Black Widow (2021)

We learn more about Natasha Romanov's childhood in this action thriller that is thankfully, refreshingly a Marvel superhero movie made with adults in mind with the sort of globetrotting locations and over-the-top hi-tech-villainry (and then some) found in James Bond movies.

★★★☆☆

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The Mercy (2017)

In 1968, Douglas Crowhurst entered a competition to solo-race around the world by boat and what happened aboard the Teignmouth Electron, a trimaran of his own design, while on land energy was high for his Boy's-Own Adventure, makes for gripping viewing with a terrific performance from Colin Firth as Crowhurst and a career-best performance from Rachel Weisz as his poor wife - but don't be fooled by that hopeful, heroic stare on the poster: it's grim.

★★★★☆

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Denial (2016)

I remember Holocaust denier David Irving being barred entry to Australia when I was in primary school and I was visiting Auschwitz last year when I learned denying the Holocaust is illegal in Poland (and many other countries, apparently), so I was interested to catch this dramatisation of the 1996 courtcase that Irving brought against writer Deborah Esther Lipstadt, whom Irving claimed defamed him, to think more about matters of historical truth, historical revisionism, historical denial and freedom of speech and to see how these issues are handled legally, but the movie presents such stuff in only a very minor, not very gripping small-screen way and like Wilkinson's defence lawyer, resists giving Timothy Spall's Irving time or even a look in the face, instead focusing on the go-nowhere character foibles and dull personal details of the defence team as a means of padding out the story, when in fact far more fascinating would have been finally letting Irving in, finally letting him speak, and finally allowing viewers like me to stare hard at him to understand how he came to be such a vexatious denier and why Wilkinson's defence lawyer, the Australian Government, and the world censors his patently obvious lies.

★★☆☆☆

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The Favourite (2018)

Director Yorgis Lanthimos's latest and most accessible movie to date tells of Queen Anne's friendships with the privileged Lady Sarah and 'downstairs' Abigail, two women in competition to be the Queen's favourite; sumptuous period detail, a cracker performance by Olivia Coleman as Queen Anne, and titled chapters that recall Barry Lyndon help disguise the fact that this is essentially an episode of Melrose Place transported to the 1700s - one of the ones where Jane Mancini and her sister Sydney Andrews fight and end up in the pool.

★★★★☆

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My Cousin Rachel (2017)

The trouble with Daphne du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel, whether this very beautifully photographed and finely acted new version, the 1952 Olivia de Havilland version, or any version at all is that viewers are supposed to question the motivations of a foreign woman and ask themselves whether she is a loose opportunist, while extending sympathy towards an immature, impestuous privacy invader, domestic abuser and effective murderer.

★★★☆☆

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The Constant Gardener (2005)

A political intrigue involving British government officials and drug companies plays out in Africa in this mostly satisfying film adaptation of the John le Carré novel, with Rachel Weisz playing an aid worker who dies mysteriously after uncovering a conspiracy and Ralph Fiennes her diplomat husband left to fill-in the movie's two-hour run-time until an unlikely but convenient "reveal-all" letter is finally dug up.

★★★☆☆

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Constantine (2005)

Keanu Reeves need only don a black suit and tie and a movie starts earning rating stars, but unless you're a DC/Vertigo Hellblazer fanboy, this mix of dour Catholic exorcism horror, toony villains, and Matrix-style rock'n'roll action doesn't warrant any more.

★★☆☆☆

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The Lovely Bones (2009)

Like Patrick Swayze's Sam in Ghost, the girl in this movie moves into a limbo state after her murder, but unlike Sam in Ghost, her limbo (a dreamlike state like in The Cell) has no narrative purpose: while her presence is felt by her family members, it does nothing to help their investigation into her disappearance, and with no real connection to the events of the film, her limbo and her particularly daft Oda Mae Brown moment towards the movie's end are meaningless gimmicks in a long mystery-free drama about an absurd trap-building serial killer.

★☆☆☆☆

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The Lobster (2015)

Several analogies about relationships and singledom, each of momentary interest, are thrown together into one excruciatingly long, incredibly boring mess of a movie about love in a rigidly dichotomous future world; it plays out like a five minute comedy skit stretched to two (or was it three?) hours and for all its effort, offers very little in the way of meaningful relationship insights.

★☆☆☆☆

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