Javier Bardem

F1

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Sonny and team mate Joshua about to race

F1 is as entertaining as it is ridiculous. A Formula 1 driver getting away with the sort of track chicanery that Brad Pitt’s character pulls off here? Nonsense. Insane. He’d be yanked off the track so fast he wouldn’t have time to remove his fireproof balaclava. While we’re about it, Isn’t Pitt way too old for the role? Aged about 60 when this was made, Pitt is playing about 50? Maybe. He’s in good shape and takes his shirt off a couple of times to reveal what he got paid a reported $30 million to deliver – Brad Pitt gorgeousness, with a shrug and a slightly diffident, “Can I help it if I’m … Read more

Dune: Part Two

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Close-up of Paul

Let’s get straight to the verdict. Dune: Part Two is visually spectacular but dramatically inert, the good stuff attributable to its remarkable director Denis Villeneuve, the bad stuff down to the writer of the original novel/doorstop, Frank Herbert. This is not going to be how everyone sees it, of course, what sort of a world would that be? But if you’re one of the people who picked up Herbert’s original Dune at some point only eventually to put/fling it down again after tiring of the relentless one-thing-after-anotherness of it (see also Tolkien) the movie won’t offer much that the book didn’t, its retina-cleansing visuals to one side. It picks up right where Part … Read more

The Roads Not Taken

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Leo leans on Molly's shoulder

For middle aged people wondering what the hell happened to the great life they were going to have, where the hell it all went wrong, The Roads Not Taken is your film, but don’t come to it expecting uplift. Javier Bardem plays Leo, a guy living a life of extreme misery in New York. Floored by what might be a stroke, he needs help to do the most basic everyday things and gets it mostly from his devoted daughter (Elle Fanning), who matter of factly sorts out Leo when he pisses his pants at the dentist and then loses her job because caring for dad has been taking up too much of her … Read more