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Tag: Corn Hall Wednesday Film

Wonka is a chocolate box of delights

Director Paul King is the man behind the Paddington movies, so we have every right to expect great things from Wonka, and his trademark whimsy has certain certainly been put to good use again. The… read more
Posted in Film

A Final Curtain Call for Caine and Jackson

  Michael Caine and the late Glenda Jackson bring their considerable acting skills to bear on The Great Escaper, a simple, heart-warming story of a D-day veteran who "escapes" to France to attend the 70th… read more
Posted in Film

Come and see the violence inherent in the system

They say the necessity is the mother of invention, and I doubt there's a better exemplar of the maxim than Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a film that, as the posters said at the… read more
Posted in Comedy, Film

An Unlikely tale of Contrition and Kindness

Adapted from Rachel Joyce’s bestselling novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a deceptively simple tale of a man that walks the length of England, imagining that the act itself will prevent an old friend… read more
Posted in Film

A Haunting tale of Murder

Kenneth Branagh’s latest Poirot adventure, very loosely based on Agatha Christie's Halloween Party, is a significant departure from the star filled travelogues that preceded it, and is all the better for it. While the essential… read more
Posted in Film

And Then Come The Nightjars

The fictional world of the Detectorists, the fishing exploits of Whitehouse and Mortimer and Benjamin Myer's Perfect Golden Circle all deal with the stoic, idiosyncratic, emotionally repressed bond between two heterosexual men, but its a… read more
Posted in Film

Past Lives wonders what might have been

Celine Song's astonishingly assured directorial debut seems all the more poignant when you learn it is loosely autobiographical. Much like Greta Lee’s Nora, she lives in New York, having migrated from Korea twenty years previously.… read more
Posted in Film

A whip smart script makes for a cracking film

Can it really be over forty years since the first Indiana Jones film? If so, can it really be Harrison Ford running atop a moving train in the latest one? With the assistance of some… read more
Posted in Film

A Special Trip to Cromer

Who would have thought that a German documentary about Cromer would even be a thing, let alone a success, both in producer Jens Meurer's home country and here in the UK. Seaside Special is all… read more
Posted in Film, Norfolk

Nolan's Explosive Biopic lights up the screen

Christopher Nolan’s formidable, if occasionally unwieldy, biopic of Robert Oppenheimer is huge in both its scale and ambition. Over the course of its considerable playing time, it interweaves Oppenheimer's time in academia, his romantic entanglements,… read more
Posted in Film

In the Barbie world life in plastic is fantastic

Greta Gerwig's surprisingly subversive movie about the eponymous Barbie, in all her weird and wonderful incarnations, stars Margot Robbie in a role that she was surely born into, as Stereotypical Barbie. Her stereotypical pal Ken,… read more
Posted in Film

A Romantic Thriller that confounds expectation

Park Chan-wook has a seemingly effortless ability to confound expectation. Very few would have thought the director of Oldboy would have turned his hand to the overt eroticism of The Handmaiden, and with Decision to… read more
Posted in Film

Eric Ravilious is drawn to War

Given the interest shown in the work of Eric Ravilious following the ground-breaking exhibition of this art back in 2015, it's hard to imagine that his work was almost forgotten until his children found a… read more
Posted in Art, Film, Uncategorised

She Said is a gripping account of dogged journalism

Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s solid adaptation of Jodi Kantor’s book of the same name follows in the footsteps of Spotlight and Post, as a team of journalists doggedly investigate wrongdoing that has been covered up by powerful… read more
Posted in Film

A delightful confection starring Leslie Manville and fifties fashion

Anyone familiar with the films of Mike Leigh will know how good an actor Leslie Manville is, but it’s only as recently as 2017, for the performance in Phantom Threads, that this was widely acknowledged.… read more
Posted in Film

Tom Cruise goes Maverick in this astonishing spectacle

Viewed through the prism of all that followed, the first Top Gun film looks oddly dated now, but at the time it was a game changer, instrumental in bringing the vitality and economy of advertising… read more
Posted in Film

Full Steam ahead for the Railway Children's Return

It’s been over fifty years since Jenny Agutter stood on a railway platform calling for her Daddy in the definitive family film. In this belated sequel, it’s Beau Gadsdon that does much the same, in… read more
Posted in Film

Mark Rylance fits the Outfit like a glove

Single set dramas – anything from 12 Angry Men to Reservoir Dogs – are compelled to do something interesting with words, and The Outfit is no exception. Mark Rylance is reliably excellent as the cutter… read more
Posted in Film

