Double Indemnity

A movie that just goes to show you that the virtues of understatement can be overstated

In its native Australia, Cherie Nowlan’s Introducing the Dwights was called Clubland, and you can see how that title could have been confusing to an American — or to a British — audience. The clubs of Sydney, where the film is set, feature magicians, ventriloquists, even a guy who imitates bird-songs. In short, they are…

Taste of Cherry by the Iranian director, Abbas Kiarostami, is not for those whose idea of movie fun is explosions and shootings, yet its concerns with matters of life and death are no less exigent for that. Over the opening credits, Mr Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) is cruising in his Range Rover, peering intently at knots…

Re-make fever strikes again, and with even more lamentable results than usual. Will someone please stop Kenneth Branagh before he directs again?

Like David Lynch in The Straight Story, Mike Leigh apparently thought it was time to surprise us with Topsy-Turvy. Instead of his usual dark and sardonic and implicitly political look at present- day Britain, he offers us an ostensibly sunny period-piece about, of all things, the collaboration of W.S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) and Sir Arthur…