BAFTA 2019 Film Awards: picks and pans

Posted on February 10, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Lots of good films and performances this year but some disappointing omissions among the BAFTA Film Awards nominations … good luck to all, especially ‘Roma’ (above) and ‘Cold War’. Continue reading →

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FILM REVIEW: Adam McKay’s ‘Vice’

Posted on January 27, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – American writer-director Adam McKay’s political satire ‘Vice’ does for Washington what his 2015 film ‘The Big Short’ did for Wall Street with the same mix of techniques that includes sharp humour, characters speaking to camera, flashbacks and sublime acting. Continue reading →

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Russell Baker: a gift ‘for fooling around with words’

Posted on January 23, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – The great New York Times columnist Russell Baker, who has died aged 93, was one of my journalistic heroes and when I interviewed him in 1989 he turned out to be everything I’d hoped. He was an old-time newspaperman who never cared about scoops. Continue reading →

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‘Roma’, ‘The Favourite’, ‘Cold War’ top London critics awards

Posted on January 21, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – There were few surprises at the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards on Sunday as Alfonso Cuaron’s black-and-white Spanish drama ‘Roma’ won best picture and he was named best director while costume romp ‘The Favourite’ picked up four prizes including best British/Irish film and Polish drama ‘Cold War’ won two including best foreign-language film. Pedro Almodóvar (pictured above with Judi Love and Tamsin Greig) accepted the annual Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Filmmaking. Continue reading →

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FILM REVIEW: Josie Rourke’s ‘Mary Queen of Scots’

Posted on January 14, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Josie Rourke’s pedestrian costume saga ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ offers a revisionist and modernist view of the would-be monarch who threatened Elizabeth I’s reign and was executed aged 44 in 1587 but it fails to convince. Continue reading →

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FILM REVIEW: Jon S. Baird’s ‘Stan & Ollie’

Posted on January 11, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Jon S. Baird’s ‘Stan & Ollie’ appears well intended but it has two central problems. One is the decision to portray the great silent comics Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as sad clowns and the other is the impossibility of anyone matching their unique genius. Continue reading →

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‘The Favourite’ set to clean up at the Bafta film awards

Posted on January 9, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – This year’s Bafta Film Awards nominations are predictably conventional but it hardly matters as the immensely popular ‘The Favourite’ (pictured) is a shoo-in for many of its 12 nominations including the actress prizes, Brits Christian Bale and Richard E. Grant are odds-on to win the acting gongs and ‘Roma’ will sweep just about everything else. Continue reading →

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A critic’s lament: Do you see what I see?

Posted on January 2, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear? Those imponderables challenge a critic with every review. For me, Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Roma’ is the best film of 2018 but a friend has a problem with it. Experienced and wise, an artist himself, a cultured man of taste, he writes: “I need your help. I haven’t been watching a lot of films for the past several years and am finally starting to do so again. The other night I decided to watch the screener of ‘Roma’. There was nothing in the first hour that made me want to sit through the second hour. What am I missing? Besides the second hour, or is it all in the second hour?” Continue reading →

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‘Roma’, ‘Cold War’ lead my Top 10 film picks of 2018

Posted on January 1, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – One of the great advantages of being a member of the Critics’ Circle and BAFTA is that distributors send out dozens of screeners of films for which they seek consideration in the annual awards. It means that sometimes months after seeing a movie, we have the chance to view it again and perhaps again. As a result, opinions can and do change. Continue reading →

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Ed McBain tops my 2018 reading list

Posted on December 30, 2018 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Evan Hunter was an American writer who wrote several novels that were made into movies including Richard Brooks’s ‘Blackboard Jungle’ (above) starring Glenn Ford and featuring Sidney Poitier and Vic Morrow but known best for its opening credits song, ‘Rock Around the Clock’ by Bill Haley and the Comets. Continue reading →

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