LONDON FILM FESTIVAL REVIEWS - PHILOMENA, DON JON

PHILOMENA
Sponsored by ST. ERMIN'S HOTEL, LONDON

Release Date: 1 November 2013 (UK)
Director: Stephen Frears
Running Time: 94 Minutes
Starring: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan
Screening Reviewed: London Film Festival American Express Gala Press Screening

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

Stephen Frears is rapidly becoming the industry’s go-to guy for crafting powerful, intelligent and surprisingly moving film experiences based off of real-life, usually British, stories and events. His latest, Philomena, is one such terrific story that, much like his re-imagining of the events surrounding Princess Diana’s death in his superlative The Queen in 2006, does a sublime job of reminding us there is often nothing more disarming, surprising and cinematic than real life happenings.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES: MOVIE REVIEW

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
Release Date: 20th July (UK)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Running Time: 165 Minutes
Starring: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Morgan Freeman

Reviewed by Kyle Pedley

And so we come to it at last.

The Avengers Initiative has been assembled. Peter Parker is web-slinging once more. Yet in the wake of these worthy pretenders comes the real superhero event of the summer - the incomparably awaited The Dark Knight Rises. It is difficult to envisage a more hyped and anticipated movie release this year (except for maybe when we are all welcomed back to Middle Earth in December) but surely nobody on the planet needs reminding of that fact.

So how does it fare?

Firstly, those going in expecting a re-hash of The Dark Knight are likely to leave disappointed. For where the previous film felt more akin to a focused, frenzied crime thriller in the vein of, say, Michael Mann’s Heat seen through the filter of Gotham City, in this, Nolan’s final Batman outing, the movies comic book roots take front and centre, and in place of The Dark Knight’s erratic, chaotic surprise is an indomitable and epic ebb, a relentless advance to a grand, emotional crescendo for one of the most duly successful superhero franchises ever made.