A VISUAL STORYTELLER Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac… Dune, the Movie I first read Frank Herbert’s Dune as a teenager and that’s the right age to meet this hallucinogenic, intergalactic trip of a novel. It’s one of those books that almost literally

A SPORTING LEGEND Directed by Hans-Bruno Kammertöns; starring Michael Schumacher, et al… After a fifty-year drought we’ve reached a golden age of motor racing film and television. There have been major features that weren’t awful — Rush (2013) and Ford v Ferrari (2019) — and a documentary that wasn’t

FAVOURITE MOVIES & TV OF 2020 With months of travel restrictions and social distancing still to get through, we could all use some entertainment. So, here are a few favourites from 2020. I didn’t watch nearly enough TV (cough) to claim these are the “Best of the Year”; they’

AMMONITE (2020) | HAPPIEST SEASON (2020) | GENTLEMAN JACK S01 Ammonite: UK, 2020 Directed by Francis Lee; starring Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Fiona Shaw… Happiest Season: USA, 2020 (Apple TV+) Directed by Clea DuVall; starring Kristen Stewart, Mackenzie Davis, Mary Steenburgen, Victor Garber, Dan Levy, Aubrey Plaza… Gentleman Jack: S01 Created by

STREAMING IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS Season 01 (Netflix, USA, 2020) Created by Kathleen Jordan; starring Maddie Phillips, Anjelica Bette Fellini, Kadeem Hardison… Blair: Obviously we have a gift for this line of work. Sterling: We’re going to be the best bounty hunters in Atlanta!

MANIC-DEPRESSIVE SUPERHERO Directed by Sam Raimi; starring Toby Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina… Okay, I was taken in too. Blech. After Michael Keaton’s quirky but human performance in Batman(1989), and the character driven drama at the heart of the first Spider-Man (2002), I was ready to believe that

NOTHING EXCEEDS LIKE EXCESS Directed by Peter Jackson; starring Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrian Brody… Just as Wile E Coyote and the Roadrunner are natural enemies so, we’re told, movie directors must fight against evil studio bosses in their eternal struggle to make Great Art despite corporate interference. I’

DOES WHAT IT SAYS ON THE TIN Directed by JJ Abrams; starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg… JJ Abrams’ reboot of the Star Trek franchise begins with a brilliant idea. It travels all the way back to the original

WHY PLOT DOESN'T MATTER Directed by David Yates; starring Daniel Radcliff, Rupert Gint, Emma Watson, Michael Gambon, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman… Critics of books or movies tend to focus on plot; this is what “the story” is about, after all. And yet, the Harry Potter series stands

ARTSY BUT NOT FARTSY Directed and written by Zach Braff; starring Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Ian Holm… Artsy without being fartsy, quirky without being clueless, Garden State is one of the few good original releases I've seen this summer. It's also the perfect answer to those

ARTSY CRAP IS STILL CRAP Directed by Neil Jordan; starring Jodie Foster, Terence Howard, Mary Steenburgen… Once a director establishes themselves as an artiste it seems they can routinely get away with conventional schlock that would be dismissed in the hands of lesser mortals. Witness the excessive praise showered on