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Jane Austen enjoyed quite the career as a rom-com screenwriter even before the form or the term existed, and even if you’ve not read this you’ve most probably seen some adaptation or other. Unusually, it is Clueless that is the most recent and highly regarded of them, although another straight adaptation starring Gwyneth Paltrow is probably the better comparison. In the modern age of movies about women being made by women, this version of the novel stays true to the setting (Highbury, which presumably is the same Islington Highbury before the football). It’s a straight costume drama with a slick, classic look and solid central performances. Anya Taylor Joy is the title character: wealthy and seemingly immune to the pressure to wed, she is always sorting out other people’s romantic tragedy in a society where a tragic woman of a certain age (well actually youth ) is a family problem. And when it comes to being set up financially, the poverty of a bad marital situation is equa...

Ben Elton’s hit TV series , which owes much to the performance of David Mitchell, is named after an insult thrown at Shakespeare by a man who is probably only known for insulting the Bard. Shakespeare was apparently an uneducated actor, and yet he wrote dozens of some of the greatest plays in the language. But he is ripe for humour, and Elton has developed his satire on the modern world to the pre-Elizabethan period of William’s life: David Mitchell takes to the stage for the first time, with Gemma Whelan as Kate and Rob Rouse as Bottom. The story, which is not based on anything seen on the TV, involves two “Moorish” twin washed up on English shores, separately looking for protection from the “Puri-titties”. Rachel Summers as Desiree, assumes the identity of a man and attracts the affection of plucky Kate. Kate’s activism mostly extends to wishing to tread the boards—but as everyone knows, you can only be an actor if you’ve got a ‘cod-dangle’—although she has also liberated Burb...

Garlanded with awards and praise, this is perhaps the most anticipated foreign language films to receive a wide-release. It’s a South Korean movie which is tense and ultimately quite violent, as well as having a beautiful visual style and a message about poverty and the prejudice against those without money who work for those with plenty. It’s the story of a family that eke out a meagre living on the streets of Seoul—at one point the job is folding pizza boxes. Mother and father Chung-sook and Ki-taek, and their young adult offspring, son Ki-woo and daughter Ki-jung eventually get an opportunity to occupy the house as they get jobs as unrelated labourers. When the Park family are out, the Kims can make use of the house. However that doesn’t last. What makes the film good is the wit. This is a funny film about people with nothing, and when they get to sneak into the house during the Park family’s camping trip the audacity of their temporary social bump-up is the kind of fun that’...

Fred Rogers was an icon of American children’s television, but unlike Sesame Street it’s not transferred to this country. But you don’t need to be aware of his programme— Mr Rogers’ Neighbourhood —to pick up the story. Mr Rogers dresses up in a cardigan and casual shoes and introduces his audience to a specific home in the miniature neighbourhood. And since the film is about an Esquire journalist who’s commissioned to write a short piece about national heroes. So the film begins with Rogers introducing his friend Lloyd, “Somebody has hurt my friend Lloyd - and not just on the face.” The Playschool- like formula introduces the journalist’s picture from behind a cardboard door. (I always hated when Playschool went outside!) Lloyd Vogel ( Matthew Rees ) is a journalist with a reputation for doing hatchet-jobs on his subject. He is shown injured because he’s gone with his wife and baby daughter to his sister’s wedding, and got into a fight with his drunken father. We go back to T...

How to sell a movie that’s partly a single-room play and partly a political drama—because this is a film about the transfer from one Pope to another. It’s fairly recent history, concerning the election of Benedict XVI following the death of John Paul II in 2005—and Benedict’s renunciation of his Papacy in February 2013, after which Cardinal Bergoglio was elected. The death of John Paul has presented a crossroads for the Catholic Church but it’s not one that it is collectively minded to contemplate at the time. Benedict ( Anthony Hopkins ) is asked by Cardinal Bergoglio ( Jonathan Pryce ) for permission to resign. Bergoglio is younger and more progressive than Ratzinger, and their conversation initially concerns the need for the Church to accept some of the unpleasant things that have been done in its name and to change and grow.  The film delves into the past lives of both men. Bergoglio is almost tempted away from his calling by the love of a woman when they’re both much...

This arty drama from Noah Baumbach is one of two Awards-heavy films that are presented on Netflix and so easy to watch without having to go to the cinema! It’s a study of a marriage coming apart, which sounds like a difficult sell but somehow this is approachable. Mostly because the writing is pretty good, and the performances are exceptional. Charlie is a hot-shot theatre director in New York. Married to Nicole, an actress, they have a young son and they are living their life until Nicole realises that objectively she is not happy. Adam Driver and Scartlett Johansson star as the couple—and although there is love between them there is also one-sided disappointment. Nicole reads in voice-over a document she’s prepared, evidently for marriage guidance purposes, in which she explains what’s excellent about Charlie, but in person she is soon getting angry in front of the mediator. The film manages not to take sides, even though it seems as though it might be one-sided. Char...

This is a gentle take on Charles Dickens ’ lengthy and partly autobiographical novel. The story of poverty giving way to success, and falling in love - not to mention debtors prisons and harshly cruel characters is turned into a light comedy by none other than Armando Iannuccu : a man known for satirising politics of a decade or more ago, or the Death of Stalin. The film is also curious because it’s Dev Patel ’s second consecutive work located in the East of England: specifically Great Yarmouth and Bury St Edmunds. Patel is a very likeable Copperfield: a character synonymous with Dickens even to the point where he stands at a stage and reads at the beginning and end. This framing device echoes Dickens’ own public performances. Most people will have read the massive novel in serial form though, and presentations of it usually have lengthy running times. Iannucci has cut the story to its elements though, and this is a great move. You’d have to be a poe-faced purist to not enjoy ...