drama – Page 11

Florence Foster Jenkins – Film Review

October 5, 2017June 14, 2024yggdrasille

I very much enjoyed this warm, hilarious, affectionate film about the worst opera singer of all time, an eccentric 1940s New York socialite whose amazingly godawful singing emerged on the other side of terrible to become its own kind of remarkable.

Bridge of Spies – Film Review

August 20, 2017October 17, 2017yggdrasille

A solid, low-key Cold War drama thriller from Steven Spielberg. “Solid” might not sound like much of a compliment, but sometimes it’s just satisfying to watch a well-made film that might not be edgy or exceptional and just about avoids the worthy and dull basket, but which also brims with confidence and expertise in cinematic craft. It achieves a difficult balance of dramatising a true story where, on one hand, too much of real life would probably make it boring and on the other, it still has to retain some realism in order to not lapse completely into fake movie-land.

Moonlight – Film Review

February 11, 2017October 19, 2017yggdrasille

moonlight On the day I saw the movie, I booked my ticket in the morning, and as I got progressively dog-tired at work I was thinking to myself, I could do with some fun fluffy movie right now, not yet another Oscar-season glumfest. In the end though, I’m glad I saw it because, while sombre and sad Moonlight is also a lyrical, immersive, compassionate and tender look at an experience that usually doesn’t get much attention in the media. My only problem was that, in my tired state, I found some of the street slang hard to follow, but in the end, this is a movie that mostly tells its story through the visuals, music, the actors’ expressions and the stretches of silence that convey so much.

Jackie – Film Review

February 2, 2017October 4, 2023yggdrasille

Not your conventional biopic, Jackie mostly focuses on one specific period in its subject’s life, the days following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy when Jacqueline Kennedy became the world’s most famous widow.

Lion – Film Review

January 28, 2017October 19, 2017yggdrasille

lion-dev-patel Based on a true story of an Indian boy who gets separated from his family, adopted by an Australian couple, then finds his birthplace 25 years later using Google Earth, Lion is an unashamedly emotional tear-jerker which mostly works. It’s heartfelt, beautifully shot and features uniformly strong performances (and on a totally shallow note, my my Dev Patel is all grown up and crushworthy).

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore – Film Review

October 22, 2016October 19, 2017yggdrasille

alice An earlier Martin Scorsese film that’s something of a departure from the other films of his I’ve watched, which might as well have been rated “M” for “Manly”. Not that his movies lack memorable female characters, but they’re usually side characters in very masculine stories and are rarely the focus. Other than having a female protagonist, this movie is also an interesting exception in how low-key it is. There are no gangsters, famous boxers or extraordinary stakes or highs and lows in sight – it’s basically a slice-of-life comedy-drama about a recently widowed woman and her twelve-year-old son, shot in a restrained and unshowy manner which suits it perfectly.

Goodfellas – Film Review

October 11, 2016September 17, 2025yggdrasille

Another stylish Martin Scorsese classic about a bunch of horrible people you can’t help but be fascinated by.

Love & Friendship – Film Review

July 28, 2016August 17, 2019yggdrasille

Confession: though I always loved classic literature I could never make it through a single Jane Austen book – I tried at least four of her novels and gave them all up in the first fifty pages. Something about her writing style clearly rubs me wrong, but despite this, I enjoyed many of the Austen film and TV adaptations. While this onscreen version of her early, little-known novella is not my favourite it was amusing and diverting.