On Disney + and available to stream.

Directed and written by Dan Scanlon alongside Keith Bunin is Pixar’s first original film since 2017’s Coco (i.e. not a sequel) which had a short release in the cinema ahead of various COVID lock downs before its broad digital release.

Set in a suburban fantasy world inhabited by elves and other mystical creatures, including my favourite, feral unicorns!, but it is a world were magic has been replaced by time saving technologies, why cast a spell to create light when you can use a bulb!

The story revolves around two elf brothers Barley and Ian. It is Ian’s 16th birthday and his mother presents him with a gift from his late father, a spell that will allow them to bring him back for just one day. When the spell only half works the brothers and dad’s legs head off on a olde worlde quest to find something to complete the spell.

I don’t think this will go down as a Pixar classic but the bar is set so high that it is not a criticism and there is plenty to enjoy. The voice cast are solid, Tom Holland is enjoyable as Ian and Chris Pratt delivers as his older brother. Technically, as you’d expect, it looks fantastic and the small attention to detail adds to the enjoyment as it plays with the way the “normal world” is so easily absorbed into one inhabited by elves, magic and mystical creatures.

However, where it doesn’t hit Pixar’s very high standards is in its emotional pull. Pixar at its best fully absorbs you and fully engages you emotionally and Onward doesn’t do it to the level of some of its predecessors. Again this isn’t to say it fails completely because it doesn’t, the final 20 minutes do bring the story to an emotional and heart warming end, but much of the film is a fun animated adventure, full of fun characters, puzzles and animated peril, but not one that pulls at the heart strings.

Onward is a solid bit of story telling and enjoyable enough and while it lacks classic Pixar emotional depth, it does have a satisfying pay off. While not a classic, it’s enjoyable fun.

Available on Sky Cinema.

Directed by Marc Munden, with a screenplay by Jack Thorne is the latest adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel. This version is set in 1947 were we find Mary a young girl orphaned by the death of her parent’s from cholera shipped back to England to become the ward of her uncle Archibald Craven and live on his large country estate. She soon finds she is there out of duty rather than love an unwanted guest in a dark and cold house. However, she soon discovers the secrets of a magical garden and new friends.

It’s been a very long time since I last saw an adaptation of this, so didn’t have any set expectations and while I’ve seen some rather sniffy reviews I rather enjoyed it.

It’s much darker than I expected and that was part of its interest, it’s easy to make stories like this overly sweet, but it avoids that, Dixie Egerickx does a good job of showing Mary as a vulnerable, scared and sad girl, but one who puts on a brave show to cover it. The three main characters are all well portrayed by the young cast with Amir Wilson as Dickon and Tom Gene Surridge as Billy as well as the solid support you’d expect from Colin Firth and Julie Walters.

For me the story is an interesting one about loss and the fear of losing, alongside a heartfelt story of friendship and the importance of supporting those with challenges.

The Secret Garden is, for me, a well told story dealing with some difficult subject matter. It looked impressive, with a dark oppressive “cold” house contrasted by the colour and magic of the garden and was well played by its young cast providing enjoyable family entertainment.

Available to stream.

Written and directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz, Resistance tells the little known story of French actor and mime Marcel Marceau’s time in the French resistance during the 2nd World War, where he and his cousin Georges helped over 400 Jewish children escape Nazi occupied France into neutral Switzerland.

This is a remarkable story and certainly one I had no idea about, but this film hits a common problem when telling stories like this, it’s very hard to do such an incredible and emotional story justice.

Jesse Eisenberg stars as Marceau and is at his best when portraying him “performing” especially as he tries to bond with terrified children ripped from everything they know and is solid throughout if you are happy to ignore the accent. There are good performances around him, Clemence Poesy as Emma in particular captures the harsh realities of the world they find themselves in and Matthias Schweighofer does a good job of portraying the butcher of Lyon, Klaus Barbie.

While Resistance for me does hit more than it misses, it does miss a little, especially in what felt like a rushed final act through the Alps and an odd bit of Marceau performance theater for the troops!

That said the story is both worth telling and seeing and while it won’t go down as a great it does a more than serviceable job of sharing a fascinating, little know and incredible story of the early life of the worlds “most important mime”.

Available on Netflix.

Written, directed by and starring New York playwright Radha Blank The Forty Year Old Version sees Blank playing a fictionalised version of herself as a struggling playwright. We find Blank heading toward her 40th and still dealing with the death of her mother and the direction of her life. Once highlighted as a future talent she now finds her career stalled as she makes ends meet teaching drama at a local college.

The film follows Blank as she tries to find her artistic voice from resurrecting her theatre career to discovering her talent for rap. The two worlds also force her to struggle between the compromise of traditional theatre versus a community in the shape of DJ D that encourage her to be her authentic self.

