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franceskelsey
Reviews
The Foreigner (2017)
Jackie Chan at his best
Fast-paced and with a realistic thriller plot - this film never lets up. I really hoped it would be a TV series as I could have watched it for hours. Both Chan and Brosnan are superb - as are all the supporting cast. Great thriller.
C'mon C'mon (2021)
Endearing film with fabulous leads
While the story of a busy filmmaker stuck with an ADD child for a week might not sound like the most original plot, it feels original here. There is nothing fake or filmic in this black and white tale which feels more like a personal snapshot into a life. Phoenix is totally natural with the kid (Woody Norman) - who is so extraordinary, I thought he was an American kid with Aspergers. Turns out he's a Brit actor and he is TRULY EXCEPTIONAL. Why on earth wasn't he nominated in this years' Oscars?? This is a beautifully crafted tale (and stunningly shot by Robbie Ryan) about the best qualities that make up a human.
Division 19 (2017)
How the future will unravel
Judging by some of the reviews, the film is somewhat of an IQ test. Not for the spoon-fed, the film (which isn't technically a sci-fi) looks at a future which turns out to be increasingly like our present. Everybody is watched, logged, owned by the state. The three storylines seem to cover what it's like to be trapped by the state (Jamie Draven), what you can do to escape the state (Toby Hemingway) and how the state copes with the threat of a parallel, decentralised structure (Linus Roache/Alison Doody). Yes, it may take a couple of viewings to fully get the message, but as a study in what the future could look like unless we get a grip of it both financially and in regard to surveillance, it is at least intelligent take on our relationship to our 'democratic' world, even if the message is sometimes given priority to the characters. In real life, being merely a pawn is something to avoid. Those more used to fantastical storylines such as accountants morphing instantaneously into martial arts experts, may not take kindly to characters who are almost powerless to the will of the state.
Two Minute Warning (1999)
Philip French Review
I have just caught up with Suzie Halewood's splendid Two Minute Warning. In this bracing two-minute film, a youngish movie-goer is driven to the brink by an audience of people loudly eating, snogging, chatting, conversing, crunching packets and sucking straws and he takes a terrible revenge on the tall man in the hat sitting in front of him and blocking half the screen. This picture should be shown for a year in every cinema in the country. By law if necessary.
Rocket Man II (1995)
Einstein explains relativity
I've always been a big fan of Sean Hughes and have been looking through his past works. This one came up as it was a Venice FF nominee so I gave it a whirl. Though I'm trained as a physicist, I found this hilarious and while Sean is Irish, he perfectly encapsulated the discombobulated other worldliness of a genius adrift. While you may not be any nearer to understanding relativity by the end of it, this is a clever little comedy which takes on a massive subject in the a warped space-time of 10 mins. And Sean is great.