Category Archives: Film

Mary Magdalene. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Rooney Mara, Joaquin Pheonix, Chiwetel Ejiofer, Tahar Rahim, Ariane Labad, Denis Menochet, Lubna Azabal, Tcheky Karyo, Charles Babalola, Wawfeek Barhom, Ryan Corr, Uri Gavriel, Shira Haas, Tsahi Haevi, Michael Moshonov, David Schofield, Irit Sheleg, Jules Sitruk, Zohar Shtrauss, Lior Raz, Hadas Yaron, Roy Assaf, Valentina Carelutti.

Written history is the by-product of agenda, especially when someone’s legal observance is shouted down by a system that wants to subjugate and put the masses into place. Tell someone enough times that they don’t matter, exclude them, or worse, paint them in the tones of the aggressor, the liar, or the one whose words are based on the derogatory, then history is not only celebrated by the winner, it is a falsehood designed to keep everyone in their place.

Mary Magdalene. Film Review. full post

(482 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

The Happy Prince. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Colin Morgan, Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Chancellor, Edwin Thomas, Beatrice Dalle, Julian Wadham, John Standing, Andre Penvern, Tom Colley, Stephen M. Gilbert, Alister Cameron, Benjamin Voisin, Antonio Spagnuolo, Franca Abategiovanni, Joshua McGuire, Ronald Pickup.

It takes a fearless and heroic person to bring a legend to the screen, to attempt, to undoubtedly crack, the enigma that lay behind their story, be it in the fascinating, gruesome, indecorous or the beautiful; or in the case of one of the more celebrated writers of the time, Oscar Wilde. It could be argued that all four states of human feeling and postured masks can be seen than in perhaps anybody else who strode across the world’s stage in an era which was harsh, unforgiving, brutal and by today’s standards ruthlessly riddled with toxic masculinity.

The Happy Prince. Film Review. full post

(502 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Ted Levine, Jeff Goldblum, Toby Jones, James Cromwell, B D Wong, Rafe Spall, Daniella Pineda, Justice Smith, Geraldine Chaplin, Peter Jason, Robert Emms, Isabella Sermon.

By taking the beast out of its environment you increase the terror, you bring the creature into the home, you escalate the fear and by bringing that monster into one small, almost perfect, bedroom, where everything is neat, where everything is in its natural place and ordered, you have the makings of something that makes the imagination run wild, that makes the latest in the Jurassic Park/World series so much darker, so more in tune with the modern world and the debate of the human factor in the destruction of the eco system.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Film Review. full post

(583 words, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

Solo: A Star Wars Story. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Paul Bettany, Jon Favreau, Linda Hunt, Joonas Suotamo, Ian Kenny, Anthony Daniels, John Tui, Warwick Davis, Erin Kellyman, Ray Park.

It is perhaps impossible to capture the essence of what makes a screen legend in a particularly iconic role; the one in which they not only ran with across four different films in a much-loved film series, but to whom in many ways was the absolute star, the one to whom the kids loved and the one that others admired. To try and do so would be reckless folly, and yet every hero needs their backstory told, every past needs to be explored and that of Han Solo is no exception.

Solo: A Star Wars Story. Film Review. full post

(475 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

On Chesil Beach, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Billy Howle, Emily Watson, Samuel West, Anne-Marie Duff, Adrian Scarborough, Rasmus Hardiker, Bebe Cave, Jonjo O’Neill.

Time and sensitivity are not natural bed fellows, neither is truly mature enough to handle each other’s whims, demands or spoilt child like behaviour when the going gets tough; it takes a writer of delicate persuasion in which to capture the beauty in heartache and the sudden fall of a relationship which had been so clear before.

On Chesil Beach, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(437 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Deadpool 2. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Josh Brolin, Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Zazie Beetz, Brianna Hildebrand, Brad Pitt, Bill Skarsgård, Matt Damon, T.J.Miller, Terry Crews, Rob Delaney, Alan Tudyk, Julian Dennison, Lewis Tan, Jack Kesy, Eddie Marsan, Shioli Kutsuna, Hayley Sales, Stefan Kapicic, Karan Soni, Sala Baker, Nicholas Hoult, James McAvoy, Evan Peters, Tye Sheridan.

In the land of the sequel, the audience is normally attuned to the fact that by and large the film will be below par, sometimes disastrously with a plot that was based on profit potential, sometimes just out of plain high expectation, but the result will be the same, that like most films, the sequel is never in the same class as the original.

Deadpool 2. Film Review. full post

(496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

I Feel Pretty. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Amy Schumer, Michelle Williams, Tom Hopper, Rory Scovel, Adrian Martinez, Emily Ratajkowski, Aidy Bryant, Busy Philips, Lauren Hutton, Sasheer Zamata, Angela Davis, Caroline Day, Anastagia Pierre Friel, Gia Crovatin.

When the message is absolutely spot on, when the meaning is clear and embracing and yet the scrawl of writing in which it appears dominates and without favour, you tend to forget the significance, the power of what is being said and instead you focus upon the negative. It is not right of course, it is unashamedly poor form to do so, but in the end being human is all we are, and whilst I feel Pretty is a laudable idea, noble even, the near cliched way it was handled leaves it as a film to be admired from a distance but avoided at all costs up close and personal.

I Feel Pretty. Film Review. full post

(509 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Entebbe. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl, Eddie Marsan, Kamil Lemieszewski, Ben Schnetzer, Nonso Anozie, Mark Ivanir, Juan Pablo Raba, Denis Ménochet, Andrea Deck, Brontis Jodorowsky, Lior Ashkenazi, Peter Sullivan, Angel Bonanni, Natalie Stone, Vincent Riotta, Laurel Lefkow, Yiftach Klein, Flynn Allen, Gabriel Constantin, Uriel Emil, Laurence Bouvard.

The trouble with history is that it is only in retrospect do you begin to understand how the series of connections fell into place, that the burden we carry for finding that one moment which defines the whole historical fact in an nutshell and the cry of desperation when we find it would be easier to wipe everything away, dismiss all that went before and start again, to wipe away all the accounts and narration away, over and over again.

Entebbe. Film Review. full post

(522 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Avengers: Infinity War. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Josh Brolin, Zoe Saldana, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Elisabeth Olson, Sebastian Stan, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Idris Elba, Chadwick Boseman, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Pom Klementieff, Danai Gurira, Benico Del Toro, Paul Bettany, Kerry Condon, Bradley Cooper, Carrie Coon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Peter Dinklage, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Mackie, Terry Notary, Winston Duke, Benedict Wong, Don Cheadle, Marija Juliette Abney.

Avengers: Infinity War. Film Review. full post

(517 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Lily James, Matthew Goode, Jessica Brown Findlay, Michiel Huisman, Katherine Parkinson, Tom Courtenay, Glen Powell, Penelope Wilton, Bronagh Gallagher, Dilyana Bouklieva, Kit Connor, Marek Oravec, Steve Carroll, Nicola Pasetti, Andy Gathergood, Emily Patrick, Amil Freeman, Tom Owen.

The idyllic can hold a person’s mind entranced, the beauty of the location a veritable feast for the soul and the easy going nature of the locals, disarming, reassuring and pleasurable; yet in any place which holds the attention of the visitor, there is always the unspoken horrors that may have occurred, that may be pushed down so far into the consciousness that resurrect them is more painful than anyone from the outside can believe.

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society. Film Review. full post

(555 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)