La La Land

(M) ★★★★★Director: Damien Chazelle.Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend.Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling light up the screen in the wonderful La La Land.IF there’s one thing that Hollywood loves, it’s Hollywood.Should La La Land win the best film Oscar come February 26 – as it probably will and should – it will be the fourth winner in six years centred around acting and/or Hollywood.But dismissing such a victory as an example of mere industry self-congratulation...

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Lion

(PG) ★★★★Director: Garth Davis.Cast: Dev Patel, Sunny Pawar, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Nicole Kidman, Abhishek Bharate, Divian Ladwa.Five-year-old Sunny Pawar stars as Saroo, pictured here with Abhishek Bharate as his brother Guddu.When the story of Saroo Brierley broke in 2012, most people (myself included) probably didn’t realise the full extent of his ordeal.Saroo’s tale was explained as “the boy who found his family using Google Earth,...

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Allied

(M) ★★★Director: Robert Zemeckis.Cast: Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard, Jared Harris, Matthew Goode, Lizzy Caplan, Simon McBurney.Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard look the goods as secret agents in Robert Zemeckis' Allied.TWO people fall in love in Nazi-occupied Casablanca during WWII as the wheels of the underground resistance spin around them … stop me if you’ve seen this one before.No, this isn't Michael Curtiz’s 1942 classic. Nor is iconic director...

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Assassin's Creed

(M) 1.5 out of 5Director: Justin Kurzel.Cast: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Ariane Labed, Denis Ménochet, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling, Michael K. Williams.Michael Fassbender can't save Assassin's Creed from continuing the curse of the video game adaptation.A YEAR ago there was a feeling we would finally see the release of a genuinely good movie based on a video game.The two great hopes driving this thought bubble...

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