There is a lot to like in Blank’s film, it is original and funny. The film takes its time and does move slowly occasionally, but its pace allows it to explore Blanks story fully, her own insecurities about her talent and the relationship with her late mother and brother. But there is also a focus on friendships and loyalty, the challenges of compromise as well as the importance of an openness to ideas.

This is very much Blank’s film and she delivers a warm, humourous and believable performance as this fictionalised version of herself, she is well supported especially with Peter Kim as Archie and Oswin Benjamin’s D.

It’s shot in black and white and that adds to the character of the film. It isn’t perfect though, it is at times overly patient and slow in its storytelling and its humour may not hit for everyone. But it is original and wants to tell a different version of the story that is often told of the world it inhabits.

There is a lot to admire and while it may move too slowly for some, for me it’s well worth giving a try.

Available on Netflix.

Directed by Sarah Gavron and written by Theresa Ikoko. Set in inner city London, Rocks is a teenage girl who finds herself having to take care of her younger brother when her mother leaves them to “clear her head”.

Let’s get to it, this is a remarkable and for me beautiful film. Remarkable for its performances and beautiful for its message. At times this is a “gritty” watch as we follow a 13 year old girl who is abandoned by her mum to look after her young brother and while the grit is not front and centre, clearly poverty abounds in Rocks’s life, but the film doesn’t wallow in that.

That is where the films beauty is, it would’ve been easy to let her circumstances be the focus, but instead Gavron’s film is built on positives, her optimism, her friendships, her love for her brother and her desire to protect him and make life better. Yes at times it’s hard, she makes some poor decisions under pressure and reacts badly to her friends offers to help. But that is the point, it’s about true friendship, the films beating heart is those relationships with those there to tell her and do for her what she needs not what she wants.

What makes this beautiful story even more remarkable is the cast, a cast that is full of first time performers, each and everyone of them brings  a wonderful energy, enthusiasm and real naturalism to their roles. Bukky Bakray is incredible as Rocks balancing bravado with vulnerability perfectly. Kosar Ali as her friend Sumaya is equally fantastic portraying the good daughter and determined best friend with an edge. It’s unfair though to pick out one or two performances, across the board they are fantastic and not fantastic for first time performers,  high quality performances on any measure.

Rocks is a superb piece of work and regardless of the difficulties in her life it refuses to pity her, showing the consequences of her poor decisions, but this is not a sad film, this is a film built around the positivity of strong friendships and the desire to be better and do the right thing, brought to screen with a fantastic energy and exuberance.

It’s a film that deserves to be seen, so seek it out on Netflix.

In Cinemas.

If you’ve ever wondered what a Quentin Tarantino episode of 90’s TV show Father Ted would look like, Pixie may just have the answer! Written by Preston Thompson and Directed by Barnaby Thompson. Pixie is a crime caper set in Ireland, where Olivia Cooke’s titular character is a step-daughter of a local gangster with plans for escape after the death of her mother. When those plans go wrong she finds herself in the company of two local young men Ben Hardy’s Frank and Daryl McCormack’s Harland, who in turn have found themselves involved in a drugs heist with local bad guys and a faction of gangster priests.

Pixie is an original and humorous take on the gangster films of a Tarantino or perhaps more accurately Guy Ritchie, the violence is infrequent and tongue and cheek, but it was the humour that appealed to me, it’s gentle and silly without descending into farce and the comparisons with well known Irish sitcom “Father Ted” are valid.

The three leads are engaging and for the silliness of the story, more than believable Cooke’s Pixie is sweet enough for the boys to follow and fall for her but determined and cold blooded enough to do what she needs to. Hardy and McCormack both pull off the “finding their way in the world innocence of early twentysomethings” well. There’s a great selection of supporting characters including Alec Baldwin’s Priest, Colm Meaney as Pixie’s stepdad and Ned Dennehy’s Seamus.

It may never go down as a classic, but has enough fun and humour to make it an enjoyable way to spend it’s just over 90 minute running time.

New on Netflix.

Aaron Sorkin writes and directs this dramatisation of the trial of seven men charged with starting a riot while protesting the Vietnam war at the 1968 Democratic party convention in Chicago.

If you’ve read reviews of mine before, you’ll know I’m a fan of good quality dramatisations of seemingly staggering corruption whether financial, legal or as is the case here Governmental. If you’ve seen Sorkin’s films before, you’ll know what to expect, smartly written, well directed and rock solid performances that tell a fascinating story.

We get all of that here, as always Sorkin uses plenty of well crafted dialogue to tell the story and when delivered by excellent performances throughout you get a compelling film.

The performances are what you’d expect from a cast of this quality, Eddie Redmayne as Tom Haydn the man at the centre, delivers a performance that doesn’t insist on him having to transform physically to tell his story, Sacha Baron Cohen’s Abbie Hoffman shows their’s much more to him than Borat and Mark Rylance brings his usual gravitas to the role of defence attorney William Kunstler. It seems unfair to pick out just a few performances as there is not a flat one amongst them.

