Posts Tagged Movie Review
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January 9, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Dolly Parton – Here I Am: Film
Dolly Parton: Here I Am Director: Francis Whately Man Alive Productions / BBC / Netflix Dolly Parton is hosting a victory lap for herself. She’s always been a great and tireless self-promoter that understood the power of your personality as your brand long before ‘storytelling’ became a buzzword – but right now she’s leading a […]Archive
January 5, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Yesterday: DVD
Yesterday Director: Danny Boyle Perfect World Pictures/Working Title Pictures/Decibel Films / Universal Pictures So, here’s the set-up – an earnest young singer/songwriter named Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) is struggling to get anywhere and the only one that believes in him still is his friend and manager Ellie (Lily James). She’s been a fan since she […]Archive
December 15, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The Irishman: Film
The Irishman Director: Martin Scorsese Tribeca Productions, Sikella Productions, Winkler Films / Netflix A standing ovation for the victory lap. That seems to be the decision. Scorsese’s The Irishman, a bloated, mostly boring mini-series of a movie is the final full-stop (actually it’s a meandering dot-dot-dot) on his 50-year fascination with gangster stories.Archive
November 12, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The Kindergarten Teacher: DVD
The Kindergarten Teacher Director: Sara Colanelo Madman Sara Colanelo’s remake of the 2014 Israeli film of the same name seemed to generate nothing but positive praise for Maggie Gyllenhaal in the lead as a 40-ish kindergarten teacher stuck in a unsatisfying marriage, with grown children and searching for something. She finds it in one of […]Archive
October 18, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Joker: Film
Joker Director: Todd Phillips Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Films/Join Effort/Bron Creative/Village Roadshow Pictures There’s very little to unpack about Joker – unless you’re fascinated by the idea that a potentially compelling mental-health/system’s broken/America’s burning riff had to be hidden inside a comic book anti-hero/super-villain origin story. Anyone thinking that it’s a piece of Trojan Horse brilliance […]Archive
September 19, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Rambo – Last Blood: Film
Rambo: Last Blood Director: Adrian Grunberg Millennium Media / Balboa Productions / Templeton Media Sylvester Stallone successfully resurrected the Rocky franchise – twice – so here he is with a second crack at bringing back Rambo. And just as the Rocky Balboa and now Creed movies succeeded on many levels [John] Rambo and now Rambo: […]Archive
July 18, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The Lion King: Film
The Lion King Director: Jon Favreau Walt Disney Pictures/Fairview Entertainment This version of The Lion King is so technically dazzling, so bereft of heart, so wide-missing of any emotional mark, so utterly digital and soulless that even though I knew Jon Favreau was the director going in I was still stunned to not see Peter Jackson’s […]Archive
July 2, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Vox Lux: DVD
Vox Lux Director: Brady Corbet Madman Vox Lux comes from actor/director Brady Corbet. It’s the 30-year-old’s second full-length feature and it’s something of a Sunset Blvd. for the me/#metoo generation; a 21st century masterpiece. Spanning 1999-2017 and narrated – brilliantly, exacerbating the fable-like quality of it – by Willem Dafoe, the film tells the coming of age and then comeback of Celeste Montgomery. Played […]Archive
June 25, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Matangi / Maya / M.I.A: DVD
Matangi / Maya / M.I.A Director: Steve Loveridge Madman The Amy Winehouse documentary was devastating – of course. But what was amazing about it – as is the case with documentary subjects that came of age across the last two decades – was the gathered footage. Home videos, goof-offs, early social media…Archive
January 4, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
DVD Review: The House With A Clock In Its Walls – Reviewed by Oscar Sweetman (age 7)
The House With A Clock In Its Walls Director: Eli Roth DreamWorks Reviewed by Oscar Sweetman (age 7) Hi guys, it’s me again, Oscar. Happy New Year and I hope you all have a great 2019! I’m going to review the Cate Blanchett and Jack Black movie, The House With A Clock In It Walls. I wrote a […]Archive
December 29, 2018 by Simon Sweetman