It’s a good week for fans of costume dramas, with some very different historical tales hitting screens big and small. Plus, two powerful music documentaries will open your eyes… and ears. Happy viewing!
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The Woman King (cinemas)
Category: Action
Sure to be a favourite during the upcoming awards season, The Woman King is a big, rousing epic set in the West African nation of Dahomey in 1823. Leading the country’s all-female group of warriors is Nanisca - played by the great Viola Davis - and she and her army must battle double-crossing neighbours and foreign slave-traders to stay alive.
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Davis is commanding in everything she does but she’s especially steely and muscular here, expertly backed up by the powerhouse trio of Lashana Lynch, John Boyega and Sheila Atim. Director Gina Prince Blythewood has cited Braveheart and Gladiator as inspirations and it’s not hard to see the similarities (along with some reported inaccuracies that always seem to come when Hollywood does history!) But The Woman King is as much about emotions as facts and with that superb cast firing on all cylinders, you’ll leave the cinema uplifted and empowered.
Amsterdam (cinema)
Category: Comedy
How’s this for a cast? Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Anya Taylor Joy, Zoe Saldana, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Robert de Niro and even Taylor Swift all star in this eccentrically funny whodunnit about three American friends who bond in Amsterdam just after the 1st World War. On returning back to New York, they uncover a sinister plot at the heart of US politics, haphazardly weeding out the bad guys along the way. It’s certainly long (134 minutes) and undeniably ramshackle but that quirky quality is also Amsterdam’s greatest strength, with Christian Bale’s mad scientist Bert the most charmingly unlikely hero of the year.
Luckiest Girl Alive (Netflix)
Category: Thriller
Mila Kunis stars in and produces this adaptation of Jessica Knoll’s 2015 gripping bestseller about a hotshot New York writer haunted by that tragic events that happened to her whilst at a prestigious private school - events that she can no longer hold back. Get past the slightly unusual voiceover and the fact that supporting actors Connie Britton and Jennifer Beals really deserve better and Luckiest Girl Alive builds to something powerful, poignant and with plenty to say about male privilege in contemporary America.
The Sound of 007 (Amazon Prime)
Category: Documentary
What better way to celebrate the James Bond movie franchise reaching its sixtieth birthday than to watch this official - and fantastically in-depth - documentary about all those iconic, dramatic songs that make up a crucial part of the films’ appeal. It really is packed with all the names you want to hear from - Duran Duran, Tina Turner, Daniel Craig, plus insightful footage from original musical collaborators such as Paul McCartney and Nancy Sinatra. And if that’s not enough, why not follow this with the Sound of 007 concert, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall just a few days ago and featuring a breathtaking turn from the legendary Dame Shirley Bassey? It’s also on Amazon.
Cyrano (Amazon Prime)
Category: Musical
Peter Dinklage stars in this new version of the classic Cyrano de Bergerac tale; the story of a charismatic and talented writer who is also hugely insecure about his looks. The result? He resists professing his feelings to the object of his affection, Roxanne, and ends up helping another man to romance her instead. Whilst there have been umpteen adaptations of this classic on stage and screen, this has to be the most lavish - a dazzling period piece set in 17th century Sicily. With its stunning acting, sets, costumes and songs (by regular Taylor Swift co-writer Aaron Dessner), it’s an unforgettable treat for the heart and the head.
The Lost King (cinema)
Category: Drama
The creative team behind the powerful hit Philomena reteam for this fictionalised version of the much-discussed discovery of King Richard III's remains beneath a Leicester car park on 2012. This time, though, there’s no Judi Dench. Instead it’s Sally Hawkins who features alongside co-star (and co-writer) Steve Coogan, playing the historian who championed the excavation to discover the controversial king’s burial site. She’s as brilliantly engaging as ever, of course, although a slightly lightweight story (plus some debate as to exactly how truthful it is) make this more of an enjoyable diversion than a genuine must-see.
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Nothing Compares (cinema)
Category: Documentary
Irish singer/songwriter Sinéad O’Connor will be forever remembered for her spine-tingling cover of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ - the biggest song of 1990 - but as this documentary is keen to point out, she was also a trailblazer and activist way ahead of her time.
What she wasn’t, interestingly, was someone desperate to be a pop star and her treatment by the media and well-publicised mental health problems only served to reiterate that to her. This electrifying documentary uses archive footage and a brief, but important, new interview with Sinéad to paint an unforgettable picture of a troubled outsider pushed into the spotlight in her twenties - and who took decades to recover.
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