REVIEW: Men [2022]

It’s the tip of the blade. Harper (Jessie Buckley) arrives at the gorgeous country estate owned and rented out by a kindly yet awkward man (Rory Kinnear‘s Geoffrey) in a bid to escape the tragic turmoil surrounding her. Anyone who’s seen the trailer knows said turmoil stems from the death of her husband James (Paapa Essiedu), his face falling in front of the window that she gazed out from has permanently fixed to her brain. When someone asks whether she’s tormented by this event, she rejects the word. When they…

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REVIEW: Peterloo [2018]

Let’s see what he has to say. Films devoid of main protagonists are generally created as such because the event orbited by their ensemble of characters proves the focal point instead. So when that central moment is a massacre, you must brace for the reality that many will end up victims left for dead. The filmmaker is therefore tasked with ensuring his/her audience recognizes the line between good and evil, just and immoral. Writer/director Mike Leigh accomplishes this separation straight away in Peterloo with his prologue contrasting a young, distraught…

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REVIEW: The Imitation Game [2014]

“Shall we leave the children alone with their new toy?” It’s highly unusual for me to get invested in a biography, so when one comes along that enthralls me as fully as The Imitation Game it’s difficult to know whether I’m simply overreacting. Director Morten Tyldum and screenwriter Graham Moore have done what so few seem to want to attempt despite it so often resonating: focus on a moment their subject is known for rather than the person himself. To give us a glimpse into his childhood for psychological markers…

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REVIEW: We Need to Talk About Kevin [2011]

“He’s a funny little boy, isn’t he? But there’s nothing wrong with him.” Six words coming too late—We Need to Talk About Kevin. For mother Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton), the sociopathic tendencies of her boy were prevalent since conception. But to her husband Franklin (John C. Reilly) their son was a happy, polite kid living life and getting into trouble like all boys his age do. Driving a wedge between them—a union bred from spontaneity and a lack of planning—Kevin appears to revel in the destruction he wreaks. Only letting…

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