Two Faces of January is a multi-faceted Highsmith thriller

 

As film directors go, it’s hard to escape the shadow of Alfred Hitchcock.

The iconically portly Brit directed more than 50 films during his lifetime with an impressive batting average in terms of outright classics: Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest.…

August: Osage County is an overstuffed goose of a family drama

 

August: Osage County opens amidst the hay bales of the American Midwest and with the words of T.S. Eliot – “Life is very long”.

The truest expression of this stage-play adaptation lies in the cramped confines of the Westen family’s plantation-style home and the words of W.B.…

Does Ayoade replicate the success of Submarine with The Double?

 

The Double, the second film of Richard Ayoade – whose first, Submarine, accrued a BAFTA nom for Outstanding Debut – might not receive enough mainstream exposure to completely revamp his image as “Moss from The IT Crowd“, but as far as offbeat, art-house adaptations of Dostoyevsky novellas go, it’s a cracker.

Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine is redolent of Streetcar but never feels like a ripoff

 

Cate Blanchett goes Blanche Dubois in contemporary San Francisco.

In Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, Blanchett stars as a fragile, nervy Southern Belle. Her performance seems to have been lifted wholesale from her 2008 appearance in Streetcar – and it’s cracking; an assured Oscar nom.…

Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing is Shakespeare everyone can get excited about

 

Say what you want about old Bill Shakespeare, but he was certainly brave with his titles.

No contemporary writer would give their play a title that so openly embraced it being a farce, a comedic situation in which a great deal is made of very little.…

The Great Gatsby is a glorious encapsulation of the Roaring Twenties but has little to say for it

Great literary adaptations can occur in the most unexpected of places.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is widely regarded as one of the greatest works of fiction ever written and its 1962 adaptation starring Gregory Peck comes in at #25 on the AFI’s list of greatest American movies.…

A Christmas Carol has plenty of spirit(s) but lacks heart

Christmas, as the saying goes, seems to come earlier every year.

As of my writing this, it is not yet mid November and already, en route to the cinema, the Staines council is decorating for the festive season. Also, for reasons unbeknownst to me, now is the time at which the powers that be have chosen to release the newest version of Charles Dickens’ beloved yuletide classic.