Eleanor Reviews

Director:  Aaron Sorkin Cast:  Eddie Redmayne. Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Rylance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt  Where can I watch?:   The Trial of the Chicago 7  is streaming on  Netflix Rating:  4/5 Review: I'll get something off my chest straight away: I'm something of an Aaron Sorkin fangirl. As a young'un, I was subjected to VHS re-runs of The West Wing,  something that I initially rolled my eyes at but soon came to rather enjoy (President Bartlett for life, am I right?). As a would-be-wish-I-could writer, Sorkin's command of dialogue and interpersonal relationships always struck me, so seeing his name attached to this true story immediately appealed to me. Taking the director's helm for a second time, Sorkin unites an all-star ensemble cast in this poignant, oft-infuriating retelling of the court case surrounding the Chicago Seven. Playing with the timeline to reveal the actual events of the night of the 1968 riot, Sorkin expertly crafts a quick-witted...

Director:  Harry Bradbeer Cast:  Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Helena Bonham Carter Where can I watch?:   Enola Holmes is streaming on Netflix Rating:  3.5/5 Review: In the last ten years alone, we've had a fair few renditions of the Sherlock Holmes story: the Guy Ritchie/Downey Jr excursion; the truly horrendous Holmes & Watson (I just watched the trailer and decided it was trash); and the star-making BBC series (we NEVER talk about that last series, OK? Shudder). Into the mix, we now add this very 20th Century edition, which focuses on the Holmes' little sister, Enola - and I'm glad to report it's far better than the Moffat/Gatiss attempt (OK, I won't mention it again). Then again, it's probably wrong to compare Enola Holmes to those series, as it feels more similar in tone to the Ritchie/Downey outing, with action and adventure prevailing over any real clue-solving. Enter our heroine, Enola (Millie Bobby Brown). Addressing the camera a la...

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: Roger Donaldson Cast:  Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier Where can I watch?: The Bounty is streaming on Netflix Rating: 2/5 Review: The true story of HMS Bounty , the mutiny and the continued bloodline of the mutineers on Pitcairn Island is, undoubtedly, a fascinating one. It's unfortunate, then, that Roger Donaldson's attempt to bring the high sea drama to the screen is so, well, dull. Opening with paradisaical images of tropical islands under nectarine skies (punctuated with an eerie score by Vangelis of Blade Runner fame), the film starts of promisingly... And quickly loses its way. After the initial 'culture-gasm' of seeing Anthony Hopkins (the doomed captain, William Bligh) and Laurence Olivier face off in a naval court, we find ourselves aboard The Bounty , with fresh-faced Mel Gibson wrestling with the underwritten role of rebellious Fletcher Christian. There are the usual naval tropes abound: lashings for the impudent sai...

Director : Anurag Kashyap Cast : Saiyami Kher, Roshan Mathew, Amruta Subhash Where can I watch? : Choked is streaming on Netflix Rating : 4/5 Review : Netflix's attempts to diversify its entertainment collection seems to have accelerated rapidly during lockdown, with a number of new international offerings becoming readily available in amongst all the nostalgic 90s releases. One such film is Choked , a Hindi-language film that centres around put-upon bank worker Sarita (the engaging Saiyami Kher) and her disintegrating marriage. Setting the scene in a tumbledown set of flats - paint-flaking ceilings and a drain that constantly leaks and gurgles are as much characters as their human counterparts - we're hurled into Sarita's tiring existence, but could salvation be at hand? Marrying Bollywood-esque musical sequences with grainy news footage capturing the fallout of Modi's monetary reforms, director Anurag Kashyap effortlessly moves from fantasy to reality,...

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...