Sex addiction and group therapy may not seem like laughing matters, but Thanks for Sharing attempts to buck the angsty trend.

True to its title, this film is a masterclass in storytelling.

Air travel is a rather tedious affair, but not so when you’re in the hands of Pedro Almodóvar.

Cate Blanchett is a force of nature in Woody Allen’s latest, which leaves viewers not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

A charming and visually appealing tale filled with energy, humour and heart - yet without a hint of sentimentality.

  There’s no doubting the tremendous impact Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has had upon contemporary culture (especially as I’m typing this on a Macbook!), so upon his untimely passing in 2011, it was only a matter of time until biopics appeared on our cinema screens. Pipping Aaron Sorkin’s (The Social Network) much-anticipated screenplay to the post is newcomer Matt Whitely, director Joshua Michael Stern (Swing Vote) and Ashton Kutcher in the iconic role. Kutcher makes a remarkable transformation to embody Jobs from his college dropout 20s through the tech-geek highs and gut-churning lows of Apple’s computing evolution (remember, Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985), to his mid-40s and into the black-skivvy and round-spectacled figurehead we all came to know. Through it all, Kutcher plays Jobs with a fierce passion and fiery temper, but emoting to the brink of tears in almost every scene ultimately proves wearying for an audience wanting to get to know the man behind the Apple. Indeed anyone familiar with Jobs’ extraordinary Stanford commencement speech will learn scant more from this well meaning, middle-of-the-road biopic. There is just about enough to entertain, but Stern’s paint-by-numbers approach does little to celebrate Jobs’ most famous injunction to “Think…

Seen through the eyes of a six-year-old, this film about the spectre of divorce makes for haunting viewing indeed. Directing team Scott McGehee and David Siegel (Bee Season) deftly transpose the 19th-century England of Henry James’ novel What Maisie Knew to modern-day Manhattan, and craft some remarkable gilded cages for their pint-sized protagonist (Onata Aprile). Maisie might want for nothing materially, but the emotional vacuum created (or preceded?) by the increasingly vicious separation of her parents – fading rock star Susanna (Julianne Moore) and British art dealer Beale (Steve Coogan) – is nothing short of suffocating. This abandonment is put into sharper relief by the hasty remarriages on both sides, where the new, much younger partners Margo (Joanna Vanderham) and Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgård) are each quite literally left “holding the baby”. Keeping the camera low to align the audience with Maisie’s perspective, McGehee and Siegel capture an absolutely astounding performance from young Aprile. Devastatingly natural, her largely observational role is complemented by a similarly compelling supporting cast. Moore in particular is blisteringly good in her rendition of a narcissistic rock chick, and while Coogan’s Beale is just as negligent, it’s a film that is fascinating to discuss and find out…

A visceral, mind-bending curio, Upstream Color isn’t for the faint of heart… or stomach! But for those brave souls willing to wade in to auteur Shane Carruth’s willfully enigmatic, narratively fractured story, you will be rewarded with a spine-tinglingly unforgettable voyage. In a film that leeches into
 you like watercolour on canvas; the less you know about the 
story going in, the better. But in broad brushstrokes, I can reveal that Carruth co-stars alongside 
a spellbinding Amy Seimetz, 
and the pair play two troubled strangers, mysteriously drawn together by forces beyond their control. As Kris, Seimetz’s physical transformation is harrowing at times, at others, thrillingly triumphant. And it’s a testimony to Carruth’s staggering visual and sonic artistry that Kris’ vulnerability reaches straight out from the screen and fuses with your own anima. Indeed, as a sensory experience, Upstream Color might find a more appreciative audience as an art installation. And yet the comforting cave of the cinema provides a welcomed sight, especially when the
 lights come back up and you’re grappling with what on earth you’ve just seen! Buoyed by captivating performances and a palpable spirit, Carruth leads us into deep existential waters, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll…

This latest from independent US filmmaker Noah Baumbach is a joy, which is something I never thought I’d find myself writing. Baumbach’s turf has been angsty dramas about New York intellectuals like The Squid and the Whale. His debut, Kicking and Screaming, has been his only comedy to date and that was nearly 20 years ago and more acerbically droll than infectious. This time, though, he’s teamed up with actor Greta Gerwig, his current belle, and it’s a creative marriage forged in heaven or at least the Manhattan equivalent. Gerwig, who co-wrote the script with Baumbach, plays the eponymous Frances, an adorably klutzy, late 20s girl-women and aspiring ballerina, caught at that difficult moment where her career and romantic life should be taking off but just aren’t going anywhere. That doesn’t stop her from moments of giddy, child- like pleasure with best friend Sophie (Mickey Sumner). Baumbach has made a female answer to Woody Allen’s Annie Hall as if directed by Truffaut or the Godard of Breathless, an insouciant film that blends lightness and spontaneity with everyday frustration and heartache. It may seem nobody had to work too hard to make this happy-sad soufflé, but I bet you they did. Continue reading…

  In Sofia Coppola’s based-on-a-true-story The Bling Ring, well-off LA teens obsessed with celebrities and fashion break into the homes of their tawdry idols to steal their clothes, jewellery and loose cash, and are then dumb enough to boast about it to their schoolmates. Talk about a Zeitgeist-defining tale. Had these events not really occurred, Coppola would no doubt have been accused of creating thin and unbelievably shallow characters. Adapting her script from a feature in Vanity Fair, she has however created a vividly believable Instagram shot of contemporary pop culture at its lowest ebb, her jabs at the vacuousness and narcissism of these spoilt kids’ lives coming across as sharply chiseled satire where they could easily have appeared as cheap shots. There isn’t a whole lot of plotting here, beyond a few character sketches interspersed by a series of robberies (the kids get into Paris Hilton’s home by correctly assuming she’d be stupid enough to leave a key under the mat), so at times it feels a little thin. But aided by a lively young cast (headed by ex-Harry Potter star Emma Watson), the writer-director creates a film that entertains as much as it appalls. Continue reading Get unlimited…

I knew nothing about this French drawing room farce before seeing it, yet walking out I was certain it had to be based on a successful play – and indeed it is. Making its stage origins obvious is the restricted setting, a bourgeois Parisian apartment during a calamitous dinner party, while the clue to its popularity (the film was also a big domestic hit) lies in the sheer polish of its construction, which locates it in a tradition reaching back through The Dinner Game and La Cage aux Folles to farceur Georges Feydeau. Stressed-out hosts Elisabeth (Valérie Benguigui) and Pierre (Charles Berling) find their intimate soirée going wrong the moment her crass brother Vincent (Patrick Bruel) reveals the shocking name chosen for the baby his wife Anna (Judith El Zein) is carrying. Issues of good taste and responsibility gradually give way to class prejudice and shocking revelation. Adapting their own material, directors Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere keep it all moving at breakneck speed while adding necessary moments of repose, and the actors (who, with the exception of Berling, reprise their stage roles) give it their all. But while it’s always engaging and often amusing, I can’t say…

How do you recover from shooting a behemoth like The Avengers?