It is a truth universally acknowledged that nobody understands a woman better than another one. That’s why it’s a relief that the Jane Austen-themed Mr Malcolm’s List (PG) is both directed by a woman (Emma Holly Jones) and scripted by one – Suzanne Allain from her own (self-published) novel. Partly filmed in Ireland, it comes…

“Jesus forgave those who crucified him.” This is the mantra underlying Francois Ozon’s achingly beautiful Frantz (Alibris). Shot partly in monochrome and partly in colour, it has an air of elegant leisureliness. It tells the story of a Parisian soldier from World War I (Pierre Niney) who’s consumed with guilt after shooting a German in…

Hollywood was a hotbed of scandal both on and off the screen in the ‘Roaring’ twenties and tumescent thirties. It was a time of flux in the film industry. It cleaned itself up after 1934 when the Hays Code made a stern set of celluloid bans – no double beds (even for married couples), no…

Like most road movies, Joyride (PG) involves a journey of the mind as well as the body. Olivia Colman plays the most unlikely barrister you’re ever going to see in a film. Charlie Reid is the most unlikely gynaecologist in training. Because he’s only twelve. As well as knowing more than Colman (who’s just given…

Nobody expected The Railway Children to capture the public imagination the way it did in 1970. Films about displaced children in wartime usually go down well (especially if they’re tearjerkers, as this was) but its appeal went off-the-scale. People were still talking about it half a century later. It makes you wonder why they took…

It’s amazing to think we’re still seeing biopics of Elvis Presley, like Baz Luhrmann’s 3-hour audio-visual extravaganza, Elvis (PG), nearly half a century after the rock ‘n’ roll icon “left the building”. What would the man himself have thought? When he went into the army, he thought his career was over. He thought so again…

A Star is Born (Netflix) got me through Covid. When I heard they were making the film for the third time I thought: Too much. I’d seen the version with Judy Garland and James Mason and also the one with Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand. How many times could you re-heat the soufflé? Then I…

You won’t see a better action film all year than this aerial drama. It’s an unashamed ode to machismo and is dripping with characters from innumerable other like-minded vehicles but in the end it wins you over with its charm. I normally have problems with Tom Cruise in films like this. I’ve never bought into…

Cut glass accents, flowing gowns, tuxedoed toffs, billiard table lawns – it has to be Downton, doesn’t it? The 2019 feature went down a bomb with audiences. It had to be only a matter of time before a sequel hit the screen. Downton Abbey – A New Era (PG), penned again by Julian Fellowes and…

There are a number of films available on Amazon dealing with the theme of sexual and other types of abuse. It’s a subject we hear quite a lot about nowadays. While the material doesn’t generally make for comfortable viewing it’s something we shouldn’t shy away from. Miss Violence was widely acclaimed at the Venice film…