I Saw the Light

It only struck me afterwards that the title of this film is only one strange choice. I know it's one of Hank Williams' more famous songs, but there was no seeing of any light during the film. It's all a bit of a downward spiral, with very little redemption. If they needed a song title, …

Trumbo

I learned from this that Dalton Trumbo was a communist, an outstanding screenwriter and a bit of an eccentric egotist. What I was hoping for something which would really get its teeth into the House Un-American Activity Committee hearings and fallout, and how it affected the wider Hollywood community. What I got was largely a range …

Love and Mercy

Interesting choice to cast two different actors to play the same person 20 years apart. It was clearly the best thing to do, but I'm just not quite sure that the choices made were the right ones.Paul Dano's awkward brilliance was perfect, but although John Cusack wasn't bad, I think he was the wrong selection. …

Rosewater

Gael García Bernal manages to choose roles which have something to say about the world, often political, and frequently featuring real people or events (I'm thinking No, ¿Quién es Dayani Cristal? or También la Lluvia, for example). Here again, he plays British-based Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari, arrested for 'espionage' while covering Iranian presidential elections in …

Selma

A good, solid film about a specific sequence of events in the life of Martin Luther King Jnr. Aspects of it are very moving, mostly due to the speeches, and David Oyelowo gives an excellent performance, without question. Great song too. I didn't feel it was any more than this though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUZOKvYcx_o

Foxcatcher

There's something really eerie and unsettling about the tone of this film, from start to finish. It's clear from the outset that the relationships are not right, without being able to pin things down, and I felt on edge throughout. Solid turns by Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum, but Steve Carell's performance as John du …

The Theory of Everything

I'm trying not to define this film as 'The Stephen Hawking biopic', as it's actually based on his wife Jane's novel about their time together. The shame is that the film still ends up being more about him than her (or them), and lacks sufficient depth about her struggle, his illness or even his science, …

The Imitation Game

It's taken me a while, but I finally get the Cumber-hype. Take the last 3 films I've seen him in (this one, August: Osage County and 12 Years a Slave), and it's impossible to deny his talent. I also thought Keira Knightley was good too, which surprised me immensely as she drives me mad in …

The Wolf of Wall Street

Leonardo di Caprio takes centre stage as Jordan Belmont, one of the most loathsome people you could ever meet. Forget the debate about whether the film neglects its responsibility to the victims of Belmont's business practices - this film isn't about that, and so it doesn't even come into question. This is a character study …

The Fifth Estate

This film presents one version of the on-going WikiLeaks tale, based partly on the book by Julian Assange's associate, Daniel Domscheit-Berg. The contradiction of course, is that WikiLeaks stands for revealing the truth, and chose to do so by not editing any of the documents disclosed to them, whereas this film is by necessity an …