REVIEW: The Tragedy of Macbeth (London Film Festival 2021)

In his first single-handed filmmaking venture, Joel Coen (best known as one half of the Coen Bros.) takes on Shakespeare in The Tragedy of Macbeth.

Shot entirely on set, with sharp, black-&-white cinematography courtesy of Bruce Delbonnel, the film’s striking, otherworldly visuals, inky shadows and slanting light, owe a debt to German Expressionism.…

CINEMATIC GRAB-BAG: Beauty And The Beast (2017) & Get Out

Beauty And The Beast (2017)

Obligatory “tale as old as time” reference.

Disney’s original Beauty And The Beast holds a special place in my heart: it was, according to my parents, the first film I ever saw in the cinema; aged just eighteen months.

Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates: lazy title, some good gags

 

Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates is the type of film that needs no introduction — well, maybe a brief one.

Two lovably amped-up bros, Mike (Adam DeVine) and Dave Stangle (Zac Efron), roped into bringing dates to their sister’s wedding to keep them out of trouble, are tricked into bringing along supposed “nice girls” Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) and Alice (Anna Kendrick) on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.…

Trumbo is a barnstorming triumph of cinematic liberalism

 

From Sunset Boulevard to Argo, Hollywood has always been in the business of self-mythologizing.

It’s not often, though, that the industry takes its licks for the mistakes it’s made along the way.

Writ large among them is, of course, the blacklist, which saw scores of talented, Left-leaning film-makers left out in the cold as the paranoia surrounding Communism reached fever pitch.…