Film Reviews by TD

Fabio Audi excels as Leo, an eminently likeable teenager who happens to be blind and is desperate for independence whilst at the same time exploring his own sexuality. His long-standing female friend "Gi" hopes for a sexual relationship with him, but the water is muddied by the arrival of new boy Gabriel at their school. An endearing feature of the film is Leo kissing Gi on the cheek each day as they part company after school, and this left me wondering whether this is a regular occurrence among Brazilian teenagers who are not boyfriend and girlfriend. As you might expect in a teen story, there are episodes of bullying and some boozy partying, but overall this film left me with a very warm, optimistic feeling towards all three of the main characters.

The too-perfect pre-adolescent relationship between Léo and Rémi in this film gives the feeling that something has to go wrong, and indeed there follow sad happenings leading to the abrupt change in mood that other reviewers have commented upon.

Eden Dambrine, with his angelic face and quite stunning eyes, is an acting force to be reckoned with as the lead part of Léo. Fortunately, in increasingly difficult circumstances, Léo is surrounded largely by kind and caring friends, family and teachers, including his new ice-hockey playing friend and a supportive older brother. The developments in his relationship with Rémi’s mother are interesting too. I sat through the film willing him to cry.

I leave it to future viewers to decide whether either Léo or Rémi is gay, and an important quality of the film is that it credits its viewers with the intelligence to work this out for themselves.

As another reviewer has said, it is well worth watching the extras as the casting process is a fascinating story in its own right.

This film, based on the real life Palestinian pop singer Muhammad Assaf, begins by observing the lives of four extremely cute and equally streetwise kids in the townscapes of Gaza, as they attempt to make a living - however small - as musicians. As one might expect, given the history of Palestine, they overcome numerous obstacles in pursuit of their dreams, and the movie punctuates their story with disarmingly haunting Arab melodies.

The actor playing the young Muhammad is convincingly like his real-life counterpart, and appears to be singing for real. The older player, on the other hand, is radically different in features from his younger self. Given that the older character's singing seems to be dubbed (though I'm not a great judge of this), I think a closer resemblance could have been found. Nevertheless, there are interesting scenes from both stages of Muhammad's life, where his self-pity is challenged by his sight of disfigured people moving about the streets and even by free-runners exhilarating through the bombed reckage that sadly is much of Gaza.

I found that I wanted to watch this movie two or three times in quick succession, which for me is always a sign of a good one. Despite the unconvincing young / older character change, the film promotes great messages about the value of music in bringing people together, releasing their grief and overcoming adversity. Definitely worth a look.

This is one of the best films I've seen in a while. The imagery with its sense of place, pastel shades, reflections and views through glass are faultless. The characters are fascinating: the none-too-likeable Elliot (up himself in so many ways!) who is utterly convincing; the uber-cool yet enigmatic Clement; the tortured mother Beatrice, and not least a superb bit-part performance from Patrice Juiff as the barman near the beginning. As a whole it's deep, intimate and not a little funny, especially as the two boys struggle with each other's first language.

If you're open to exploring LGBT issues in a movie, I think you'd enjoy this.

... because, whilst not a showstopper, I reckon this film has a lot to offer on a Saturday night. Nick Robinson (who plays Joe) has an amusingly mobile face that he uses to good effect to express his anguish when enduring his father's masterful, deadpan put-downs. The filming is rather like "Hide your smiling faces" in its use of close-ups of some of the local wildlife, yet in other respects is much lighter and none the worse for that.

Those who are familiar with the books of Arthur Ransome will not be surprised by my title. This film, whilst now quite old, is an authentic and charming portrayal of a lost way of life and adventurous play for children. The young actors playing the four children are genuine and honest as first-timers of their age should be - think of the boys who played in "Stand by me". The music I found rather intrusive by modern standards, and I felt that Ronald Fraser over-acted in his role as "Captain Flint". Virginia McKenna is her usual gorgeous self as the mother.

A superb study of the repressive regime of the Stasi in pre-eighties East Germany. Ulrich Mùhe excels as the softening Stasi agent, his performance made all the more convincing by his own real experience of being the subject of surveillance. I found great optimism in this film.

I found this film quite irritating for the first 20 minutes or so (think perhaps John Cleese in Clockwise), but something told me to keep watching, and I'm glad I did. I'm told the humour is Irish, but as an Englishman I found a lot of it pretty funny, and there's some good role reversal work in the story.

The book is one of my favourites of all time, and I was prepared to be disappointed by this film. I wasn't. It was incredibly moving and I wept uncontrollably near the end - but then I'm a soft touch ;-)

The photography was superb in this film. The teenage characters highly believable in their very rural setting. I just found that there was too little dialogue - perhaps reflecting the reality of what boys of this age say (or don't say) to one another, but it was all a bit too subtle for me. My problem, perhaps?

I respect the opinions of the previous reviewer, but totally disagree! I thought the acting was great, and feel that it is very much to Elliot James Langridge's credit that he left a "safe" job in Hollyoaks to work on this low budget movie that took such a long time to get off the ground. I can remember the fashions of that time (though I didn't partake!) and know that this was what much of the north of England was like in the seventies.

Unique because almost entirely without script. The scenes of the children playing, in particular, are delightfully natural. The simplicity of the story and the pace are entirely suited to the ambience and landscapes of the film.

The rather unlikely theme of two ordinary Mumbai people being brought together through a lunch pack comes superbly to life in this film, depicting the interplay between, in the main, two very real yet distant characters. I was fascinated too by the insight into the efficiency of the working lunch delivery service in Mumbai.

This film, to my mind, attempts to pull two apparently separate threads together to some sort of resolution, but I felt that the way this was done was too laboured. There is too much rapid flicking between scenes and contexts, and this spoiled for me what could have been a very touching story.

Sylvain Chomet's talent in producing animated films is beyond dispute, and the characters are very well drawn in this film, but I found the plot rather strange and disjointed. If you're going to watch one of Chomet's films - and he is good - then I would recommend "The Illusionist" as being much better.