Film Reviews by TB

Laurel Hester is a phenomenal woman and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that she was a trailblazer for & vital contributor to the LGBTQ movement in terms of securing equality for everyone. But it is a tragedy that this is the film that has been made about her inspiring and courageous fight to secure equality for her partner.

As much as I have given this 3 stars, that is mainly for performances and the fact that certain parts of this film are really enjoyable & moving. But overall the tone, direction and script of this film are awful. There is an unbelievably "soapy" feel about the entire thing. Whether it's the day to day relationship scenes, or an interrogation room, or even a cringeworthy "action" scene whilst attempting to stop a fleeing criminal, everything feels like it was rejected from the scripts of any one of the 10-a-penny soaps on afternoon TV.

This even affects the performances in some cases. There are certain scenes where Julianne Moore or Ellen Page absolutely knock a scene out of the park, then a couple of minutes later, are directed in such a way that even a Z-list Neighbours actor will go "Some of these scenes just aren't up to snuff!"

But as much as there are faults, there is also much to like. The bare bones of the story, although told simply, are very relatable and knowing that it's a true story does also give added gravitas. There is also a hilarious cameo from Steve Carrell, who plays, in his own words "A big loud gay Jew." But there is an absolute heart, pain and burning injustice behind his facade. And as much as the film does very forcefully point out that Laurel's plight is used by him as part of a bigger campaign for gay marriage, it is also shown very clearly that there is no way Laurel would have been able to take this fight right to the top if it wasn't for him & his supporters.

Overall though, this is a poignant film, but I did finish it and feel so frustrated at what I'd watched. So many great actors were cast here, there are flashes of brilliance and it's an inspirational story. And I genuinely get no pleasure from slating certain elements of this film. It's because as a whole, there is an amazing film in there struggling to get out. With a better script, this could have been something remarkable.

Sadly, most of the time, it's only just above average.

As much as Tim Vine is incredibly funny and also a terrific writer, his stand-up shows go firmly in one of two ways: brilliant and continually funny like So I said to this bloke, or coming off as really hunting desperately for laughs and not being a great show.

Sadly this one falls into the second camp. If you are in the mood for an hour of total silliness with some funny lines here and there, this'll take up an hour.

But for those, including me, who've seen what he can produce when he's firing on all cylinders, this just comes across as so-so and deeply average. I don't doubt for a second that it is extremely difficult to come up with a new act with literally hundreds of one liners. But this one was not his best.

In pretty much every comedic actor's career, they will do a dramatic role which steps massively outside of their comfort zone. And it is often so brilliant and successful that it welcomingly makes them do more of those types of roles. The main one that comes to mind is Robin Williams in Insomnia, but also more recently Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me? And in Foxcatcher, we get a masterclass in desperation, repugnance, horror and general awkwardness from Steve Carrell.

The only thing I want to say before I start this review is that I will be extremely vague with the film details, because literally the less you know, the better and more impactful it is.

This is the true story of the Schultz brothers. They were both Olympic-winning wrestlers who, like so many sports personalities, once they retired, were not only fairly poor but also could be quite isolated away from the training and adulation. Then one day Mark receives an offer from Jon Du Pont, an eccentric multi-millionaire, to come and help him set up and coach a new generation of athletes.

Du Pont is depicted as an absolute misery of a man: someone who has everything and nothing. He is a multi-multi millionaire who craves respect, adulation, recognition & reverence. But he is also a total failure and he knows it. The only reason he is in the position he is in is down to his wealth. Nobody in their right mind would want anything to do with him. And this is established very clearly in one toe-curlingly awkward scene when it is revealed in a very matter of fact way by Du Pont that when he was younger, he only had one friend, who was the son of his chauffeur. He then subsequently found out that his mother had been paying this boy for years to be around her son and tolerate him.

As the film slowly unfolds, it keeps you gripped like a vice. The general air of threat is also quite staggering. You sit there feeling not only unbelievably tense, but also unclean after every encounter with Du Pont, like you want to go and have a shower.

As much as Carrell got a lot of the headlines, by no sense does this sideline the others. Channing Tatum is a revelation, having only before seen him in chick flicks or other films of that theme. Here, he really is amazing. As is Mark Ruffalo, as the big brother anyone would want and the beating heart of the film. And finally, we are treated to another incredible, although sadly far too small a role, from Sienna Miller. What she does with the material given is incredible and moving.

This film is incredible and shocking, the various narratives all colliding in horrific fashion. And I loved it. It is a staggering piece of cinema.

Whilst the CGI Dumbo is gorgeous, this film starts to overstay it's welcome towards the middle part. As it's a Tim Burton film, there are plenty of visual flourishes and he has managed to attract some staggering talent to this film. Danny De Vito and Eva Green are brilliant, but they are fighting against a so-so script and some extremely syrupy narrative choices.

