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Phil Johnston’s new take on The Twits – the first in a slate of animations from the now Netflix owned Roald Dahl Story Company – is revolting. Seriously so. If only that were a compliment. It should be. Dahl’s original was, after all, supremely revolving. In the very best way. Wormy spaghetti, gristly beards, warts and frogs, all packed into a brisk ninety-five pages. Perhaps, revolving is, then, the wrong word. Unwatchable. That’ll cut it.
Continue reading The Twits | Review★★★★
Already the subject of three landmark documentaries – not least the BBC’s seminal 1989 short John’s Not Mad – the remarkable and often gut wrenching story of John Davidson finds dramatisation this week in Kirk Jones’ I Swear. All emotion lives here. The tears, both joy and despair, are constant. Sure enough, this is a film that grabs you by the heart with astonishing ease and offers little let up. A deeply human script from Jones himself is triumph enough but it’s the powerhouse performances before the camera that nail the landing.
Continue reading I Swear | Review★★
Richard Osman’s “The Thursday Murder Club” screams – or, rather, ahems – Sunday night on the BBC. It’s so obvious that a character in the erroneous, Netflix-funded, Chris Columbus movie that has actually been produced even jokes about the consanguinity. This is not to demean the quality of Osman’s, deservedly popular, storytelling but to acknowledge the extreme particularity of his prose. Hollywood cannot hope to tap into Osman’s very British niche and so Columbus’ film is fine watch but bland and transparently softened for international sensibilities.
Continue reading The Thursday Murder Club | Review
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