The Elephant Man produced by Mel Brooks and directed by David Lynch 1980

8 Academy award nominations and 3 BAFTA Wins including Best Film for The Elephant Man

Lindsey Lowson

2026-01-26T15:30:00.0000000 2026-01-26T16:27:31.1400000

Movie lovers and film buffs will be very familiar with this film, loosely based on the real life of a seriously disfigured and deformed man in the 19th century Joseph Merrick, named John Merrick in the movie. John Hurt plays Merrick in a mesmerizing performance that despite 8 academy award nominations failed to land a single one to mass outcry and protest from movie goers. The make up design so ground breaking the category for best make up at the Oscar’s was included the following year.

If you haven’t seen the film, make sure you have a box of tissues handy, it is heart breaking at times, tackling the themes of brutal social injustice and cruelty in Victorian England. It’s alleged producer Mel Brooks better known for comedy than high drama fought to get the film shot and released in black and white which really adds to the macabre gothic nature of the piece and in my view makes the film.

It’s an absolute classic for sure with an all star cast that includes names like Sir John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Hannah Gordon, Patricia Hodge, Michael Elphick, Pauline Quirk,in supporting roles along side Hurt, Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft as theatre star Mrs Kendal in the leading roles.

Frederick Treves is a physician who on discovering the plight of Mr. Merrick being held against his will as a believe it or not curiosity and exploited for money for viewings, rescues John Merrick dubbed “The Elephant Man” due to his severe deformities and takes him to reside at the London Hospital.

However as an incurable this benevolence goes against the policies of the Victorian hospital and Mr. Treves endures violent opposition to the Elephant Man staying in residence.

The doctor also faces his own questions surrounding the fame and accolades he is receiving from fellow medical practitioners and the newspapers about his unusual patient, who becomes the talk of London, attracting the attention of the theatre star of the day Mrs Kendal, played by Anne Bancroft.

But it is the contrasting violence and cruelty that hits hardest, as night watchman Jim Michael Elphick makes a market by night down the local boozer for working men and their whores to visit, view and humiliate Mr. Merrick by night for a price.

Some of these scene are the most brutal and upsetting in the whole piece and are not for the faint hearted challenging the hard times of the Victorian age and the lengths the poor would go to to make a fast buck.

After one such humiliation, Jim actually shares his takings with the battered, beleaguered and bewildered Mr. Merrick saying he had a particularly good night.

The film reaches a gripping conclusion when John Merrick is recaptured by his original circus ring master Mr Bytes, a cruel and heartless man played to perfection by the late Freddie Jones well known for his later role on British soap opera Sandy Thomas in Emmerdale.

This absolute gem of a British classic movie will move you tears but not before filling you with empathy and then forcing you to question your own prejudice and disassociation from the weakest and most vulnerable in society. Like a man so disfigured women scream at the very sight of him and how that exclusion, no life, no friends, no partner, no family, completely alone could ever been endured.

Shot with absolute precision, the film transports the audience to the streets of 19th century London, the cold, the damp, the harsh conditions permeate every frame from the dickenesque costumes to the street prostitutes and the machines and medical paraphernalia of the time.

It’s an exploration of great depth and meaning at a time in history when poverty created no room for human kindness and how the motivation of even the physician Mr. Treves had to be questioned, not by his peers, but first by a subordinate matron played by Wendy Hiller and then by himself.

This movie could be watched by teenagers but definitely not suitable for young children. It is the kind of film you can watch more than once. I watched again recently. It’s probably 5 years since I last saw it and there were powerful scenes like the reciting of the lines from Romeo and Juliet between Mrs Kendall and Mr. Merrick I’d absolutely forgotten the power of.

It is truly a beautiful piece of cinematic art that will touch anybody who likes deep, super deep story telling with gothic themes, historical backstory and enduring human emotions.

It runs for 2 hours 4 minutes and at release was categorised as a 12A

The Devil Has a Name (2019) review: Edward James Olmos’s darkly funny, angry environmental drama is an underrated gem

The Devil Has A Name 2019 an unexpected great film I wouldn’t have watched if I paid attention...

Lindsey Lowson

2026-01-05T11:03:00.0000000 2026-01-05T11:44:28.8600000

Every so often a film slips through the cultural net because its early notices are lukewarm, or because it arrives with the wrong packaging. The Devil Has a Name, which premiered in 2019, is one of those stealthy surprises: a ragged, righteously angry, unexpectedly funny environmental drama that I might have ignored had I paid attention to the consensus. I’m glad I didn’t. It’s a small miracle of nerve and verve—messy in places, yes, but propelled by a moral clarity and an old-fashioned crowd-pleasing spirit that’s hard to resist.

Directed by Edward James Olmos, the film dramatises a familiar David-versus-Goliath story: a stubborn, ageing farmer in California’s Central Valley discovers his groundwater has been poisoned and decides to drag a mighty oil conglomerate into the light. That set-up invites easy comparisons—Erin Brockovich, Dark Waters, the great American tradition of muckraking courtroom dramas—but Olmos aims for something stranger and more combustible. He blends the earnestness of a procedural with a streak of pitch-black humour and a faint whiff of frontier mythmaking. This isn’t a sober white-paper movie so much as a campfire tale told with a grin and a raised eyebrow, and it’s all the better for the personality.

It’s an American dark comedy film starring and directed by Edward James Olmos. It also stars David Strathairn, Kate Bosworth, Pablo Schreiber, Martin Sheen with Edwards James Olmos as Santiago and supporting stars like Alfred Molina, Haley Joel Osment and Kathleen Quinlan.

Fred Stern, a widower, played by David Strathairn discovers that his farmland is damaged after being exposed to harmful chemicals let out by an oil company. He then challenges Gigi Cutler, Kate Bosworth, the snotty head of a powerful oil association.

The movie was poorly rated on both IMDB 36% with only 25 reviews and on IMDB 5.5 out of 10 just showing you can’t rely on what other people say to determine whether you watch a film or not. I think it’s probably because the synopsis doesn’t exactly give the correct impression as to what the movie is like or about. I didn’t find the matriarchal oil boss, Gigi Cutler to be psychotic I thought she was brutal yes but totally calculated and in control even when slugging whiskey from a hip flask.

I ignored the reviews and decided to trust an epic cast who clearly trusted the director (American me 1992 and HBO’s Walkout which earned him a directors guild of America nomination) and co star of the movie based on true events, another draw for me.

It is billed as a comedy, a black comedy at that, it didn’t make me belly laugh although there was definitely humour in the script in a Tarantino, Kill Bill or Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Natural Born Killers, Oliver Stone kind of way. Except not so violent it’s a court room drama that tells the story of Shore Oil and Gas company’s cover up of dumping poisonous spill off on central California farmers land over 10 years and the legal battle that followed. The film covers themes of Corporate pollution, environmental destruction, the power of big business, and fighting for justice within a small time, Texan stereotypical frame work of misogyny, Stetson hats, tobacco chewing, cowboy boot wearing, bolo tie pinching, whiskey slugging back drop, Kate Bosworth included, the only person missing was Matthew Mcconahey, Lincoln Lawyer.

If you liked Dark Waters, a fantastic film and Erin Brockovich, starring the magnificent Oscar winning Julia Roberts this is one to watch for sure.

The Devil Has a Name (2019): the unexpectedly great film I’d have missed if I’d listened to the reviews

It helps that the film understands the land at its heart. You can almost taste the dust kicked up in orchards, feel the brittle anxiety of a drought-stricken economy, and sense how a farm becomes an extension of a person’s spine—what keeps them standing when everything else feels precarious. That embodied connection to place is what puts teeth in the story’s ethics: corporate malfeasance is not an abstract harm here; it’s the slow theft of a community’s future. When the film gets mad, it feels earned.

Much of the joy comes from the ensemble’s crackle. There’s a veteran lead whose flinty warmth makes the farmer’s stubbornness endearing rather than merely obstinate; he’s the sort of actor who can make silence feel like a rebuttal. Across the aisle sits a gallery of corporate operatives, some venal, some conflicted, all recognisably human even when their choices curdle into cruelty. The roles are sketched in bold strokes—one executive is almost comically ruthless, another a company lifer in denial—but the actors locate glimmers of doubt, pride and fear beneath the archetypes. That mix of caricature and nuance is emblematic of the film’s tonal gamble: it wants you to laugh at the absurdity of power while never letting you forget the stakes.

