Uncalled for reissue of lengthy, vanilla flavoured telling of Cinderella, most famous for being mocked as David Frost’s pet project in Frost/ Nixon. Nice outfits, all the same.
The master of body horror turns his transformative talents to the mind in this story of sex, neurosis and academic one-upmanship. Michael Fassbender makes founding analytic psychology look as easy as falling off a log (which probably subliminally represents the penis), and – gasp! – Keira Knightley’s actually quite good. Analyse THAT, Viggo.
Leonard Retel Helmrich completes his Indonesian trilogy with a beautifully observed documentary about life in Jakarta. Using the “Single Shot Cinema” technique for which he is best known, Helmrich takes the viewer to the heart of a country with an unpredictable future though certain passages smack of dramatisation.
We’ve gone far too long without anyone playing the music, and don’t even get us started on what’s happened to the lights. Thank goodness then that The Muppets are finally where they belong – back on the big screen and firmly in our hearts. The story might not be the most ambitious one around and the great Frank Oz’s absence can’t help but be felt, but when you’ve got Fozzie Bear in fart-shoes, Dave Grohl on the drums and our ol’ pal Kermit at the centre of it all, it’s difficult to imagine more wholesome family fare.
A heist movie in which the main character spends 90% of his screentime on a foot-wide ledge? That sounds interesting! And it nearly was. Man on a Ledge contains all the ingredients necessary for a credible thriller, but it falls at the last hurdle – putting them together. Also, Sam Worthington is still useless. Message ends.
Charlize Theron is on deliciously caustic form in dark comedy Young Adult; a tale of one woman’s desperate addiction to the life she no longer has. It may be that the script never quite matches the brilliance of the star, but with Theron’s horrible anti-heroine leading every scene its easy to stop worrying, sit back and sink into pure unadultered squirm.
Adam Sandler stars in this gritty family drama from Dennis Dugan, which follows in the footsteps of 2011’s Tyrannosaur and We Need to Talk About Kevin in its exploration of the dark complexities of human nature. By turns shocking and deeply poignant, Jack and Jill‘s unflinching examination of the relationship between a pair of twins is often unpalatable and frequ – HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. This film is unreal.
“If we were in another state,” mutters one of Cyril Tuschi’s interviewees, “I could be a lot more open with you”. And therein lies the problem. A vital but ultimately frustrating documentary about one of Russia’s most controversial oligarchs, Khodorkovsky does its best to shed light on the mind-meltingly shady dealings between Vladimir Putin and the man who went from being one of the richest businessmen in the world to a Siberian prisoner. The constant political road-blocks can’t help but take their toll on the feature’s punch, but it’s fascinating stuff all the same.
Slice-of-life documentaries are all well and good, but life can be horribly mundane and depressing sometimes. Sadly, Sound It Out‘s plea to save a record store and Britain’s ailing music industry will leave you wanting to chuck all your vinyl into a landfill.
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