Film & TV

Jacques Audiard's last feature, A Prophet, is seen by many as one of the best films of the last decade, resulting in a lot of buzz and excitement for his latest film, Rust and Bone, starring the wonderful Marion Cotillard. Arguably two of the best French film-makers of recent years, the film has been greatly revered by critics as a touching love story. However, the film is in many ways Audiard's worst to date. It tells the story of two people in tragic circumstances: Ali, a wannabe fighter, struggling to raise his young son in the absence of his mother and with little money made in illegal fighting rings, and Stephanie fighting through the pain of losing both her legs in a tragic killer whale accident. The two meet, fall in love and help each other correct their lives. It is a plot don...

Baz Lurhmann's take on F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, The Great Gatsby, is an explosion of colour, music and sexual tension, bringing to life what I consider to be a story that trails at a snail's pace. Behind all the glitz and glamour of Lurhmann's directorial style, it is his choice of actors that helps to give life to the otherwise lifeless portrayals of Fitzgerald. Leonardo DiCaprio does well in playing the infamous Jay Gatsby, a man both famous and mysterious for his regular mansion parties, whose relationship with Carey Mulligan's Daisy is made both awkward and increasingly addictive from their first encounter. My admiration of Gatsby's characterisation increases drastically alongside the rapid fall of Daisy's likability, a woman who frustratingly glides through life, child-like and i...