weekend watchlist: is it good to be the queen?
Plus a teenage con artist, a skewering of late-night comedy, and more… (First published September 18th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.)
Stephen Frears
Victoria & Abdul movie review: one of her best friends was brown
Charming based-on-fact British costume dramedy gently snarks about power and propriety but cuts a lot deeper when it comes to bigotry and bootlicking.
Florence Foster Jenkins movie review: don’t worry that it’s not good enough for anyone else to hear
When FFJ sticks to farce, it works wonderfully, like something P.G. Wodehouse might have loved. But the longer it goes on, the more maudlin it gets.
Marguerite movie review: is ignorance bliss?
A bravura dramedy that beautifully balances tragedy and comedy and asks a tricky question: Is it better to be cynical about art, or happily undiscriminating?
The Program movie review: on your bike and follow the money (LFF 2015)
Pretty much strictly for fans of Ben Foster and Chris O’Dowd, who are both superb here. Probably not for fans of Lance Armstrong (if he still has any left).
Philomena review: suffer the women
A cry-till-you-laugh-dramedy about seeking lost family and finding new purpose; Judi Dench and Steve Coogan are fantastic. Seriously, though: bring Kleenex.
Philomena trailer: give Judi Dench back her son!
Steve Coogan, Judi Dench, Stephen Frears. So much goodness in yet another story about the inhuman awfulness of the Catholic Church. Hooray, I guess.
cannot contain my excitement for the London Film Festival
I’m hyperventilating from the array of overwhelming movie awesomeness before me.
Hummingbird (aka Redemption) review: pity poor Jason Statham
Some of it is hilariously awful, and some is just plain awful. But Statham’s attempt to be taken seriously as an actor is honest, at least.
Lay the Favourite (trailer)
I’m always in for a new movie from Stephen Frears. But I do feel like I’ve seen this movie a hundred times before.
