What happened to Soloman Northup was heinous. To be abducted, assimilated and beaten into submission for any reason is inexcusable, and to do it for reasons of skin colour is equally unforgivable. It’s been one hundred and fifty years since slavery was abolished, and to modern eyes it is clear that slavery and racism are…

Ben Stiller feels a bit old-hat in Hollywood terms now. Now it’s all Gosling this and Fassbender that, the days of the Frat Pack seem a distant memory, and indeed, you’d be unlikely to see anyone getting excited over a new Stiller movie, particularly a remake of a 1947 film starring Danny Kaye. However, The…

David O. Russell directs movies like he’s just snorted a big line of cocaine and been told the camera is a Grand Theft Auto controller – the actors in his scenes spend most of their time trying not to get run over. Intensity. That’s what Russell has in spades, and it’s again on show in…

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a horrendous mishmash of CGI-dependent action sequences and poorly-paced unconvincing drama; but rather like a dwarf in a river-borne barrel, it bobs along rather nicely. Also like a dwarf, it carries quite a lot of extra flab around the middle, but its unassailable charisma and magnificent facial hair…