Film Reviews by TB

Wonder is about a boy called Auggie, who was born with mandibulofacial dysostosis, which even after multiple surgeries has left him with significant facial disfigurements. He has led a sheltered & protected life full of love with his parents, but now is starting school. Part of the protection he enjoyed at home was a space helmet which he wore when he was out in order to shield him from looks & stares. However, his parents have decided that he needs to face the world & not wear this. The film follows Auggie as he starts school & deals with the various difficulties life throws his way.

For many people, this film & it's themes of happiness, love & care are too sweet, overbearing & saccharine. And whilst there was some elements of that which did occasionally grate, I am always honest in these reviews. For me, this was a profoundly moving film showing the raw emotions of the entire family, whether it is the mother who you can tell has almost broken herself in order to show her son every bit of love humanly capable and knows that the world outside is going to be incredibly difficult & judgemental; through to Auggie himself, who is scared but also knows that he is going to have face this world & there will be good people within it who will not judge him.

I also respected the showing of the casual cruelty that children can be capable of, without fully appreciating or understanding the devastating consequences this can have. In one horrible scene, Auggie overhears people he thought were his friends being horrible about him. And then you watch as he slowly, with the help of his family, pick himself back up, supported with love & compassion.

The performances are great. I have loved Jacob Tremblay in everything I've seen him in and this is no exception. He perfectly balances the emotions of a scared but also strong little boy, whilst always showing his vulnerability. Julia Roberts & Owen Wilson are also excellent, their chemistry really complimenting each other. The other child actors are also great as well.

For me, this is a film which shows the power of the most important & powerful thing we as humans have: love. It makes you cry in all the right places, whilst also showing you that the world has horrible people in it. But who you are as a person, and the people that you surround yourself with, is the most important thing.

The first Sicario was amazing, a bolt from the blue. Following Emily Blunt's FBI agent, who is paired up with Josh Brolin's deeply immoral CIA officer & Benicio Del Toro's unstable Alejandro, it was a slow-burning & incredible thriller looking at cartels in Mexico. For this sequel, whilst Blunt passed on revisiting this world again, Brolin & Del Toro return, along with the scriptwriter Taylor Sheridan. And whilst this film doesn't quite match it's predecessors heights, it is still a bloody good film and just as brutal as the first one.

The film reunites us with Matt Graver, who is called on by the US government after a terrorist attack in a supermarket kills multiple people. The dug cartels are suspected of smuggling the terrorists into the US, so Graver is ordered to actively attack them, as well as trying to start conflicts between the rival cartel's so that they take each other out. Graver contacts Alejandro in order to assist with this mission.

The only issue I actually have with this film, which did cross over into I felt questionable territory, was the radical Islamic terror theme, the events having been set in motion by the suicide bombing & connecting it to the cartels smuggling the terrorists across the border. With the political situation as it was in 2018 (a Trump presidency which was infamously demonising migrants as well as deliberately splitting up families & putting children in cages,) I felt that this storyline was pouring more petrol onto what was already an obscenely awful human tragedy.

But as for the story itself, it was great. Del Toro in particular has found a character as good as Dario from Licence to Kill, and seems to revel in the chance to literally be a total psychopath who in this case is on the right side of the law. Whilst I did miss Blunt's character, I do feel that the filmmakers have successfully managed to move the story on to a different level with different facets being able to be explored. In the first film, Blunt was us as the viewer, looking into this horrible world from the outside. Whereas now we are deep inside that world, accompanying Graver & Alejandro as they cause carnage.

This is an excellent sequel & different in all the right ways. It still however has the same amazing ability to create almost unbearable tension combined with incredible action.

Kingsman: The Secret Service was a bolt out of the blue. Unashamedly taking inspiration from James Bond & other espionage characters/stories from over the decades, it was a fresh & invigorating take on the spy thriller; boasting great action, a wry script & star-making turns from Colin Firth and newbie Taron Egerton. It was also a massive hit at the box office, making a sequel inevitable. You would have hoped that with more confidence, bigger budget & the general no-holds barred attitude, we could have had a sequel which doubled down on everything that made the first film great, whilst adding more to the canon & universe.

