Watchable and educational film about the last king of Bechuanaland, a British protectorate bordering South Africa and known today as Botswana. Seretse Khama studied in Britain and fell in love with a white office worker, Ruth Williams
who he married. This mixed-race marriage just as South Africa was implementing apartheid ended up polarizing the continent and some of Britain’s society too. Khama manages to convince his own people to accept him and his wife only to have the British government put their oar in and banish him from his homeland simply because they didn’t want to offend South Africa and lose access to potential diamond mines. The colonial manipulation seen from today is disgusting
but Amma Asante portrays it with all the hypocritical pomp that must have characterized the era. Eventually, they return to their homeland as the country becomes independent and he is sworn in as the first President renouncing his claim to the throne. Ruth ends up being first lady and much loved in her new land,
which couldn’t be any different
to cosmopolitan London of that time. David Oyelowo is fine as Seretse Khama and handles the big speech to his people well. Rosamund Pike has a fairly thankless role as the subject of all the controversy and has to look full of steely grit and disbelief much of the time. She does it well.
There is nothing here however that is especially creative or novel, simply a well told story of colonial cruelty.
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And in the middle, we have violent death, non-violent death, attempts at humour, philosophy and plenty of melodrama. About two thirds of the film takes place in New York and the rest in Spain and there is a non-linear span of a good four generations. So, too much is attempted and it is trying to be too clever by half. As some critics suggest the melodrama ends up being pretty pure telenovela.
produces another competent performance as the hero, a rather crazy and selfish type, Olivia Wilde is fine as his wife, Mandy Patinkin
solid as his father. And Annette Bening
as the therapist is also perfectly credible.
gives a very good performance as an Andalucian olive farm owner, in love with the wife of one of his foremen and mentor of the child of this couple who will end up going to New York and rounding out the story. Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Laia Costa and Alex Monner
all shine in this part of the story. So, glad I lasted for these scenes but overall, less than wow!
As she starts to soar, the jealousy and feeling of worthlessness in the guy increase eventually leading to a tragic ending.
and the powerlessness of many of those around the sufferer to be able to do anything about it. Thankfully there are some good tunes
to sing along to and take away because the story is a sad one and another example of Hollywood playing out our shadow side.
who also directs is a wounded giant, Jackson Maine and he conveys all the pain brilliantly.
And the unique Lady Gaga. In her first lead role, she not only shines as a singer but her acting is full of surprising subtlety and authenticity. 
The fact that Cooper and the writers have decided to really play up the contrast between her exhilarating rise and his messy and deeply sad fall make it an intense experience.
Better than I expected. By quite a way.
of central California in a poor town of Mexican pickers. There, he ditches football for cross country when he sees that local kids who run from the fields to school and back everyday, 
juggling work and studies actually have remarkable speed and stamina. He learns to be their trainer and in the same trial and error way,
finds a way to fit into the local community, 
which he at first eschews. His acceptance of another culture and his willingness to meet the Hispanic families half way
is a means to instilling a different outcome for them – not just success at running but also subsequent academic achievements.
The merit of Caro’s movie is that she shows us the dark side too and not just a rosy glow,
even though we know that this high school running team went on to win 9 State championships in 14 years
and has taken the kids around the world, boosting their self esteem and giving the town a shot at the American dream. Kevin Costner, in one of his best performances
and the ever reliable Maria Bello
lead the cast and are ably supported by the boys and their families, who come across as genuine people. Nice camerawork and music lead to a satisfying all round movie.
who is torn between making gore films with all the local kids and befriending his shy neighbour, Melly (Darcey Wilson), who feels like a fish out of water in her family and wants to save a beached whale on the local beach.
At the same time, we focus on three sets of parents from the same street, who are busy trying out swinging and relentlessly failing to bring up their kids in any sane way. As in Priscilla, both verbal and visual jokes are the order of the day with the background of lava lamps and gaudy furnishing
which the production team have had a field day recreating. Anyone familiar with the time period will enjoy all of this too. But it doesn’t all come together quite as it should, possibly because Elliot throws so much at us.
That may make a second viewing worthwhile. The acting of the adults is somewhat erratic. Jeremy Sims makes a pathetic repentant character, Asher Keddie
and Radha Mitchell, two very different suburban housewives, Kylie Minogue is unrecognizable as a pent-up alcoholic
, Julian McMahon
has a field day as a full of himself father, Jack Thompson appears as the rascally local mayor and Guy Pearce
rather overdoes it as Kylie’s salesman husband.
The trouble is that the story is just so trite and there are seemingly endless clichés (the mother dying of cancer, the British student council head, the bad boy gym jock who is good enough to go to Harvard). 
Not to mention all sorts of chauvinistic attitudes towards relationships. Joey King holds the centre in this film very well,
despite seeming like 12 going on 65. Jacob Elordi is fun and surprisingly effective as the main love interest
and Joey Courtenay is also a success as the bff.
Molly Ringwald appears for a couple of meaningless speeches and there are some sloppy editing decisions to leave in scenes without much point or follow up. So, in all less than the sum of its parts but entertaining enough if you want to zombie out.
the plucky economics lecturer without a family fortune who falls head over heels in love with Nick Young, (Malaysian Henry Golding with a pukka accent)
whose family have massive financial interests in Singapore and which he has conveniently omitted to tell Rachel in part because he too seems to be pretending to escape it all. Time to take Rachel home to meet the family
and the film really takes off. Singapore is painted as a paradise monied playground
and Nick’s family are like royalty, headed by his daunting mother (excellent Michelle Yeoh).
The pair go for a wedding and we see the extremes they go to: bachelor party on a container ship, hens’ night at a spa retreat and then the actual wedding ceremony set in a church decorated as a paddy field.
There is plenty of laughs at the social conventions especially from characters like Rachel’s friend (Awkwafina)
whose family are the misfits and also many quieter moments as the hidden restrictions on their lives take their toll (eg with Astrid, Nick’s cousin). The details come thick and fast and the scope for sequels with this enormous raft of characters is huge.
But most of all, it is genuinely funny and entertaining and in this day and age that’s a big plus. It may be regarded as a tribute to the new rich of Asia but I think it is more satirical than that.
plays a fading mother who has a hologram of her now deceased husband Walter, at his 40 years, and they discuss their lives and keep her memories ticking. Jon (Tim Robbins), her son-in-law coaches Walter (a suitably robotic Jon Hamm).
Meanwhile Jon’s wife Tessa is dealing with her own demons.
Later the story jumps ahead to when she has died and Jon is using the same holographic system.
The plot is relatively straightforward until a family secret emerges towards the end and there is a little reflection on the power of both memories and forgetting. Great to see Geena Davis back as Tessa.
Mica Levi composes an effective score and Michael Almereyda gives us plenty to think about. Could have done with some editing but the end product is well rounded, thanks especially to good acting by the leads.
who loses his mother and ends up being the college bad boy with his stepfather
incapable of controlling him. He sends him to his biological father, a rough mannered hunting guide in Patagonia and somehow this pair of gruff individuals have to learn to bond. It is not at all easy at first and Ernesto and Nahuel are at loggerheads but eventually through teaching him to hunt, Ernesto manages to reach his son in his own way.
It is a sort of rite of passage film, chock full of repressed pain
and resentment but both newcomer Lautaro Bettoni and German Palacios
manage to portray credible gruff and wary characters. The plot and the circumstances are pretty commonplace but the Patagonian setting,
the photography and a clear and discreet direction make this a more satisfying film than one might have expected.
passionfilm 