This Week’s Cinema Highlights- 17th January 2019

Another good week for cinema releases with a total of four major films hitting our screens. We are very much in awards territory now with The Golden Globes already been handed out and the nomination for the BAFTAs just announced.

Glass
Bringing together the strands from both Unbreakable and Split, M. Night Shyamalan has crafted a comic book thriller that takes characters from two films over a nineteen year time span and gives us a payoff that wasn’t expected until the final scene of the previous film. The initial critical response has been mixed ranging from glowing praise to distinct disappointment. Samuel L Jackson is Mr Glass, Bruce Willis is David Dunn and James McEvoy is two dozen personalities within the one body. You can find our review here 

Beautiful Boy
Based on the memoirs of the two central characters, Beautiful Boy sees the descent of a teen into drug addiction and his struggle to get back to some sort of a normal life. Told mostly from the perspective of the father it is a no hold barred look at the effects of addiction on the victim and their entire family . Steve Carrell gives another fine and nuanced performance as the farther struggling for answers. Timothee Shalamet further enhances his reputation after the terrific Call Me By Your Name in the role of the the beautiful boy of the title.

Mary Queen Of Scots
Based on a series of letters sent between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart, the queen of Scots. It is a dense and intriguing political thriller where both woman push their claims to the throne of England to the max. It features a couple of fantastic performances that play off each other even though they only actually share about five minutes screen time together. Saoirse Ronan stars as Mary alongside an equally compelling performance from Margot Robbie. There’s a fair chance this one will feature in the forthcoming awards chatter.

Monsters & Men
Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green , Monsters & Men starts when young father Manny witnesses the police shooting of an unarmed black man. The tight-knit community of Bed-Stuy is pushed to the brink in the Sundance Award-winning portrait of race, family and consequence. The film stars John David Washington and Anthony Ramos.

John McArthur
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