Grand Central movie rating: yellow light
French drama about nuclear workers is riveting when it focuses on the dangers of the job, less so when it devolves into a sexy working-class soap opera.
reviews
Finding Vivian Maier documentary review: secret art comes into the light
An extraordinary examination of a remarkable photographer, part portrait unraveled by meticulous detective work, part sharp criticism of the hidebound art establishment.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes movie review: people get ready
A magnificent science fiction drama, and a beautiful one. Wonderfully radical for the simple fact that it is ruled by principled ideas.
Rage (aka Tokarev) movie review: Nicolas Cage’s public mid-career crisis takes a pathetic turn
Sporadically hilariously awful, but mostly cheap, amateurish and so distasteful it borders on the vile. Poor Nicolas Cage and his foundering career.
The Crucible (starring Richard Armitage) stage review (The Old Vic)
A very earthy and spookily atmospheric production suffers from some dated attitudes: not those of the 1690s but the 1950s.
Boyhood movie review: time in a cinematic bottle
An audacious coming-of-age tale unique in the history of cinema; deeply moving and beautifully authentic.
Snowpiercer movie review: hunger train
Hauntingly grim, full of appalling ironies and awful truths. This is most definitely not the feel-good movie of the summer.
The State Within TV review: unknown knowns
A riveting BBC political thriller offering one of the most trenchant explorations yet of the sick symbiosis between big government and big business.
The Raid 2 movie rating: red light
Arthouse martial-arts action that’s incredibly dull even when it’s being pornographic about its extreme bloody violence.
Palo Alto movie review (Edinburgh International Film Festival)
A meditative contemplation of the boredom of overprivileged, under-aspiring, shallow, spoiled kids. As you’ve been dying to see.
