Author: The Reviews Hub - Film

Director:  Howard J. Ford Writer: Tom Boyle In Howard J. Ford’s The Ledge a protagonist faces a life-and-death struggle not just against nature but also the need to outsmart a group of villains with murder on their minds. It ought to make for an engaging movie but unfortunately that is not the case. Climber Kelly (Brittany Ashworth) suffered a trauma while attempting to scale a mountain. One year after the event she returns, accompanied by her friend Sophie (Anaïs Parello), determined to overcome her fears. However, a group of four macho males are partying in the area and their leader,…

Writer: Hannu Oravisto Director: Mika Kaurismäki Master Cheng is a delightful Finnish film set in Lapland. A sign outside Sirkka’s Diner announces it’s Sausage Tuesday. Inside a handful of older inhabitants nurse beers or queue to have ladlefuls of sausage and mash slapped on their plates. In walks Cheng (Pak Hon Chu) and his young son, Niu Niu (Lucas Hsuan) like visitors from outer space. There’s the language barrier – no one recognises the name ‘Fongtron’ which seems to be all Cheng knows. But there’s also a cultural one. When kindly Sirkka (Anna-Maija Tuokko) gives Niu Niu food, the child…

Writers: Etienne Essery, Declan McGrath and Neasa Ní Chianáin Directors: Declan McGrath and Neasa Ní Chianáin Could teaching philosophy to primary school boys resolve the situation in Northern Ireland? Headmaster Kevin McArevey seems to think so in this interesting documentary filmed before and after lockdown. His school, The Holy Cross Primary School for Boys, encourages pupils to attend to Seneca before they think about fighting. Belfast’s Ardoyne may look peaceful now, but ‘peace walls’ still divide the Catholics from the Protestants and it was only in 2001 when Loyalist protesters threw missiles at Catholic pupils as they made their way…

Writer and Director: Adam Oldroyd Even at the height of his career in the 1980s, Les Dennis never headlined a movie. And yet here we are in 2022 and the comedian / impressionist / game show host gets top billing in Sideshow, a crime comedy that feels far more end-of-pier than silver screen. Dennis plays Stuart Pendrick – AKA ‘The All Seeing Stupendo’, a washed out ‘psychic’ who is reduced to touring almost empty regional theatres reading minds and communicating with the spirits. After offending his entire audience of 30 or so people at one performance (much to the disgust…

Writers: Rafa Martinez, Andrés M. Koppel, Borja Glez. Santaollala, Michel Gaztambide, Rowan Athale Director: Jaume Balagueró The Royal Bank of Spain’s underground vault is famous both for the quantities of gold it stores and for its legendary security system. Should intruders trigger it, a 16-ton door will seal them into the vault. To add to the horror, this also activates an immediate flood of water which fills the space. Jaume Balagueró isn’t the first film maker to imagine a fictional heist of this real-life vault. It was the thrilling focus of Season Three of Alex Pina’s massively successful Netflix series,…

Writer: Roger MacDougall Director: Basil Dearden There has been a mini revival of Dirk Bogarde films in the last year with the re-release of The Servant. Now a rather surprising return for The Gentle Gunman, the 1952 film set during the Second World War that comes with a health warning about historic vocabulary and attitudes which in this case translates as ‘will offend Irish people’. An IRA story about sacrifice and leadership, the message about choosing the war effort over domestic battles has not aged well. When a terrorist incident goes wrong on the London Underground, IRA member Matt Sullivan…

Writer and Director:  William E Badgley Punk is often thought of as white people’s music, but take a listen to The Clash’s London Calling, X-Ray Spex’s Identity and The Slit’s Typical Girls and the Ska beat is easy to hear. Punk music has its roots in the dub reggae that DJ Don Letts used to play in the Roxy, the legendary punk club in Covent Garden.  Don Letts is just as much an architect of Punk as Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. He also documented the scene and made films about The Clash. Rebel Dread, a documentary about Letts himself,…

Director: Adán Bonet Returning to work after having a baby is hard enough for Olympic athletes but to do it in the middle of a pandemic adds an extra level struggle for artistic swimming captain Ona Cabonell whose new documentary Starting Over captures the year-long process of returning to elite competitive sport. Part against-the-odds sports movie, part campaign film for nursing mothers in sport, Adán Bonet’s documentary charts the highs and lows of being a working mother. When the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were delayed by a year, Cabonell grasps her chance to get back into shape and re-join the Spanish…