Mothering Sunday Cert: 15, 1hr 44mins
Rating: 
Sing Macho Cert. 12, 1hr. 44 mins
Rating: 
tick, tick… Boom! Cert: 12A, 1hr 55mins
Rating:
One of the unforeseen, if not totally unsurprising, consequences of the #MeToo and Time’s Up campaigns is that sex and nudity – for so long staples of grown-up cinema – seemed to disappear from the big screen almost overnight.
An entire film-making generation made the decision to ask leading women for their disrobes. Many will agree.
There will always be those who are attracted to the ingenious nudity, but also enjoy sex. Mothering Sunday It is a step backward.
Olivia Colman (above) stars alongside Colin Firth as orphan Jane’s employers. It combines passion, a English country house, and the backdrop war.
Others, such as me, who grew up on the raunchy adaptations of D. H. Lawrence’s works, will be happy to see these key components of human existence back, albeit in a gender-balanced way.
After all, this gorgeous-looking adaptation of Graham Swift’s 2016 novel has been sensitively directed by a woman – the French film-maker Eva Husson.
There is as much male flesh exposed to females than there are females, so most female nudity has less to do with sex and more to do with class.
Largely played out on the Mothering Sunday of 1924, this is the story of the illicit, upstairs-downstairs affair between orphaned housemaid Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young) and posh young English gent Paul Sheringham, played by Josh O’Connor from The Crown.
However, the terrible legacy of the Great War still hangs over the entire thing.
This is the story of the illicit, upstairs-downstairs affair between an orphaned housemaid and posh young English gent Paul Sheringham (Josh O’Connor, above)
Of the five boys raised by the Nivens – Jane’s employers and played by Colin Firth and Olivia Colman – and their long-standing friends, the Sheringhams, Paul is the only survivor. Both his parents are invested in his success.
It is easy to see the combination of passion, a country home in England and the background of war. Echoes of Downton Abbey are never far away, either, for a film that certainly doesn’t break new ground but covers the ground it does exquisitely.
Clint Eastwood has passed away at 91. That is the problem, bluntly. Sing MachoHe stars as himself in this light, modern-era Western that he neglects to direct.
The problem is that the camera that loved him so faithfully for decades – and it pains me to say this – no longer loves him at all.
However, Mike Milo is playing Mike Milo. He plays a washed out rodeo star and travels to Mexico with the troubled teenager of an old friend to return him to his father. This is a painful viewing experience.
Eastwood doesn’t really look like Eastwood, he fluffs most of his moments of would-be comedy and it’s difficult to know which is more unconvincing – Mike breaking in a wild horse or essaying a sultry rumba with a dark-eyed señora.
Yes, I know she’s a grandmother but even so…
Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s new film, tick, tick… Boom!, is essentially musical theatre honouring one of its own, in that it’s an all-singing, all-dancing adaptation of the second musical written by Jonathan Larson, whose third effort was the Broadway smash hit Rent.
Rent was in New York for twelve years, but Larson didn’t see any of it succeed. He died the day after its opening from an aneurysm. He was 35.
Semi-autobiographical in nature, sprinkled with starry cameos and with Andrew Garfield giving a fabulous performance as Larson, Miranda’s film is both moving tribute and generous thank-you.