Sadly, this is not the case & in many ways, this represents a step back for the universe.

We join Eggsy in London, where he is well-established within the Kingsman organisation. He is then attacked by a character from the previous film, who is able to hack into the Kingsman systems. A missile is then launched by Poppy (a deranged & psychotic drug baron,) destroying the Kingsman HQ and leaving the remaining alive members requiring assistance from the Statesman, the US faction. They then team up to take down Poppy & her organisation.

The biggest issues I have with this film is firstly exactly the same one I had with the initial story set-up of The Dark Knight Rises: in both films, it is relatively easy for the villains to basically destroy the heroes' entire infrastructure/steal all their money & leave them helpless. You would think someone who is committed to fighting crime should, as their first priority, ensure that there was every possible counter measure against them being attacked.

And secondly (this isn't a spoiler, he's on the front of the Blu-ray,) the film brings back Colin Firth. So the principal impact of the 1st film is completely voided and it also means that being killed in this film (at least being shot,) has no consequences. So you now have a film which is very clear on what real world consequences it wants to ignore & which ones absolutely are a matter of life and death.

Also, unlike before where you had an amazing villain in Samuel L. Jackson, we now have Julianne Moore, one of my favourite actresses. And she literally is wasted here. As in, she stands around, preening like the evil schoolteacher caricature that you watched in countless kids movies. She is not in any way intimidating, and alongside the poor narrative choices of the script, ensures that this film misses far more than it hits.

There are some good points, plus some of the stunts are amazing. And despite my views on Firth being brought back, there is still some enjoyment to be had seeing him and Egerton sharing the screen again. But this is in no way the sequel that I, or I'm sure many other fans wanted.

The King's Man, the prequel which is set in the same universe, does right some of the wrongs. However, the first film is still the best.

A Quiet Place came out of nowhere & exploded into the public’s consciousness. Made on a relatively small budget, it is emphatically a film which, whilst it may have a science fiction/fantasy element to it, is totally interested in & examining the various minutiae of how people under the most unbearable of circumstances & threats can exist, let alone have any hope for the future. In this respect, it is an incredible film. But it also contains a couple of head-slappingly stupid decisions by the characters which almost de-rail the whole thing. 

Krasinski and Blunt play Lee and Evelyn Abbott, who along with their children, live in a post-apocalyptic world. They & everything else living are hunted by hideous & violent alien creatures, who are blind but whose hearing is so delicate that they can hunt with precision. The family is only able to exist in the world by following a very strict code of instructions which mean no noise can be generated: no talking, instead communicating via sign language which the family is already proficient in due to their daughter being deaf; walking barefoot on sand-treated paths ect. The film follows their lives as Evelyn prepares to give birth. 

Despite my criticism of this film, it must be said that I found it as a whole to actually be incredibly well-made, hence the 4 stars. The production values & acting are brilliant. Emily Blunt, who is excellent in everything she is in, really makes for a compelling protagonist, alongside Noah June who, since I first saw him in The Impossible, is building up an impressive resume. John Krasinski, who writes & directs as well as stars, has made an incredibly tightly-scripted and suspenseful film. Serious praise needs to be given to him for his achievements on this, his first film as director. 

The sound mixing though is in another category of its own. Never before has a film I have watched so effectively made me almost hold my breath at times, scared to make a sound in case the aliens hear. Whether it is breathing, a floorboard slightly creaking or trying to move around a supermarket without making any sounds, from the opening moments this film grabs you. Certainly this movie can be used as an example of why sound can play such a vital role in shaping & affecting the audience. 

But, we now have to talk about the issues… 

This film is MONUMENTALLY stupid in terms of the decisions that the script/characters make. I do not intend for this to be full of spoilers, so will not go into full details, but the fact that Evelyn is having a baby is fairly well-known by people interested in seeing this film. To be fair though, that decision alone is enough. I literally kept thinking again & again “Why the f**k would you bring a baby into this world?” The number of problems, issues, risks ect literally is unlimited.

