trailer break: ‘The Secret of Moonacre’

Take a break from work: watch a trailer… Yet another film I’ve been noticing in adverts all over London — as with Franklyn, my eye is always drawn to anything that smacks of science fiction or fantasy. This looks like a fairly standard children’s fantasy: the film may well be perfectly lovely, but it doesn’t … more…

Christmas Carol: The Movie (review)

The voice cast of this animated British kid flick is an Anglophile’s dream: Kate Winslet (Finding Neverland), Michael Gambon (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), Juliet Stevenson (Being Julia), Rhys Ifans (Vanity Fair), Jane Horrocks (Chicken Run). Pity that not a one of them distinguishes him- or herself — the voice performances are so … more…

Bend It Like Beckham movie review

It’s completely predictable and predictably feel-good, but so damn what? This is an utterly delightful flick, not for the least which reason is that it’s about complex, engaging, and realistically flawed young women devoting their lives to something more ambitious than chasing boys and buying cosmetics. London teenage Jesminder (Parminder K. Nagra) lives in a … more…