Operation Mincemeat is a resounding success

Ten years ago I read a fascinating book by Ben Macintyre, outlining an extraordinary scheme to trick  Nazi Germany into thinking the allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia, rather than their actual target, Sicily.… read more
Posted in Film

Benedict Cumberbatch gives an electrifying performance

It turns out that I have Louis Wain to thank for a life in service to my cats – before his whimsical illustrations became popular at the turn on the last century cats were apparently… read more
Posted in Film, Uncategorised

Almodóvar is on top form with his latest film

Two mothers, not really parallel at all, come together in this moving melodrama that celebrates the courage of single mothers, while nodding to the unhealed wounds of Spain’s troubled political history. Pedro Almodóvar’s new movie… read more
Posted in Film

Death on the Nile is a sumptuously filmed romp

In the case of Death On The Nile, director Kenneth Branagh and screenwriter Michael Green’s sequel to their polished adaptation of Murder On The Orient Express, we get nothing less than the origin story of… read more
Posted in Film, Uncategorised

Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast is a spellbinding masterpiece

Kenneth Branagh’s elegiac, autobiographical movie has a tremendous warmth to it, notwithstanding its grim subject matter, and although it focuses on a specific time in Branagh’s life, it touches on surprisingly universal themes. When, it… read more
Posted in Film

A return to form for the King's Man

Director Matthew Vaughan appears to have, unusually, listened to critics of the earlier Kingsmen films, retaining the stiff upper lip of the protagonist, while dispensing with much of the leering, laddish attitude that marred what… read more
Posted in Film

Dune is an extraordinary, spectacular visual treat

Director Denis Villeneuve’s decision to take on Frank Herbert’s mammoth Dune novel might be thought brave to the point of foolhardiness, given the almighty mess David Lynch made of it back in the eighties. For… read more
Posted in Film, Review

After Love is a stunning debut

Dominating this debut movie from director Aleem Khan is a superb performance from Joanna Scanlan, probably best known for her work in comic gems like Getting On and The Thick of It. Her understated acting… read more
Posted in Film

No Time to Die proves well worth the wait

Daniel Craig’s final Bond film is a fitted conclusion to his record breaking fifteen year tenure. Packed with set-piece action and outrageous stunts, there’s more than enough to keep fans of old-school 007 movies happy.… read more
Posted in Film

The Courier is a Ripping Yarn - but is so much more as well

We are so used to seeing Benedict Cumberbatch play dysfunctional geniuses that it’s a little disorientating to discover he’s more than capable of playing a man distinguished by his ordinariness. Greville Wynne, a salesman with… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Promising Young Woman is an engaging, thought provoking and gripping examination of date rape.

Given the films industry’s focus on  the #MeToo movement, it’s surprising that  a move exploring the issues raised hasn’t come along earlier. It’s also surprising that it should be marketed as a revenge thriller. Director… read more
Posted in Film

First Cow is a triumph of gentle story telling

Based on screenwriter Jonathan Raymond’s novel, director Kelly Reichardt film is not a story that gets told in a hurry. As much a collage of scenes as a narrative, it is shot with simplicity and… read more
Posted in Film

Sound of Metal - a moving and heartfelt film

In Darius Marder’s moving and heartfelt film, Riz Ahmed plays an American drummer whose life, and career, is sent into a tailspin by the sudden offset of deafness. Ironically, there is very little Metal beyond… read more
Posted in Film

The Gentlemen is a Exuberant, Labyrinthine Romp

After dipping his toe into family friendly films, Guy Ritchie returns to what he does best with The Gentlemen. The film is a scabrous, exuberant romp, with a labyrinthine plot that will have your head… read more
Posted in Comedy, Film

David Copperfield is very funny, breathlessly energetic and endlessly imaginative

Armando Iannucci’s exuberant adaptation of David Copperfield opens with our eponymous hero telling his life story to a rapt audience in Bury St Edmund’s Theatre Royal. What follows is a joyous romp around East Anglia,… read more
Posted in Family, Film, Uncategorised

Parasite is meticulously plotted, perfectly cast, and hugely entertaining

Parasite is deservedly the first foreign language film to win an Oscar for best film. It is meticulously plotted, perfectly cast, and hugely entertaining, Bong Joon-ho won two more, for direction and script, along with… read more
Posted in Film

