James Gray’s Armageddon Time, an engaging autobiographical tale set in 1980s New York, boasts fine performances from Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong and Anthony Hopkins. A deeply personal coming-of-age story about the strength of family and the generational pursuit of the American Dream.
The Wonder stars Florence Pugh as a nurse investigating an alleged miracle in a captivating period thriller about the dangers of religious fervour. Lib is called out to remote Ireland in the 1860s to investigate and assist on the case of Anna, an 11-year-old girl who hasn’t eaten for four months yet remains bizarrely healthy.
Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver are charismatic in Call Jane, Phyllis Nagy’s directorial debut, about a group of women in the 60s providing abortions outside the law.
When Joy’s pregnancy leads to a life-threatening heart condition, she must navigate an all-male medical establishment unwilling to terminate her pregnancy, in order to save her life.
We have three more films from the French Film Festival.
The Best Years of a Life stars the recently departed Jean-Louis Trintignant and won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1966. François Ozon’s latest is a sublimely acted movie of gay male obsession and comeuppance that had its UK premiere at the London Film Festival in October. Kompromat is a gripping espionage thriller in which a French diplomat must escape an FSB plot in Siberia.
