Tag Archives: Romance

Review in Brief: Emma. (2020)

Posted on May 7, 2020 by

Rarely has Jane Austen’s work been funnier on film. OK, her work as presented in LOVE & FRIENDSHIP was funnier, but that was mostly because Tom Bennett plays the perfect idiot. EMMA, the film and the character (Anya Taylor-Joy) is … Continue reading →

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Review: Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Posted on April 10, 2020 by

Well this was absolutely sensational. It was also the final film I saw in the cinema before Coronavirus closed them (cheery thought). PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE is sensual, appropriately painterly and with a huge heart. Love stories are … Continue reading →

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Series Retrospective: The Before Trilogy

Posted on March 22, 2019 by

Back to my semi (OK, I’ll be honest lately it’s been less) regular feature where I look back on a long-running film series and see how well each instalment has or hasn’t age. This time it’s Richard Linklater’s beloved naturalistic … Continue reading →

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Review: Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Posted on March 4, 2018 by

I was just starting to think the 90th Academy Award nominations weren’t all that impressive. Then I watched CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, and thank goodness I did. This is one of the most powerful, thoughtful and heartfelt dramas of … Continue reading →

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Review: The Shape of Water (2017)

Posted on February 28, 2018 by

THE SHAPE OF WATER promises a lot, and as such you might want to manage your expectations. Don’t worry, it’s good, but with such acclaim lavished on it from the Venice Film Festival onwards you might be expecting another PAN’S … Continue reading →

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Review: God’s Own Country (2017)

Posted on September 13, 2017 by

I’ve wandered a fair bit around Brontë Country over the years, but I’ve never seen it quite as stunningly presented as in GOD’S OWN COUNTRY. Much like some of the best British films of the past few years, such as … Continue reading →

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Review: A Ghost Story (2017)

Posted on August 30, 2017 by

A GHOST STORY is completely and utterly its own thing. Films have explored these themes before, but rarely have we had an extended narrative from a spirit’s perspective that didn’t use that fact as a twist. M (Rooney Mara) loses … Continue reading →

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Review: The Handmaiden (2016)

Posted on May 2, 2017 by

THE HANDMAIDEN is unmistakably a Park Chan-wook film. A polished tale of control featuring sadistic torture and plot-reevaluating twists, this is far beyond the ordinary bodice-ripper. During the Japanese occupation of Korea, a thief (Kim Tae-ri) masquerades as a handmaiden … Continue reading →

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Looking Back and Looking Forward: 2016, Part 2

Posted on January 1, 2017 by

Here are the very best, and the very worst films I’ve seen this year. MOONLIGHT, LA LA LAND and MANCHESTER BY THE SEA aren’t out in the UK for another few weeks, so don’t look for them here. Absent also … Continue reading →

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Review: Love & Friendship (2016)

Posted on June 14, 2016 by

It’s Jane Austen, but not quite as we know it. Whit Stillman’s LOVE & FRIENDSHIP adapts one of the titanically influential novelist’s lesser-known and unfinished stories (originally titled LADY SUSAN) and the result is a film that is both delicate … Continue reading →

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