Another on my list of “wanted to watch” is Mrs. Lowry and Son and I’m glad I finally caught up with it.

I was quite surprised to see some sniffy reviews on, what for me, was a brilliantly delivered two hander, based on a BBC radio play it focusses on a small portion of the life of L.S. Lowry just before he finds wider fame and especially the relationship with his bed ridden elderly mother.

The charm about Lowry’s art is its simplicity, trying to show beauty in the grim reality of life in early 20th century northern England mill towns and for me this is captured perfectly in this film, set almost entirely in Elizabeth Lowry’s bedroom and is a wonderful example of two talented actors Vanessa Redgrave’s Elizabeth and Timothy Spall’s L.S. Lowry, captivating an audience for 90 minutes, with limited material and environment to work with.

What we get is an exploration of two people trapped by circumstance but seeing it as very different the mother seeing it as a miserable failure, a son looking to capture the beauty in his grim reality.

It is engaging, warm and humorous and while it never explores much beyond Mother Lowry’s bedroom and the life that exists within it, in the hands of two excellent performers it captivated me from start to finish.

I had a lovely 90 minutes finding joy in this films simplicity.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Barry Jenkins follow up to the fabulous Moonlight for quite a while and finally did this weekend.

In reality I wanted to like this film much more than I did and while there were things to enjoy it was problematic in other areas.

Based on the novel by James Baldwin Beale Street tells the story of Tish and Fonnie a young couple who we meet with Fonnie in prison and Tish expecting their first child.

The story bounces around their lives, following their love story, the challenges of societal racism and how persecution leads ultimately to Fonnies’s incarceration, taking its time to explore the complexity and challenges that their lives present.

It is that pacing that for me was a problem, the film moves very slowly and feels as though it takes many an unnecessary detour and whilst some of those detours are pleasures in themselves they don’t really move the story a long.

That is a real pity, because at the heart of the film is a beautiful love story and Kiki Laynes and Stephen James play it brilliantly with superbly balanced, subtle performances and the film is at its best when focussed on their relationship.

Sadly though outside of that the film feels as though it to often drags and drifts from the main story telling and don’t get me wrong I don’t mind a film that meanders and is patient but for me Beale Street overstepped the boundary.

As I said I wanted to enjoy this more than I did and can easily see why those who speak highly of it do, but for me a film that could’ve been a charming love story missed the mark and felt an overly long missed opportunity.

Another in a growing collection of Netflix’s critically acclaimed films The Two Popes give us not one but two oscar nominated performances.

Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce star as Pope emeritus Benedict and current Pope, Francis, in a fictional account of a meeting between the two men in Rome ahead of Benedict’s decision to resign, the first Pope to do so in nearly 800 years.

What has the potential to be a dry piece of modern history is anything but and is more a portrayal of two men both racked with doubts, regrets and questions of self worth, what it gives us is a surprisingly humorous, warm story which is at its best during the scenes between the two, often sparky, often humorous, often warm and tender.

The film occasionally drifts in the final act as it looks back at Bergoglios regrets during his early life in Argentina, however it’s an important part of the story, but does take us away from the more engaging world of Hopkins and Pryce.

It is a really enjoyably told story, built around two fantastic central performances, it’s not really a story about them as religious figures, but about the development of a warm friendship and it’s a pleasure to spend time with them as it develops.

Catching up on films I didn’t see at the cinema carries on and looks like it will do for sometime to come. Next up is “Can you ever forgive me?” Marielle Heller’s take on the true life story of Lee Israel a frustrated writer who finds a career forging letters of famous literary figures.

Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant turn in oscar nominated performances as Israel and her friend and accomplice Jack Hock.

It’s a fascinating story and McCarthy, better known for her comedy roles, shows she has much more to her, turning in a fantastic performance as the shy, frustrated, lonely Israel, a women who struggles to develop any kind of relationship and is hugely frustrated by the seeming success of, in her opinion, very average writers peddling rubbish.

Grant supports her well portraying her suave, fantasist friend who is equally vulnerable and lonely.

It is a surprisingly charming story with two character’s you warm to for all of there loneliness and desperation, there is a charm and sweetness to them and their relationship. The story intrigues throughout and is nicely paced and told.

The story is a great example of someone with talent but lacked belief in it, preferring to hide behind the stories and words of others and McCarthy really shines in the lead role. Worth a watch and if you don’t like it can you ever forgive me?

Strange times for us all so I’m starting to watch films I never got around to at the cinema, I’m sure there will be all kinds of random choices to come over the coming weeks.

First up the very average Second Act, I’ve always quite liked Jennifer Lopez on screen and she’s absolutely fine in this and there’s the problem, the whole film is fine and all a bit meh..

It’s the classic underdog story, with pretty much every genre cliche box ticked.. it has its moments with a bit of a twist and a surprising incident with some doves, but they are few and far between, the rest is typical Cinderella story stuff, girl wants more, girl gets makeover (background rather than physical in this case), girl proves worth, charade falls down, all works out well in the end..

It wasn’t horrible, but it was formulaic and not funny enough but it was at least virus free for 100 minutes, so it does have that.

I’m sure I’ll see some much better films on my range of streaming services over the coming weeks… heck if not, it’s going to be a long time at home!

