‘The Shape of Water’ leads BAFTA 2018 film nominations

Posted on January 9, 2018 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – The BAFTA Film Awards nominations for 2018 are the usual mix of richly deserved and dubious possibilities with full marks for the inclusion of ‘The Shape of Water’ (pictured) and ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ but dismay at the exclusion of the film ‘Lady Bird’ and its director, Greta Gerwig, and Simon Russell Beale for ‘The Death of Stalin’.

Guillermo Del Toro’s marvellous beauty-and-the beast fantasy copped 12 nominations including best film, best director, original screenplay, best actress for Sally Hawkins and best supporting actress for Octavia Spencer. Martin McDonagh’s riveting tale of violence and redemption in a small town matched that with nominations for best film, director, original screenplay, and best actress for Golden Globes-winner Florence McDormand among its nine, which also included nods for best supporting actor for Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson. Continue reading →

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‘Shape ofWater’, ‘Three Billboards’ in London crix noms

Posted on December 19, 2017 by admin

Announcement today by the  Film Critics Circle, of which I am a proud member.

LONDON, 19 DECEMBER 2017: The UK’s leading film critics today announced the nominations for the 38th annual London Critics’ Circle Film Awards presented by Dover Street Entertainment. Martin McDonagh’s drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was out front with seven nominations, including Film, Director, Screenwriter, Actress for Frances McDormand, and Supporting Actor for both Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson. In addition, as a British production the film is nominated for British/Irish Film of the Year. Continue reading →

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FILM REVIEW: Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Blade Runner 2049’

Posted on October 7, 2017 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – ‘What if?” movies provide some of the most entertaining and thought provoking moments in cinema and there’s a good deal to enjoy in the sci-fi sequel “Blade Runner 2049” but its key “what if?” question gives it a hollow core.

Like Ridley Scott’s 1982 original, based on Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, it’s set in a grim, dystopian future where human beings interact with hybrid robots called replicants. In the first, the job of grizzled detective Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is to hunt down androids who threaten to outlive their designated use-by date as they tend to become dangerous. Continue reading →

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FIMUCITÉ concert: ‘Stephen King’s Night Gallery’

Posted on October 2, 2017 by admin

By Ray Bennett

TENERIFE – A celebration of music from screen versions of stories by the world’s most popular horror writer, which  closed Fimucitê on Saturday night, featured world premieres of cues from the much-loved 1990 TV adaptation of “It” by Richard Bellis and the current hit feature film by Benjamin Wallfisch. Continue reading →

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FIMUCITÉ concert: ‘Sword & Sorcery’

Posted on October 1, 2017 by admin

By Ray Bennett

TENERIFE – Movie composer Trevor Jones (below left), whose credits over an almost 40-year career include “Labyrinth”, “Angel Heart”, “Mississippi Burning”, “The Last of the Mohicans”, “Brassed Off!” and “Notting Hill”, was celebrated for his scores for fantasy films in a Fimucité concert titled “Sword & Sorcery: Symphonic Chronicles of a Legendary Era” at the Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martín in Santa Cruz on Friday night. Continue reading →

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FIMUCITÉ Concert: Warriors From the Silver Screen

Posted on September 30, 2017 by admin

By Ray Bennett

TENERIFE – “Exceptional!” That’s the word used by maestro Diego Navarro – the superstar of the Fimucité Film Music Festival, who knows a thing or two about great orchestras – to describe the performance of the festival’s Youth Symphony Orchestra at a concert of famous scores from action movies Thursday night. Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Scott Cooper’s ‘Hostiles’

Posted on September 16, 2017 by admin

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – Scott Cooper opens his muscular Western tale “Hostiles” with a horrifying sequence of slaughter and he sustains a palpable level of dread as a group of travellers journey hundreds of miles through some of the most gorgeous landscape in America. It’s a constant reminder that the most dangerous element of wilderness can be human.

Handsome and intense, the film tells of a small unit of cavalry officers ordered to escort an imprisoned Cheyenne family north from New Mexico to Montana so their dying chief may be laid to rest in traditional burying grounds. It’s 1892 and the Indian Wars are mostly over although renegades haven’t given up the fight. The U.S. Army and the region’s Native Americans have gone at each other with equal savagery and the scars show on both the soldiers and their tribal foe. Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Aaron Sorkin’s ‘Molly’s Game’

Posted on September 15, 2017 by admin

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – Aaron Sorkin’s “Molly’s Game” assumes that to watch obnoxious rich men play the most boring form of poker is actually entertaining. Its story of a glamorous woman whose attempts to exploit the bad behaviour of bullies and weaklings with a gambling habit is redeemed only by the poise and subtlety of star Jessica Chastain in the title role. Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’

Posted on September 14, 2017 by admin

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” is so full of surprises that when Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), carries an open bottle of wine across a restaurant toward a table where her ex-husband sits with his pretty young girlfriend, there’s no way to tell if she will pour them some wine or smash them in the face.

Tormented by sorrow and guilt, Mildred is in furious despair following the rape and murder of her teenaged daughter Angela. Frustrated by the lack of action by local authorities, she vents some anger and stirs more in others when she rents three billboards on the road where Angela died and covers them with provocative protests. Local reaction is mixed except among law officers who feel insulted with predictable results. Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Joe Wright’s ‘Darkest Hour’

Posted on September 14, 2017 by admin

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – Gary Oldman is an unlikely choice to play Winston Churchill but his portrayal of the iconic British statesman in Joe Wright’s ‘Darkest Hour’ is masterful and bound for all the major awards. He is supported by a strong cast who with good pacing by director Joe Wright overcome the script’s mawkish nostalgia and jingoism to hold it all together. Continue reading →

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