The film is built around the court room scenes but thankfully avoids the cliched grandstanding full of “you can’t handle the truth” moments instead ratcheting up the frustration as it is abundantly clear the trial is nothing more than a politically motivated farce.

While it’s important not to think this is a documentary The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a really well made courtroom drama that tells a fascinating story of a seemingly politically motivated trial and while it is set at the turn of the 70’s of course it has parallels, although not overtly, with modern day politics.

This is a fascinating insight into late 60’s US society and politics and well worth a watch.

Now on Netflix.

Directed by Steve Brill, written by Tim Herliyh alongside Adam Sandler, who also stars as Hubie Dubois, a simple, kind hearted, community minded guy who loves his home town of Salem. Especially when it comes to Halloween were Hubie believes his one purpose in life is to make sure his town and its visitors have a happy and safe “holiday”. Hubies caring, community spirit however, makes him a target for ridicule, until this Halloween when a series of mysterious disappearances means the town need him.

If you’ve seen any of Adam Sandler’s comedies you’ve seen Hubie and your enjoyment of it will be dictated by how much you get on with his comedies. We’ve seen all of these characters before, it’s not just Sandler’s Hubie the kind hearted oddball who struggles to get on with others, but also those around him from bullying kids and adults to the unlikely love interest all are familiar.

I’ve no problem with Sandler’s comedies and while Hubies Halloween is not one of his best (depending what you think of Adam Sandler, that may be a warning) but it’s harmless enough with a few chuckles to be had as it parodies some other well known halloween fare. There is also a selection of cameos from regular Sandler collaborators as well as a couple of returning favourites who pop up with regularity and even the standard feel good ending to be had.

Sandler has done some really interesting stuff recently but this is a return to very familiar ground and a pretty average return at that, but that said, it’s light hearted and innocent enough as it passes you by giving a few laughs on the way, I didn’t even find the Sandler comedic voice overly grating!

There’s much better comedies out there, better Adam Sandler ones, but if you’re stuck with a couple of hours to spare and want something that isn’t going to stretch you to far and will keep the family at least partially amused, then this is just fine.

New to Netflix.

The Boys In The Band is Based on Matt Crowley’s stage play, directed by Joe Mantello and stars Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto. Set in New York in 1968, we find a group of gay men brought together to celebrate a friends birthday. However an uninvited “straight” friend arrives and causes the evening to take an unexpected turn!

The challenge with putting stage plays onto screen is how do you stop them looking and feeling “stagey”, sometimes you can and sometimes, like this, you don’t pull it off, as I spent most of it It thinking “I could see why this would be good on stage”.

Another area that didn’t work was the characters “likeabilty”. While it’s not necessary to like a character to be engaged in a film, it is important that you find them interesting enough to want to spend time with. The problem with this group is while they are not meant to be the most endearing, as the party descends into an increasingly miserable and unpleasant affair the characters become increasingly less tolerable. Rather than wanting to continue to spend time at the party you want to run off into the distance and wonder how the guests put up with their hosts increasingly erratic, unpleasant and bullying behaviour.

The film is not without its positives, there are some particularly touching moments as the guests reflect on their loves past and present and there are performances to admire. Parsons is particularly good as party host Michael, cutting a frustrated, angry and unlikeable but interesting figure, Matt Bomer (Donald) and Robin de Jesus (Emory) also offer good support.

There is also a question about the films message, conversations in New York in 1968 are fine, but whether the discussions hold relevance in the 21st century is a question I’m probably not qualified to answer.

In the end this film misses more than it hits and while there are things in it to enjoy it didn’t translate well to screen and presented me a set of characters I’m in no rush to spend time with again.

On Sky Cinema and available to rent on other services.

Written by Mike Makowsky, based on Robert Kolker’s New York Magazine, Corey Finley’s Bad Education stars Hugh Jackman and is based on the true story of Dr. Frank Tassone the superintendent of New York’s Roslyn school district. Tassone on the surface is a caring, diligent and successful leader, driving the district to 4th in the education “league table”, with the support of his assistant Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney), until a massive fraud is uncovered showing years of systematic theft of public funds. The story is made public by an expose in the school newspaper from inquisitive young reporter Rachel Bhargava (Geraldine Viswanathan).

I’ve said before I always enjoy a well told “true life” story, sometimes its the staggering audacity of a crime, but sometimes it’s the little things, the ones that start small and get out of control. This is one of those stories and Finley’s film does a really enjoyable job of telling it. Jackman is excellent in the central role bringing to life a complex character, full of contradictions with many a narcissistic tendency. Alisson Janney is excellent as always and Geraldine Viswanathan also brings plenty as the inquisitive school reporter.

This is an enjoyable telling of an interesting story, it drags a little in the final 20 minutes, but before that it moved a long at a good pace never getting too bogged down in financial details, but enough to keep you intrigued. It also does a good job of exploring the private lives of those involved, especially of Tassone, without overly prying.

It’s full of good performances and a snappy script. Worth checking out.