Olmos’s direction is unfussy but energetic. He keeps the camera where it can see people think—boardrooms, kitchen tables, the liminal spaces outside courtrooms where decisions are really made. When the film lunges into satire, he lets the frames breathe; when it tenses into a legal sparring match, the cuts tighten and the score nudges you forward. There are flourishes—a devilish recurring motif, a few punchline reveals—that might feel too theatrical for those who prefer their social drama with a strictly naturalistic finish. For me, those touches are exactly what lift the material: you feel the storyteller’s hand, and the storytelling is witty.

Why, then, did so many critics shrug? Some of the reasons are easy enough to see. The tonal seesaw is real. In one scene, you’re watching a heartfelt funeral for a way of life; in the next, you’re confronted with a suit delivering a monologue so nakedly villainous it edges on comic-book territory. A few speeches lay out the themes with billboard clarity. There’s at least one character who seems to have stumbled in from a satire two shades darker than the rest of the film. If you demand polish and tonal purity, you’ll notice the rough edges.

But those edges are part of the charm. The film’s broadness is purposeful: the system is absurd, so the film lets itself be absurd in return. Its moral is not complicated, and that’s okay. We’re living through an era when water is literally on fire in places, when companies pay fines they treat as routine overheads for poisoning people they’ll never meet. Subtlety has its place; so does a punchy fable with jokes sharp enough to draw blood. The Devil Has a Name works because it marries indignation to entertainment. It trusts that audiences can handle a wink and a gut-punch in the same reel.

There’s also a thread of melancholy braided through the swagger. The farmer’s crusade isn’t only about vengeance; it’s about dignity, grief and the terror of being made small by forces you can’t see. The film lingers on the cost of stubbornness—the relationships strained, the finances wrecked—and it never pretends that a courtroom victory, if it comes, will reset the world. That honesty keeps the finale from becoming empty triumphalism. Justice here feels like an act of resistance, not a guarantee.

Craft-wise, the film is better than its reputation suggests. The sound design is tactile—machinery, wind, the quiet of a home when a life partner is gone. The cinematography trades in contrasts: hot, dusty light in the fields; cool, antiseptic blues in corporate spaces; the warm shadows of bars and backrooms where deals are mooted and morale is fortified. The pacing rarely drags. Even when a subplot threatens to sprawl, the momentum returns quickly, usually on the back of a tart exchange or a new revelation about who’s bankrolling whom.

Perhaps the most satisfying surprise is how contemporary it feels without chasing the headlines. It captures the way corporate responsibility has been gamified into PR metrics, how legal settlements become line items, how loyalty is rewarded until it isn’t. Yet it also believes in people—the stubborn neighbour who shows up with a spanner, the mid-level employee who realises their moral injury too late, the outmatched lawyer who finds their backbone because someone else refuses to sit down. That blend of cynicism about systems and faith in individuals is old-fashioned, but it’s not naïve; it’s the fuel for change.

If online chatter told you to skip The Devil Has a Name, I’d encourage you to ignore it. It’s not perfect. It’s not tidy. It is, however, alive—funny, furious, humane and oddly hopeful. It made me laugh at how cartoonish power can be, then clench my jaw at how real its consequences are. And it reminded me why we keep taking chances on films that don’t arrive with a victory parade of plaudits: because sometimes the stories that matter most are the ones that sound a bit too loud, a bit too strange, and absolutely, gloriously, like they mean it.

Rewatching Scandal 1989 Made Me Question What’s The Difference 60 Years Later

A Movie That Tells A True Story Of Sex And Exploitation, The perpetrator dies in prison under...

Lindsey Lowson

2025-12-14T08:23:00.0000000 2025-12-21T17:12:00.4230000

Two reviews in two days. I am back with a vengeance. This one I got on Talking Pictures, again no charge but with commercials sadly.

If you haven’t seen Scandal you should watch it immediately, not only a sexy super well acted and directed film 1989 it covers a story not dissimilar to the current Jeffrey Epstein Scandal of today, of exploitation, untimely death and political downfall, men behaving particularly badly. Not to mis quote Mandy Rice Davies, but “They Would, Wouldn’t They.”

The film stars Joanne Whalley as Christine Keeler the model and showgirl to some, prostitute to others, either way paid by rich powerful men directly or indirectly for sexual favours, and John Hurt as the osteopath Stephen Ward who became famous for his role, as the real life Epstein character, pimping out beautiful young women to powerful men like Jack Profumo, expertly played by Ian McClellan, Minister for war in the 1960’s. Lord Astor, also central to the plot is played by Lesley Philips. Russian spy (Eugene)Yevgeny Ivanov played by Jeroen Krabbe, is the counter balance for the action as is Leon Herbert, Lucky who we meet early on in the film when the rich want to score weed and get an unsuspecting in experienced Christine to do the deal, which goes badly wrong when Lucky wants more from her and doesn’t fit into the higher eschelon, the circle she is now moving in as Jack Profumo’s mistress. They are all her lovers.

It’s a real life major Scandal that at the time rocked the British establishment and delivered death, imprisonment and political downfall, losing your job the least serious of the punishments, to many if not all involved. The girls inexperienced and naive just trying to get on.

At a party at the country estate of Lord Astor Clivedon on July 8, 1961, British Secretary of State for War John Profumo a rising 46-year-old conservative politician, was introduced to 19-year-old London dancer Christine Keller by Stephen Ward, the osteopath with contacts in both the British aristocracy and the underworld. Also present at this gathering was the Russian military attaché, Eugene (Yevgeny) Ivanov, who was also Keeler’s lover. Through Ward’s influence, Profumo began an affair with Keeler, and rumours of their involvement soon began to spread. In March 1963 Profumo lied about the affair to Parliament, stating that there was “no impropriety whatsoever” in his relationship with Keeler. Evidence to the contrary quickly became too obvious to hide and 10 weeks later Profumo admitted “with deep remorse” that he had deceived the House of Commons and resigned. The then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan continued in office until October, but the scandal was pivotal in his subsequent downfall, and within a year the opposing Labour Party defeated the Tories in the general election.

Stephen Ward is the central character, later accused of procuring women for powerful men. He was tried for living off immoral earnings but took a fatal overdose of sleeping pills before the verdict, dying three days later in hospital, a death suspected to be influenced by political pressure at time.

Christine Keeler served 9 months for committing perjury during the trial.

Mandy Rice Davies, Keller’s friend who admitted to sleeping with Lord Astor played spectacularly played by Bridget Fonda delivers the famous line “He would, wouldn’t he” in possibly the best movie courtroom scene ever.

During the trial scene, Ward's lawyer James Burge QC eloquently played by the brilliant Terence Rigby asks Rice-Davies whether she was aware that Lord Astor—a hereditary peer and Conservative politician—had denied having an affair with her. Her famous and off the cuff response made her famous the world over and is one of the best movie moments captured on camera. Fonda was recognised for her role receiving a prime time Emmy and nominated for a Golden Globe best supporting actress which launched her career in Hollywood.

It is possibly one of the best breakout roles ever for an actress. She met with the real life Rice Davis in secret whilst preparing for the role it was later revealed.

An absolutely astonishing timeless film written by Michael Thomas and directed by Michael Caton Jones and stands as a testament to what happens in the corridors of power, as we see the Jeffrey Epstein scandal unfurl, doesn’t change when it comes to the allure of beautiful young women. And how far men will go and how much they are prepared to risk for a moment in their intimate company.

Submission A Fantastic Free To Watch Movie On Prime Get It While You Can

Stanley Tucci, Kyra Sedgwick and Addison Timlin will Draw you in in this more subtle than Fatal...

Lindsey Lowson

2025-12-13T10:08:00.0000000 2025-12-13T10:28:29.4200000

Sometimes amazon prime delivers a free gem.

I haven’t watched anything significant for a few weeks. It seems every time I scroll through prime to find something to watch the offering is 90% chargeable and the remaining 10% B list titles no one watched when released. So I’ve invested in a DVD movie and have gone back to my back catalogue.

I struggle to get my head around a monthly subscription for Amazon and then being charged on top not just for new releases but old black and whites and repeats from the back catalogue.

