It could have been a sweet, gay coming-of-age story about a girl whose sexual awakening is complicated by unwelcome gay mentorship from the ghost of her lesbian aunt. But there’s a disconnect between the naive but well-intentioned storytelling and the explosive swearing that ensures a 15 certificate and places the film out of reach of the younger teen audience who might, otherwise, have been its most receptive. Still, as Ellie and Abbie respectively, Sophie Hawkshaw and Zoe Terakes make light work of a somewhat heavy-handed screenplay.
Aftersun review – beach holiday with Paul Mescal and daughter is a sunny delight
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Charlotte Wells makes a rather amazing feature debut in the Critics Week sidebar of Cannes with Aftersun, starring Paul Mescal and nine-year-old newcomer Francesca Corio, about a divorced dad and his young daughter ta...
Helge Iberg: The Black on White album review – gently beautiful Beatles interpretations
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Yet another “fresh approach” to a selection of Beatles tunes? I almost let this one pass. But listening to the first few minutes was enough to keep me hanging on until the end. Helge Iberg is a Norwegian composer and ...
War Pony review – rousing tale of love and money on a Native American reservation
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Riley Keough is an actor who establishes her film-making credentials with this terrific debut feature, co-directed with Gina Gammell. It is a movie set on and around the Pine Ridge Native American reservation in South...
The Innocents review – psychic kids wreak havoc in chilling Norwegian horror
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Children can be cruel. Especially so when they think they won’t be caught. When a group of kids in a housing complex in suburban Norway develop uncanny powers – ranging from telekinesis to the ability to control the m...
Kendrick Lamar: Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers review – towards a state of grace
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A recurring motif anchors rapper Kendrick Lamar’s long-awaited fifth album – one that feels packed with meaning. The sound of tap dancing anchors this troubled and occasionally troubling double album, delayed by write...
Three Thousand Years of Longing review – Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba in Mad Max: fairy overload
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Grant the Mad Max fans a magic wish and they’d conjure up a new film from George Miller, right here and right now, not a moment to lose. It’s probably what they’ve been wanting since Fury Road trundled off into the de...
Brother and Sister review – sibling battle with Marion Cotillard that leaves us all losers
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Arnaud Desplechin has once again wheeled his bizarre sweet trolley into the Cannes restaurant: another clotted confection of tragi-romantic-comic gibberish. Desplechin is a Cannes fixture and his weirdly indulgent jeu...
Boy from Heaven review – stirring spy thriller set on an Egyptian campus
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Tarik Saleh is the Swedish-Egyptian director who made The Nile Hilton Incident in 2017, a shrewd, dyspeptic movie about the official corruption in Egypt that triggered the Tahrir Square uprising. Now in an era when th...