Shameless Self Expression

Matthew McConaughey stars as an American in England who studied botany and decided his knowledge was best used for the weed industry. He’s now quite the bigwig in the drug scene, but he’s also ready to sell up and retire with his tough, loyal wife Michelle Dockery. Things don’t go quite so smoothly though, and a war breaks out between competing parties for McConaughey’s empire, those being geeky-looking American Jeremy Strong and a Chinese-English upstart known as Dry-Eye (Henry Golding). The story is narrated by an opportunistic P.I. and wannabe screenwriter (Hugh Grant) and told to Charlie Hunnam, McConaughey’s right-hand man. Colin Farrell turns up on the outskirts of this criminal world as another colourful character known as ‘Coach’.   Although he’ll occasionally switch genres (the dreary “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” , the “Sherlock Holmes” films), even fans of writer-director Guy Ritchie ( “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels” , “Snatch” , “Revolver” ) have to adm...

Set in the late 1800s during the Paris World’s Fair (AKA World Expo), young British woman Jean Simmons seems to have lost her brother (the underrated David Tomlinson) somewhere in between having a night on the town, and waking up in the hotel the next day. Only problem is, his room seems to have vanished too! And the somewhat uncooperative hotel staff (notably stern-looking, patronising hotel manager Cathleen Nesbitt) claim to have never seen him, nor is there a record of his registration at the front desk! Even the local police and British consul (Felix Aylmer) are somewhat dismissive of the woman’s claims (though the latter still attempts to help her). Her only ally appears to be a nice young British artist (Dirk Bogarde), who agrees to help her (he can validate a sliver of truth in Simmons story and suggests searching for further slivers) get to the bottom of it. But is there anything to get to the bottom of? Is it not all in her head? Does she even have a brother?   Thoroug...

Elisabeth Moss orchestrates an escape from her abusive and controlling partner Oliver Jackson-Cohen (forever to be known as ‘Not Jake Gyllenhaal’ in my book), with the help of her sister (Harriet Dyer, with a not terribly convincing American accent) and a cop friend (Aldis Hodge), who has a teenage daughter (Storm Reid). We then learn that Jackson-Cohen, a tech billionaire has supposedly committed suicide. However, it’s not long before Moss starts to sense Jackson-Cohen’s malevolent presence hasn’t left, and is haunting her. Everyone else thinks she’s crazy. But is she? Have you looked at the title? Michael Dorman plays Jackson-Cohen’s estranged brother, a lawyer.   Former “Recovery” film critic Leigh Whannell (known internationally as the writer and co-star of “Saw” and the rather more enjoyable “Insidious” films) has the same fanboy encyclopaedic knowledge of film as Quentin Tarantino (and myself for that matter). As the writer-director of this #MeToo update of H.G. Wells’...

Everyone is keen to find out what pretentious yet insecure Pulitzer Prize-winning author Meryl Streep is working on at the moment, including her new literary agent (Gemma Chan). Streep is up for a literary award, and she’d be thrilled if not for the fact that it’s in England. Chan comes up with the solution of a long cruise with free passage. All Streep has to do is give literary lectures on board. Streep agrees but only if she can bring her two old friends (Candice Bergen and Dianne Wiest) and her nephew (Lucas Hedges). Chan also manages to sneak herself on board with the goal of finding out just what Streep has been working on. Could it be a sequel to her most infamous and contentious work for which Bergen holds a long-time grudge over? And why has Streep invited these three people (two of whom she hasn’t seen in decades)?   “Shut Them All The Hell Up” , more like it. Director Steven Soderbergh ( “sex, lies, and videotape” , “Erin Brockovich” , the dreadful “Unsane” ), screen...

Paul Walter Houser stars as the title character, a well-meaning but over-zealous, overly eager former University campus security guard hired to do security at the 1996 Atlantic Summer Olympic Games. When a stray package arouses Richard’s suspicions, he attempts to evacuate the outdoor Olympic Games-related concert. It indeed turns out to be an explosive device. Although two people die and many are injured, Houser saves thousands of lives. However, it’s not long before the FBI (headed by Jon Hamm) zero in on a prime suspect: Richard Jewell, and start to ruin the man’s life. Also not helping poor Richard is his being demonised in the media, particularly by opportunistic Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde). Kathy Bates plays Richard’s fiercely loyal mother (who lives with him), whilst Sam Rockwell plays Jewell’s attorney whom Richard met when he worked briefly in supplies at Rockwell’s former law firm.   Filmmaker-actor Clint Eastwood (whose director...