A star making performance from 7-year-old Brooklyn Prince sits at the centre of Sean Baker’s excellent, humane story — Set against the backdrop of The Magic Castle, a three-story, bright purple budget hotel just outside Disney in Orlando, The Florida Project is a story about the poverty stricken families that live adjacent to wealth. What makes the film stand out is the humanity that director Sean Baker brings to…

Just a big bundle of wonderfulness — There is a moment near the beginning of Paddington 2 to which my reaction was simply to sit, mouth agape, and revel in the wonderment that was unfolding. The scene introduces us to the film’s central item, its Maltese Falcon if you will: an antique pop-up book of London. The…

This sequel takes the unusual approach of ruining everything that worked in the original while doubling down on all of its problems. Shockingly, it doesn’t work. — I, like many others, rather enjoyed the first Kingsman movie. It was an energetic and flashy spy pastiche, unfortunately marred by an ugly streak of chauvinism. While much of the first film didn’t sit right with me for that reason, I allowed myself to become caught up in its charm…

Nikolaj Arcel has forgotten the face of his father — It’s rare that you come across a film that is completely bland yet also needs to be longer. Nikolaj Arcel’s The Dark Tower adaptation is fairly unique in that sense, which is good, because that’s about the most interesting thing about the film. I haven’t read Stephen King’s series of…

Soderbergh’s latest is a thoroughly good-time but is still a step away from greatness — Steven Soderbergh has always been a fairly unpredictable director. What wasn’t unpredictable, though, was his return to film-making. After a five year “retirement” that saw him directing, shooting and editing two seasons of television in addition to executive producing three other shows and two films, one of which he also…

This Judd Apatow produced comedy star vehicle is everything a rom-com should aim to be — There is a common trap that many emotionally charged romantic comedies fall into. Often, the film starts as a comedy but as the emotional investment and drama intensifies, the laughs are forgotten. Not so with Michael Showalter’s The Big Sick. Based on the real life relationship of its co-writers, this…

Excellent action and style to spare, but a dull, muddled plot keeps David Leitch’s latest from truly hitting the mark — Atomic Blonde is a stylish movie. Painted almost entirely with neon, David Leitch’s solo directorial debut is as violent as you’d expect, with the stuntman-cum-director delivering action sequences that are as visceral and exciting as anything you’re likely to see this year. …

Jessica Williams doesn’t miss her chance for ascension, but otherwise this is an uninspired rom-com — The Incredible Jessica James is unashamedly a star vehicle for its lead, Jessica Williams, and in this regard it succeeds. Williams is confident, watchable and her star is definitely on the rise. If the surrounding film wasn’t so by the numbers and remarkably unfunny, The Incredible Jessica James might have…

Marti Noxon’s anorexia drama doesn’t do enough to justify its subject matter — I came away from To The Bone, Netflix’s anorexia-focused drama, with little idea of what it was trying to achieve. The idea of social responsibility with a film like this is a difficult one, and not something I claim to have the answer to. There is, however, surely some artistic…