But this will still be loved by children and definitely is a heart-warming movie in places. Plus you'd want Dumbo to be your elephant in a heartbeat.

Many people will have either forgotten or had never heard of the Kursk submarine tragedy which gripped the world back in 2000. During a naval exercise, a missile on the Kursk submarine exploded, killing a huge number of men inside the submarine and leaving many others stranded and waiting for rescue with the air running out.

And on the surface, the Russian government stonewalled, blocked help and refused to do anything. This is one of those films where the less you know, the more you get out of it, although there is a horrific thread of doom running through the whole movie.

The cast are good, although the story itself at times was a bit poorly told. The film had a habit of building up tension wonderfully, then changing scene and losing that momentum. There was also the sense that the filmmakers had really cut out a lot of interesting events in order to make the film the length it was. This story would make an incredible series, like in the vein of Chernobyl.

A good effort, but in many ways a missed opportunity.

This film came out of nowhere. It was something which I had seen advertised & recommended, but there wasn't much fanfare for it. But it is incredible.

The film looks at the moral, ethical and legal dilemmas which are wrapped up within a military operation. Helen Mirren is the commander of a British forces unit which is ordered to capture a group of terrorists in Africa. Then the order comes that they are to launch a missile and kill the insurgent, not capture them. This then sets off a chain of events where everyone involved is forced to confront their own feelings, as well as their fears about the legality of what they are doing.

Firstly, the cast are uniformly great. Mirren at the centre brings the power and empathy she can do effortlessly to the central role. Aaron Paul also really shows his dramatic ability to move past Breaking Bad with a layered, complex character. And this also is the final performance of the masterful Alan Rickman, before his shocking passing. Although it's a small role, it's a great reminder of why he was also one of the best actors we've ever produced.

As the film goes on, I felt myself more and more on the edge of my seat. And the ending was also perfectly done as well, not a neat perfect one, but showing the hopelessness of the situation we humans constantly find ourselves: war and conflict.

Another classic 80's film remastered in 4K. Never seen this before but heard a lot about it.

There is lots to like here, including a great protagonist in Billy Peltzer and suitably nasty villains. The puppetry is also great.

However, it is also very schlocky and too long, plus around halfway through, it just loses its way. With some better editing and shaving off between 10-20 minutes of length, it could have been a brilliant classic. But still a decent watch and trip down memory lane.

A visceral and incredible debut, plus the launching of the careers of many actors including Ice Cube.

The story is one of growing up and trying to find your own identity in the tough, violent and racist streets of South Central. It is a world that the writer/director John Singleton knew well. The script is heavily based on his own upbringing and several of the characters were influenced by friends he had.

What this film does so well is flesh out the characters, as well as making them into people you really care about. Cuba Gooding Jr is outstanding, as is Laurence Fishburne as his tough father, who also desperately wants his son to become successful and not get caught up in gangbanging & murder. There are many moments where we get to know the characters personally, as well as seeing all the values they hold so dear.

This film is exceptional and so many films today based around these locations/stories owe everything to Boyz N The Hood. It is a touchstone film and one which has stood the test of time. Even today, it's scary how much of it is still frighteningly relevant.

Like with Bronson, Tom Hardy has again saved and elevated a film which otherwise would have been nothing more than a standard relatively boring biopic. Playing both Ronnie and Reggie to fantastic effect, he perfectly defines them as individual people but also clearly shows the bond that they have which will forever join them.

Brits have always had a fascination with the Krays, even though they were effectively just like every other standard London-based gangster. Their iconic status, captured in many unique ways, including posing for Bailey, has elevated them to the appropriately film-named Legends.

The film attempts to unpeel that myth and show us what it was that exactly made these two tick. But as much as there is great use of humour and a couple of amazingly choreographed fight scenes, beyond that there isn't that much that is different.

The film also has a great cast with many great British actors featured. Paul Bettany is great, as is Emily Browning. But this film is and always will be Tom Hardy's. A fantastic mesmeric showcase of just how talented he is.

I rented this because I read the Empire review for it which praised it to the rafters and I also seem to remember it ended up on their best of the year list.

One of the best things about this Russian film, which is established from the opening shots, is how simple the story is. This is a film without an ounce of bloat on it. Matvey is going to his girlfriend's parents house with a hammer to kill her father who is a high-ranking officer with the Russian police force. But what he thinks will be a simple job then turns into something completely different. And both Matvey and the father Andrey are far more difficult to neutralise than you think.

This film takes the premise of the one room location, which has so effectively been used in films like Reservoir Dogs, and puts a whole new dimension on it. I don't actually want to say too much more, because this film is full of surprises & twists, so the less you know, the better. But it's level of filmmaking and sheer balls out craziness is a wonder to behold.

