Queen & Slim (2019)
★★★★☆
Queen & Slim is a first film fuelled by controlled anger by black female director Melina Matsoukas. It’s always gripping.
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The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)
The Personal History of David Copperfield is Armando Iannucci’s quirkily imaginative transformation of Dickens’ novel bringing out its contemporary resonances.
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Uncut Gems (2019)
★★★★☆
Uncut Gems is the Safdie brothers’ Good Times on speed, starring Adam Sandler in eye-popping perpetual motion.
Little Women (2019)
★★★★☆
Greta Gerwig’s Little Women is a dream-come-true feminist re-reading of Louisa May Alcot’s childhood classic.
The Kingmaker (2019)
★★★★☆
The Kingmaker, Lauren Greenfield’s revealing documentary about Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philippines, is a fascinating and horrifying must-see.
Honey Boy (2019)
★★★★☆
Honey Boy by Shia LaBeouf is a searingly personal, self-immolating childhood memoir.
Harriet (2019)
★★★★☆
Harriet, directed by Kasi Lemmons, is a conventionally made biopic of a supremely unconventional and inspirational woman, Harriet Tubman, taking her life story from slave to fearless abolitionist and conductor on the underground railroad to freedom.
Greener Grass (2019)
★★★☆☆
Satirical comedy Greener Grass by, and co-starring Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe, is Stepford Wives on acid.
The Report (2019)
★★★★☆
The Report by Scott Z Burns is a gripping dramatisation of lawyer Daniel Jones’ investigations into the government-sanctioned CIA torture during interrogation of terrorist suspects: the suppression of reports into government behaviour is now an incredibly timely subject.
After the Wedding (2019)
★★★☆☆
In After the Wedding Bart Freundlich piles unlikely event on unlikely event on Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams in a weepie melodrama that reaches emotional overload.
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (2019)
★★★★☆
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound by Midge Costin is one of those fascinating documentaries that take you behind the scenes to explain how things happen that are so crucial but you had never previously noticed.
The Beach Bum (2019)
★★☆☆☆
The Beach Bum is a Harmony Korine film for and about stoners, with all that entails.
Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019)
★★★☆☆
Brittany Runs a Marathon is a lovely little film, director Paul Colaizzo’s debut feature. It’s heartwarming, raw, crowd-pleasing and motivating in the nicest possible way.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
★★★★☆
In The Last Black Man in San Francisco, writer/director Joe Talbot takes a true story and turns it into a poetic and haunting version of itself – a brightly lit, lyrical, stylised drama.