Eleanor Reviews

Director:  Simon Stone Cast:  Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, Johnny Flynn Where can I watch?:   The Dig  is streaming on Netflix Rating:  4/5 Review:  Standing before the Sutton Hoo helmet in the British Museum is a strangely spiritual experience. Believed to have been buried around 625 AD, the helmet represents a level of craftsmanship and sophistication that many believed the Anglo-Saxons to be incapable of; it's also thought to have once sat upon the head of a king. Although Simon Stone's film The Dig doesn't chart the discovery of the helmet, it does dramatise the moment a complete Anglo-Saxon ship was discovered beneath a burial mound on the eve of the Second World War. When Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) hires unorthodox excavator Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to uncover the secrets buried within her late husband's land, neither could have anticipated what they would unearth. Through each trip to the dig site, Edith and Basil's platonic relat...

Director:  Ric Roman Waugh Cast:  Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd Where can I watch?:   Greenland  is streaming on  Prime Video Rating:  3.5/5 Review: Watching the news at the moment, it can often feel that we're living through our very own disaster movie, so sitting down to watch an 'end of the world' film may feel a little... Unnecessary? Fear not, readers, for I can assure you that watching doom unfurl via the medium of film is far more entertaining than living through it... Cue Greenland, a cataclysmic, comet-related outing that successfully thrills and engages without adding anything to the genre. You know the story already - an estranged husband (Gerard Butler, Scottish in some scenes, not in others) and wife (Morena Baccarin) must put their martial issues aside to ensure they, and their diabetic son (Roger Dale Floyd), survive the apocalypse, rekindling their relationship along the way. Despite this wholly unoriginal premise and a he...

Director:  Carlos López Estrada Cast:  Daveed Diggs, Rafael Casal, Janina Gavankar Where can I watch?:   Blindspotting is streaming on Prime Video Rating:  5/5 Review:  It's the duty of art to tackle difficult, uncomfortable subjects. In the case of director Carlos López Estrada's excellent Blindspotting , numerous timely subjects - from racism, to gentrification, police brutality and beyond - are dissected in a strikingly lyrical, often humorous, way. With just three days left until his probation is over, Collin (an outstanding Daveed Diggs) is desperate to stay out of trouble, but it seems life has other plans - his friendship with the volatile Miles (Rafael Casal) and the witnessing of a fleeing black man being shot by a white officer put him in a precarious position, as does the lingering presence of the crime that placed him in prison in the first place. From the premise I've described, you might expect a truly bleak, tragic watching experience, but you'd b...

Director:  Ramin Bahrani Cast:  Adarsh Gourav, Rajkummar Rao, Priyanka Chopra Jones Where can I watch?:   The White Tiger is streaming on Netflix .  Rating:  4/5 Review: Aravind Adiga's novel The White Tiger rocketed into the international bestseller lists when it was published in 2008. A darkly satirical study of Indian's caste system, the Man Booker Prize winner tackled everything from class to corruption, religion to rooster coops. It's perhaps strange, considering the novel's success, that it took so long for The White Tiger to be adapted into a film, but as director Ramin Bahrain shows, it was probably worth the wait. Taking on the central role of servant Balram is Adarsh Gourav: a mercurial screen presence, Gourav guides us through Balram's development from wide-eyed, eager driver to disillusioned servant and beyond with a deft, dependable hand. Balram's evolution from start to finish is entirely believable and, more importantly, wholly watchable - it'...

Director:  Paul Greengrass Cast:  Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel Where can I watch?:   News of the World  will be released on Netflix later in 2021 Rating:  3/5 Review: The last time Tom Hanks and director Paul Greengrass worked together was in 2013's nail-biting, edge-of-the-seat Captain Phillips . A difficult watch that packed a huge emotional punch, it remains a must-watch. In the years to come, the same probably won't be said of the duo's latest outing, News of the World . Taking it upon himself to return a twice-orphaned girl (Helena Zengel) to her last remaining relatives in the south, Captain Kidd (Tom Hanks) must travel across America in the aftermath of the Civil War, facing hostility, danger and division as he goes. To say that News of the World is 'predictable' is something of an understatement - at every point in the story, it was outstandingly obvious what was going to happen, from the hide and seek montage upon a rocky outcrop, to a run-in with less than...

Director:  Rohena Gera Cast:  Tillotama Shome, Vivek Gomber Where can I watch?:   Sir  is streaming on Netflix Rating:  4/5 Review: If you're anything like me, you will have spent a fair few hours (read: lifetimes) on the 'endless scroll' through Netflix's highly 'unusual' film selection. Imagine the excitement, then, when on a cold Friday evening, we found a new addition to the list that the Netflix-bot promised was a '98% match'. It's safe to say that neither of us had particularly high expectations of Sir , the tale of a domestic worker who falls in love with her affluent boss in modern day Mumbai, but we found ourselves swept along in this delicate and deeply touching film. For a movie with such a brief run time (it clocks in at just over one and a half hours), a lot is packed in, from a fearless and frank exploration of India's caste hierarchy, to the place of women in society and a nuanced depiction of the vast chasm between rural and urban...

Director:  Todd Haynes Cast:  Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins Where can I watch?:   Dark Waters is streaming on Prime Video Rating:  4/5 Review:  It's common knowledge that these huge, multi-national, multi-billion dollar companies are essentially holding us to ransom, but it's nonetheless incredibly shocking to discover the extent of their power, and the lengths they're willing to go to conceal any wrongdoing. Exposing a decades-long health scandal caused by chemical firm DuPont, Todd Haynes' film Dark Waters tackles the true story of a corporate defence lawyer, Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), efforts to bring a celebrated company to justice. Shot in the dark hues of blue and icy grey, it's clear from the beginning that this film isn't going to be a cheery one, and it's only right that it be so solemn, with Haynes paying homage to the innocent civilians who lost lives and livelihoods due to the systemic corruption of the firm on their very doorstep. Ruf...