Marvellous entertainment
storytelling and visual flair.
Inspired by a real-life incident in the late 1920s, this is a tale that draws you in with its colourful characters and grips, haunts and outrages with its scenarios and injustice
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Built around grieving mother Mildred Hayes’ (a quite brilliant Frances McDormand) quest for justice in a small town, Martin McDonagh brings all his playwrighting and film-making skills to bear in creating a simply stunning, subversive tale.
This is a movie that will leave you exhilarated, exhausted and entertained as you experience a vast range of emotions during its near two-hour running time.
Three Identical Strangers
Perfectly paced and cleverly constructed using archival footage and modern-day interviews, Tim Wardle’s documentary draws you into this fascinating mystery from the opening moments and will leave you shellshocked by its revelations.
A kind of Project Nim-meetsThe Truman Show by way of The Wolfpack, the director does a terrific job of slowly revealing the real horrors of the situation when Eddy Galland, David Kellman and Bobby Shafran discovered the truth about their doppelganger looks.
They Shall Not Grow Old
Aimed at creating a soldier’s eyeview of the four-year conflict, this World War I documentary is a stunning piece of cinema, an engrossing and enlightening look at historic events and a moving tribute to those who fought for Britain in the fields of Europe.
What is particularly striking is how understated director Sir Peter Jackson is in his approach. There’s no sign of a syrupy score, the soldiers’ reflections are supplemented only by dialogue Jackson and his cohorts have attempted to ‘‘recreate’’ (using lip readers) from the silent footage and the colour only comes in when we reach the trenches.
The Wife
Based on Meg Wolitzer’s 2003 novel of the same name, this is a slow-burning drama that richly rewards the patient viewer.
It helps greatly that this features a trio of terrific performances. Christian Slater and Jonathan Pryce are fabulous as deliciously flawed characters, but it’s Glenn Close whose turn sears into the memory. She’s always had an ability to switch emotional gears in an instant, but here, her ‘‘awakening’’ offers truly compelling viewing.