movies by or about women opening US/Can from Wed Aug 15
Adele Lim and Lea Carpenter cowrite two of the week’s wide releases, (respectively) Crazy Rich Asians and Mile 22. Progress!
WWII
1945 movie review: a reckoning for the collaborators
A quiet horror movie about grief and regret as spiritual possession, about rationalization and denial as immorality. We don’t tell ourselves stories that whisper, as this one does, The Nazis had help. We need to.
movies by or about women opening UK/Ire from Fri Apr 20
Helen Mirren, Angourie Rice, Lily James, Juliette Binoche, Shirley Henderson, Maxine Peake, and Bel Powley headline in an unusually rich week for movies about women…
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society movie review: the stories too painful to tell
A wonderfully old-fashioned tearjerker, with a thoroughly delightful cast, where cosy quaint Englishness is leavened by a harsh reality of World War II that pop culture has ignored.
Darkest Hour movie review: a surrender to open-and-shut history
A feature-length Oscar clip, two hours of Gary Oldman stomping around in a Winston Churchill suit. There’s too little drama and too much inevitability in what amounts to a reanimated Madame Tussaud’s waxwork scene.
A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway to Heaven) (4K restoration) movie review: paradise on Earth
One of the most beloved British films ever is now even more lush, more gorgeous, more humanist in a glorious new restored edition.
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story documentary review: beauty is a beast
The infuriatingly tragic true story of the Hollywood superstar whose brain was ignored because she was beautiful. A stupendous tribute to a remarkable woman.
Professor Marston & the Wonder Women movie review: secret identities (LFF 2017)
A sweet, romantic story about the polyamorous triad that created a beloved superhero… and about the power of comic books to speak to our inner lives.
Dunkirk movie review: the power of purpose
Primal and exhilarating, full of dread and tension. Drops us right into the chaos of war to tell an intimate story about fear and intensity of purpose.
Churchill movie review: stumbling over truth
This low-stakes, emotionally limp portrait may be intended to humanize a towering, almost mythic figure, but instead just needles and undercuts him.