That being said I found a brilliant Fatal Attraction like film starring Stanley Tucci and Kyra Sedgwick Submission and a brilliant performance from young actress Addison Timlin as student Angela Argo and a compelling performance from an unrecognisable Janeane Garofalo as a professor and colleague of Ted Swenson. He’s a professor stuck in a job for 10 years working with people he doesn’t connect with who is also a celebrated novelist, with writers block, being hassled by his editor for pages not yet written. As the story unfolds Ted begins to lose his mind after obsessing over Angela, an ambitious writer and student.

This movie tells the story enigmatically and superbly acted by leads and supporting cast of the lines between a semi-successful, middle-aged novelist/professor and his student being crossed: the film travels lines of deceit, intimacy and manipulation as Ted played by Tucci risks everything in a moment of madness in search of past success and reclaimed youth.

It’s a story anyone could relate to who has suffered or is enduring a midlife crisis. The allure of a young ambitious talent and the flattery that ambition cultivates for the cliche student teacher affair except this story is all about ambition and manipulation as Ted navigates his insecurities about his writing and his dissatisfaction in his job.

Tucci shows why he can move between the comedy of gay fashion editor Nigel Kipling in Devil Wears Prada, to the power and compassion of a character like Cardinal Lawrence in the drama of Conclave to Oscar nomination for his portrayal of sail killer George Harvey in Lovely Bones to attractive (I know, Hollywood did give him hair to play Ted Swenson) leading man in this movie Submission. Whilst not a Michael Douglas, Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, Jeff Bridges type he plays this role believably and to perfection.

Kyra Sedgwick is one of those actresses whose been in everything, so familiar and yet not playing her roles with commitment to her craft and she does this to perfection as Sherrie Swenson the long standing, funny second in command good wife to Ted. Never changing and seemingly never aging. She looks as good in this film as movies, Singles and Something to Talk about with Julia Roberts she made two decades earlier.

One of the best scenes in the film comes close to end where Ted is confronted by his brutal editor Len played absolutely magnificently by Peter Gallagher. It one of those memorable scenes where a character like Gallaghers can shape the whole movie and whilst his appearance on screen is extremely short less than five minutes his role in the film and the plot twist and ending is completely epic.

This flick written and directed by Richard Levine and based on the novel Blue Angel by Francine Prose. And well worth the watch. Get it while you can free on Amazon Prime, you better hurry up because if someone at Amazon reads this you’ll find it with a gold locket next to it in the blink of an eye.

I’ve been subscribing to a very funny movie podcast On cinema at the cinema where the hilarious Gregg Turkington plays guest to show host Tim Heidecker where alongside the funniest reviews of the latest releases he and co host Tim rate the films reviewed in Popcorn and Sodas. So as tribute and paying homage to them, I give this movie, 3 sodas and 3 popcorns.

An Ideal Husband 1999 based on A play by Oscar Wilde 1895

A family movie written and directed by Oliver Parker

Lindsey Lowson

2025-09-02T10:04:00.0000000 2025-09-02T10:18:58.0170000

An Ideal Husband

Rupert Everett, Cate Blanchett, Jeremy Northam, Julianne Moore and Minnie Driver at their beautiful people best in this Oscar Wilde adaptation of the play by the same name described as Roaringly funny and witty as hell and I have to agree.

Lord Arther Goring, a handsome ne’er do well played by a very dashing Rupert Everett, the film came out in 1999 has some of the best lines,

"I love talking about nothing, Father. It's the only thing I know anything about"

“ Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear. Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.”

And on the subject of love,

"It takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it" and that "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance"

It’s a little bit dated and if you’ve already seen the film countless times, like me, it can get a bit slow in places, but the costumes for the 1999 film An Ideal Husband were designed by Caroline Harris, who was nominated for a BAFTA award for her work on the film and are absolutely splendid. She did have a tough act to follow as the famed Cecil Beaton was credited for the costumes in the 1947 adaptation of the play, also worth a watch for die hard fans of Oscar Wilde.

The story is one of romance cleverly intertwined with reality, and wit, the darkest of humour and clever repartee that finally put Oscar Wilde in prison. The truth is very hard to swallow.

But when Wilde shines his side eye on the affairs of the heart the result is usually mesmerising and this super talented at the time young cast bring the story to life in a very special way. The enigmatic Julianne Moore brings villainess Mrs Laura Cheveley to life as the ruthless ex love interest of cad and lazy charming good for nothing Lord Arthur Goring.

The actual story centres around the life of Sir Robert Chiltern, a respected politician who built his fortune by selling a cabinet secret for personal gain years ago. His life is threatened by Mrs Laura Cheveley played by Julianne Moore who attempts to blackmail him. To protect his reputation and marriage to Cate Blanchett, Lady Chiltern, from ruin, he must navigate the complexities of political corruption, public honor, and personal morality with the help of his clever and witty friend, Lord Arthur Goring who has romantic history with Mrs Cheveley ultimately reconciling with his wife, Lady Chiltern whose no. 1 concern is the maintain her desire for an "ideal" husband.

It’s a great family watch and a little bit educational for any young people studying English, English History or the work of Oscar Wilde himself. And very very funny, clever and well acted for anyone who enjoys a remarkably well adapted script written and directed by Oliver Parker based on the play of 1895 by the same name.

The win didn’t do so well with in the awards stakes receiving 17 nominations but only four wins, for costume and make up. Rupert Everett was nominated for his 2nd Golden Globe for his portrayal of Lord Goring but didn’t win. He was undeservedly to my mind pipped at the post by Jim Carrey for The Truman Show.

If you loved watching Everett steal the show as George in My Best Friends Wedding, starring Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz, this characterisation and wonderful acting comes a very close second.

The Lies We Tell shows us in a period drama life hasn’t actually changed that much

Especially for women life continues with gender inequality when it comes to money and power

Lindsey Lowson

2025-07-28T10:00:00.0000000 2025-08-08T17:13:48.4170000

Lisa Mulcahy is an award winning writer and director, having directed numerous TV dramas and documentaries. She directed this incredible gothic thriller Lies We Tell starring Agnes O'Casey and David Wilmot in 2023, for which she deservedly won the IFTA for Best Director.

This beautiful film is well worth watching especially if like me you revel in sprawling scene scapes, wide angle shots, and beautifully framed visuals, exquisite architecture, landscapes and architectural digest worthy interiors, creating dramatic storytelling with exquisite sets and period costumes. It truly is a visual feast.

Although a gothic in feel tragedy slash period drama Lisa Mulchay has taken a clever story with a triumphant against all odds heroine Maud, think a rich Jane Eyre an heiress with a solid head on her shoulders but no experience or education in the ways and underhand dealings of men after her money, and created a very modern film of the ages. She has brought together a world of literary feminist fiction with a spooky gory horror theme, that does grip and then chill.

Hence the apt title as the film both explores and excavates these themes of greed and power drawing in the viewer as we traverse the protocol and tradition of a very young heiress “protected” by individuals both blood relations and elected professionals “trustees” all paid supposedly to ensure her happiness and well being upon her fathers death.

But like in life when large amounts of money are at stake young Maud must navigate the lies and underhand dealings without honed instincts or any real experience of the horrors that she will be subjected to as everyone but especially her uncle, her father’s disenfranchised younger brother Silas Ruthyn, tries to get their hands on her money.

The film explores the inequalities toward women at the time, 1864 Ireland and the power the men elected to protect her and her assets yield over her with the law on their side.

At times the film is shattering to the core as we the powerless observers, the watchers, will young Maud to see the light, get clever, fight back but at the same time understanding her nativity immaturity and inexperience so cleverly and subtly expressed in the work of lead actress Agnes O’Casey.

Inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu’s novel Uncle Silas and adapted for the screen by Elisabeth Gooch, a story of great depth about human nature slowly and mindfully unfurls. And although some may find the action to drag at times I was kept intrigued by the chilling nature of the subject matter, working out who the real bad guys were (and not just the men in the story) and silently willing Maud on to somehow navigate the horrific situation ahead she finds herself embroiled in when it is she who actually has all the money and power. The keys to Knowl, a sprawling remote estate in Ireland and her ancestral home, she realises can only remain hers whilst ever she remains single and in charge of her own destiny. A sweet innocent girl who finds herself powerless until she too embodies the demons and treachery she herself faces to shift her destiny. The price she pays to overcome the peril she faces way more than money. Once again discovering and uncovering, the Lies we tell, only this time to ourselves.

