Back to Black review – woozy Amy Winehouse biopic buoyed by extraordinary lead performance

Cinema Review Reviews (Current);   Published: Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Peter Bradshaw Guardian, 4 stars. Sam Taylor-Johnson’s best film to date is more interested in romance and creativity than demons or blame.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/apr/09/back-to-black-review-gentle-amy-winehouse-biopic-buoyed-by-extraordinary-lead-performance

Baltimore review – Imogen Poots excels as British aristocrat turned IRA volunteer Rose Dugdale

Cinema Review Reviews (Current);   Published: Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Wendy Ide Guardian, 4 stars. Irish directors Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy’s biopic of the late rebel heiress is anchored by an expressive lead turn.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/mar/24/baltimore-review-imogen-poots-rose-dugdale-joe-lawlor-christine-molloy

Io Capitano review – Matteo Garrone’s wrenching migrant drama is unexpectedly beautiful

Cinema Review Reviews (Archived);   Published: Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Wendy Ide Guardian, 4 stars. Seydou Sarr is wonderful as a 16-year-old Senegalese migrant who maintains his empathy and selflessness through a hellish journey to Europe.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/apr/06/io-capitano-review-matteo-garrones-wrenching-migrant-drama-is-unexpectedly-beautiful

The Zone of Interest review – Jonathan Glazer’s unforgettable Auschwitz drama is a brutal masterpiece

Cinema Review Reviews (Archived);   Published: Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Wendy Ide Guardian 5 stars. Only the constant pall of smoke, and a dread-inducing soundscape, tell of the horrors beyond the wall as the idyllic life of the commandant of the death camp and his family rolls by in Glazer’s Oscar-nominated film.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/feb/04/the-zone-of-interest-jonathan-glazer-brutal-auschwitz-drama-sandra-huller-christian-friedel-martin-amis

Monster review – Hirokazu Kore-eda’s hydra of modern morals and manners

Cinema Review Reviews (Archived);   Published: Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Peter Bradshaw Guardian 4 stars. apanese director Kore-eda offers a deliberately dense but ultimately hopeful examination of how to negotiate family dysfunction with intelligence and humanity.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/may/17/monster-review-hydra-of-modern-morals-and-manners

Drive Away Dolls Review– Ethan Coen sets off in a wild new direction

Cinema Review Reviews (Archived);   Published: Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Charles Bramesco Guardian, 5 stars. The writer-director splits from his brother and joins wife Tricia Cooke for a bawdy and brilliant road trip caper about two lesbian friends caught up in crime.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/feb/21/drive-away-dolls-movie-review-ethan-coen

On the Waterfront Review – Marlon Brando’s wounded masculinity rains punches down

Cinema Review Reviews (Archived);   Published: Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Peter Bradshaw Guardian 5 stars. Rereleased for its 70th anniversary, Elia Kazan’s classic exploration of corruption and whether or not to squeal is made all the more viscerally powerful by his own Huac testimony

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/apr/03/on-the-waterfront-review-marlon-brandos-wounded-masculinity-rains-punches-down

Origin review – a heartfelt look at a journalist challenging the concept of race

Cinema Review Reviews (Archived);   Published: Tuesday, March 12th, 2024

Peter Bradshaw Guardian *** There are solid performances in this dramatisation of Isabel Wilkerson’s attempt to explain racism as an aspect of the caste system.

Origin review – a heartfelt look at a journalist challenging the concept of race | Film | The Guardian

All of Us Strangers review – Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott tremendous in a beautiful fantasy-romance

News (Current);   Published: Monday, March 4th, 2024

Peter Bradshaw Guardian ***** Scott, Mescal and Claire Foy shine in a drama about a screenwriter who visits his childhood home to find his parents, who were killed in a car crash, still living there

All of Us Strangers review – Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott tremendous in a beautiful fantasy-romance | Film | The Guardian

All of Us Strangers review – Andrew Haigh’s drama grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go

Cinema Review Reviews (Archived);   Published: Monday, March 4th, 2024

Wendy Ide Guardian *****