Film Reviews by JL

Terrific performances from both, and each his/her moments of high drama. It would be nice to think that such encounters could always be so civilised, but I doubt it. The real triumphs, though, were the back stories when they were finally allowed to take centre stage. A very talky picture that will reward two or three viewings. Brave final shot of Emma Thompson.

Terence Davies has always been a deeply thoughtful and talented film maker. Same here, except that this is more of a one-note performance. Enough of the camp bitching I say. Congrats on Sasoon's angry WW1 protests and embittered old age, but surely there was more complexity to his poetic life as he expressed his talent than Davies allows.

Once you've fought your way past the eye-watering vanity and self-indulgence of the characters and plotting, there's much to admire, visually (great photography) and psychologically. Fellini may be in love with Rome, but the emptiness of the lives he throws at us is gradually driven home as the shallow and pointless adventure it is for the more thoughtful Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni).

Strong plotting and scene setting, superb choreography and dancing and singing. Great camera work too. But somehow the human angle fell flat - Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler weren't as convincing as we needed them to be. Especially him - too soft and middle class. But, as I say, strong story-telling which strenghtened the West Side context.

Sorry guys, but this one is just too contrived. Once again Neeson is milking his "Taken" agenda, and the concept is exhausted.

Over-written and overly melodramatic. To give credit where it's due, though, the six long episodes knew how to play with our expectations and keep us amused as likely blame for the murder swept all over the place, from one individual to another. So far, so good. But the entire piece was ludicrously over-long. A friend joined us at the halfway point (after three hour-long chapters) and hadn't really missed anything that mattered. The eventual guilty party was as predictable as several others (so not a staggering Agatha Christie-style surprise) but the playing out of the denouement did manage to wrong-foot us. It was even more melodramatic than we expected. So congrats for that.

Delightfully original, beautifully written and directed, this film is both witty as hell and steeped in pathos. Sensitively acted by two of our best character actors as well.

Beautifully acted by Annette Bening, Bill Nighy and Josh O'Connnor and beautifully directed and written by William Nicholson (how could the writer of Shadowlands do otherwise?). While the minutiae of marital collapse is both utterly credible and exhaustively explored.

A moving slice of life that we can all recognise, spiced with a down-town Mexican take on events that seeds the view with both friction and delight

One wants to be thankful for this courageous assault on the sexist and generally 19th-century attitudes towards women in Haifaa al-Mansour's second feature. And in many ways she succeeds by venting her frustration with the complacency and limited social horizons of the men who run everyone's life in Saudi Arabia. Of course our heroine (sorry for the plot spoiler) fails in her attempts to get herself elected to her local council, but we're grateful that we've been able to watch her try. So I'm glad I've seen this film, but if you located the plotting to any western locality you wouldn't bother with such a careful and extremely modest tale. In short, it is worth seeing for its insights into Saudia Arabian society, just don't expect any fireworks by our usual standards. At least there's one heart-warming sign of progress – an elderly male hospital patient finally relents and accepts, gratefully, the care and expertise of our heroine (a politically active doctor) after refusing to let her anywhere near him.

Loved it. Gentle, wise and moving. It almost felt like a film that a man couldn't have made. The writing, acting and direction had a wonderful focused intent, enveloping us in a mystery that I (a man) felt privileged to share.

A clunker. Been there so many times before. It had all the mechanical predictability of a 1950s Play for Today on TV. Of course, McKellen and Mirren worked their little socks off (good pro performances) and I was mildly curious to see how soon and in which direction the plot twists would kick in and deliver their utterly predictable punch lines. But that was it. I had been seduced by the star power of the cast when I ordered "The Good Liar", and expected a truly fresh take on an achingly exhausted concept. But no. Painting by numbers beats it hollow for artistic ambition and expression.