Film of the week

The Whale

This extraordinary film, with its vice-like grip on our emotions, is a truly awesome tour de force. Brendan Fraser gives a performance which is truly unforgettable as a tortured soul, hardly able to move and facing his imminent death. Fraser imbues him with a rare spirituality, and with all his failings, his sins become a metaphor for humanity and all its flaws.

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Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

“This is a great film for children, though the Wolf might be a bit too scary for tinies. But its wit, style and gloriously colourful, fast moving animation also make it quite sophisticated fare for adult audiences, too.”

Knock At The Cabin

“Big ideas swirl through the narrative, touching on race, class and religion, plus a pungent comment on homophobia. Deploying expert camerawork and editing, Shyamalan challenges the audience to shift its perspective from scepticism to belief.”

Saint Omer

“A quiet film, no bangs, no guns, just human tension and information given us gradually, slowly and with anxiety. And the acting is sublime. It’s France’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards. Good luck Saint Omer. I’m rooting for you. You deserve to win.”

She is Love

“The story line gets tangled in a bright idea someone has and while Idris and Patricia playing games, drinking and looking back at their past, proves interesting they are actually quite hard to like. The performances are all good and Cornwall looks lovely but the sum of the parts does not add up to a satisfactory whole.”

EO

“EO is tale on Europe seen through a donkey’s eyes. No, don’t be put off. This is a remarkable film and every bit as astonishing as any modern human socio-political drama. This is a very grown-up film, unsentimental and edgy.”

Broker

“Thrown together, all four generations – surrogate grandfather, couple, child and baby – bond into a kind of family. Each celebrates the humanity and worth of the others despite their faults. It’s joyful. We can’t help liking the characters even though their actions are reprehensible.”

Also inside …

The latest reviews

See what our team think of this week’s films … and you can also browse our extensive archive of reviews.

The new releases

All the great new films which are coming to your local cinema and streaming in the next couple of months.

Movie news

Catch up with the latest film news and gossip from Hollywood with our newsfeed from FirstShowing.net

Who won what

Your guide to the winners of the major movie awards in the last 12 months from the Oscars to the Razzies

UK cinema screens

Tickets sold monthly

Films released yearly

Meet our team

Russell Forgham

MANAGING EDITOR
Former Fleet Street journalist, lifelong film buff and co-founder of Movies1. When he’s not watching films he helps people at Citizens Advice and is an intrepid traveller and has visited every continent in the world – including Antarctica.

Marianne Gray

EDITOR
Former president of the British Critics’ Circle and teaches young filmmakers how to criticise a film for the BFI. She is also a director of Peckhamplex in London and has written biographies of Gerard Depardieu and Jeanne Moreau.

Carol Allen

Carol has been a film critic since 1980 and has contributed to the
BBC, LBC, The Times, Cosmopolitan, New Woman, 9-5, Close-Up Film and others. She also teaches drama to older people though her charity Cat’s Whiskers Community Arts.

Alexa Dalby

A film journalist since 1990, reviewing and interviewing for press and radio. Alexa is especially interested in independent and non-English-language films and is co-editor of a specialist website. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.

Camila E Sotomayor

Trained as an architect and completed her PhD on the subject of material decay, drawing greatly from film-making for references. She is currently writing an illustrated children’s book on climate change and our own ageing.

Rich Cline

A freelance writer, editor and broadcaster, Rich is chair of the London Film Critics’ Circle. Born in Los Angeles, he has lived in London for more than three decades and covers film, theatre and dance for BBC Radio, Shadows on the Wall and other outlets.

Richard Fitzwilliams

Royal commentator, film critic, lecturer and public relations consultant. He has has done over 1,000 TV interviews, written numerous articles and is
the weekly film critic for Talk Radio Europe (Spain) and Siren FM (Lincoln University).

Jonathan Hart

Jonathan has worked as a film journalist for Scotland on Sunday, CNN Entertainment in New York and many radio shows. He is the Associate Director of the French Film Festival and has interviewed hundreds of stars.

Dennis Leachman

Retired engineer and a movie junkie ever since he saw North by Northwest four times in 1960, just in time for the flowering of the French New Wave, and Ingmar Bergman, Satyajit Ray and all those great names of that time.

William Russell

Former political journalist on the Glasgow Herald and for 24 years the paper’s film critic as well as one of its theatre critics, As well as reviewing films for Movies1 he also reviews theatre for the long-running website Reviewsgate.

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