1917 is a thrilling, spell-binding triumph

Much has been made of the technical brilliance of Sam Mendes’s 1917. This is a film that takes place in real time, with the camera seemingly following soldiers Schofield and Blake in a single unbroken… read more
Posted in Film

Little Women breathes new life into into the Classic Novel

Louisa May Alcott’s book has been adapted many times, and as recently as the mid-nineties, so Greta Gerwig had to bring something very special to the screen in order to justify yet one more retelling… read more
Posted in Family, Film, Review

The Peanut Butter Falcon is a delightful buddy movie that plucks on your heartstrings

Anyone who remembers Huckleberry Finn fondly will find much to love in The Peanut Butter Falcon. Set in the North Carolina Outer Banks, this delightful buddy movie is a film that plucks on your heartstrings… read more
Posted in Film

Downton Abbey film - a lavishly produced treat for the series many fans

Fans of Downton Abbey won’t be disappointed by this big screen opportunity to catch up with old friends. Gifted a bigger budget, Julian Fellowes’s drama about upstairs/downstairs has been turned from a show where thoughtful… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Boothby Graffoe headlines the strongest comedy line up for months

 It was a welcome return to form for the Corn Hall’s Comedy Club, with a varied lineup hosted by MC James Dowdeswell. Hugely personable, Dowdeswell had a pleasingly large crowd on side from the outset,… read more
Posted in Comedy

A Triumphant Return for Common Ground's Sherlock Holmes

Common Ground returned to the Corn Hall with another of their post-Christmas shows. It's something that looks like becoming something of a traditional, with packed houses for both performances of their further adventures of Holmes… read more
Posted in Comedy, Family, Theatre

Yesterday is a funny, feelgood film that will delight fans of Richard Curtis's very particular brand of film making

When Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle teamed up it seemed such a provocative combination that it was hard to imagine what would emerge. The end result is a lot closer to Love Actually than Trainspotting,… read more
Posted in Comedy, Diss, Film

Rocketman - screening tomorrow - is bold, imaginative and original

Considering that both David Furnish and Elton John were producers of this film, it’s a remarkably frank and unflinching examination of Reg Dwight’s rocky path to fame and its almost disastrous consequences. Even more remarkable… read more
Posted in Film, Review

The Keeper - a watchable, engaging story of hope & humanity triumphing over bitter resentment

Marcus H Rosenmüller’s robust, no nonsense account of Bert Trautmann’s improbable, but true, journey towards a role as Manchester City’s post war goalie is a loving tribute to reconciliation and forgiveness that is a paean… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Cast your prejudices aside, you’ll be cheering over this heart-warming tale with family, East Anglia & wrestling at its heart

If you’re wondering whether a film about wrestling is for you, then wonder no more, and not just because it largely takes place in East Anglia. This heart-warming tale of a close knit, loving family… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Can You Ever Forgive Me? - you will, after seeing next week's hugely enjoyable film

Continuing the current fashion for true tales that are stranger than fiction, Marielle Heller turns Lee Israel’s improbable career as a forger into a jolly, breathless romp that skips from scene to scene. Israel’s wobbly… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie give powerful performances as the rivals in next week's Wednesday film

Mary Queen of Scots The rivalry between Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I has been repeatedly dramatized and documented, but most often from the perspective of the English monarch and the furore surrounding the… read more
Posted in Film, Review

All is True - Branagh & Dench are magnificent in this film which seeks to explain the great mystery of why Shakespeare retired so suddenly

All is True (12A) Kenneth Branagh’s career is so closely associated with Shakespeare, it was perhaps inevitable that he would one day play the man himself. To that extent this is very much Branagh’s film,… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Stan & Ollie - next Wednesday's film - is a warm, affectionate delight

Stan & Ollie Jon S Baird’s gentle, unassuming biopic of the most famous double act the world has ever seen, is a warm, affectionate delight that touches on far broader issues than the pair’s final… read more
Posted in Film, Review

The Favourite - screening next Wednesday - is an eccentric, intriguing delight from beginning to end

The Favourite (15) - a review Set in the court of Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart monarchs, Yorgos Lanthimos’s quirky, profane and shamelessly anachronistic period drama is an eccentric, intriguing delight from beginning… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Ryan Gosling is excellent as Neil Armstrong in next Wednesday's film, First Man

First Man Adapted from James R Hansen’s book by Spotlight screenwriter, First Man is similar in tone to Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff. Sombre and respectful, this is a film that is immersed in its… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Wednesday 15 May - your chance to see one of the best films ever made