And this for me is where the suspension of disbelief is just pushed too far. I appreciate in a film there are certain limitations that can be pushed, especially in a fantasy film. But when the script spends so long setting up this particular world, set largely within the real world, to then do something that makes literally no sense means the whole house of cards comes falling down. 

However, I really enjoyed it & the stupidity of the decisions wasn’t enough to stop my enjoyment of the movie as a whole. I look forward to watching the sequel, which hopefully improves on the excellent overall foundations that this film created. 

Amongst many of the various characters in film folklore, James Bond is one of the most recognisable. Exploding into the public consciousness in 1962, the films have been much imitated over the decades. Some of these have been excellent, whilst the vast majority have just not worked due to tone/clichéd scripts. However, one of the series's that has absolutely nailed the satirization, as well as updating it with a razor-sharp social conscience is Kingsman. Originally conceived as a graphic novel/comic book, it looks at a secret society who maintains world peace through espionage & dangerous missions.

Eggsy is a wiley, street-wise kid who lives in Central London. His father was in the services & killed when he was a baby & he has been raised by his mother. Despite a promising career within the military, he was forced to leave after his mother could not bear the thought of losing another loved one. Eggsy now makes his way through life ducking and diving, just about staying on the right side of the law. Then one day he encounters Harry Hart, a pristine & leathal member of the Kingsman who wants to recruit him into the organisation to stop Richmond Valentine, a megalomaniac who wants to take over the world.

The thing which I loved about Kingsman was just how much damn fun it is. This is pure, unadulterated fun, with a tone that is just silly enough without descending into stupidity. Let's be clear, this is not a film which exists in the real world: the Kingsman can do gravity-defying fighting & have some supernatural abilities. But it uses these traits to great effect.

The other thing which sets the film apart is the vicious social commentary that it has as an integral part of its story: Eggsy is a spit-and-sawdust working class man, who has had none of the opportunities that the upper classes, represented through Hart, have been afforded. And there are many scenes where this is absolutely put front & center, challenging you as the viewer, as well as giving a voice to the enormous number of particularly younger people who feel that life is passing them by without any real opportunities.

The performances are great. Colin Firth, who made his name as Mr Darcy along with many other upper-class English characters, perfectly plays against type, as well as being brilliant in the action sequences, doing a large number of his own stunts. And alongside him/matching him toe-to-toe is Taron Egerton as Eggsy. In many ways, this is the hardest role to play, especially in terms of getting the tone right. It would have been so easy to make Eggsy a repugnant character, over-cranking the chavvy element alongside using the death of his father as a get-out of jail free card for why he is the man he is. But the film is much better than that, making him a fully rounded & genuine person who you really root for.

And finally, the action is absolutely spot-on superb. The combat scenes in the London pub, as well as the church brawl, are perfectly shot with excellent choreography & stunts, especially from Firth.

A total riot & a great watch. It's only a shame that the sequel completely drops the ball.

Coming from producer Barbara Broccoli, most well-known for the James Bond series, this emotional film looking at the life story of Gloria Grahame is a beautiful little piece. Combining the acting talents of Annette Bening & Jamie Bell, it is based on the memoir of Peter Turner, detailing his life & relationship with Grahame who had, in her golden years, won both an Oscar & serious critical acclaim. However, her career had never reached the heights expected & when Turner met her, she was starring in a theatre production in London & living in a cheap rented room.

The two of them hit it off & the film then follows them over the many years, through break-ups & the various difficulties that they both face. One of the things I liked most about the film was its complete honesty in showing the characters in an unvarnished way. Grahame in particular was a extremely challenging woman in her behaviour, but it is also made clear that this was due to her difficult early life, combined with her fear as she slowly becomes sicker.

Both Bening & Bell are exceptional, effortlessly carrying the film & the weighty subject matter with care, compassion & empathy. It is a pleasure to spend 90 minutes in their company & the final few scenes are as sad as they are moving.

A wonderful film & I hope that the cast & crew reunite to make another film soon.

