Results from the Corn Exchange Drama Festival

News Theatre Review (Current);   Published: Monday, June 17th, 2024

“A wonderful week of theatre”, “a splendid variety of plays”, “interesting to compare my views with those of the adjudicators”. Just some of the comments overhead at last week’s drama festival which was the final week of what has become a regular sequence of events in Oxfordshire – Kenton (Henley), Oxfordshire Drama Network (Abingdon) and Corn Exchange (Wallingford).

Here’s the results from GODA adjudicator Nancy Heath:

Peter Utley Memorial Award for best cameo – Keith Bradford from Didcot Phoenix Drama Group for Metamorphosis.

Rita Kemp Award for best supporting actor – Samantha Riley from HAODS for Woyzeck.

Harris and Jones Salver for best  actor – Marilyn Johnstone from Sinodun Players for And Go To Innisfree.

Commended Award – for the director of And Go To Innisfree from the Sinodun PLayers.

Susan North Memorial Trophy for special moment – Sian Gibson from Banbury Cross Players for The Proposal

Punters’ Prize – Wrong Seat by Oxford Theatre Guild

SP Chair’s Award for runner up – Wrong Seat by Oxford Theatre Guild

Best overall production – And Go To Innisfree by Sinodun Players

Don’t forget to come again next year – May and June, look out for details.

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

Cinema Review Reviews (Archived);   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 (Archived);   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