​It is actor Viggo Mortensen's birthday. His top 5 films:

- A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
- CAPTAIN ALATRISTE
- CAPTAIN FANTASTIC
- ON THE ROAD
- THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

​IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK ★★★★★
D: Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, Medicine for Melancholy).
S: Kiki Layne, Stephan James, Diego Luna, Ed Skrein, Pedro Pascal, Brian Tyree Henry, Teyonah Parris, Regina King, Dave Franco, Colman Domingo.

A cinematic cry of anguish. The best film of 2018?


THE SISTERS BROTHERS ★★★★½
D: Jacques Audiard (Dheepan, Rust and Bone, A Prophet, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Read My Lips, A Self-Made Hero, See How They Fall).
S: Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed.

Director Jacques Audiard is a cinema master. He continually brings a fresh spin to the genres he touches. This Western's humour, rapid gunplay, chase structure, and thematic resonance are combined unusually and winningly.

​THE FAVOURITE ★★★★★
D: Yorgos Lanthimos (The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster, Alps, Dogtooth, Kinetta).
S: Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone.

What a period comedy! Wit pours from every pore. Sublime and masterfully crafted. The film includes an emotional kick, among the laugh-out-loud courtly games of influence and ambition.


THE WHITE CROW ★★☆☆☆
D: Ralph Fiennes (The Invisible Woman, Coriolanus).
S: Oleg Ivenko, Ralph Fiennes, Louis Hofmann, Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Ralph Fiennes is an excellent actor, but this is the third dud in a row for him as a director. An inert telling of ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev's defection during the Cold War.


BURNING ★★★★★
D: Lee Chang-dong (Poetry, Secret Sunshine, Oasis, Peppermint Candy, Green Fish).
S: Ah-In Yoo, Steven Yeun, Jong-seo Jeon.

Six for six from director Lee Chang-dong. 148 minutes of gripping, creeping emotional devastation. Class and gender discourse are mixed into a story concerning crushing loneliness.


I FEEL GOOD ★★★½☆
Ds: Benoît Delépine, Gustave Kervern (Saint Amour, Le Grand Soir, Mammuth, Louise-Michel).
S: Jean Dujardin, Yolande Moreau.

The directing doyens of French comedy cinema inject some politics into their latest. Oscar-winning Jean Dujardin is game as a billionaire-wannabe twat.

​THE CANNIBAL CLUB ★★★½☆
D: Guto Parente.
S: Tavinho Teixeira, Ana Luiza Rios, Pedro Domingues.

Flippantly macabre and a few choice sequences, though the runtime is over too quickly. A horror film where the rich eat the poor is an unsubtle metaphor, but perhaps we live in unsubtle times?

It is actor Felicity Jones’ birthday. Her top 5 films

- A MONSTER CALLS
- CHÉRI
- FLASHBACKS OF A FOOL
- LIKE CRAZY
- ROGUE ONE

DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE ★★★★☆
D: S. Craig Zahler (Brawl in Cell Block 99, Bone Tomahawk).
S: Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter.

Upsettingly violent. Some of this movie doesn't sit right with me, and needs to be cogitated on further. However, as a hardcore cops-off-the-reservation thriller, this is an enthralling 159 minutes.


DEAD PIGS ★★★½☆
D: Cathy Yan.
S: Vivian Wu, Mason Lee, Meng Li, Zazie Beetz.

Charismatic and bitter-sweet look at modern living. There is plenty to enchant, and also a seriousness about financial worries and status anxiety.


MAYFAIR ★☆☆☆☆
D: Sara Blecher.
S: Wayne Van Rooyen, Ronak Patani, Jack Devnarain.

Woefully inane family gangster flick. A prodigal son returns à la Michael Corleone,  but there are no similarities in terms of quality.

​It is actor Tim Robbins’s birthday. His top 5 films:

- ARLINGTON ROAD
- MYSTIC RIVER
- SHORT CUTS
- THE HUDSUCKER PROXY
- THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

​PROFILE ★★★★☆
D: Timur Bekmambetov (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Wanted, Day Watch, Night Watch).
S: Valene Kane, Shazad Latif.

Like SEARCHING, an inventive, tense film using a computer screen as the cinema frame. Social media, online communication, etc are utilised to create a heart-in-your-mouth journalistic thriller.


WILD ROSE ★★★☆☆
D: Tom Harper (The Woman in Black 2).
S: Julie Walters, Jessie Buckley, Sophie Okonedo.

Charm and positivity in spades. BILLY ELLIOT with country music. The climax hits the heartwarming notes.

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SUNSET ★★★☆☆
D: László Nemes (Son of Saul).
S: Juli Jakab, Vlad Ivanov, Susanne Wuest, Björn Freiberg, Judit Bárdos, Mónika Balsai.

The eve of the end of an empire, from the perspective of a woman with impressive focus. The film feels unnecessarily opaque. A disappointment compared to the director's debut.


3 FACES ★★★★☆
D: Jafar Panahi (Taxi Tehran, Closed Curtain, This Is Not a Film, Offside, Crimson Gold, The Circle).
S: Behnaz Jafari, Jafar Panahi, Marziyeh Rezaei.

Jafar Panahi is one of the top 10 directors working today. He continues to examine humanity compassionately, in endlessly fascinating ways.

THE FRONT RUNNER ★★★½☆
D: Jason Reitman (Tully; Men, Women & Children; Labor Day, Young Adult, Up in the Air Juno, Thank You for Smoking).
S: Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga, Molly Ephraim, Kaitlyn Dever, Ari Graynor, Sara Paxton, J.K. Simmons.

Well written but annoying camerawork. A dissection of the implosion of a presidential political career. Has a myriad of sympathies.


VOX LUX ★★★★★
D: Brady Corbet.
S: Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin.

As with Ali Abbasi's BORDER (2018), this is that rarest of movie offerings: A work that feels like a cinema island of its own creation. Natalie Portman is a force of nature.


DESTROYER ★★★★★
D: Karyn Kusama (The Invitation, Jennifer’s Body, Aeon Flux, Girlfight).
S: Nicole Kidman, Sebastian Stan, Bradley Whitford, Toby Kebbell, Tatiana Maslany, Beau Knapp, Scoot McNairy.

With this and WIDOWS, cinema is reclaiming the crime thriller from television in spectacular fashion. Nicole Kidman eviscerates the screen as a broken detective hunting a bank robber.

It is actor Mia Wasikowska’s birthday. His top 5 films:

- DAMSEL
- JANE EYRE
- MAPS TO THE STARS
- STOKER
- THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT