Movie Reviews

A Gun in Each Hand Mercifully Short Review by Jonathan Empson  Despite the title, this is not an action film. It is a series of conversations between various men – none of the characters are named – suffering mid-life relationship crises. There’s humour, pathos and philosophy as the men shrug their shoulders, both metaphorically and … Read more

Fast & Furious 6 Mercifully Short Review by Jonathan  A group of outlaw millionaire car enthusiasts, apparently able to warp the laws of physics whenever they sit behind the wheel (and find extra gears on demand), are recruited by the US government in the knobbly shape of The Rock in order to defeat another, more … Read more

Broken Mercifully Short Review by Jonathan Empson  Despite its downbeat title, this likeable film is more humanist than miserablist. It studies the tensions between three middle-class  families living in a suburban cul-de-sac. Skunk (Eloise Laurence) is a normal 11-year-old girl who’s knocking around with her older brother in her last summer break before she starts … Read more

Tabu Mercifully Short Review by Jonathan Empson  God, this is awful. Pilar is a middle-aged woman, plain but with expressive eyes. She believes in God, is bothered by the attentions of a mediocre painter and worries about the people around her – including Aurora, the batty old neighbour in her Lisbon apartment block. Then Aurora … Read more

The Place Beyond the Pines Mercifully Short Review by Jonathan Empson Wall-of-death motorcycle stunt rider Luke returns to the town of Schenectady, NY, with his carnival and meets a woman he knocked up on a previous visit. He decides to stay on to play daddy, but money’s short. So he teams up with a local … Read more