There are a few surprises in the tale that do come out of nowhere and it is a grisly tale indeed when all is said and done.

Not usually the type of movie I would watch as it leans in to the popular horror genre of late, I guess for a younger audience whilst capturing all the beauty of a magnificent period historical piece.

I did love it and would probably watch again. A classic story that we all can relate to. Extremely empowering for women full of hope with a dose of stark reality that whilst we do have a little more protection in the law in some places around the globe, in others things have not really moved on at all and the fairer sex still has a long way to go in successfully navigating the power balance when it comes to survival and complete independence.

Like Maud discovers in the story, the truth must be used sparingly and cleverly, reserved only for those we hold in the highest esteem and regard. The film challenges the age old adage “Honesty is the best policy” as we learn that perhaps lying is sometimes absolutely essential when we too are lied to blatantly and without conscience, a tool of psychological manipulation to protect ourselves in the face of evil. As someone who purposefully endeavours to be truthful and told by those close I am a terrible liar, the conflicting themes and how they were tackled I found absolutely fascinating.

In the end the film leaves us questioning whether money does indeed always corrupt and we learn as too quite brutally for Maud, be ready for the “lies we tell” because when you’ve got it, money that is, you can be sure someone, somewhere wants to take it from you, at what cost, well some will go further than others and some will stop at nothing.

The Door a character driven drama carried by the master actor Helen Mirren

A beautiful film that will change the way you think about people and life in general

Lindsey Lowson

2025-07-21T07:26:00.0000000 2025-07-21T12:09:29.5630000

The 2012 movie the door directed by Istvan Szabo adapted from a Hungarian novel by the same name written by Magda Szabo originally published in Hungarian in 1987. A weird coincidence, like many in this film, Magda Szabó was a renowned Hungarian novelist, while István Szabó is a well-known Hungarian filmmaker. They are both prominent figures in Hungarian arts, but they are not related just share the same last name. The film stars Helen Mirren as an aged loner, cook, housekeeper, and Martina Gedeck as Magda, Karoly Eperjes as Tibor her husband, the master as Emerenc calls him and Agi Szirtes as Polett, Emerenc’s quietly spoken neighbour, whose role in the film is small but extremely powerful and memorable in the story.

When I watched the film I had a peculiar experience as a writer friend of mine had presented a synopsis of a novel to me a week or so earlier entitled “The Door Next Door” and had asked me what the title meant to me, what type of feelings it evoked and whether I would be interested to read it. She gave me an outline of her imagined work of fiction so I literally could not believe it when the same thing was playing out in front of my eyes.

While The Door by Magda Szabo is a work of fiction, it is deeply rooted in autobiographical elements. The novel and the subsequent film explores the complex relationship between the author (represented by the narrator Magda) and her housekeeper, Emerence, drawing heavily from Szabo's own experiences. Many details about the narrator's life, such as her career as a writer, her marriage to an academic, and her relationship with the Hungarian authorities, mirror Szabo's own life

When I asked my friend if she had heard of the film or the book, she told me she never had. It had been a premonition of sorts which for me added to the power and intensity of the film which is brimming with hidden messages and tackles many issues about friendship, character, truth and that overused word love challenging what it actually means in reality outside of the constraints and the simplicity of one dimensional storying telling.

I bet Helen Mirren, a tour de force in this film and as a movie reviewer I use those three words with caution, loved this script and making this film which even surrounded by Hungarian actors she didn’t change her voice or accent to play the housekeeper Emerenc, a rude, stalwart of a women who reminds us “there are people who sweep and there are people who pay others to sweep”

If you are not already a fan of the actress this is the film to watch her shine in all her glory. There are so many fantastic lines in a script where not one line is wasted or thrown away. There is so much nuance in the film crafted with brilliant sets and even better costumes coming together to place you 1970’s Eastern Europe. The decay and outdated post war appearance of a place behind the then iron curtain is resonant.

This tale of two women who form an unlikely friendship draws you in for sure. Our human curiosity for the question to be answered what’s behind the door, the question my writer friend had also pondered, is at the root of the mystery and intrigue of the film. And the film beautifully exposes the darker side of our nature in this regard when it comes to character assignation, gossip, getting the wrong end of the stick and just being generally nosey.

For anyone who is prone to people pleasing, something I confess I have been guilty off, this is a must watch film as it slaps you in the face and presents clearly and intelligently why the temporary and the fake will never fox the instinct of the wise.

It flips a viewpoint common place that the religious and pious. In this story the writer, may take the higher ground and yet in doing so inhabit the lower ground every time. And the rituals of doing the right thing dictated by a society that rarely knows or understands what the right thing actually is will always lead us to regret and resentment not solitary peace and contentment.

The script challenges our understanding of kindness, friendship and ultimately love, and I think the reason the story of Emerenc and her relationship with her employer Magda is so powerful because it tackles everything you think you know and then flips it on it’s head.

Slowly the simplicity of the tale is unravelled, what’s behind the door, amidst neighbours gossip, Chinese whispering, events being twisted and blown out of proportion and flash backs of the truth as Emerenc slowly reveals the truth about her life as her confidence and trust in Magda builds over time.

A truly enigmatic powerful film that will have a lasting impact on anyone who watches. The writers life was clearly impacted and changed by her relationship with the real life housekeeper she was compelled to tell the story, unashamed by her own part in the original story.

For anyone who has embarked on a journey of personal growth or endured great pain and sadness that didn’t overwhelm them or cause them to choose death over life, the film also tackles suicide in a beautiful and clever way, you know you can be exposed without embarrassment or shame. And the writer and the film maker along with the actors present this evolution in a magnificent way.

What a movie where most of the action happens in one house between two people. I can’t remember a movie that said so much in such a contained way.

Like I said when Helen Mirren read the script she said that’s me.

It’s a drama about life on every street, in every neighbourhood in every country about the universal language of truth human beings are so conditioned by the noise around them they often fail to see the wood for the trees.

There are massive lessons in this movie which is why I shall be watching it again very soon.

The Dinner 2017 Film Rollercoaster Ride of a Movie

that will shock, grip and then drop you from a great height

Lindsey Lowson

2025-07-20T08:12:00.0000000 2025-07-20T08:49:25.8200000

One of the most unusual movies I’ve ever watched. Half way through I thought I hope this film just doesn’t end dropping you off the cliff to think why did I just spend two hours invested in that. And funnily enough it does just end dropping you off that same cliff except it leaves you to ponder bigger themes about life, love, war, loss and most importantly family and the swings between “love” and “hate” existent in every family dynamic. The lies, the cover ups, the jealousy, the terrible choices, the horrific behaviour, the regret, as we try to navigate life, do our best, fulfill our dreams, stick to our principles and in the end cope, get through it and endure.

Sounds heavy I know. This film tackles very deep themes around family and primarily mental health.

The movie has a massive cast which made it appealing to me, Steve Coogan, (Greed and The Look of love) shows his talent as an actor, his mid western accent as an American is flawless he plays a public school history teacher Paul with serious mental health issues inherited from his mother. He’s married to Claire, Laura Linney, a cancer survivor. They have one son Michael in his teens, dating a 20 year old Anna. Paul is uncomfortable about the relationship and struggles to communicate with his son on every level. His brother Stan played by Richard Gere, unlikely fraternal casting that works impeccably is a US congressman running for governor and the movie is about one evening in the midst of his campaign where the family come together in a Michelin star restaurant to talk about a massive family problem about to potentially come to light affecting them all especially Michael. Stan’s second wife Kate, played by (Vicky Christina Barcelona) actress Rebecca Hall makes up the four at the dinner table, the second wife of Stan, first wife Barbara, Chloe Sevigny left him leaving three kids, Beau, Rick and Val to be cared for by Kate, a woman who longs for a child of her own.

I cannot really describe what happens as it will totally give the film away. You have to watch it.

For me it was a master class in filmmaking. Written and directed by Oren Moverman, The Dinner is indeed a sumptuous feast for the psyche and the senses. Fresh score. Moverman's dinner is certainly barbed, and often venomous, but in spending two solid hours with such unlikeable company is an ordeal in itself, even one as handsomely crafted and executed as this.

