The Cynical Cinephiles

Director : Martin McDonagh Cast : Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson Nine months after the unsolved rape and murder of her daughter, Mildred Hayes (McDormand) rents out a line of three abandoned billboards to accost the Ebbing Police department for having made no arrests. Mildred plasters the signs with piercing messages; "RAPED WHILE DYING", "AND STILL NO ARRESTS?", and "HOW COME, CHIEF WILLOUGHBY?". With Willougby (Harrelson) being a revered member of the community, and having recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer, the billboards lead to tumult in the town, including incompetent and racist officer Dixon (Rockwell).       From the writer-director of In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths it is only to be expected that  Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri is the paragon of dark comedy. The premise of a grieving mother of a rape victim, seeking justice doesn’t sing laugh riot, but McDonagh readily achieves this through pit...

Director: Joe Wright Cast: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily James, Ben Mendelsohn The evacuation of Dunkirk has been a frequent presence in British film over the past couple of years; firstly it was the subject of a fictional film in Their Finest , next the sole focus of Christopher Nolan's war epic aptly titled Dunkirk  and now Darkest Hour, a film that centres around the crucial days of Churchill's reign as Prime Minister as he must decide whether to save the British soldiers trapped on Dunkirk beaches or leave them stranded to face certain death. The Germans are rapidly advancing and Churchill attempts to restore peace in the face of insurmountable odds. Having lost faith in the capabilities of Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup), Winston Churchill (Oldman) is appointed as British Prime Minister. Within days, Churchill must face the toughest and most defining of trials: consider the option of negotiating a peace treaty with Nazi Germany or stand firm and fight fo...