★★★
From the writers of A Dog’s Purpose – aka Nietzsche and Me – comes this cuddlier replicant of roughly the same premise. There’s still too much morbidity here for the tottering target market but the real takeaway is as upbeat and saccharine as they come. Think Homeward Bound meets The Fox and the Hound. Dog meets boy, dog gets lost, dog finds boy…or does he? Jeopardy!
★★★★
A revelatory performance by Melissa McCarthy is the foremost attraction of Can You Ever Forgive Me, the sophomore film from The Diary of a Teenage Girl director Marielle Heller. Based on true events, this is a relatively low stakes take on criminal activity, albeit one with a winning streak of black comedy down the spine. McCarthy shines at every turn in an increasingly rare reminder that she’s a talent to be reckoned with.
★★★★★
Boxed into an old school 4:3 ratio, First Reformed is a crisp, elegant and divinely constructed think piece from a top of his game Paul Schrader. Ethan Hawke gives a career best performance in the role of a man conflicted by his faith, personal tragedies and brutal awakening to the world around him, which, he comes to realise, shares his suffering. This is a film that dares to compare its implicated audience to God in a Lacanian conception of the viewer-screen relationship and hits hard with its emotional resonance.
The Film Blog 