The only thing I will say is that this film really earns it's 18 rating and it's not down to sexual content...

You wouldn't think that a story about the beef hormone black-market could make such compelling viewing. But this foreign film, made in 2012, really stays with you.

It tells the story of Jacky (Matthias Schoenaerts) who is an absolutely stacked, muscle-bound enforcer within the mafia and who controls a large section of the black market in hormone treated beef. The film is really set in two parts: the present day where things go badly wrong after a botched deal/the murder of a policeman, and the past and showing what happened to Jacky. There is in particular an unbelievably traumatic & horrific scene within these flashbacks, which gives the story immense heft.

The best thing this film does is the tension that runs through every second of it. Every character is on edge and the threat is so heavy in the air you can almost feel it hit you. And at the centre is Schoenaerts. This is a staggering performance and he richly deserved the plaudits he got for it. Apart from his physical transformation, his ability to be able to show the intense vulnerability & fear he has is amazing.

Whilst this may be a slow film, it is never a boring one and I was hooked throughout.

After Gladiator, Ridley Scott was the go-to guy for historical epics. So it was only a matter of time before the legend of Robin Hood landed on his desk.

But despite casting his muse Russell Crowe and bringing back the vast majority of the crew he worked with on Gladiator, this film doesn't really work. As you'd expect, there's extremely well shot action & it looks gorgeous, but it's unbelievably long and there isn't much fun to be had.

But I did enjoy parts of it, hence the 3 stars. But after so many of these films, all focused on the same legend, can we please stop making them now and actually find a new source material to adapt?

When Fifty Shades was released and went on to massive commercial success (but definitely not critical...) there would always have been many people lined up to cash in on the phenomenon. To me, this film was the result of the producers looking at that situation and going "How can we spend the least amount with the lowest-charging actors and production team, to try and strike gold?" But even with that goal, this barrel-scraping exercise breaks new ground.

This film is terrible. Awfully shot, atrocious acting, just garbage. And it's actually embarrassing to watch. You can hear the terrible acoustics and echoes in every room. The cameras are literally only slightly better than the standard ones you would use to shoot your holiday with.

But the worst thing about this film truly are the performances. Whether it's the delivering of lines so flat & unenthusiastically that listening to someone read a gas bill would be more interesting, through to the scenes of intimacy. The whole point of acting, especially in sex scenes, is to lose yourself & "be in the moment." And everything collapses the second you look awkward or uncomfortable. So when you are the lead starring in a film about extreme sexual transgression, and during the intimacy you either look awkward the entire time or even worse, have a surge of confidence that literally vanishes on camera, it is toe-curling to witness.

There is a scene a little way into the film where the photographer Felix first seduces Elise. And literally halfway through the scene, you see the uncomfortableness suddenly appear on the actress's face/body language, as if the penny has dropped and she's thinking "I'm involved in a sleazy Fifty Shades knock-off on a cheap set, whilst degrading myself in front of a load of film crew and the finished movie will mainly be watched by dirty old men."

As much as I appreciate that Becca Hirani signed up for this, I do feel quite sorry for her in one way: hardly anyone goes into acting to star in a terrible film. And especially when it comes to these types of scenes, of course they aren't easy. But when even you yourself look embarrassed to be starring as the lead in this film, it's time to either fire your agent or try your hand at something else.

This is a decent attempt to make a film about love and attitudes to relationships, set in the modern day.

4 different people interact, falling in love and breaking up, all whilst searching for meaning. There are some interesting moments, plus this film is unusual in that there is much more explicit sex than a normal film like this, which does give it an interesting edge.

As much as there was some interesting parts, for me it was very much a case of sometimes really being gripping, but then within a few minutes, going back to not particularly caring. The most interesting character was probably Lucie Zhang's Émilie. It is even more staggering when you consider that this is her first film. She gives a very natural & spiky performance, which often gives the film the boost it so desperately needs. Noémie Merlant is also great, showing both an angry & vulnerable side. Her story arc is good as well, although it does come to rather an abrupt & strange conclusion which I didn't really buy.

The other thing I liked was that it was shot in black and white. It may have seemed like a gimmick, but it actually really works well.

Certainly this is more than a standard romantic film, but I just wished it had had a better story

Julianne Moore can't really do any wrong. Everything she is in, she is great in, even if the film itself is not good. But here, as much as she brings the star power, the result is nothing but a turgid mess.

This film was a remake of a film that was also shot by Sebastián Lelio. The original version was extremely successful, so he was given the money after the huge success of A Fantastic Woman to remake it for an American audience.

But it was just boring. Nothing in it made me want to keep watching. And whilst I stuck with it for around 40 minutes, in the end there was nothing to keep me watching. But I also accept I may be the wrong audience for it. Either way, for me it didn't work.