Moonlight is a stunning film whose power creeps up on you throughout the course of its three act structure. The story of a gay black man growing up in Miami is littered with exceptional small roles and is told with zero bombast or violence. We follow Chiron at three different ages in his life as … Continue reading Moonlight

The 3rd xXx film arrives 15 years after the original and 12 years after the Ice Cube led sequel and features Vin Diesel returning to another franchise he once dropped. The extreme sports aficionado Cage returns to save the world, making bad puns and looking "dope" whilst he's at it. When a film is knowingly … Continue reading xXx: Return of Xander Cage

James McAvoy is excellent in M. Night Shyamalan's first return to form in just over a decade. McAvoy plays Kevin, a person with split personality disorder and throughout the course of the film shows us eight of twenty-three people held within one body. He is at turns creepy, menacing and funny. Kevin kidnaps three young … Continue reading Split

Based on the true story of  Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) this is a World War 2 film that is well acted with some particularly effective battle scenes that ultimately left me cold. Doss was a heroic conscientious objector who went to war as an army medic refusing to carry a gun into battle. It is a … Continue reading Hacksaw Ridge

Jackie Kennedy is arguably the most famous and iconic First Lady in American history. This biopic attempts to show us the woman she was not by charting her life, but by showing us how she attempted to preserve her husbands legacy in the days following his assassination. The film starts with a journalist (Billy Crudup) … Continue reading Jackie

Danny Boyle's masterpiece re-released a week prior to the sequel's appearance on the big screen is still as immediate and visceral now as it was 21 years ago on release. Renton (Ewan McGregor) is a heroin addict and he implores us to choose life whilst telling us the story of his attempts to get clean. … Continue reading Trainspotting

An emotionally powerful story of an Indian boy called Saroo, separated from his family and home, adopted to Australian parents and 25 years later searching for home. This film has many great things in its favour and is really worth a watch. The cinematography and score are fantastic, both beautiful and heart wrenching. The lead … Continue reading Lion

The Bye Bye Man is a supernatural horror film that sets up all the necessary genre tropes but somehow fails to deliver a satisfying ending that pays off on any of them. Elliot (Douglas Smith), his girlfriend Sasha (Cressida Bonas) and his best friend John (Lucien Laviscount) move into an off campus house at their … Continue reading The Bye Bye Man

When Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston) meets his prospective son in law Laird (James Franco) he can not understand why his lovely daughter would choose him. A foul mouthed, tech millionaire, impulsive man-child with no filter. The culture clash and Laird's desperation for approval result in some very funny comic moments. Franco is very good as … Continue reading Why Him?

Lee (Casey Affleck) has to return home when he gets the news that his big brother has died. Unbeknownst to him, his brother has left him guardianship of his son Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Manchester by the Sea is a story about grief and that life's complications mean that happy ever afters are hard to come … Continue reading Manchester by the Sea