There were two available avenues down which The Glass Castle, Destin Daniel Cretton’s adaptation of Jeannette Walls’ likewise-titled memoir, could have traveled. On the one hand, a ‘glass castle’ is symbolically suggestive of fragility, insecurity and hollow grandeur; on the other, it is a image that conjures nostalgic ideas of the fairytale ‘far, far away’s of childhood tales. In hindsight, it is a shame that Cretton leant to the latter. His Glass Castle is a film of many isolated successes, which are sadly let down a misjudged and inconsistent tone.
Breathe isn’t quite the film you’d expect to mark the directorial debut of Imaginarium’s Doctor Parnassus himself, Andy Serkis. That would probably be his sophomore turn at the helm of next year’s motion capture spectacular The Jungle Book. Instead, this technologically quieter biopic is driven not by ambition so much as pure and genuine heart. Though not so remarkable as the story it tells, Breathe makes for a winning watch that leaves you both heartbroken and entirely affirmed.
Denis Villeneuve’s long-awaited sequel to Ridley Scott’s cult classic Blade Runner may be set some three decades after the original but is packed with dystopian pertinence so in line with the issues of the present day that the gap feels more intensely condensed than its predecessor ever could. Every bit on the forefront of visual technology itself, the triumph of Blade Runner 2049 is how well it emulates and advances the essence of the original, whilst offering one of the most cinematographically perfect experiences ever brought to the big screen.
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