Emma Thompson

News, Reviews & Features

Review: Last Christmas has everything she wants if you watch without prejudice

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 12th November 2019

What's it going to be for George Michael, then? The Bohemian Rhapsody-style rock biopic? The Rocketman stylised musical? The Yesterday excuse to bump the songs up the list on Spotify a bit? Well, none of the above, really. Last Christmas is something a bit different: a festive romcom where his songs are there but largely non-diegetic, even though he himself is present in the form of posters on walls and in characters' conversation, so more of a tribute that informs a story. It's an affectionate and funny one too, and the kind that you recognise a fair bit is wrong with, but gosh-darn it, everyone's singing and having a lovely time, and it's Christmas, so just pour yourself a nice tall glass of mulled shut-the-hell up juice and go with it.

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The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 16th October 2017

Time was, you could get a bit of a reaction by saying Adam Sandler was a good actor. You'd be the toast of the cognoscenti, lauded for your brave and rare insight, or at the very least one of those professional contrarians who make film Twitter such a rich and challenging environment. These days the evidence is there and the idea's not controversial: everyone knows he can do it when he can be bothered changing out of his tracksuit. Maybe it's time to think of him a bit differently.

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Bridget Jones's Baby

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 22nd September 2016

"Men are like buses," says the Bridget Jones's Baby advert on the side of the ones currently making their way through school run-gridlock, possibly because we're awful and stained with last night's food and can't be relied on to turn up. Bridget's choices were often bad over the first two films, but the scripts usually ignored the fact that her men were worse. Three films in, the franchise seems to have caught up and started rewarding her.

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Potentially good Adam Sandler film alert

Movie Trailer | Ed Williamson | 20th August 2014

(*sighs*) Fine, another trailer for an Adam Sandler film, nothing to see here WAIT SHIT HE'S GOT A BEARD IT MUST BE A SERIOUS ONE MAN YOUR STATIONS EVERYBODY

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Saving Mr Banks

Movie Review | Ed Williamson | 26th November 2013

As obvious an awards tilt as Disney knows Saving Mr Banks to be, it seems more of a mid-budget passion project. How better to venerate its beloved founder than have cuddly ol' Tom Hanks play him? But transparent self-promotion aside - this is Disney, after all - what's really interesting is how it plays out as white-washing advocacy for the process of Hollywoodizing a popular product, using emotion rather than reason to sweep you along and make you root for the studio. And the fact that the film is itself a Hollywoodization of true events.

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Brave

Movie Review | Ali | 19th June 2012

I'd love to be able to say with complete authority that Brave is a colossal return to form for Pixar, but I can't, because... well, frankly, I didn't much feel like seeing Cars 2. Though I can't comment on the specifics, Pixar's last movie felt so cynically made, so driven by the wrong factors, so unlike them. What I am qualified to comment on, however, is Brave and how it's seemingly the complete antithesis of Cars 2: lovingly crafted for all the right reasons and built from the ground up around story and character, not market share or brand recognition. Brave strives above all else to make an emotional connection, and boy does it connect: a hugely atmospheric fairytale of old, it's Pixar's most mature movie to date.

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