It’s the kind of film I probably will watch again because the script was absolutely classic and some of the lines were quotable for sure, and darkly funny. It so subtly tackles themes and presents questions about the very darkest side of our nature. And the acting is absolutely superb. It’s definitely a crime thriller but not in the traditional sense.

And gets to the root of how life asks questions of us and presents choices where all the possible options are unpalatable. Why the setting amidst the finest of gastronomy offers such deep contrast to the questions around pleasure, value and point.

The film and all it’s chaotic action is set amidst the staff and luxury of a top of it’s game restaurant and presents comedy amidst tragedy as the professionals in the restaurant, a brilliant Maitre D’ played expertly by Michael Chernus, as

an "overzealous" and "evangelistic foodie" whose detailed descriptions of the restaurant's pretentious food provide a comedic contrast to the tense family drama unfolding. How everyone attempts to do their jobs and deliver the excellence expected of them to a mainly unappreciative and preoccupied table of guests is darkly amusing and deeply challenging about what’s really important.

I thought I didn’t like it when I was watching it. Couldn’t figure it out, didn’t have a clue where it was going and then it ended and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I guess that is what makes for a brilliant movie.

And Just Like That staring Sarah Jessica Parker and Kristen Davies and Cynthia Nixon

Still a big fan of SJP image snapped from Me and Co a collection of selfies by Simca CEO Jean...

Lindsey Lowson

2025-07-08T08:34:00.0000000 2025-07-08T14:22:15.9200000

And just like that is in the middle of its third season in the US.

I recently caught up with seasons 1 and 2 which I binge watched in just over a week and I loved it but more for nostalgic reasons and curiosity to see what Patricia Fields costume assistants from Sex and the city, Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago had created for the remaining trio. Kim Cattrall, Samantha was definitely missed only appearing via text messages and a note in the first season and then briefly 2 minutes in a car at the end of the second season, a scene the actress was reportedly paid a million for.

Whilst I thought some of Sarah Jessica Parker’s outfits were incredible, and I loved the references back to her wardrobe like the famous blue Manolo Blahniks and the Versace gown she reminds us she had only worn twice, once in Paris for the memorable episode when Mr. Big comes to the city to reunite with Carrie after things end with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Aleksandr Petrovsky Carrie’s lover in the final season of Sex and the City.

Another favourite fashion revival was the Vivienne Westward wedding gown gifted from the “40 year old bride shoot” in Vogue commissioned by editor Enid Frick, a personal favourite character for me played by Candice Bergen who also hilariously reappears in season two of and just like that. Spoiler alert, Carrie pulls out the frock for the Met Ball when the up and coming designer she commissions in the new show to make her a dress (girlfriend of her co worker in her new job on a podcast about sex) and can’t pull it together in time, saying you must have something else you can wear.

It’s a lovely moment to see the fated gown from the wedding to Mr. big that never was at the New York Library repurposed.

In the sex and the city movie it has to be one of Charlotte York's (played by Kristen Davies) finest moments when she slaps Mr. bigs face with a bouquet of red roses. “I curse the day you were born” she says, She also adds, "I was always on your side, and you go and you do that to Carrie”

It was good to see the fab dress brought back under happier circumstances. Some spectacular other costumes for this particular Met ball episode.

The hats are out in force, I love hats so it was good to see the homage to the chapeau.

I know I am talking all about the fashion and not much about the show content itself. Actually the show hasn’t really changed. Which considering it’s twenty years later you’d imagine the characters and script writers would have matured. I guess that’s not what the audience wants. It would have been better for me had Mr. Big’s hero status been tackled with a little reality his shiny Mr. perfect armour chinked, I guess the fairytale has to be maintained for audiences to tune in.

There are some fabulous references to aging for women, fans who have followed and delighted at the revival. I laughed when Samantha replacement Seema, high flying property real estate agent gets her Birkin nicked right outside her apartment. And when she has to grovel to her hairdresser when she storms out at a suggestion the reasons she’s still single come down to her own behaviour. So there are snippets of hard hitting reality for the women, just not for the men.

I found it tough to believe and highly unrealistic the amount of sex on offer to women in their mid fifties which I am assured is absolute tosh even though I am not quite there yet myself and the idea a group of strapping rugby players would choose a group of mid fifties women to play with for an evening out in a bar instead of the thirty somethings at the next table an absolute stretch, in real life just wouldn’t happen.

So to sum up. It’s a fabulous escape, a nostalgic trip down memory lane for women who watched Sex and The City the first time around and went on the journey with the four women, getting to know them, relating to their experiences with the opposite sex. It’s a remake for all the women who are still stuck in the same place waiting for the Prince to come.

It’s probably why Samantha is absent. As the one who created balance and diluted the hopeless optimism with reality, cynicism and humour, the comedy and hard truth all Rolled into one. Samantha would have been telling them all they are grown ass women now and then HBO wouldn’t have had a show. The other thing missing was Sarah Jessica Parker’s mole, who knew she’d had it removed by her plastic surgeon brother in law in 2008. It took me two episodes to realise something was very different: her signature mole on her chin had disappeared. And when I did my research I couldn’t believe it was missing in the second Sex and the City movie and I never noticed. It’s a nod to not obsessing too much about Botox, fillers, lip injections. We notice things, imperfections or not about ourselves way more than other people clearly.

Will I watch season three when it comes out in cable? Of course.

I want to see what they are all wearing.

Thomas Crown Affair 1999 Remake Pierce Brosnan Rene Russo

Oozes style and sophistication, forgot how great this film actually is

Lindsey Lowson

2025-06-09T10:36:00.0000000 2025-06-09T11:23:30.7030000

Ignore the reviews just watch it. I cannot think of a single person who wouldn’t get something big from this movie from a pre pubescent horny teen to a puritanical grandma you expect to knit and play cards not enjoy a lot off raunchy sex appeal.

This is a really sexy, seductive heist movie. And it’s subtle, so it’s not loads of humping and nudity, more suggested and suave, a film that exudes style and passion, an education for women wanting to bag a billionaire, a “love” story inter woven in a clever art heist. A layered script where everyone knows who dunnit, it’s more a tale of will the gorgeous Rene Russo, Vicki, insurance agent brought in to solve the puzzle and stop a 100 million dollar payout of a precious Monet, hailed and regailed as the first piece of art in an Impressionism movement that changed history. Can she forego the charm and obvious attraction of the loner billionaire who cannot connect with anyone.

It’s a remake of a film made 30 years earlier starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunnaway, with an older Dunnaway recast as Thomas Crown’s therapist psychiatrist whose session with the aloof loner sets up the story and the character of the protagonist, lovable rogue who’s name appears in the title.

It’s a double entendre as the title of film alludes more to to sultry interludes between Thomas, Pierce Brosnan and Vicki.

There are two reasons to watch this classic movie that somehow has failed to date in the 26 years since its release.

First of all Rene Russo’s wardrobe is a testament to stylish simple dressing the world over. The clothes and the glamour so perfectly executed and classic, the film could have been shot last year. Pierce Brosnan matches perfectly in Saville Row tailoring fashionable today a Glaswegian poor boy whose social climb included traversing the corridors of Oxford before a steely demeanor ensured financial heights insufficient to keep an insatiable will to win and outsmart in equal measure abated.

And so he plays at crime, not for the money but for the pleasure, achieving the impossible right under the nose of every authority and security system put in place to stop him. Why? Because he can.

The film catapults us into an anything is possible mindset, winging us the audience between high stakes gambles, fine dining and luxury all aspire to but few will ever touch, and some truly magnificent cinematography as we power race 100,000 dollar at the time catamaran or fly like a bird in a two man glider, the visuals and excitement as good as the rollercoaster riding at the IMAX theatre.

But it is the electricity and chemistry on screen created by Brosnan and Russo make this a classic you’ll return to over and over.

Like I said it’s sexy. And in a way I’d imagine every director hopes to create, electricity between cast members palpable on screen. The truth is few actually achieve it as good as this.

It’s so good I don’t think Brosnan and Russo were acting.

Rotton tomatoes gave this movie a solid 69%

I think it’s worth 99% at least.

