#veronica mclaughlin

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Hampstead, Director: Joel Hopkins

Hampstead, Director: Joel Hopkins

Diane Keaton is radiant in this charming little “late life” rom-com, opposite an eccentric Brendan Gleeson. She plays a recently widowed American, living in a slightly rundown but elegant apartment on the outskirts of Hampstead in North London. At loose ends after a lifetime of being a wife and mother, she is wondering how she will survive as her supposedly successful late husband left her with a…

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Paris Can Wait, Director Eleanor Coppola

Paris Can Wait, Director Eleanor Coppola

When the 80-year-old wife of Francis Ford Coppola, who’s been his helpmate, assistant and cohort since 1963, decides to write and direct her first feature film – what happens? Eleanor Coppola picks up the reins as if she’s commanded them her whole life and delivers a sure-footed tale of romance and self-discovery on a road trip through the French countryside. (more…)

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The War for the Planet of the Apes, Director: Matt Reeves

The War for the Planet of the Apes, Director: Matt Reeves

I left the cinema after seeing The War for the Planet of the Apes, wondering if I had seen the same flick as the woman sitting next to me. She was reduced to tears, literally blubbering for a good part of the flick, while I sat there stunned at a grim pile of tired clichés that played out before my eyes. How can this be? I suppose, if you’re a die-hard fan of the franchise (which I am not) you…

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Wonder Woman, Director: Patty Jenkins

Wonder Woman, Director: Patty Jenkins

There’s an infinite number of considerations when attempting to write a review of the new Wonder Woman movie. How could Gal Gadot ever fill the iconic Lynda Carter’s bustier? Why is this the first time she has been brought to the big screen in her own feature film? Is Wonder Woman too sexy for girl power? Then there is the curious question of the Amazons living for centuries without men on a…

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Snatched, Director: Jonathan Levine

Snatched, Director: Jonathan Levine

Life isn’t going well for 30-something Emily Middleton (Amy Schumer.) She can’t keep a job. Her boyfriend dumps her on the eve of an overseas holiday. Her tickets are non-refundable and unsurprisingly, none of her friends is willing to go along. She’s a self-centred wreck, oblivious to others and with no one left to turn to – she runs home to Mother (Goldie Hawn.) (more…)

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Kong: Skull Island

Meet the new Kong! It’s 1973 and the Vietnam War is coming to an end. Facing redundancy, army scientist Bill Randa (John Goodman) convinces his superiors to let him lead a geology expedition to an uncharted island in the South Pacific. He gets his crew together: soldiers led by Colonel Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson), a tracker (Tom Hiddleston), a photographer Mason Weaver (Brie Larsen) and a…

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Alone in Berlin

With Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson heading up the cast, I had high hopes for Alone in Berlin. It’s based on the highly praised 1947 novel by Hans Fallada, which has only recently been translated into English, apparently based on the story of a real life couple. Otto and Anna Qaungel are an ordinary working class couple living in Berlin during World War II. He is a factory supervisor and she…

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Live by Night

Director: Ben Affleck 2 Stars Ben Affleck wrote, directed and stars in this unrestrained, out of control mess of a movie set in prohibition era Boston and Florida. An ambitious effort – it takes on both Irish and Italian gangster cultures, racism and the Ku Klux Klan, white supremacy, southern ignorance, immigration, drugs and alcohol, gambling, religious hypocrisy and general social injustice.…

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