Children of Men

Children of Men (2006) may be set in 2027 but it is a film for our times. It imagines a world where women are infertile and this has plunged society as we know it into chaos, plagued by environmental collapse. England has become a police state with armed... 

Love Actually

Richard Curtis is a terrific writer of comedy – no question. He has had unmitigated success ranging from TV’s Blackadder through to global blockbuster hits like Four Weddings, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary. It’s not surprising... 

Kinky Boots

Kinky Boots (2005) is very much in the tradition of Brassed Off (1996) and The Full Monty (1997): plucky, working class underdogs from a depressed English factory town that learn to think outside the box in order to survive economically – all under... 

Inside Man

Spike Lee is the last filmmaker you’d imagine making a slick heist film for a major studio and yet that is exactly what he’s done with Inside Man (2006), a cleverly staged and executed thriller. What’s even more incredible is that this intricately... 

Serenity

Can’t Stop The Signal is the tagline for Serenity, the directorial debut of TV favourite Joss Whedon of Buffyand Angel fame, and it has a clever double meaning.  To begin with, the story of Serenityoriginated with a cult TV show from 2002 called... 

Four Brothers

The set-up for Four Brothers (2005) is classic B-movie fodder: four buddies reunite after many years to avenge the death of a loved one. As young foster kids they were considered to be lost causes and a kind woman (Flanagan) raised them on her own. Present... 

Serenity

In 2002, Joss Whedon was enjoying considerable success writing and directing episodes for three TV shows that he had created: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. The latter was his new show and pet project – a funky hybrid of the science fiction... 

Melinda and Melinda

Since the start of the ‘90s, Woody Allen’s films have been hit and miss affairs with audiences and critics alike. And yet, he continues to average a film a year, keeping his head down and plugging away, so that it almost becomes a right of passage...