Gatsby remake of the 1974 Robert Redford Mia Farrow Epic

With music by Jay Z

Lindsey Lowson

2025-06-01T07:20:00.0000000 2025-06-01T08:07:34.9000000

When this movie Directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann came out 2013 I was excited and wanted to see it.

I have never actually watched the original starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow all the way through, familiar with it only through clips and film trivia and the fact it’s adapted for screen from the giant American novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald covered in English literature classes around the world.

Interestingly at the 1975 academy awards the film won for best costumes and best music, in 2014 the film won for best costumes and best set design, the actors missing out on both occasions.

So I didn’t really know the story when I embarked on the Baz Luhrmann version of events. And it was a sumptuous spectacle of epic proportion for sure. For me the style of the director took over, his signatures that landed so well in the brilliant and widely acclaimed Moulin Rouge didn’t quite hit the mark in Gatsby perhaps why the reviews weren’t as positive from the critics as everyone expected at the release and why it’s taken me 10 years to actually watch it.

So Gatsby played by Leonardi Di Caprio who I now struggle to watch anyway because of all the negative press true or not around his personal life is a mysterious billionaire looking to recreate the past by throwing lavish parties in the hope of attracting his lost love Daisy Buchanan now married and miserable living across the bay.

Set in 1922 the film loosely touches on the times, post First World War, the stock market, Nick Carroway who narrates the story played by Toby Maquire is the cousin of Daisy Buchanan, starting a career on Wall St as a bond trader and somehow finds himself renting a small house for the summer right next door to Jay Gatsby.

He’s a pawn in the story, Gatsby’s overall plan to be reunited with Daisy and Nick Carraway is inadvertently the key.

The story begins with Nick in a sanitarium talking to an analyst. he’s suffering with anxiety, depression, insomnia, alcoholism as he recounts the events that have led him to this place.

It is a dark tale set in ultimate glamour. I digress but I recently watched a documentary about P Diddy and his infamous white parties in the Hamptons and I thought this is the exact same story except that one is fiction

Lots of people said the music was wrong, I disagree the music wasn’t the problem I think it was just all too much, and the actors couldn’t draw us in. Gatsby and Daisy Carey Mulligan somehow just weren’t believable, her seeming more spoilt and unhappy than anything else, almost powerless in the film something I’d never thought I say about Mulligan who hasn’t yet won an Oscar but has been nominated 3 times for her break out role 2009 in An Education and then for Promising Young Woman and Maestro in 2023 where she played Felicia Montealegre in the biographical romantic drama.

No problem with the host of talent on this project I think it was just all too much. And maybe it was just Leonardo Di Caprio who couldn’t capture the subtlety of Gatsby, he just couldn’t make us like him which I think is important for the story.

He kinda comes off as the bad guy when he’s not supposed to be (even though he is technically)

I think a young audience would be bored and an older crowd who like a classic would think what is this?

Yep it’s one to think about. I don’t really know if I liked it or not.

Would I watch it again. probably not but I am interested now in watching the original to draw a comparison.

Art Thriller The Best Offer in Italy also goes by Deception in The UK

Storms into top 25 movies of all time

Lindsey Lowson

2025-05-25T07:42:00.0000000 2025-05-25T08:49:03.2470000

OMG what a movie. I am not sure which flick I am demoting but this film storms into my top 25 films of all time from acclaimed director of Cinema Paradiso Giuseppe Tornatore's a coming of age film you must watch if you haven’t seen it. (Subtitles but fantastic)

The best offer or Deception 2013 stars the brilliant Geoffrey Rush (The King Speech) and the acting throughout is magnificent. What a love story. A film that explores every human emotion against a backdrop of the exquisite beauty, art history, stunning sets and cinematography. A simple feast of creativity and understanding that takes us on a journey around the world through the work of highly celebrated and esteemed loner, Virgil Oldham an art expert, auctioneer and valuer of the highest talent and regard.

Rush supported by his friend/sidekick Billy an artist never recognised for his talent played by Donald Sutherland and Robert a young lethario who is credited with the ability to fix anything who the ladies adore, traverses his life as an insular misfit closed off to the world, taking solace in his lifetime collection of the most beautiful women painted by the great masters throughout history not always acquired by the most legislate of means.

I am not going to tell you what happens, you have to watch and then watch again, which I will be doing to catch all the nuance in the dialogue to follow a complex plot that will truly keep you gripped until the very end.

When I read other reviews before watching, no one described the film with the passion that came through for me. Why you cannot always trust what people stay, we all like different things and this one slipped under the radar for me.

For anyone interested in old things; the movie is overflowing with exquisite sets and artefacts that create the backdrop for a life lived to the full and then yet surprisingly not at all.

Is it sad? Some may find it so but I found it uplifting and I extremely clever. Very real which for me made it extremely thought provoking and enigmatic.

The script is extremely layered and clever, like ai said a must watch and then a must watch again.

I don’t want to tell you too much as it’s so original using the parallels of authenticity in human emotion to art and where the lines blur for the forgers of the masters and how beauty and value exists for over time even in a fake.

The movie has the power to change the way we look at the human experience and Love of art, beauty, people and the fragility and frailty found there hits to the very core of us all.

Superb acting from Geoffrey Rush goes without saying.

I am so happy I got to watch this film. The very best movie I’ve seen in quite sometime.

Return To Sender A film no one liked

The reviews were terrible I watched it any way

Lindsey Lowson

2025-05-19T09:05:00.0000000 2025-05-19T11:33:43.0170000

This film got slated online, I don’t think I’ve seen a 14% rating on Rotton Tomatoes ever and even though it’s not really my type of film, small town hospital drama, ER meets Fargo, Rosamund Pike is an acting talent all on her own, I’m a massive fan from her hilarious portrayal of Helen in An Education to her stellar performance of disturbed Amy in Gone Girl and more recently crazy upper class Elspeth Catton in Saltburn, we decided to give Return to Sender a go even though the setting and context of the film didn’t really appeal, and like I said the reviews were collectively terrible. It was also FREE on Amazon prime, something getting rarer than a canary diamond to find on the pay per view film platform.

I probably wouldn’t watch it again; once you know what’s happening there’s no need, although it has to be said with everything stacked against it and other audience members in our house suggesting we switch off early in the film, the acting of Rosamund Pike who pretty much carries the whole film, so good, we stayed with it right to the bitter end.

It’s an uncomfortable watch at times but that’s because of the difficult subject matter. I think people struggle with themes of rape and sexual violence against women on screen in a completely different way to say brutality and violence of men on men which is normalised in society and much more acceptable.

The film Return to Sender directed by Fouad Mikati challenges these societal norms and idiosyncrasies which in turn makes movie lovers unable to question their own thinking about the dark issues that lay dormant but lurking in all of us, ready to emerge at any moment making us act in ways we’d never imagine possible.

I can’t say I loved the film as it is certainly a harrowing watch throughout dancing a fine line between public service and doing good, the nursing profession creates the backdrop for our stereotypical thinking about how nurses (or anyone really) in society is deep down and how we expect those people to conform to certain norms. When the behaviour of say a real life killer Lucy Letby hits the headlines we struggle with this too.

I think this is why the movie was received so poorly because the acting from Pike, co star Nick Nolte as her father and Shiloh Fernandez as William Finn, her attacker, is actually bloody brilliant, gripping and intense.

When the movie finished I was in complete shock. I was moved, deeply moved by this film and I will certainly never forget it.

My first words when it ended were “She reminds me of Hannibal Lecter” - it’s a fresh take on Kathy Bates epic Annie Wilkes characterization in the 1990 film Misery.

If you think you are ready to go on a major change the way you think about fear and empathy journey, this drama will make you feels things you are perhaps a little to very uncomfortable with yourself depending on how much trauma you have had in your life or perhaps how much therapy.

I have never watched a film in my life before that made me change 180 degree shift and left me feeling really sorry for the perceived “Bad Guy” not really knowing in the end who the actual “Bad Guy” was.

A strange review I know but it’s a strange film and if I told you what actually happens throughout it would spoiler the experience.

It’s one you have to go through yourself.

I’d say because of the levels of violence and extremely disturbing deeply psychological and chilling themes this is one for the adults only.

