Eleanor Reviews

*** The world as we know it is under threat - time travel has been weaponised and World War Three is on the horizon... So, I've seen Tenet  and I have a question: what the bloody hell is going on? Actually, that's not true - I have many questions, but that's the main one. Upon returning from the cinema in a state of confusion and questioning my own intelligence, I took to the internet to uncover what I had just witnessed, and found that just about everyone else on the planet had spent the lengthy runtime going 'huh?'. This might partly be because Ludwig Göransson's score (no Hans Zimmer this time!) is at its loudest and most eardrum-popping when various characters are talking, or it simply might be that Christoper Nolan has created a film that is almost completely incoherent. I fear it may be the latter. It's not just that Tenet is less than the sum of its parts (there are some good sequences), it's that Nolan completely over-complicates an idea - becaus...

Director:  Egor Abramenko Cast:   Oksana Akinshina, Fedor Bondarchuk, Pyotr Fyodorov Where can I watch?:   Sputnik  is streaming on  Amazon Prime Rating:  4/5 Review: The premise of an astronaut returning to earth with more than he might have bargained for is hardly original, and yet Sputnik , a Russian-language take on the sci-fi saga, somehow manages to feel wonderfully new and fresh, creating an alien film that's far and away better than anything Hollywood has churned out in recent years. Masterfully drawing us in with a suspenseful opening sequence, director Egor Abramenko (this is his first feature length film) then introduces us to our protagonist, Tatyana (Oksana Akinshina), who is facing disciplinary action of her unorthodox treatment of mental illness. Parallels can be drawn between Tatyana and Alien 's Ripley: both are no-nonsense, tough-talking scientists with an undying ambition to do the right thing, whatever the cost. Akinshina is a very ...

Director:  Gina Prince-Bythewood Cast:   Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts Where can I watch?:   The Old Guard  is streaming on Netflix Rating:  2/5 Review: It gives me no pleasure to say this, but The Old Guard is rubbish. This is honestly a real shame, as there's actually a lot to celebrate here: a female lead, a black female director, a gay male couple who subvert the usual queer relationship tropes usually assigned to screen, and a flourishing bond between two female protagonists that doesn't descend into backstabbing. Despite these ingredients, however, The Old Guard stumbles along rather blandly, raising more questions than it answers and failing to meet the sum of its parts. So the plot: Andy (Charlize Theron) heads up a group of immortal mercenaries who inadvertently make contact with a new 'recruit' (KiKi Layne) whilst being tracked by a big pharma company desperate to make a profit from their regenerative skills (cu...

Director:  Aaron Schneider Cast:  Tom Hanks, Stephen Graham Where can I watch?:   Greyhound  is streaming on  Apple TV+ Rating:  3/5 Review:  Based on a fictitious novel that used real events from the Battle of the Atlantic as inspiration, Greyhound , Apple's foray into World War Two big screen entertainment, is a nuts and bolts naval drama that both hits and misses in equal measure. Returning to the 1940s conflict for the third time, Tom Hanks takes on the role of inexperienced Captain Krause. Tasked with escorting cargo and troop ships across the perilous waves of the Atlantic, his job is to keep an eye out for the Nazis U-boats determined to eliminate any aid from the US. As such, there's lots of panicked sonar readings, numerous 'right rudder' or 'left rudder' commands and plenty of stressed, meaningful glances exchanged as the crew turn their binoculars to the rolling grey waves. It's pretty formulaic stuff, but Hanks' undeniable ch...

Director:  Jon Stewart Cast:  Steve Carell, Rose Byrne, Chris Cooper Where can I watch?:   Irresistible  is streaming on  Apple TV+ Rating:  2/5 Review: Everyone knows that the US political system is broken. Once fit for purpose, the manner in which elections of all sizes now take place is borderline corrupt, with money being the biggest winner. This is the premise of Jon Stewart's directorial debut... Only it's not just the 'premise', it's the stick with which you're repeatedly beaten with throughout this mercifully short and yet too long political parable. Steven Carell is Gary Zimmer, a Democratic spin doctor reeling from Hilary's 2016 election loss; upon seeing a heartfelt speech from a disgruntled war veteran (Chris Cooper), he decides to up sticks to help him win a mayoral title in a conservative Midwest town. Unfortunately, Republican spin doctor Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne) arrives to upset the apple cart and full blown electoral campa...

Director:  Michael Showalter Cast:  Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani Where can I watch?: The Lovebirds  is streaming on Netflix Rating: 3/5 Review: It's fair to say that the news is pretty grim right now, so when a film comes along that requires essentially zero brain power, it comes as something of a relief. Cue The Lovebirds , another of Netflix's lockdown viewing collection in which an arguing couple become inadvertently embroiled in some form of crime syndicate on their way to a friend's dinner party. Sound familiar? That's because The Lovebirds is far from original territory - how many times have we seen the fraught couple unite the battle the odds and save their relationship? - and yet, it's not without its charms. Firstly, Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani are both very watchable screen presences, and there is certainly a fizzing level of chemistry between them that makes their relationship quite believable. Similarly, some of the smaller jokes work quit...

Director:  Autumn de Wilde Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy, Mia Goth, Josh O'Connor Where can I watch?: You can rent Emma from Amazon Prime Rating:  4/5 Review: Another decade, another adaptation of Jane Austen's arguably most scathing novel, Emma. One could argue that if you've seen one, you've seen them all, and yet I would suggest that Autumn de Wilde's latest foray does indeed add something new to the canon. For starters, Anya Taylor-Joy's Emma isn't always likeable. In fact, she's comes across as far more sly and malevolent in this adaptation than in any of the others, making her salvation (not a spoiler!) all the more rewarding. De Wilde, familiar with photography and music videos, directs stylishly - each scene is dressed to the nines, the costumes are nothing short of sumptuous, and each shot could indeed be a standalone photo, such is the expert composition. The cast is ubiquitously excellent, with Johnny Flynn br...

***** David Copperfield takes to the stage to recount his life and times, interspersed with the plethora of colourful characters he's met along the way. It's clear that Armando Iannucci loves Dickens' Victorian behemoth David Copperfield , because only someone who loves the 800-page bildungsroman could have created a film that is at once wonderfully faithful and yet wholly creative with the source text. The film begins with our eponymous hero (the charming Dev Patel) taking the stage to recount his story, something that Dickens himself also did in wildly popular tours of Britain and the United States, and it feels like another respectful nod from Iannicci (who shares screenwriting credits with Simon Blackwell) to one of the most celebrated authors who ever lived. Throughout his film, Iannucci both pokes fun at Dickens ('why am I even this scene?') and celebrates his works, giving a new lease of life to a story that most of us would bypass in the book ...

***** In the midst of World War One, two young British soldiers are tasked with delivering a message that will save 1600 soldiers from certain death. Before 1917 was even released in the UK, it was already collecting accolades aplenty, with big wins at the Golden Globes in the first week of January. Plus, with nominations for Best Film and Best Director at the BAFTAs and almost guaranteed nods at the Oscars, it seems like Sam Mendes' foray into the war genre will be taking home yet more gongs before awards season is over. Naturally, when a film receives quite so much hype, the idea of going to see it can make me feel a little trepidatious - however, as a self-confessed lover of war films, there was no way I was going to miss this... I needn't have been worried: without a doubt, 1917 is one of the best films I've seen in a very long time. From the moment the central pair of young soldiers, Blake and Schofield (Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay, respec...