I am not a regular viewer of Who Do You Think You Are, but I had caught part of the episode looking at the history of Jerry Springer's family roots. It was highly emotional & deeply upsetting, which totally contrasted with his most well-known persona, as the host of the eponymous show.

The programme is excellent, really examining the journey that his parents and grandparents went through. Meticulously researched & excellent support from family history experts make for an incredible & emotional journey.

Abel Ferrara is not a filmmaker who does things by halves. The only other film of his I have seen is The Bad Lieutenant, which takes a dive into hell, following the spiral & disgusting behaviour of an unnamed police lieutenant abusing his power in every way it is possible to, using as cover his position within the very institution which is supposed to uphold the law. In many ways, this film looks at a similar power imbalance, although instead of the crime-ridden & dangerous streets of New York City, this takes place inside the luxurious hotel suites within that US State.

Mr Devereaux is an extremely powerful & wealthy Frenchman who is visiting New York on business. He is mooted as a possible French President & appears to held in high regard on the world stage. In the opening scenes, it is very quickly established that he is a man of huge depravity & excesses, ordering prostitutes to his hotel suite and then engaging in extreme sex & drug taking. Some time later, he returns to his suite & discovers a hotel maid cleaning his room. He then aggressively sexually assaults her. After the attack, she reports him to the police. The film then follows the aftermath of this/the investigation of Devereaux.

For me, as a film, I was instantly grabbed by it. To be honest, when it started, I thought this was actually a porn film, due to the level of sexuality shown on screen. But what stuck with me most, apart from the huge & visceral anger that Ferrara clearly has towards wealthy men who sexually assault women, especially poorer women of colour, is how disgusting & repulsive the protagonist is shown to be. In what has been called an incredibly brave performance by Gérard Depardieu, Mr Devereaux is such a disgusting & dispicible person, you wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire, instead reaching for petrol. He is a man totally without shame or morals.

The reason & inspiration (used in the most horrific sense of the word,) for this film was the allegations against Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the subsequent dismissal of charges being pressed, due in part to the immense wealth/legal firepower that Strauss-Kahn was able to afford. Even in the end credits, there is an air of apology towards the victim in the real case.

But for me, the real stand-out in this film is without question Depardieu & his performance. In this movie, Depardieu plays a character without shame & in every sense of the word his performance is the same. There is not a hint of embarrassment or modesty. The nadir of this is a scene, which has been mentioned in other reviews, in the police station after Devereaux has been arrested. He is ordered to strip to be searched. And when naked you see the total wreck that this man is: a disgusting, obscenely bloated stomach propped up by a ruined body & monstrous ego. Even in this act of what almost anyone else would consider abject humiliation, he still stands arrogant & argumentative.

And as the film goes on, it doesn't matter what sense of dress he is in, he just plunges deeper down the toilet of revoltingness, whether with his wife or when trying to destroy the character of the innocent woman he attacked, knowing that she is poor & powerless against the well-oiled & funded machine he is supported by.

For many, this film will simply be too disgusting, brutal, raw or upsetting to watch. But for me, that's why it works. This film shows you in unflinchingly graphic detail the horror of rape & the trauma of trying to get justice. Ferrara and Depardieu are working at the pinnacle of their abilities. Strap in & prepare to have every emotion put through the wringer.

Kathryn Bigelow is a woman who has never been found on the set of a romantic comedy. Her films are muscular, macho & tough, examining many challenging subjects. After a varied filmography with some big successes (Point Break,) as well as notable failures (K19: The Widowmaker absolutely tanked at the box office,) Bigelow then released a small independent film called The Hurt Locker... It was critically revered, winning multiple Oscars, including the 1st for a woman director. Still to this day for me it is a near-perfect film, the tension & structure almost unbearable for its entire runtime, elevated by the excellent performances.

