Stephen Frears

Review: Lay The Favourite

Phwoooar, that Rebecca Hall, eh? I'd give her a proper, uh, pleasant evening of slightly awkward conversation and no mistake. See, it's a shame when you have to revert to misogyny to wring something positive out of a film experience. So apologies in advance: Rebecca Hall, she hot in Lay The Favourite. The movie itself: meh, not so much.

Review: Tamara Drewe

A frequent idiom of broadsheet reviewers putting pen to paper on the subject of Tamara Drewe is to describe it as a more debauched variant of The Archers, something which is certainly true to an extent, tinged as proceedings are in the cosy trappings of Radio 4 teatime dramas. However, to do so risks dismissing this adaptation of Posy Simmonds' serial as yet another rustic folly laced with the standard Curtisian saccharine associated with most modern British comedy. Instead, director Stephen Frears has produced a film which not only contains the expected biting hyper-sexuality, but also a refreshing streak of bittersweet sincerity.