Onward (2020)

Once upon a time, there was magic in the world, a world populated by elves and pixies, mantacores and unicorns. But magic was hard, and folk found a way to make things easier - things like electricity, and the combustion engine. On Ian's (Tom Holland) 16th birthday, his mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) gives him and his …

Crawl (2019)

I would never have chosen to go to see this movie, which is one of the problems with - or strengths of, depending on the film! - Cineword's Secret Screenings. There is such an excitement to not knowing what you're about to watch, but that was tempered with the audible grown I and many other …

Gifted (2017)

Frank Adler (Chris Evans) is guardian to his niece, Mary (McKenna Grace), who just happens to be a mathematical prodigy. Theirs is a really lovely relationship: they clearly dote on each other, he talks to her like a person, and she is clearly flourishing in the laid-back parenting. However, when Mary turns seven with no …

Triple 9 (2016)

Every now and then I get to attend a 'secret screening' - an advanced screening of a movie where we don't know what it is until the BFFC rating screen appears. Speculation is rife ahead of this, and while I think Triple 9 is a decent movie, that kind of build up just killed the whole thing …

In the Heart of the Sea (2015)

Herman Melville's masterpiece, Moby Dick, or The Whale, was inspired by real events. This movie purports to tell that tale: of a real whaling ship, the Essex, destroyed by a whale - but also the desperate struggle for survival by the crew following the incident, adrift a thousand miles from home. To my shame, I have never read Moby Dick (I …