It is so nice to see a film from a country not renowned for film production. Play the Devil is from Trinidad and Tobago, written and directed by Maria Govan, a queer filmmaker who embues this movie with many genuine issues facing people in this beautiful but relatively poor Caribbean island. Gregory (excellent debut from Petrice Jones)
is an 18-year-old High School student with good grades and plans to study medicine or photography. He comes from a poor family in the village of Paramin, high above Port of Spain. 
When acting in a local play, he is “discovered” by local businessman, James Young (Gareth Jenkins) 
who is all too willing to help the boy and introduce him to aspects of a better life. He also has a second agenda, admitting that his marriage is a sham and that he wants a relationship with Greg. After an initial night, Greg decides that James is more trouble than anything else and asks him to stay away, which he doesn’t. James starts helping the family, putting a new roof on Granny’s house,
providing bail for an older brother who is arrested. This affects Greg and his schoolwork suffers as does the dream of university studies. So he decides to get rid of this devil in a local carnival dance called The Jab, where painted in blue young men expel demons in a trance like state.
Although some aspects of the script and acting are a little dodgy and the symbolism a trifle obvious, the majority of this film is a beautiful and authentic portrayal of life in a Caribbean village. 
Photography and music are great too. Let’s hope that Govan and crew can follow this up!
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and it is clear that the old passion is still there. What to do? Both have been burnt by the past and seem unable to move on in either direction.
Fate intervenes and upon the sudden death of chris’s mother, RJ and his father fly to Utah and pay their respects. Chris’s dad who is a member of the top quorum of the church starts to have a volte face and is no longer so anti same sex marriages and the relationship he sees his son involved in. But there is still a long way to go. While there is a certain didactic nature to the film and an attempt to dialogue with the church, this series is a moving tribute to those who suffer because of their religion from the very faith they espouse. Nick Ferrucci is again excellent as RJ with Benjamin Farmer a perfect foil as Chris and Bruce Jennings as Elder Noah doing a good job. 
Not the most subtle of films, could have some editing but nicely photographed and definitely authentic.
Almost kitsch and definitely austere it places us right in the time and place. We follow Pim (Jelle Florizoone) from 14 to 17 in his life there. His mother is a blousy ex-beauty queen gone to fat who lives her life playing the accordeon, bedding different men and not being much of a homemaker. Eva van der Gucht steals her scenes in this role. 
As a result, Pim spends a lot of time with another family and develops a crush on the slightly older son Gino (Mathias Vergels) who takes him on his motorbike and camping on the beach.
The sister Sabrina (Nina Marie Kortekaas) in turn falls for Pim and is ultimately disappointed when he proves to swing the other way. Gino goes off to Dunkirk with a girlfriend, Zoltan, a hunky circus artist rents a room in Pim’s house
and serves to confirm the boy’s interest in men 
and his mother’s need for sex and so it goes on. A pleasant and honest film that points well to the future of the director.
, to give one the creeps as Gunnar discovers when he visits his ex-boyfriend Einar
who calls him urgently one night. The few neighbours
around behave weirdly, even the girl in the gas station, there are loads of empty houses
which bear witness to sudden departures, and there is the famous “volcanic” rift, which may or may not be the site of an accident or a murder. The two men discuss their past and sexual history and also feel that someone is watching them.
Lots of suggestive evidence without any firm conclusions but as such it works well enough.
Good photography and music but perhaps a trifle long.
who lives in the old caretaker’s cottage at the back of the school she teaches in. Rita is blunt, funny, full of common sense
and has little time for niceties and euphemisms. She became a teacher to protect kids from their parents! At first I felt the characters were a little clichéd but now they are growing on me by the end of series two. Although the camera treats Danesen as a queen, she has real presence and you can understand how frustrating it is for other teachers and even the head, her boyfriend Rasmus,
that she commands more respect and attention than they do. Although she puts her foot in it at times, she has the guts to say and do what so many others won’t. Her three children are well portrayed as is Hjordis,
her colleague, who is gauche and yet plucky too. Seeing the inside of a Danish school is also interesting for us and while many poetic licences are taken, much of what happens is true to most schools. Some issues like abortion and bullying are dealt with directly and forcefully while others like her son’s coming out are given a light and humorous treatment. Overall, a pleasant, amusing and thoughtful option as we enter into winter.