After this, expectations & excitement was at fever pitch, especially as almost the entire team from Hurt Locker reunited. And what they have come up with is in many ways a sort-of spiritual sequel; in the sense that it is set in the same world of war, terror & conflict, although this time firstly the main protagonist is a woman & as much as there are scenes set "on the ground" so to speak, the meat & potatoes of this film takes place in operation rooms, interrogation cells or dingy offices filled with spooks living on cold coffee & week-old doughnuts. But it is gripping & amazing filmmaking, with a stunning performance from Chastain at its center.

Maya Lambert is a brash, no-nonsense CIA analyst who is searching for Osama Bin-Laden, at that time the most wanted man in the world after his connections to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. When we meet her, she is involved with the torture of suspected affiliates to al-Qaeda, trying to get any scrap of information which could help lead them to Bin-Laden's location. Over the course of the story, set over many years, we follow Maya's journey as well as her absolute determination to find her target, this mission consuming her every thought.

One of the most infamous things about this film's production was the changing of real-world events which in turn meant the entire story had to be re-written. The original script was about the fruitless search for Bin-Laden, which Bigelow & the writer Mark Boal meticulously researched & were about to start filming. However, the killing of Bin-Laden then made them completely start from scratch on a new story, although vast swathes of this previous script, as well as the massive amounts of research were obviously brought across.

The other infamous criticism of this film is the extended scenes of torture at the beginning. I will be honest, I had a big problem with it, although for me, part of the dramatic message that the film used this for was to show the desperation of American intelligence doing anything to try & locate Bin-Laden. However, I also completely acknowledge & to a certain extent agree with the wide sentiment that the torture in this film is shown to get results when in reality the opposite was often the case: when someone is relentlessly tortured, after a while they will say anything to get their torturers to stop.

But for me, when taken as a whole, this film was a stunning & gripping manhunt, ending with the perfectly staged nighttime raid on the Pakistani compound where Bin-Laden was hiding. After the incredible build-up, the suspense & patience was masterfully constructed into an amazing set-piece. And the final rush of emotions at the end quite shocking.

At the center of this all is Chastain's Maya. In what for me is her best performance, she is perfect as the agent who stopped at nothing & bulldozed through everything & everyone to track down Bin-Laden. Written as a composite character, she shows the ability & skill of the many female operatives working within the intelligence services.

The only other essential thing to finish on is this: don't make the mistake I did... this film, especially the end raid, has to be watched either at night or in a pitch black room. I watched it on a summer's day with only some thin curtains to block out the light, which meant I missed a lot of the action.

Stephen Hawking was a legend in many ways. Known for his incredible intelligence, easy accessibility in terms of his ideas & the way he expressed his thoughts, he was an indelible part of British life. Alongside this, he was one of the most visible & well-known disabled people in the UK. This film looks back at his life story & the staggering hurdles he had to conquer in order to live & survive, as well as the incredible role his wife Jane Hawking played keeping him alive & supporting him, even after the breakdown of their marriage.

We first meet the young Stephen Hawking when he is at Cambridge, having his first taste of freedom & being in the center of one of the most exciting & vibrant educational establishments in the world. He quickly meets & forms a relationship with Jane Wilde, who later becomes his wife. Hawking's incredible intelligence, academic brilliance & entire life are then changed when he receives the devastating diagnosis of early-onset motor neurone disease. Fearing that he has only months left to live, Hawking begin to retreat into himself & his work. We are also shown the desperation & determination of Jane to keep her husband alive and to give him a life worth living so that he can use his magnificent gifts to enrich the world.

The best thing about this film, which it manages to do almost effortlessly, is to perfectly balance both Stephen & Jane's stories/journeys. Jane in particular is in no way relegated to the back seat/given a minimal amount to do. The film absolutely gives her a strong & powerful voice, her love shining through. This also pays dividends as the pressure & stress of trying to keep her husband alive whilst raising their children & trying to live her own life begins to profoundly affect her, leading to the collapse of their marriage and a period of estrangement.

Stephen is shown as a courageous & determined man but, even though he was known for his emphatic privacy & refusal to discuss his disability with even Jane, you are also shown the real fear & upset that he goes through as the horrors of the disease he has ravages his body, even though his mind still has the extraordinary ability & intelligence he was known around the world for possessing.

