Chi-Raq (2016)
★★★★☆
A dazzling rap musical against the epidemic of gun violence amongst Chicago’s black communities, Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq is sensational.
★★★★☆
A dazzling rap musical against the epidemic of gun violence amongst Chicago’s black communities, Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq is sensational.
★★★★☆
Whiplash director Damien Chazelle’s La La Land is a bittersweet musical love letter to Hollywood and Los Angeles.
★★★☆☆
Despite a beautiful performance from Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams, Marc Abraham’s I Saw The Light can’t quite lift the country music icon out of the dark.
★★★☆☆
A Hollywood companion piece to Marguerite, Stephen Frears’ Florence Foster Jenkins finds a heart of gold beneath the tarnished voice.
★★★★☆
A delicious update of the Emperor’s new clothes parable, Xavier Giannoli’s Marguerite exposes the well-meaning flattery of the have-nots.
★★★☆☆
Love and labour lost, Don Cheadle’s biopic Miles Ahead reveals the great jazz musician Miles Davis at his lowest ebb.
★★★☆☆
Malian music in exile, Johanna Schwartz’s documentary They Will Have To Kill Us First is a celebration of music and its invincible power.
★★☆☆☆
Charting the hopes and dreams of her DJ brother Sven, Mia Hansen-Løve’s celebration of French house music Eden might be leading us up the garden path.
★★★★☆
With Paul Dano and John Cusack embodying the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Bill Pohlad’s Love & Mercy is a triumph of performance and the creative force.
★★☆☆☆
Boasting a stellar cast of Dustin Hoffman, Eddie Izzard and Kathy Bates, François Girard’s The Choir belts out one disappointing cliché after another.
★★★★☆
Charting the rise, fall and rise again of Nina Simone, Liz Garbus’s What Happened, Miss Simone? creates an icon of the High Priestess of Soul.
★★★☆☆
A family portrait and a fly-on-the-wall bio-doc of a great pianist, Stéphanie Argerich’s Argerich – Bloody Daughter wraps itself up in maternal knots.
★★★★☆
Pieced together out of archive footage, interviews and diaries, Liz Garbus’ What Happened, Miss Simone? makes a soul-stirring melody out of the blues.
★★★★★
Ferocious, electric and unrelenting, Simmons and Teller never miss a beat in Damien Chazelle’s phenomenal second feature Whiplash.