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 ...

  Contains spoilers When Marvel Studios was developing the standalone movie Black Widow , they reached out to a number of women directors because they wanted the film to better represent ‘the female perspective’. Amongst those invited for an informal interview (and subject to a non-disclosure agreement) was Argentine auteur Lucrecia Martel, whose last film, Zama , a critique of colonialism, is very far from commercial fare. ‘Don’t worry about the action scenes,’ she was told, ‘we’ll get somebody else to do those.’ ‘Actually, I’d like to direct the action scenes,’ replied Martel. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t get the gig. Instead, Marvel Studios hired Cate Shortland, whose most recent film, Berlin Syndrome , about the kidnapping of an Australian tourist, was at least in the thriller genre. Shortland is skilled in maintaining a degree of tension. However, superhero movies are not known for their heart-stopping suspense, rather the flair or power that the hero displays in defeating the...

  The first laugh in a comedy is the hardest. The longer you wait for it, the more impatient you get. When there is something vaguely humorous, you begrudgingly acknowledge it but don’t enter the party spirit. You wait instead for the introduction of a comedy element at a different register, a Robin Williams at full blast or Steve Martin turning up as a dentist in Little Shop of Horrors (the musical). If it doesn’t happen, the film becomes tedious. Bad comedies are like food that has gone stale, wine that has turned to vinegar or a box set on VHS format left close to a magnet. No, no, no. So how do you get that first laugh? First off, you establish a convention: a Jaws -like scenario at the beginning of Airplane , a serious documentary voice at the beginning of Take The Money and Run . If you try to be funny right from the first beat, you will fail – and fail hard. So Ghostbusters (1984) begins with a ghost attack in a public library. Then you bring in the comedians. They make b...

  Pictured : Nonagenarians Bessie ( Rita Zohar , left) and Eleanor ( June Squibb , right) have breakfast in a scene from the American comedy-drama, ' Eleanor The Great ', written by Tory Kamen and directed by Scarlett Johansson . Still courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics . Cultural appropriation – to tell a story that does not belong to you – has existed since the birth of literature. Both the Old and New Testament were transcribed from other people’s histories. Man has, apparently, related the word of a creator, an act – or series of acts – that could represent the largest hubris of all. Nowadays, individuals have the means to tell their own stories, from the ‘tell-all’ autobiography to the curation of a digital archive shared online. However, they are not always the best narrators of their own stories, lacking vocabulary, insight, even time, as well as being prone to self-censorship. An intermediary is helpful, be it a ghost writer, a playwright or an actor, someone sensitive...