film Festival, with public screenings in London through October 1st, 2017.
musical
Beauty and the Beast (2017) movie review: ever just the same, never a surprise
Like a theme-park mounting of the 1991 cartoon, or the blandified pop version of an enchanting signature character tune. A watered-down pastiche of itself.
La La Land movie review: city of stars, shining just for us
A marvel. Funny and exuberant and bittersweet and cliché-busting and unexpected as hell. We are going to need more movies like this one.
Trolls movie review: you can’t stop the cute
Cute and sweet and will put you to sleep, like a diabetic coma, and then it will smack you awake with its relentlessly cheery vivid-pastel optimism.
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.
The Last Five Years movie rating: red light
An unpleasant couple sings ridiculously on-the-nose lyrics about the collapse of a romance that we are given no way to sympathize with or understand.
Annie movie review: abandoned child
Quvenzhané Wallis is adorable and Cameron Diaz is a hoot. But the movie is energetic yet bland, inoffensive and instantly forgettable.
Rio 2 review: jungle feeble
This is what passes for a children’s movie these days: a 1950s sitcom drawn in pretty tropical CGI colors with a few mostly forgettable songs tossed in.
Muppets Most Wanted review: that’ll do, frog
Kermit the Frog takes on his biggest challenge yet: dual roles. And truly puts the villain in vaudevillian.
The Muppets review: are we not men? we are weirdoes
What is a Muppet? Is it something one is born? Is it something one chooses? Is it a state of mind? Is it a lifestyle?