The Intern another beauty from the pen of Nancy Meyers

Stylish film didn’t get the credit it deserves

Lindsey Lowson

2025-05-18T07:39:00.0000000 2025-05-18T08:59:56.3070000

First off this film is not to be confused with the book by Harvard and Stanford Law graduate Michelle Campbell of the same name.

This light hearted uplifting flick is all Nancy Meyers and whilst you definitely feel her wit and style come through the movie it is in no way a carbon copy of previous well received and loved films like It’s Complicated or Father of the Bride.

Whilst a raging success at the box office, the movie cost $35 million to make it took a staggering $195 million at the box office when released in 2015.

The reviews weren’t great which is perhaps why many of us, massive De Niro fans missed it, me included.

It’s a gorgeous film in every way, funny, poignant, stylish as Ms Meyers inspires us through her observational lens and shows us how we all must endure the human experience of getting older and traversing the path of life with all it’s pitfalls and joy.

In the movie "The Intern," the fashion company “About The Fit," is a rapidly growing start up run by Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). It's an online clothing company that started small and grew to over 200 employees within 18 months and Jules a slightly neurotic workaholic who doesn’t sleep navigates the prejudice of being a working Mum with the other more traditional Moms in the school playground.

The film swaps between the Brown stone townhouse Jules, husband Matt and daughter Paige call home and the office, a converted printing factory where Ben Whittaker (de Niro) worked for 40 years before retiring. It’s a cute twist, spoiler that won’t ruin the watch only perhaps enhance it by knowing this touching addition to the plot.

Ben Whittaker is a 70 year old widower, a former executive from the phone company and phone book printing works. Things may change but the walls can always talk. Don’t think it’s an old people’s movie. He’s very easy on the eye and his co star and leading lady Anne Hathaway as Jules is the perfect fashion boss contrast in her preppy dresses and heels riding her bike around the office to get where she’s going just that little bit faster. Ben’s son's family lives out of town. He’s doing Tai chi in the park, learning mandarin and had a date 5 months ago with Patty, who’s mad about him, a woman he’s politely trying to outrun. As he tries to fill his days of leisure he spots a flyer advertising internships for senior citizens and decides it’s time to get back to work.

The best part of the film for me comes from a supporting role from Rene Russo who plays Fiona, the office masseuse, a woman with a free spirit, grateful for her job, her lovely office wellbeing studio where she doles out back rubs, a reluctant Ben Whittaker included to keep every all the employees relaxed and motivated.

Never in his wildest dreams did Ben imagine “having a crush on a girl at work” has he concluded his 10 minute elevator pitch before taking her on a date to a funeral. Very funny indeed when Patty (Linda Lavin) the woman chasing Ben attends the funeral too hoping for a chance interaction with her unrequited paramour.

Stylish cinematography, NYC suburb vibes, business, friendship, affairs, mistakes, loneliness, all the trials and tribulations of life packaged in a lovely positive wise film.

Another Simple Favour Family Farce

A modern carry on murder mystery sequel

Lindsey Lowson

2025-05-05T07:38:00.0000000 2025-05-05T16:01:03.8230000

First off didn’t realise Another Simple Favour is the sequel to A simple favour. Which I haven’t seen but Another simple favour whilst OK, funny, entertaining, perhaps would have been better to watch in order. A cute watch for the whole family. It’s young, it’s fast paced, it’s silly, it’s modern, like I said young in feel.

The story is Agatha Christie esque when best friend to Emily, nee Olivia (Blake Lively) Stephanie Smothers played by Anna Kendrick writes a book about Emily murdering her twin which turns out to be triplet Hope in the first film. Except she doesn’t, it gets a bit complicated but all will be revealed. So Emily is really Hope Mclandon who kills her sister Faith in the first film and then fakes her own death for an insurance premium.

This is where the sequel picks up in the story at Stephanie Smothers book launch of “The Faceless Blonde” and shock horror who should show up but the murdering faceless blonde herself Emily.

She has one question for the startled sleuth, be my maid of honour, I am getting married in the beautiful island of Capri.

So for the grownups there is stunning vistas, a holiday by proxy to the Italian Riveria for the 20 somethings there is glamour, gorgeous clothes, a flashy wedding, style and sass in equal measure and for younger viewers there is the quirky weirdness of Aunt Linda played by Alison Janney, who ends up going over a cliff at the drop of Tiberius, after smothering her sister Margaret played by the hilarious Elizabeth Perkins in a bad wig, but it’s not in a scary, sinister way, it’s more slapstick. She’s a baddie all along.

If you are looking for something light, a little loopy set in a gorgeous opulent mafiosi palace on the majestic island of Capri with sardonic humour thrown in then this is your flick.

It’s zany and stupid in parts, Vespa chases and fast getaways intertwined with internet influencing and a tongue in check look at social media. And for the men well Blake Lively in a stupendous array on outrageous outfits strutting her curves with authority all over the shop. Girls you might have a girl crush.

Not a must watch for me but if you are looking for a film that would crossover ages this is a light funny family film slash mad murder mystery movie.

THE BUTLER Shows Us Who We Really Are

Two Faces Is Not Emancipation

Lindsey Lowson

2025-05-04T07:36:00.0000000 2025-05-04T08:44:05.8330000

This movie has been on my radar. Out in 2013 I cannot believe it’s taken me 12 years to see it. That reminds me, of two other films released the same year 12 Years a Slave also on the list, along with Fruitvale Station another shocking true story, in this black history genre.

This is a must watch. Doesn’t matter who you are or where you came from this is everyone’s issue and not just back in 1937 when Cecil Baines (Forrest Whittaker) life began. The story is loosely based on the life of Eugene Allen who worked at the White House for 34 years during the civil rights movement.

2014 was a very tough nomination year with a lot of movies being well received, so inspite of a star studded cast including Robin Williams, Jane Fonda, Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, Cuba Gooding Junior the list goes on The Butler did not secure one Oscar nomination despite grossing $116 million dollars at the box office in the US.

This movie is going to make you feel. It didn’t make me cry. It made me ashamed. It made me angry. It made me frustrated. It made me think about a Martin Luther King quote Barack Obama quoted that stuck with me,

“The arc of moral universe is long but it bends towards justice”

suggesting that progress towards justice, freedom, and equality is inevitable, but it takes a long time. I have never seen a film that represents that level of hope before and why this movie was so special and inspiring even though it makes us look deep inside ourselves to find the ignorance, another thing this movie shows, privilege creates ignorance, pain and endurance creates wisdom.

The reason I think everyone should watch this Lee Daniel’s epic which personally I think is better than “The Help” as it avoids the stereotypes Viola Davies and Octavia Spencer were so heavily and unjustly criticised for later ending up apologising and regretting the roles, for it’s subtle matter of fact story telling.

It’s a historical drama that begins in the cotton fields of the South and ends with the 2008 US presidential election. A story spanning 71 years that takes us through the administrations of Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, brilliantly portrayed by an unrecognisable Alan Rickman interweaving the Civil Rights movement and the work of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and the Black Panthers.

The film is expertly crafted and punctuated with real life footage of the Klu Klux Clan, and the atrocities that happened in Little Rock Arkansas, when 9 African American students attempted to desegregate an high school in 1957 and in Birmingham Alabama where the civil rights campaign of 1963 eventually led to the desegregation of the city and exposed the brutality of law enforcement.

The film is an education in many ways and I imagine that’s why it attracted such a massive ensemble cast of big name box office draw players in effectively cameo roles, like Hattie Pearl played by Mariah Carey, Cecil’s mother and Annabeth Westfall, cotton farm owner played by Vanessa Redgrave who open the film.

Whilst the acting was incredible from everyone and there are a lot of famous names I haven’t mentioned, the stand out performance for me was Oprah Winfrey as Cecil’s wife, Glory.

The subtlety and nuance in her portrayal of a woman navigating the time, dealing with her family, children, a husband working all hours for 40% less money than his white colleagues and a drinking problem.

One of her stand out lines for me “I could care less what happens in that house, I care about what happens in this house.”

Blink Twice billionaire vacation resort paradise

That never going back holiday experience

Lindsey Lowson

2025-04-27T10:48:00.0000000 2025-04-27T11:01:50.6900000

“are you having a good time”

The luxury vacation movie of 2024 with a twist

Starring Chanum Tatum, Geena Davis, Zoe Kravitz, Adria Ajona as Sarah and Naomi Ackie in a gripping unexpected lead as Frida.

