How delightful it is to witness the screen reunion of Julie Walters and Jamie Bell twenty-seven years on from Billy Elliot. He’s no longer a scrawny adolescent ballet lad (though the boyish looks are still there), she’s ditched the stockings, and they’ve both decamped to Merseyside for Paul McGuigan’s funny, affectionate and heartbreaking tale of the fascinating, true story, relationship of a former fifties film star – a dazzling Annette Bening – and the boy next door. Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, but they do sparkle.
ISIS, cancer, homelessness and Jews are all fair game for comedy in Jon Lucas and Scott Moore’s quick turn around sequel to last year’s reasonably successful Bad Moms. Essentially following the footsteps of many a generic sequel, the totally inessential A Bad Moms Christmas rehashes round one to derivative effect. Up with the ante, down with originality.
All of suspects have been rounded up. This is the ultimate whodunit and one of them did it. Yes, one of these A-listers switched the Moonlight and La La Land Oscar cards around back in February and good old Sir Ken’s here to get to the bottom of it. This is Murder on the Hollywood Express 2, the long awaited sequel to Sidney Lumet’s similarly star-studded part one back in 1974. Both are, of course, better known as Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express.
The Film Blog 