Shirley MacLaine

Gambit

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Harry on the phone

Gambit upends the crime caper and that’s reason enough to watch it. It also features Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine playing exquisitely to type – another. Caine one year after Alfie and the same year as The Ipcress File is the smart, cocky working class guy in a hurry; MacLaine halfway between Billy Wilder’s Irma La Douce and Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity is the streetwise operator who’s sharper than she’s letting on. Short story: Harry (Caine) recruits dancer Nicole (MacLaine) because she is the spitting image of the dead wife of Shahbandar (Herbert Lom), the richest man in the world. Together Harry and Nicole pull off an elaborate heist after working their way … Read more

Noelle

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Anna Kendrick in bobble hat and warm coat

Christmas movies. They’re churned out by TV channels, who plop a cute jumper on a couple of their botoxed, permatanned stars, add a bit of grog to a romantic plot involving the healing of a family rift – or something – and there you are, 90 minutes (perhaps 120 with adverts) of overlit fixed-grin cheer. But when a Christmas movie works – A Christmas Carol (almost any one of them) or Elf – what a glorious thing it is, catharsis without the pain. Noelle fits that bill. Borrowing heavily from Elf, it’s a feminist-lite tale of the girl who would be Christmas, Anna Kendrick playing the daughter of Santa Claus who, when the old … Read more