The White Girl (2017)

I had a meeting at relatively short notice in London last week and, knowing it would mean an overnight stay, headed straight to the London Film Festival website to see what options were still available for the evening in question. Well, The White Girl had me at Christopher Doyle. The master of cinematography has co-directed …

Wonder Woman

A lot of good things about this, even though I didn't love it quite as much as others obviously have. The opening section is one I loved. The colours and action put me in mind of Christopher Reeve's Superman, and took me back to my childhood. The training sequences set up Diana's combat ability for …

Assassin’s Creed

I'm so sad, I spent most of the time thinking that the apostrophe in the title is in the wrong place. Surely the creed is that of more than one assassin? The fact that I had time to think this also probably tells you just how engaged I was with this film - answer is: …

Nie yin niang – The Assassin

Lives up to all the reports of looking beautiful. And all the reports of sparse/incomprehensible plot. On balance, I was OK with the latter because of the former while I was watching it, but don't feel like I could sit through it again. The slower pace allows time for some beautiful cinematography, so the best …

Yi dai zong shi – The Grandmaster

The version I saw was the shorter, edited-down version, which was the only cinema choice we have been offered in the UK (thanks, Mr Weinstein). While I enjoyed this film, (and perhaps the re-edited version does make it more accessible for someone like myself who has little knowledge of kung fu or Chinese history), I …