AD ASTRA ★★★★★
D: James Gray (The Lost City of Z, The Immigrant, Two Lovers, We Own the Night, The Yards).
S: Brad Pitt, Liv Tyler, Ruth Negga, John Ortiz, Donald Sutherland, Tommy Lee Jones.

A precise premise in a rare atmosphere of resignation and curiosity. At times exhilarating, poetic, melancholy, epic. I've not been a fan of director James Gray's movies and his oeuvre's pseudo-1970s filmic vibes, but this has reached its apotheosis here. 

​DEERSKIN ★★★½☆
D: Quentin Dupieux (Rubber).
S: Jean Dujardin, Adèle Haenel, Albert Delpy. 

THE ARTIST's Jean Dujardin continually demonstrates his comedy skills. David Brent meets SIGHTSEERS. A jacket turns an annoying guy into a serial killer. At 77 minutes it is too short.

​RAMBO: LAST BLOOD ★☆☆☆☆
D: Adrian Grunberg (Get the Gringo).
S: Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Yvette Monreal, Óscar Jaenada.

So sadistic and dubious, it makes TAKEN look like a Bergman.

​ON A MAGICAL NIGHT ★★★½☆
D: Christophe Honoré (Metamorphoses, Beloved, The Beautiful Person, Love Songs, Dans Paris, Ma Mère).
S: Chiara Mastroianni, Benjamin Biolay, Vincent Lacoste. 

Ghosts of lovers past in a big heartened French Christmas movie. Playful and sexy. Thought-provokingly the story makes the case for polyamory in long term relationships.


CLEMENCY ★★★½☆
D: Chinonye Chukwu.
S: Alfre Woodard, Aldis Hodge, Wendell Pierce.

Every scene wrings (melo)drama, to show the inhumanity of capital punishment being part of a criminal justice system. The emotional/psychological toll on characters has power. 


COUP 53 [documentary] ★★★★½
D: Taghi Amirani. 

Trenchant and intelligent. Accelerating over the runtime, information is eventually conveyed at a breakneck pace. (A few sequences could have benefitted from some breathing room.)

​LUCKY GRANDMA ★★☆☆☆
D: Sasie Sealy.
S: Tsai Chin, Hsiao-Yuan Ha, Christine Chang, Wayne Chang, Lyman Chen. 

Nondescript gangster comedy, with only a few initial chortles. A killer premise, of a grandmother becoming intwined in a mob conflict, is completely wasted. 


GHOST TOWN ANTHOLOGY ★☆☆☆☆
D: Denis Côté (Boris Without Béatrice, Vic + Flo Saw a Bear).
S: Robert Naylor, Josée Deschênes, Jean-Michel Anctil, Larissa Corriveau, Rémi Goulet, Diane Lavallée, Hubert Proulx, Rachel Graton, Normand Carrière, Jocelyne Zucco. 

Oh dear. Almost laughable if not for being interminable and amateurish. A small town faces an existential crisis to tedious effect.


ZOMBI CHILD ★½☆☆☆
D: Bertrand Bonello (Nocturama, House of Tolerance).
S: Louise Labeque, Wislanda Louimat, Katiana Milfort.

Is this meant to be saying something about colonialism?

​MONOS ★★★☆☆
D: Alejandro Landes.
S: Julianne Nicholson, Moisés Arias, Sofia Buenaventura, Julián Giraldo, Karen Quintero. 

Teenage rebels fighting for an unknown organisation for an unknown cause. The squad quickly fractures. A blank canvas to project allegory, or just an empty vessel? Well made but lacks originality.


LITTLE MONSTERS ★★☆☆☆
D: Abe Forsythe.
S: Lupita Nyong'o, Josh Gad, Alexander England, Kat Stewart. 

An uninspired zombie-comedy. There's too much *ahem* dead time. A few good lines, but little else to enliven. Am not sure why Lupita Nyong'o and Josh Gad are wasting their talents in this?


BOMBAY ROSE ★★★½☆
D: Gitanjali Rao.
S: Anurag Kashyap, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Makrand Deshpande.

Soulful animation set in the Indian metropolis of the title. Though, the constant traffic in the foreground is distracting. (Surely there is a more artful way of creating bustle?) Seams of social conscience are woven into a painful love story, automatically elevating this beyond the usual.

It is actor Kyle Chandler’s birthday. His top 5 films:

- CAROL
- KING KONG
- MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
- SUPER 8
- THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

​WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS ★★★½☆
D: Ciro Guerra (Birds of Passage, Embrace of the Serpent).
S: Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, Gana Bayarsaikhan, Greta Scacchi, David Dencik, Harry Melling, Bill Milner, Sam Reid.

An unnamed frontier of an unnamed empire. Director Ciro Guerra continues his penetrating interrogation of colonialism and its aftermath. This lacks the verve of BIRDS OF PASSAGE, but the starry cast elevate the theatrical presentation.


THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON ★★★½☆
Ds: Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz.
S: Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson, Zack Gottsagen, Bruce Dern, Thomas Haden Church, John Hawkes, Jon Bernthal.

Shia LaBeouf reminds of how agreeably he can conjure a leading role. Zack Gottsagen has spot-on timing. On the surface, it is hard not to be swept along by the winning camaraderie. But the film does not hold up to deep scrutiny. 

​My top 5 most anticipated movies screening at London Film Festival 2019: 

​Out to own today: