4 stars: ‘Star Trek and Beyond’ review

David Rooney|Published

J. J. ABRAMS reanimated a dormant sci-fi franchise for the big screen with his propulsive 2009 origin story, Star Trek, but then shifted into neutral for the humdrum ...

‘Genius’ film review: sacred art of writing

David Rooney|Published

WRITING is often called the loneliest profession, and the relationship between author and reader is a uniquely intimate one, a private communication from the page ...

‘Miles Ahead’ film review

David Rooney|Published

DON Cheadle deftly sidesteps the pedestrian potholes of the biographical drama in his debut as writer-director, Miles Ahead, also taking on the role of mercurial ...

‘The Keeping Room’ film review – tale of resilience

David Rooney|Published

THE title sounds like a grim horror movie, but The Keeping Room is actually a revisionist siege Western, examined from an atypical female point of view.

‘Sing Street’ film review

David Rooney|Published

NO FILM-MAKER has been more dedicated to revitalising the contemporary performance-based musical film than John Carney.

4 stars: Irrational Man film review

David Rooney|Published

WOODY Allen is in fine vintage form in Irrational Man, a slinky, jazz-infused existential teaser in which various themes from some of the veteran filmmaker’s most ...

‘Freeheld’ review: proving all love is equal

David Rooney|Published

SCREENWRITER Ron Nyswaner doesn’t stray far from his Philadelphia playbook with Freeheld, which chronicles another struggle for equality set against the ticking ...

5 stars: Anomalisa film review

David Rooney|Published

WHETHER in his screenplays for Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or his directing debut, Synecdoche, New York, Charlie ...

A Perfect Day film review

David Rooney|Published

SPANISH writer-director Fernando Leon de Aranoa makes a respectable English-language debut with A Perfect Day, about a group of humanitarian aid workers stationed ...

The Danish Girl film review

David Rooney|Published

THE title seems almost a misnomer in The Danish Girl, director Tom Hooper’s thoroughly English bio-drama of groundbreaking transgender figure Lili Elbe and the artist ...

4 stars: Review of Grandma

David Rooney|Published

LILY Tomlin pretty much stole all her scenes as Tina Fey’s acerbic radical feminist mother in the otherwise patchy Admission, and it appears that director Paul Weitz ...

‘Mississippi Grind’ movie review

David Rooney|Published

“THE journey’s the destination, sweetheart,” says Curtis, a slick gambler played by Reynolds with the air of a man who almost believes his winning streak is unbreakable. ...

‘The End of the Tour’: Poignant profile

David Rooney|Published

This is no conventional bio-drama about the tortured artist, but very much the film that lovers of David Foster Wallace’s dazzlingly perspicacious fiction and essays ...