The Monuments Men is allegedly a true story (though I suspect rather embellished) of a mission by allied art lovers to save the wealth of public and private art from being captured by Nazi Germany and/or destroyed on Hitler’s death. The real life photos over the end-titles indicate that it certainly wasn’t all made up. … Read more
When a film is narrated by Death himself, you know it’s not likely to be a laugh-a-minute sort of film. “The Book Thief” – a cinema feature debut by Brian Percival – starts impressively. Death stalks the skies muttering truisms about life and mortality. Decending throught the clouds we see a steam train chuffing through … Read more
After “12 Years a Slave” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” I’d thought I’d seen all of the serious best actor candidates for this year. That was before I’d seen Matthew McConaughey’s performance in “Dallas Buyers Club”. The performance is simply outstanding:  less showy that DiCapprio’s in “Wolf”;  certainly  less worthy than Ejiofor’s in “Slave”; … Read more
The old student adage – “better a bottom in front of me than a frontal lobotomy’ – was never truer than in Martin Scorsese’s new film “The Wolf of Wall Street”.  The film tells the bizarrely true story of Jordan Belfort (based off his autobiography): a rags to enormous riches story of the ugly … Read more
Oscar Isaac portrays the titular Llewyn Davis in the latest film from Ethan and Joel Coen: surely creating one of celluloid’s most memorable losers. This is a joyfully melancholic film, if that makes any sense. Set in 1961 in Greenwich village in New York, Llewyn walks through a series of Dylan album covers, beautifully rendered … Read more