This movie was absolutely brilliant if you are looking for a flick to literally bypass a couple of hours. It’s intense, you have no idea really what the hell is going on, Tatum’s portrayal of billionaire Slater King makes it impossible to figure is he a good guy or a bad guy. The cast is scattered with quite a few key characters, lots of different people build the story and it’s one of those films you have to listen to the dialogue to work it out so it keeps you in it for sure.

The back story is dark and really scary it turns out. I don’t want to give too much away and although there is no mention the film was inspired by real life events, private island, billionaire, rich powerful people and a load of young women and it’s not difficult to make the leap to Jeffrey Epstein and what went on or didn’t depending on which side of his private island you landed on.

So a bunch of people all handpicked (it later turns out don’t actually know each other) arrive by private jet to a Caribbean island for a “holiday experience” we don’t know how they all come to be on the plane except Frida and her friend who in the film’s opening scenes it appears Frida knows or is familiar with/interested in Slater King. She is working as a waitress at a huge gala charity in extravaganza his company is hosting as the film opens, portraying Slater King philanthropist.

Everything is cool and light, she definitely has the hots for him and goes to some lengths to end up in his circle for a few moments at a charity event.

It’s a strange film in that it is light and funny in places and then seriously dark in others. And the subject matter is certainly lightened by the tone of the movie and the somewhat canned unrealistic ending.

I cannot tell you too much as that would spoil the whole film for anyone who hasn’t seen it. It is a really good movie.

The scariest part of all is how much of a mirror it holds up to us as a wider society. I thought it striking, quite a few community members have touched on the Jeffrey Epstein story in their own snoops on here, I watched this film and then a couple of days later it was reported Virginia Giuffre Jeffrey Epstein accusor took her own life on Friday 25th April, 2025.

The movie is not suitable for anyone under the age of 14 I’d say. There are very disturbing (for some) themes of extreme violence against women in this movie.

It’s a very good, very thought provoking film with a particularly standout performance from Naomi Ackie I probably wouldn’t watch again. A bit too sickeningly close to reality for me.

The Phantom Thread Delivers Unexpected Love Triangle Twist

Not sure what just happened

Lindsey Lowson

2025-04-21T11:16:00.0000000 2025-04-22T07:54:38.8370000

The phantom thread was a weird movie starring Daniel Day Lewis as 1950’s London couturier Reynolds Woodstock and his muse and later wife Alma played by Vicky Kriep.

I watched it yesterday, I thought it was interesting and well acted but knew if I didn’t write my review today I’d have completely forgotten what happened in a few days. Like I said it’s a weird movie.

The story centres around Daniel Day Lewis and his uptight, moody, portrayal of a narcissistic fashion designer with an Oedipus complex, madly in love with his dead mother, and controlled by his silent but deadly overbearing in the worst controlling way sinister sister Sybil expertly played by Lesley Manville.

And then underwhelming too tall, not pretty enough, Alma Elson who Reynolds meets while dining in a tea house where she is the waitress.

Initially charmed by her he invites her to his studio to try on some dresses and subsequently she completes the love triangle between Reynolds and his work, becoming model, minder, then mistress and later wife but through an unsuspected twist. Her charm and idiosyncratic ways initially appealing to Reynolds become tiresome and irksome over time when his peace and order is interrupted by a crunch of toast or a slurp of tea at breakfast.

Alma is a misunderstood character who also narrates the film throughout, we don’t discover to whom she is speaking until the end of the film.

Did I like it yes.

Would I watch it again, no.

Who’s the audience. I’d say women definitely. It’s about an imaginary British fashion house set in London in 1950s when the “new look” is made on the rise and “chic” is only word from Paris on everyone’s lips. Day Lewis is superb as usual and very easy on the eye for fans of the actor.

It’s a deep dive into relationships, sibling rivalry and internalising pain, Reynolds never really overcoming the death of his mother and his constant strive for perfection in his work whilst growing irritated and impatient of the high society clients and royalty who keep the lights on.

A Phantom Thread, a terrible title that doesn’t tell you anything about the film, perhaps why it ended up under the film radar for me.

I was really shocked when I saw it got 6 Oscar nominations in 2018 at the 90th academy awards including Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson, Best actor for Lewis and best supporting actress for Manville. The film took one for best costumes, beaten out by Guillermo del Toro and his move Shape of Water which incidently I haven’t seen.

Not sure how rotten tomatoes rated this film. I’d give it a solid 6 and that is because Lesley Manville and Daniel Day Lewis are such excellent actors.

Mrs Harris Goes To Paris Disappointing Review

Should have been made by Disney not Universal

Lindsey Lowson

2025-03-31T07:49:00.0000000 2025-03-31T08:33:06.5100000

What the hell Universal. This is a kids movie for Grandmas. Bedknobs and Broomsticks meets Nanny McPhee. That is a fecious

comparison. Suffice to say I endured it all the way through but wasn’t anywhere near the movie I was expecting from the marketing.

Why is it when you finally make a female led movie about fashion it’s been 15 years since the Devil Wears Prada in 2010 does it turn out to be as wet and insipid as a cold milky cup of tea. Exactly what the film tries to elevate as Mrs Ada Harris a cleaning lady from London has afternoon tea with a Marquis who gets her into a private showing of a House of Dior Collection. He’s a widow and attends the fashion shows because he likes the clothes and the girls he confesses.

Mrs Harris thinks he likes her too as she accepts his invite after the show to tea only to discover she reminds him of a kind cleaner/dinner lady he had become attached to while attending boarding school in the UK.

Mrs Harris goes to Paris, the movie was inspired by the 1958 book of the same title by Paul Gallico who wrote over 40 books, four about his heroine Mrs Harris.

For me the film starring Lesley Manville as Mrs Harris and Isabelle Huppert as Madame Colbert (in charge at the House of Dior) was completely limited in depth, linear,

Uninteresting and stereotypical when it comes how women are perceived in the 21st century. This concept of women being subjugated to a secondary life controlled by men is amplified because the story is set in 1957, 13 years after the end of the Second World War which is significant to the story.

We said half way through when the movie was over we would regret investing the time to watch it in its entirety and we did.

It’s female led.

It’s about fashion.

It’s a love story.

Not quite Mills and Boon or Catherine Cookson format but not far off.

I watched it yesterday and I cannot actually remember the ending, ah yes I can. I won’t tell you just in case you find yourself watching it after all.

Magic Mike Last Dance

Must watch Chick flick for every man who wants to get laid

Lindsey Lowson

2025-03-16T08:18:00.0000000 2025-03-16T17:18:38.0430000

I watched Magic Mike a decade ago and whilst I cannot remember the plot, I remember the franchise was inspired by the real life experience of Channing Tatum as an 18 year old stripper living in Florida. I know I absolutely loved the movie and was excited to watch the sequel.

I was spell bound by Channing Tatum so much so I said at the start of this movie it would be my dream to dance with Channing Tatum, by the end of Magic Mike Last Dance I was saying I just wasn’t good enough.

Wow what a movie. If you loved the Step Up Franchise sit back and relax, literally ladies.

The story picks up three years after Magic Mike. Mike Laine (Michael Jeffrey Laine) quit stripping to open a store in Miami which following the pandemic had left him 40 and bartending.

At a swanky charity event Mike meets Maxandra Mendoza Ne Rattigan played by Oscar winner Selma Hayek and things begin to heat up when he’s spotted and recognised by another guest who tells Maxandra about his last life as a dancer and stripper.

When the wealthy Max proposes Mike go to London with her to consider a secret project she has in mind he’s intrigued and decides to explore this new horizon.

The film is blooming incredible, stylish, sexy, fast paced, full of talent and entirely credible.

The concept is fresh, original and looks at feminism, female emancipation, tradition and psychology of women when it comes to sex, relationships, what’s expected and what’s not in the most unlikely of settings.

If you have preconceived ideas about striptease, the chippendales, the full Monty, wouldn’t be seen dead, want nothing to do with it cheese, screaming middle aged women making a fool of themselves think again.

Would I watch again. I’ll be watching over and over. Women the world over will be inspired and men can definitely learn something about the art of seduction. For dancers and the dance community the choreography is as iconic as Michael Baryshnikov in white nights.