Ingmar Bergman's dark masterpiece, The Seventh Seal reaches back to scripture to create a nightmarish, episodic journey for Max von Sydow’s world-weary crusader, questioning everything while the long shadow of death chases him all the… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Next Wednesday: Bohemian Rhapsody - with a roster of superb concert recreations - is hugely enjoyable

After the much-publicised troubles that have beset this movie, it comes as a pleasant surprise that Bohemian Rhapsody is such a fun ride, with a roster of superb concert recreations, including Life Aid – where… read more
Posted in Film, Music, Review

Mary Poppins flies into the Corn Hall this Wednesday

Mary Poppins Returns Fans of the original Mary Poppins who approach this belated sequel with some trepidation need not worry. The film has been created with them in mind as much as a family audience… read more
Posted in Family, Film, Review

Lady Gaga CAN act - See her in 'A Star is Born'

A Star is Born Bradley Cooper’s version of this much told story is more a reimagining than a remake, with his fading rock star crossing paths with Lady Gaga’s ascendance as an all singing, all… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Next Wednesday's film - a master class in screen acting that is as enjoyable as it is compelling

When Joe Castleman wins the Nobel Prize for Literature his wife is delighted for him – who wouldn’t be – and yet there is something niggling away at her that isn’t fully explained by his… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Stranger than fiction, Wednesday's film BlacKkKlansman, is probably the best Spike Lee film in 20 years

Probably the best Spike Lee film in 20 years, this stranger than fiction story of a black man infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan mixes absurd comedy with jaw-dropping racism to brilliant effect. Both a social… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Hotel Salvation - anyone who has spent time with an ageing parent will find much that is achingly resonant.

In this story of an ex-schoolteacher who decides to spend his final days in Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges, Shubhashish Bhutiani’s directorial debut presents a world that will be alien to European viewers,… read more
Posted in Film, Uncategorised

A stellar cast makes The King of Thieves by far the best and most poignant cinema version of the Hatton Garden heist

The Hatton Garden heist in 2015 has already been repeatedly dramatized, but this is by far the best, and most poignant, with a stellar cast of British heavyweight actors who, much like the characters they… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Cold War - A sweeping, yet oddly intimate love story

Winner of the Best Director award at last year’s Cannes Festival, Paweł Pawlikowski has created a sweeping, yet oddly intimate love story about two people brought together, and then torn apart, by circumstances way beyond… read more
Posted in Film

Next Wednesday's film, The Happy Prince, has a message which is ultimately positive

The Happy Prince Rupert Everett has written, directed and starred in this film, a project he has toiled for years to get off the ground, and his commitment and belief in the endeavour is evident… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Journey's End - the Wednesday film - is a quietly magnificent - and hugely respectful - testament to those we must not forget.

Journey’s End (12A) While watching Saul Dibb’s superb adaption of R C Sherriff's masterpiece, I found myself being continually astonished that the play on which it was based was written only 10 years after the… read more
Posted in Film, Review, WWI

Wednesday film - part comedy, part travelogue, part mystery, part romance - will delight fans of Downton Abbey

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Wednesday 26 Sept, 10.30am & 7.30pm Part comedy, part travelogue, part mystery, part romance, Mike Newell’s adaptation of Annie Barrows’s post-war epistolary novel is a film… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Lady Bird - next Wednesday's film - features superb performances

Depending through which end of the telescope you view Lady Bird (nominated for three Academy Awards), teenager Christine McPherson is either a bright young thing struggling against the suffocation of suburbia, or a brattish malcontent,… read more
Posted in Film, Review

I, Tonya - An absorbing tale that is both tragic and hilarious

While not exactly America’s answer to the tribulations of Eddie the Eagle (Tonya Harding was a world class athlete) this shaggy dog story is similarly fantastical and contradictory. Director Craig Gillespie busts the fourth wall… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Next Wednesday's film - literate, profane and very clever.

What do you do, screenwriter and director Martin McDonagh seems to be asking, when there is nothing to be done? When a mother’s grief, following her daughter’s murder, turns to impotent rage she hits out… read more
Posted in Film, Review

Next Wednesday’s film - The Shape of Water – is a modern fairy tale that is both startling and uplifting

The cinema of Guillermo del Toro is notoriously dark and troubling and, although his latest film is notionally set in the US of the 1960s, it is a typically fantastical alternative version of those troubled… read more
Posted in Diss, Film, Review