Tag: 4 Stars

Quant

M, 82 minutes 4 Stars     Review by © Jane Freebury  As she says herself in this documentary packed with talking heads and sixties fashion, diva of style in Swinging London, Mary Quant seemed to anticipate what people wanted at the time. This feature, directed by Sadie Frost, has also arrived at an opportune… Continue reading Quant

The Survival of Kindness

M, 96 minutes 4 Stars Review by © Jane Freebury A new film from Rolf de Heer has at last arrived. A drama with a cool, fierce intensity that is of a piece with other work in his distinctive oeuvre, while it carries his concerns even further forward. Thirty years have passed since his feature… Continue reading The Survival of Kindness

Till

M, 131 minutes 4 Stars Review by © Jane Freebury   This movie about a lynching that galvanised the 1950s American civil rights movement opens on a family moment between a single mother and her teenage son. They are close and easy with each other, like good friends. Some gentle banter between them allows us… Continue reading Till

Corsage

    M, 144 minutes 4 Stars Review by © Jane Freebury When the size of a woman’s waist was something that mattered so much her body was laced up like a shoe, the undergarment that made women look one or more sizes smaller had a lot to answer for. In this wildly divergent take… Continue reading Corsage

Close

M, 104 minutes 4 Stars Review by © Jane Freebury In this delicate study of a close friendship in adolescence, two best friends forever with strong and happy family backgrounds enjoy a wonderful life of freedom in the countryside. It is an idyllic self-sufficient relationship in a summer setting, but we sense it won’t last.… Continue reading Close

The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari

PG, 98 minutes 4 Stars   Review by © Jane Freebury   One bright, clear December morning several years back, a group of intrepid day-trippers keen to visit an active volcano off the north coast of New Zealand, walked into the caldera and never returned. This fine documentary details how it happened, and attempts to… Continue reading The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari

Margrete: Queen of the North

  MA15+, 120 minutes 4 Stars       Review by © Jane Freebury This political drama from Denmark is about an indomitable female leader prepared to make big sacrifices for her country. Strong women were few and far between, according to recorded history, and yet they do still pop up often enough to make… Continue reading Margrete: Queen of the North

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

M, 139 minutes 4 Stars     Review by © Jane Freebury When the world’s greatest detective turns up as a house guest on a private Greek island, he seems like the odd one out in a small select group of beautiful people. It’s hard to imagine how the host, a tech billionaire spoofing Elon… Continue reading Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Is That Black Enough for You?!?

M, 135 minutes 4 Stars Review by © Jane Freebury In the closing scenes of this impressive, entertaining documentary on Black American cinema, the figure of actor-director Sidney Poitier looms large. He was, of course, the first Black American to win a Best Actor Oscar, and has remained a towering figure in African American movie… Continue reading Is That Black Enough for You?!?

The Velvet Queen

M, 92 minutes 4 Stars   Review by ©  Jane Freebury A quest for a rare and beautiful creature in one of the most remote locations on earth has more than a bit going for it. It’s a journey few of us would undertake. For the tough living conditions, for the dangers, known and unknown,… Continue reading The Velvet Queen

The Wonder

M, 112 minutes 4 Stars   Review by © Jane Freebury Every fiction feature is an invitation to believe. If it’s the promise of raw experience or of forbidden knowledge we are after, or an escapade free from reality, all we need is some convincing in the first twenty minutes that the story is worth… Continue reading The Wonder

The Woman King

M, 135 minutes 4 stars Review by © Jane Freebury Set against a dark backstory, this exhilarating tale of Amazon women, brimming with female energy, has more going for it than most superhero flicks While the hunt for the truth about warrior women among the ancients is still ongoing, a more recent Amazon story has… Continue reading The Woman King

The Phantom of the Open

M, 106 minutes 4 Stars   Review by © Jane Freebury Wondering what else he might get out of life as retirement approached, a crane operator in the English port city of Barrow-in-Furness took up the game of golf. As you do. Then when a champion golfer demonstrated his moves one day on his new… Continue reading The Phantom of the Open

Compartment No 6

MA 15+, 107 minutes 4 Stars Review by © Jane Freebury   Claustrophobia in a sleeper compartment on a long train journey has a tension all its own in this Finnish-Russian collaboration. As the frisson escalates between the two young occupants of the space, it’s a compelling trip into the unknown played out in the… Continue reading Compartment No 6

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time

M, 126 minutes 4 Stars Review by © Jane Freebury This lovingly curated documentary on the celebrity American author and social satirist, Kurt Vonnegut, had a long gestation. In production for decades, ever since filmmaker Bob B. Weide first approached the writer about making it, it developed at a leisurely pace as the writer provided… Continue reading Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time

A Hero

    PG, 127 minutes 4 Stars   Review by © Jane Freebury A new film from Asghar Farhadi will never now go unnoticed. Not since he won a best foreign language Oscar for his riveting drama about a young couple splitting up, and then a second in quick succession for his drama about the… Continue reading A Hero