I’ve said in previous reviews that I really enjoy something based on a true story, something that gives me insight into a subject that I feel I should know more about, so I went into Misbehaviour with high expectations.

Based on the controversial 1970 Miss World competition in which the first coloured winner was crowned, a coloured and white contestent were selected to represent South Africa and the show disrupted by the newly formed Women’s liberation movement.

The accusations of racism, the failure to recognise aparthied and the fledgling womens liberation movement all should provide enough story for a fascinating look at a range of subjects and attitudes from 1970, add to that three strong leading performer’s in Kiera Knightley, Jessie Buckley and Gugu Mbatha Raw and this really should have pressed all the buttons.

Sadly though Misbehaviour really feels like it falls short, instead of providing an interesting insight into events we never really do more than skirt around them, we never find out what drives Knightley’s smart and determined Sally, the story behind Buckley’s commune living liberator Jo or the aims of Mbata Raw’s Grenadine winner Jennifer Hosten.

That’s a real pity as this is a story worth telling, but it feels like the film is never really sure what story it wants to share, Miss World, Women’s liberation or even the story from the contestants side that examines the opportunity it presents them but it only ever, frustratingly, touches upon it.

There are moments were the film tries to spend a little time asking interesting questions, especially in a scene between Sally and Jennifer but they are far to infrequent.

It’s a real pity, with interesting raw material and a talented cast this film should have been much more interesting than it is, but sadly never quite gets beyond a very superficial look at the subject, perhaps a bit like Miss World itself.

I always find a story like this fascinating, the scale of corruption, cover up, how authorities and governments can be influenced and the incredible recklessness that powerful companies will show to protect their business and profits always astound me. All of that is on show in Dark Waters.

The other thing I’m always astounded by is how on earth do I not know these stories? This one focuses on DuPont and a long term legal battle with the people from a town in Wisconsin, a battle carried by one man, Rob Billet (Mark Ruffalo), and is based on Nathaniel Rich’s article in the New York times.

Billet is a “hot shot” lawyer who is visited by a friend of his grandma, Wilbur Tenant (Bill Camp), a farmer whose property is next to a DuPont landfill and is convinced that they are poisoning his land, his cattle and his family.

Dark Waters is an interesting film, its pace is very steady, it wanders off occasionally to explore a family story or a way that the case has impacted the lives of those involved and cleverly includes the grey area that comes with a town taking to court not only its largest employer but a company who’s fingerprints are all over the town.

The pacing and occasional change of story focus may be off putting to some but I think they are very deliberate decisions to show just how long and slowly the case has moved (20 years and still going on) and exploring the impacts of those delays on peoples lives.

The story is an interesting one and very much worth telling, it’s understated and patiently told and that patience maybe an issue for some but if like me these kind of stories interest you, then you’ll enjoy this.

When I saw the trailer for this I liked the premise and thought it could be interesting. An american remake of the Scandinavian original Force Majure, we see Will Ferrell and Julie Luis-Dreyfus as Pete and Billie, a couple on a Swiss Ski holiday with their two young sons.

The story suggests an undercurent, a problem between the two, he distracted by his mobile phone and her keen to remind him, but the problem is we never really fully understand what’s behind the characters behaviour or were they are heading.

That problem isn’t just with the characters, the whole film is unclear in what it wants to be. Its trailers suggest a comedy, but don’t go expecting that, Downhill is not a comedy and doesn’t really try to be, it’s much more a study of two people unsure of their relationship, unsure of their place in the world and unsure of their future together and you can feel that sense of hopelessness throughout the film and it feels like it catches that well.

The thing with Downhill is it’s a film that is trying to be clever, do something smart, trying to explore the desperation of people who feel trapped in life and in their relationship, feeling they could be doing more to live their “best life” and that film is in there somewhere (in its original source Force Majure I’m told). But it’s not in Downhill, which in reality never gets near delivering, not funny enough for those wanting comedy and not clear enough for those wanting a serious examination of Pete and Billies relationship.

Downhill isn’t really clear about the kind of film it wants to be and that shows in something that promises a good story but never gets close enough to delivering it.

The thing with making a Sonic film is that, from memory, you don’t really have much to work with, there’s not a big back story, he’s a blue hedgehog who runs fast collecting rings, from there the canvas is pretty clear, so what do you do with everyone’s favourite blue hedgehog on the big screen?

Well it seems you make an ok adventure film, now while I’m not really the target audience, I do have fond memories of the game so gave it a spin and to be honest while it won’t live long in the memory it was plenty enjoyable enough while I was there.

We follow Sonic on a quest to reach a new world, along the way he loses and must retrieve his rings while been pursued by Jim Carrey’s Dr Robotnik, pretty much the Sonic staple story line.

The screen creation of Sonic is solid enough and is well voiced by Ben Schwarz and alongside his companion Tom, played by James Marsden, there’s plenty of witty lines and some fun set pieces as they look to retrieve the lost rings.

Jim Carrey, Carrey’s Robotnik up in exactly the way you’d expect, with plenty of manic physical comedy alongside delivering his own bad guy funnies.

Sonic is pretty middling stuff, but entertaining enough to fill its short run time and plenty of kids in a packed Sunday showing were having a great time, harmless, enjoyable enough, blue hedgehog fun.