The performances are excellent, led by Redmayne. The actor meticulously researched motor neurone disease as well as spending enormous amounts of time with not only the Hawking family but also other sufferers, to develop the level of knowledge required to be able to convincingly act the degeneration caused by MND. And as Jane, Jones is also wonderful, imbuing her with not only a love & determination, but also a vivacious personality & sexuality. Jane is no cardboard cutout of the stereotypical wife/carer, instead being a fully rounded & incredible woman.

Whilst it may be easy to compare this film to My Left Foot, and there are similarities in many ways, it is a film which stands on its own as a tribute to the power of love & the determination to, even in the worst of circumstances, live your life & achieve incredible things which change the world forever.

So, after multiple movies which could have had the byline "baiting the Academy," Leonardo DiCaprio finally won his Best Actor Oscar for this film. Sadly, for many people, this was pretty much one of the only things that they took away from this movie, or what the press reported most on. To be honest, it does need to be said that this film absolutely stands on its own merits and is a very good movie, despite certain issues with the script. It is certainly so much more than just the lurid headlines.

Hugh Glass is a hunter/fur trapper who is working with a large group of trappers in the Dakota states in the early 18th Century, not only acquiring pelts but also fighting against other criminals & tribes. One day, whilst with his son, Glass is horrifically mauled by a grizzly bear. The other trappers fear that he will die of his wounds, but a decision is made to try and save him. However, one of the other trappers murders his son in front of Glass then robs & leaves him for dead. Glass manages to survive his wounds & vows revenge upon those who wronged him.

Whilst the plot sounds like a thousand clichéd action films, there is much to love here. The characters are fleshed out well & despite there being a few too many of them, you do get to know the group well. The set pieces are also incredible. Whilst much attention was focussed on the incredible CGI grizzly bear attack (which is staged & acted perfectly, to the point where you genuinely believe that you are watching a real bear attack, so seamless is the staging,) there were also incredible one-shot scenes of frantic escapes/battles.

For me though the real star, who also got his 3rd consecutive Oscar for cinematography, was Emmanuel Lubezki. This film is a stunningly shot blockbuster, filmed with only natural light 100% on location. To look at, you couldn't pick any fault of any kind. It really was a visual feast for the eyes.

The actors themselves were also great. DiCaprio fully leans into the desperation of his character & plight, going full method, including eating raw meat, sleeping on location & subjecting himself to all the horrors you could imagine. Freezing cold rivers are swum in & hollowed out animal carcasses are hidden in. Tom Hardy also is memorable as the duplicitous & leathal John Fitzgerald & Will Poulter also makes a big impression.

But as much as I give this 4 stars, there are some issues I have as well. From a technical standpoint, the audio mix is at times terrible. You struggle to hear what characters are saying to each other, especially Hardy with his incomprehensible drawl. There are also various moments that stretch credibility too far. Putting aside the injuries that Glass suffered, and to be clear, this is based on a true story/Glass was definitely attacked by a bear, his ability to be able to run when a couple of days before he was cut almost to ribbons was just ridiculous.

However, the biggest problem by a mile is the length. This film just goes on & on & on. You could quite easily have cut 25 minutes from it & probably made it a better film. When Iñárritu wanted to make an epic, he certainly didn't care about the runtime.

But there is much to like here & as much as it is a butt-numbing amount of time to be sat watching a film, I did absolutely enjoy & marvel at what was on screen.

When the Fifty Shades books were released, very quickly they became both a sensation & a source of massive controversy. Embraced by enormous numbers of women all over the world, this story of a sweet innocent virgin who falls in love with/becomes entangled with a billionaire who is also in to S&M tapped into something which has so far seen over 150 million books sold all around the world (and that's only the figures upto 2017.) So, it was only a matter of time before the movie adaptations followed.

However, both the books and the films have had excoriating reviews, mainly due to the fact that the story itself isn't actually that good, although the mechanics of the story, in terms of a rich powerful man controlling a young woman also raised a lot of hackles as well. But for me, there is another far more amusing reason as to why this film was always destined for failure: if you want to watch barely disguised soft-core pornography, rent a porn film... And part of the reason this film doesn't work is quite simply because of that.