Potential fiance’s like accountant James (Jason Watkins) 
and busybody neighbour (Lesley Manville) get into the act too and provide a modicum of humour but on the whole there is precious little to believe in here and it falls way short of something like The Lady in the Van.
Gleeson seems to cope far better than Keaton who does her lost looking act.
All a bit false and just convincing us that few places in the world are like Hampstead. And this story is a bit weird too.
in the latter part as Borg fights to get his 5th Wimbledon title, some lop-sided memories from their youth with the focus much more on Borg and the conclusion that both were angry young men
but that Borg held it in better. Sverrir Gudnason is uncannily alike Borg 
and does a good job imitating the player and Shia Laboeuf 
is less physically like McEnroe but captures the energy and anger well. Stellan Skarsgard is convincing as Bergelin, Borg’s coach and Tuva Novotny is acceptable as Mariana Simonescu, Borg’s first wife. 
The film is easy to watch and focuses on the psychological pressures on top sportsmen but doesn’t go much further than that so we come away feeling somewhat less enthralled than we could have been. 
All the same it is a serious and correct movie.
She is still hurting from that and from her forced adoption when she was 17. The chance to meet that girl, Mary,
emerges, at the same time as she is working on a case to find a ring of prostitutes and/or surrogate mothers. She is seconded by Miranda (Gwendoline Christie), a tall and also emotionally fragile policewoman with whom she makes an odd couple, often at odds.
Being two women in a man’s world is part of Campion’s point here contrasting with the women’s world of the brothel and the intellectual suburban environment of Mary’s parents, Julia and Pyke.
Campion blends the frictions as these worlds collide beautifully and although there are some plot holes, particularly towards the end, the emotional and psychological depths plumbed in the series are profound and thought provoking.
The cast of flawed characters are led by the sublime Elizabeth Moss as Griffin,
capable of expressing a thousand emotions with a fleeting look, Nicole Kidman, doing excellent work as Julia,
Ewen Leslie as her confused husband and Alice Englert, Campion’s own daughter as the headstrong Mary. David Dencik plays the creepy Puss who is Mary’s much older boyfriend.
The strong acting and direction, the great photography
and editing all make this a satisfying and compelling series among the best of the year.
and his companions are Sal, the hothead rebel played by Bryan Cranston and Reverend Mueller, a born-again preacher played by Lawrence Fishburne. All three are in great form and it is a pleasure to watch them especially Cranston and Fishburne. 
Once they get to the marines base, they discover that what they are told, ie, your son was a hero killed defending the country is not exactly the case
and that moreover the forces have their own protocol and recommendations as to how to handle the funeral and burial which is not what Doc or his friends want. A road and rail trip to take the body to its home town in New Hampshire
follows with discoveries about the war in Iraq and reminiscences about what happened in Vietnam that perhaps shouldn’t have. 
The script is pretty sharp on the whole but I felt that a little could have been lopped off by the end. Overall, it is a thoughtful, respectful and yet critical movie about how the best is not always done for the families of fallen soldiers or in the name of the US. Kudos for filming it.
Very little that is new but it handles the question of doubts, of absences, of real love and of self-value inside a relationship well. The leads, Margherita Buy (always excellent) and Sabrina Ferilli 
(not known to me but also fine) 
hold this movie together well and are supported by Maria Sole Tognazzi’s sensitive direction and attractive photography by Arnaldo Catinari. 
A pleasant movie for a wet Sunday.
passionfilm 