★★★★ - DAILY MIRROR  - A visually impressive, mythologically rich and heartfelt origin story that boasts laughs, grief and romance along with a great double-act from Simu Liu and Awkwafina -  Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is not the first superhero film to tackle family discord but few…

★★★★ - STUFF  - A fresh take on Marvel boilerplate -  Early in the brisk-by-Marvel-standards running time of Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, we are taken to Shaun/Shang Chi's (Kim’s Convenience’s Simu Liu) one-room apartment in present-day San Francisco. Among all the usual dross and…

★★★★ - STUFF  - A brisk, exciting and likeable tale about one man and his famous tower -  Only one worker died during the construction of the Eiffel Tower. Learning that last night, watching this “freely inspired” film about the tower and the man whose name is on it, was enough to send me to the…

★★★★ - DEADLINE  - Riveting Documentary Explores Record $450 Million Sale Of Da Vinci Painting Some Claim Was A Fake -  Is it a fake or is it real? That is just one of the intriguing questions posed in The Lost Leonardo, a fascinating and riveting new documentary that tells the tale of the…

★★★★★ - STUFF  -  1969's forgotten music festival now an unmissable documentary -  Attracting almost the same number of attendees and arguably a bigger roster of talent as Woodstock, it’s the summer of ‘69 music festival you’ve probably never heard of. Held over six weekends, the third Harlem…

★★★★★ - EMPIRE  - After 50 years hidden away, the historic performances of the Harlem Cultural Festival are unearthed from the vault. Questlove’s directorial debut explores the impact of the six-week event on culture, through live footage and retrospective conversations with festival-goers and…

★★★★ - RTÉ  - Ciarán Hinds makes his bid for the sweetest film of 2021 with The Man in the Hat -  "This won't take too much of your time. And you don't need to be blown out of your seats; you can just be a human being and watch this little journey and feel things. It has its own heartbeat, unlike…

★★★★ - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE  - Jennifer Hudson exhilarating as Aretha Franklin in ‘Respect’ -  "Respect” has everything you could hope for in a musical biopic. It has a good story and great songs and, best of all, it has someone in the lead role who can put those songs over. Jennifer…

★★★½ - STUFF  - An undemanding, near-silent, delightful slice of escapism -  If you’re a fan of French film-making giant Jacques Tati, then you’ll adore this near-silent homage. While he may look a little more swarthy than the gangly Gallic star of Playtime, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday and Mon Oncle…

★★★★ - LONDON EVENING STANDARD  - Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer are pitch perfect in this riotous gaming caper -  Ryan Reynolds says this is the best movie he’s ever done, a statement that will give Deadpool fans a collective hernia but with which I agree. An action-comedy about a fictional video…

★★★★ - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE  - Matt Damon achieves his career best in ‘Stillwater’ -  “Stillwater” is the kind of movie we haven’t seen in a while. It’s a serious, big-scale American film from a leading director, featuring a career-topping performance by a big star. If you’ve been feeling that…

★★★★½ - NEWSHUB   - Coming Home in the Dark is brutal, haunting and excellent storytelling -  In a year already blooming with a juicy crop of New Zealand films, adding another to the fray just shows the length and depth of local storytelling. Coming Home in the Dark is exactly that; excellent…