Also, alongside this, the actual film itself is fairly terrible, starting with the two leads. There is almost no chemistry between them at all. One of the clichés which is often bandied about in the media is when you have two actors who are in an emotional & racy film together, then either get together afterwards or there are rumours of what they got upto... There was no such rumours on this film. They actively look uncomfortable in each others presence when filming the intimacy scenes.

As for supporting characters, these are fairly rubbish as well. Whether it's the different members of Christian's family or Ana's co-workers, everyone looks like they've just come from a Vogue fashion shoot. Every student at Ana's university looks like they are professional models who dip in & out of classes to prance on a catwalk. The filthy student house with the occupants eating nothing but beans on toast seems to have missed this part of the US.

So how come, after writing all of the above, have I given it 3 stars? Because there is also quite a lot of fun to be had if you switch your brain off and don't take it seriously. And I'm not talking about the bondage/S&M scenes. These are terribly filmed/staged, not in any way arousing & did nothing for me personally. What I am talking about is the lightness of touch, as well as the more silly moments.

The best scene by far is the first time Christian & Anastasia meet in his office at the beginning of the film. It is a scene which is allowed to play out naturally, with good dialogue & it is clear that the actors are having fun. There is a silliness which you see here which sadly only lasts for that 20 minutes, although the contract negotiation is also funny, albeit not as good. The other thing which this film has in it's favour is that not only does it have an extremely competent director in Sam Taylor-Wood, but also an enormous budget which this film takes full advantage of. The sets, cinematography, colour palette ect is all absolutely 1st class. To look at, the film is gorgeous.

So taken together as a package, there is much to enjoy here. But don't expect a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. If you aren't in the right frame of mind, you'll just get annoyed. However, if you take it with a pinch of salt (I saw it in the cinema surrounded with women and there were cheers & whoops at various points,) you can have a laugh.

Sadly, the sequels are atrocious, primarily due to EL James firing most of this film's creative team & taking full creative control.

In this brilliant & detailed 3 part drama, the case & trial of Dennis Nielsen is looked at in detail. From the initial suspicion after human remains are found in a drain through to the interrogations of Nielson, the series keeps an admirable step back, not in any way gamourising or revering him. In fact, the overriding impression I came away with after finishing the series was one of absolute patheticness. Nielson was a highly intelligent man who also, in his professional life, was known as a good worker who was extremely conscientious to the people in the job center he was helping. But the real person was someone obsessed with control, who never had any and so needed to find the most vulnerable in society & make them drunk before he was able to do what he wanted to them.

But for me, as much as Tennant got the headlines and awards, the best performance was Daniel Mays as the lead inspector. Peter Jay is introduced as the determined cop whose live is collapsing around him (divorcing, trying to rebuild his life, chasing after criminals to distract himself,) but Mays really gives him a humanity behind all that. This was the first thing I have seen Mays in where he has a leading role & I was genuinely blown away. He is excellent & takes the thankless role on and really makes something of it.

Jason Watkins rounds things off as the journalist who makes contact with Nielson once he is in prison and ends up writing for many what is seen as the definitive story of the crimes, whilst also clearly concerned about the representation of Nielson's sexuality would have towards the gay community which he is also a part of.

But as I alluded to in my title, one of the best things about this documentary is the lack of sensationalism that is given to Nielson and instead the focus given to not only the victims and survivors but also the parents of those killed. One victim, who managed to survive strangulation & drowning, was particularly poginent with the suffering that he had been through, thinking at first it was a dream before being told that everything he was remembering actually happened to him. Similarly, the deliberate (at times) duplicity of Nielson, destroying someone's credibility when he didn't like a particular way he was portrayed, even though he freely admitted at a later time that he had been guilty of the offense was also important to be shown. There is emphatically no pulling of punches with how disgusting Nielson is shown to be.

