I TELL YOU WHAT I THINK
First on Entertainment

A beautiful, sensitive portrait of love and loss in the early 20 th century, The History of Sound features bravura showings from its two leads.   Lionel (played as an adult by Paul Mascal) has what his father says is a gift from God, namely he can see music – the shape, colour and taste of it.   It never occurred to Lionel that music was only about the sound.   Growing up on a small farm in Kentucky, he won a scholarship to the New England Conservatory in Boston.   That is w

Set against the dreadful pall of The Great Wa r* , the Choral Society, in the fictional town of Ramsden, in Yorkshire, presses on.   The Society is funded by its chairman and local mill owner Alderman Bernard Duxbury (Roger Allam), who employs a large swathe of the town’s population.   It is 1916 and time to audition for the next production. The Society is keen to recruit local young males to help swell their ranks.   Given the times, this is a community all too familiar wit

This gritty British drama, which marks a strong feature debut for writer and director Harris Dickinson, follows a young, homeless addict whose life continues to spiral.   Mike (Frank Dillane) lives a hard, meaningless existence on the streets of London.   He wanders about aimlessly in search of money and can’t get his act together, sleeping wherever he can.  That could be crumpled on a busy street corner or on cardboard boxes atop a building.   He is betrayed by another homel

Fraught familial relationships rise to the surface as a father steps back into the life of his two adult daughters.   Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgard) was a renowned filmmaker who hasn’t made a feature in 15 years. A cinematic retrospective showcases just how insightful he is.   Notwithstanding his professional success, he walked away from his family, divorcing his wife and leaving his children metaphorically hanging.   All these years later, that devastation is still apparent