Drama

Terence Davies’s uncompromisingly sombre film about Siegfried Sassoon reminded me of how Enoch Powell, at the nadir of his political self-pity, would moan to anyone who would listen: “I wish I had been killed in the war.”Benediction proceeds in a series of movie tableaux with a stylised theatricality, a cinematic magic lantern show with conventionally acted scenes, archive first world war footage, grim clinical photographs, back-projections and superimpositions from which the figure of Siegfried Sassoon emerges: the hero…

Jungle Cry trailer and release date are out. Streaming platform Lionsgate Play has released a nearly two-and-a-half-minute-long trailer for the Hindi-language feature film, which gives fans a look at what to expect from the sports drama and confirms the release date as June 3. Jungle Cry trailer begins with football coach Rudraksh Jena, played by Abhay Deol, convincing children from tribal communities to join a school where they will get free food and accommodation. As the trailer progresses, we meet rugby coach Paul…

In what is clearly a passion project for star and producer Mark Wahlberg, the redemptive arc of a self-destructive boxer turned Catholic priest gives plenty of opportunities for montages of shirtless brawling and, subsequently, a furrow-browed Wahlberg fiddling pensively with rosary beads. He plays Stuart Long, the real-life rough diamond who, after a near fatal accident, realised that he had been called into the service of the Lord.Playing out to the histrionic squalling of a country-infused score, this is film-making…

The Ukrainian director Oleh Sentsov famously doesn’t pull his punches. Previously sentenced to 20 years in prison by Moscow – the charge was terrorism, his crime was speaking out against the Russian annexation of Crimea – he was released in a prisoner swap and went on to make films that are every bit as muscular and confrontational as his political presence.The latest, Rhino, is a morality tale that unfolds in a 90s Ukrainian underworld full of bullet-headed hard men intent on creating chaos and division. But even among…

Never a director known for his gentle handling of an audience, Gaspar Noé applies the cinematic thumbscrews with his latest picture, in some ways his most punishing film to date. It’s also a world away, stylistically, from the bold, synapse-sizzling aesthetic of films such as Enter the Void and Climax.A painfully bleak portrait of an elderly couple at the end of their lives, Vortex is brutally matter-of-fact about the indignities of old age. The film’s one concession to Noé’s normally showy directing style is a…

It seems a modest little story at first, a cinematic wallflower content to cling to the corners of its tight, boxed-in aspect ratio, rather than thrust itself on to the audience. But while The Quiet Girl, Colm Bairéad’s multi-award-winning Irish-language drama, might be small in scale, it’s one of the most exquisitely realised films of the year. There’s a kinship with Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman in the crystalline delicacy of the storytelling and the way it plays on the heartstrings like a harp. It also calls to mind…

How much you enjoy The Essex Serpent, an Apple TV Plus adaptation of Sarah Perry’s 2016 novel, might depend on how much you enjoy seeing Tom Hiddleston brooding in a misty field while wearing cozy wool sweaters. For a lot of people, that will probably be enough of a hook. (It was for me.) But thankfully, the six-episode series offers a lot more than great hair blowing in the wind — it’s a tense and heartfelt exploration of grief and belief and how much those two things can mess with you. The great sweaters are just a…

Dir: Gaspar Noé. Starring: Dario Argento, Françoise Lebrun, Alex Lutz. 15, 142 minutes.I’ve repeatedly seen Vortex described as Gaspar Noé’s most compassionate film. Yet keep in mind that the filmmaker’s softest edge will still be as craggy as a rusty saw. Noé’s work plays exclusively in the key of chaos, violence, and despair, whether it be the still fervently debated sexual violence of Irréversible (2002), or the dance apocalypse contained inside of Climax (2018). In his debut, the psychological drama I Stand Alone…

By Jake Coyle | Associated Press “Happening,” Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion-winner at last year’s Venice Film Festival, is set in 1963 France but the period detail isn’t prominent. Instead, it’s an abortion tale that feels as though it could it could take place in many places, long ago or today. It’s filmed in square-like academy ratio and it’s as if the edges of the frame are closing in on Anne Duchesne (Anamaria Vartolomei), a smart literature student — maybe even a brilliant one; we see her define “anaphora” without…

In this de facto, if far from de jure, latest iteration of the Ted franchise, Mark Wahlberg once again forms a strange, almost inexplicable bond with a supernatural creature who tests him in a number of painful, problematic ways. However – surprise! – instead of a stuffed teddy bear that’s come to life, this time the agent of chaos is God himself, that omnipresent, omniscient, all-powerful scamp. God first makes the life of Wahlberg’s Stuart Long hard by taking away his little brother via a sudden death when they are…