The production values are high and the mise-en-scene is flawless throughout. The script is also well-written, fleshing out many elements of the strange twists & turns of the case.

An absorbing & thoroughly great watch.

In August 1985, a sickening & horrific series of murders were discovered at an isolated farmhouse in rural Essex. Neville & June Bamber, their twin grandchildren and their adopted daughter Sheila Caffell were found with multiple gunshot wounds. Sheila, who had significant mental health issues/was a diagnosed schizophrenic, was initially suspected of carrying out the killings in a murder/suicide pact, due to her being found with the gun. However, very quickly the anomalies began to stack up, alongside the extremely suspicious/revolting actions & behaviour by the other adopted child Jeremy, who also stood to inherit the entire estate.

The series itself is great at very carefully setting up the initial story and then giving time to flesh it out properly. It is also very clearly stated at the start of every single episode that the story was meticulously researched, alongside certain characters/scenarios being added for dramatic effect. The result is a series which shows the different characters, warts and all.

For me, one of the best things about the whole series was the fact that these characters felt real. By that, I mean that there were no real clichés as such. Almost all the characters were at times extremely unlikable, even the ones other TV programmes in this genre might subtly manipulate you as the viewer to like. As you would expect, Jeremy Bamber is absolutely disgusting: a narcissist so devoid of empathy and exuding such malevolence, you wonder how anyone could tolerate being around him. But it was also made clear that the "perfect family" he was a part of was no such thing, and this extended to the way the other victims were treated.

The cast themselves are great. Freddie Fox, building on his considerable résumé, adds another memorable character to his CV, Mark Addy is always dependable as the dogged police detective who from the off knows that something isn't right. Mark Stanley also does powerful work as the father of the murdered boys/ex-husband of Sheila. And rounding it all of is Stephen Graham as Taff, the Welsh detective with an accent so strong you could cut through a steel door with it.

I really enjoyed this series. It is full of twists and turns, shocking moments but also a determination to ensure that the victims of this unspeakable tragedy are front & centre, not simply an afterthought in a blitz of salacious headlines.

The story of Marcus Luttrell is so incredible, so going against every possible odd, that you almost don't believe it happened. Luttrell is part of an elite unit of US Navy Seals, inserted deep behind enemy lines in Afghanistan in order to execute a Taliban warlord. Whilst moving to the location, the team encounter a couple of villagers with a walkie-talkie. Despite the vehement protestations of some members of the team, the villagers are released due to the Geneva Convention (it is illegal to kill noncombatants) and the mission cancelled. However, the villagers raise the alarm & the unit is forced to fight off hoardes of fighters.

After this story of bravery was told to the general public, it became almost the stuff of legend, especially given the reverence that the military is given in America (and something we could do with much more in the UK.) But, as was shown extremely clearly in the special features, for many years, Luttrell and the families of the other soldiers refused to allow the story to be adapted into a Hollywood film. The reason for this was because they were adamant that the film had to be honest. It would have been the default to make this story basically an Expendables-style endless gunfight film, with those filmmakers effectively using the bare bones of the story as their get out of jail free card.

So, although there is some dramatic licence taken, the vast majority of what is seen on screen happened. And the way the film suddenly turns from a story of survival into something far more complex, nuanced and, welcomingly for a major Hollywood production, not showing one particular religion consisting entirely of evil, bloodthirsty psychopaths, really draws you into the story.

For some people, the fact that in the opening scenes, it is an extremely American, flag-waving & patriotic film, will put them off. However, for me this perfectly juxtaposes the trajectory the story goes on: you need to have that faith & self-belief, alongside accepting help & support from people you may consider to be your sworn enemies.

Mark Wahlberg is perfectly cast, really being able to not only show the toughness which has be a mainstay of his career/characters, but also an extreme vulnerability and fear, which you wouldn't expect. The other cast members are also great, really committing to the real life characters they play. The filming & editing is also exceptional, the tension constantly being ratcheted up until it is almost unbearable.

An amazing film and the start of the partnership/collaboration between Wahlberg and Peter Berg, the director.