Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Pictured : Daughters Georgina ( Emily Beecham , left), Victoria ( Sienna Miller , 2nd left) and Katy ( Scarlett Johansson , right) accompany their mother Diana ( Kristin Scott Thomas ) in a scene from the comedy-drama, ' My Mother's Weddin g', directed by Kristin Scott Thomas from a script she co-wrote with John Micklethwait . Still courtesy of Universal Pictures UK The English actress Kristin Scott Thomas (born May 1960) had an atypical childhood. Her father, a Royal Navy pilot, died in a flying accident in 1964. Her stepfather, also a Royal Navy pilot, died six years later. This double tragedy inspired her directorial debut, My Mother’s Wedding , which was completed in 2023 but has taken three years to reach UK screens. Originally entitled North Star , it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024. Scott Thomas co-wrote the screenplay with John Micklethwait, whom she married the same month of the film’s premiere. She takes the title role of ...

  Pictured : Emily overload. Lovelorn Owen ( Spike Fearn , centre ) sparks a larger conversation than he ever intended in a scene from the British romantic comedy, ' Finding Emily ', written by Rachel Hirons and directed by Alicia MacDonald . Still courtesy of Universal Pictures .   Working Title is one of the UK’s most prolific film production companies. Since 1994, it is associated with romantic comedies, in particular those written by Richard Curtis, specifically Four Weddings and a Funeral , Notting Hill and Love, Actually . A successful British romantic comedy does not work like its American counterpart. Rather, an all-star cast is assembled, as if for a disaster movie. By the end, at least two of the stars acknowledge their love for one another. The ensemble element is important. We are shown relationships at various stages, contrasting with the plight of the central couple, in order to acknowledge life beyond the ‘happy ending’. The disaster movie analogy is appr...

  Pictured : Alec ( Caolán O’Gorman , right) pays attention in class in a scene from the coming-of-age drama with a twist, ' Truly Naked ', written and directed by  Muriel D’Ansembourg . Still courtesy of Paradiso Films (Netherlands)  There are coming of age movies and there’s Truly Naked , a not quite British film (with a very non-specific English setting) in which a teenage secondary school boy who records pornography for and starring his father falls for one of his classmates, Nina (Safiya Benaddi) when they are paired for an assignment involving internet pornography addiction. Of course, pornography should not appear in the same sentence twice. Indeed, a father should not encourage his school-age son to make pornographic videos. I don’t see this film being screened in English cinemas any time soon, except maybe at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The protagonist’s father would hate that – he insists that pornography isn’t art. The Bristol Watershed would ...

  Pictured : Eighteen-year-old orphan Marina ( Llúcia Garcia , centre) observes her late father's family in a scene from Spanish writer-director  Carla Simón 's third feature, ' Romería'. Still courtesy of Curzon (UK)   If a father chooses to edit his version of reality for the purpose of appearances, should he be forced to acknowledge the truth for the sake of his granddaughter? This is the dilemma posed in Spanish writer-director Carla Simón’s third feature, Romería (an informal Spanish word meaning ‘pilgrimage’). Set in July 2004, and drawing heavily on her mother’s diaries, quoted in voiceover but underpinning a fictional narrative, Simón’s film follows five days in the life of Marina (Llúcia Garcia), an eighteen-year-old would-be film student who requires a document to confirm that she is the daughter of Alfonso (‘Fon’) Piñeiro, who died in the late 1980s before she was born, at least as far as she knows. When Marina travels to the records office in the Galician...

  Pictured : Vladimir, Vlado to his friends ( Slavko Sobin ) and daughter Maria ( Olive Gray ) in a scene from the Bristol-set British drama, ' Surviving Earth ', written and directed by  Thea Gajić . Still courtesy of Metis Films  (UK)   The Bristol-set drama, Surviving Earth , written and directed by South London-born Thea Gajić, is dedicated to her late father, Serbian émigré Vladmir Gajić, who died of a drug overdose after settling in England. The film is a fictionalised account of the months leading to his death, vividly speaking to the pressures placed on immigrants and the limitations of a positive outlook. It is elevated by a charismatic central performance of Croatia-born Slavko Sobin, who gives Vlado (the name he is frequently called, as opposed to Vlad) depth, humour and credibility. Sobin, who has been cast in tough guy roles in films like the thriller 97 Minutes , relishes the opportunity to play a three-dimensional character. You forget you are wat...

  Pictured : 'I never promised you a vegetable garden.' Anna ( Halle Bailey ) and Michael ( Regé-Jean Page ) in a scene from the Italian-set romantic comedy, ' You, Me & Tuscany ', written by Ryan Engle and Kristen Engle and directed by Kat Coiro . Still courtesy of Universal Pictures .  The romantic comedy You, Me & Tuscany gets one thing absolutely right. If you are a woman of colour and want romantic happiness, you won’t find it in Donald Trump’s America. Director Kat Coiro’s protagonist, New York-based apartment sitter Anna (Halle Bailey) meets handsome Italian realty guy Matteo (Lorenzo De Moor) in a bar and is inspired to make good an unused airline ticket to fly to Tuscany, where she hoped she’d take her now deceased mother. Arriving at a village where every available hotel room is taken, she decides to travel to Matteo’s vacant villa and go full Goldilocks. She doesn’t expect to be woken by the sound of Giuseppe (Emanuele Pacca), the singing gardener ...