Tag: Movie
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He Named Me Malala.
I recall one of my university lecturers (who specialised in film, spirituality and religion), talking about Malala Yousafzai in 2012. At the time she was in intensive care in Birmingham hospital. I vividly remember her claiming that if this young girl were to survive it’d be one of the most powerful, game-changing things to ever…
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Heaven Knows What.
Ben and Josh Safdie’s Heaven Knows What was initially supposed to be an entirely different being – but after meeting Arielle Holmes during their initial research they convinced her to write a book about her life, her drug addiction and her experience of living rough. The book, Mad Love in New York City, was then adapted…
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Brooklyn.
Eilis Lacey is a bright-eyed and fresh-faced young Irish girl, working in a village food store, when we first meet her. It’s apparent from the off-set that, although devoted to her family and home, Eilis longs for greater things beyond her country’s borders. We join her on her voyage across the sea to a new…
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Wings of Desire.
Wim Wenders’ 1987 masterpiece has a lot to say about Berlin, humanity, life and death. Unexpectedly meta and deeply romantic – Wings of Desire remains a European contemporary classic; something of a youngest child to the German New Wave movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Bruno Ganz play Damiel, one of the many angels who…
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Spectre.
The more I talk about contemporary James Bond movies with friends and family the more I’m convinced that the world is divided into two types of people: those who liked Skyfall and those who didn’t. Plus there’s the sub-group of those who dislike Daniel Craig and don’t watch new Bond movies at all. I found Skyfall to…
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Crimson Peak.
A new Guillermo del Toro movie is always an intriguing thing. A versatile director who’s championed many a genre by refusing to stick to their conventions, he now greets us with his take on gothic horror. Gothic horror was in its prime during the reign of Vincent Price, and has never managed to fully resurrect…
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Suffragette.
Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette explores the rising tension between the equal rights movement, determined to get women the vote, and the government in the early years of the twentieth century. With peaceful protests having gone ignored for too long, Emmeline Pankhurst encourages her foot soldiers to fight with actions instead of words. Maud Watts has worked in…
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The Lobster.
Following the end of his marriage, a new singleton checks into a hotel; a hotel located somewhere between Anderson’s The Grand Budapest and Kubrick’s nightmarish The Overlook. The Lobster welcomes us into a surreal dystopian world in which all individuals are forced to aspire to become part of a couple. David’s twelve year marriage has ended…
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The Club.
Following on from his triumphant success No from 2012, Pablo Larrain returns with The Club – an unsettling story about four priests living in repentance in a cottage by the sea. Their warden – an ex-nun – cares for them without judgement and with affection. All are guilty of a variety of heinous crimes. The priests’ livelihoods…
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Sicario.
Kate Macer, a dedicated, ambitious FBI agent is recruited by a mysterious Government task force to assist in the growing drug war against the Mexican cartel. She is told to think hard about whether or not she wishes to accept the position but she barely hesitates. Only days earlier her and her squad discover a…
Hannah McHaffie 