Floyd Norman: An Animated Life documentary review: meet the “wise old man” of Disney
He’s a charming character, a fascinating player in cinema history. Absolutely essential viewing for Disney fans and those interested in animated filmmaking.
reviews
The Purge: Election Year movie review: soylent green is Donald Trump!
A few hints of stagnation aside, this franchise remains a terrifyingly trenchant dystopia. A brutal vision of an America not far removed from our own.
The Intervention and There Is a New World Somewhere movies review: women on the verge
Two movies about women at crossroads in their lives explore the sort of personal crisis — lost mojo! — typically reserved for men onscreen.
The Childhood of a Leader movie review: the history of the world, part Europe
Cinematic wankery at its most puerile. Two hours of the sun setting revealing that this is why it gets dark at night would not have been more pointless.
Black movie review: tragically bad
A facile riff on Romeo & Juliet amongst Brussels gangs. Banal, clichéd, and treats its teenage-girl protagonist in a spectacularly disgusting way.
Swallows and Amazons movie review: a free-range kiddie adventure
Behold a time before helicopter parenting, when children roamed free, ate cake for dinner, and played with fire. A delightfully old-fashioned treat.
War Dogs movie review: sob havoc over this gun fun run
A comedy only in the bleakest way, satire only in the sense that the whole world has become a parody of itself. Appalling and amusing in equal measure.
The Shallows movie review: she’s gonna need a bigger surfboard
Pure popcorn thrills. Whips up visceral suspense and maintains it till you’re breathless as it cements the arrival of “woman versus nature” as a subgenre.
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates movie review: a meeting of childish minds
A sweetly silly trounce of the idea that overgrown frat boys are charming. Shakes up the subgenre in a way remarkably, if perhaps accidentally, feminist.
Pete’s Dragon movie review: big friendly dragon
More like a pleasant walk in a redwood forest with a boy and his dragon than a rollicking adventure, but its serenity and warm heart are infectious.
