Ian Hart

There's a reason why this is perhaps the best-reviewed British film of the year: it's a staggeringly skilful feature filmmaking debut for West Yorkshire born and bred Francis Lee. And while its premise may make it sound like "Brokeback Mountain on the Moors", it's actually something far more original that that.

The story is set on a hill above Keighley, where young Johnny (Josh O'Connor) has been forced to take responsibility for running the family sheep farm while his father (Ian Hart) hopefully recovers from a debilitating stroke. His grandmother (Gemma Jones) helps manage the house, and is worried that Johnny's hard-drinking ways are going to cause problems. So she hires Romanian immigrant worker Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu) to help out. An expert with lambs, he soon begins teaching Johnny a thing or two. And on an extended trip to the far reaches of the land, they finally see past their bickering to a mutual attraction for each other. But Johnny is struggling with opening up about any of his emotions.

Thankfully, Lee never plays into the usual movie cliches. Homophobia isn't an issue here, so these two young men must cope with the implications of their budding relationship without that pressure. Much of the weight is on Johnny's shoulders, as he resists identifying as gay. This certainly isn't just about sex. That's here, but the more powerful scenes involve things like Gheorghe teaching Johnny the value of a gentle cuddle. Yes, the film has a remarkable eye for powerful detail, and both O'Connor and Secareanu are terrific as guys who come together in unexpected ways. O'Connor has the bigger challenge trying to make the abrasively distancing Johnny likeable, but he manages it with earthy honesty. While Secareanu's charm and intelligence keep Gheorghe from becoming a stereotypical foreigner.

Continue reading: God's Own Country Review

Even if "The End of the Affair" didn't invite comparisons to "The English Patient" with Ralph Fiennes' auto-pilot performance as another reflective World War II-era Englishman immersed heart and soul in an adulterous love affair, this Neil Jordan adaptation of Graham Greene's novel would still be an ambitious misfire.

Beset by the oversimplification of abstract and heavy concepts of heart, mind and religion, the film looks beautiful with its foggy and well-heeled London society appointments, and it's nothing if not emotional, what with the likes of Fiennes and Julianne Moore as the (naturally!) doomed lovers and Jordan staple Stephen Rea as the betrayed, milquetoast husband/best friend.

But while Jordan's talent for screenwriting and direction are evidenced in dialogue ("I'm jealous of these shoes because they take you away from me. I'm jealous of this stocking because it kisses your entire leg...") and structure (Fiennes' point of view transitions into Moore's as he reads her stolen diary), the director's use of other stale and banal plot devices betray the pedestrian underpinnings of this seemingly complex film.

Continue reading: The End Of The Affair Review

Overly self-indulgent director Chris Columbus could have cut out the entire middle hour of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and if you hadn't read the popular children's book, you'd never know the difference.

A good 70 percent of the picture consists of showy set pieces that don't service the plot (which we'll get to in a minute) so much as obligingly recreate unrelated passages that would be missed by the boy wizard's enthusiastic and possessive fan base had they been omitted.

One 10-minute episode is spent watching a sport called Quidditch, sort of a flying-broom version of field hockey with more than one puck and incredibly intricate rules that go largely unexplained. It's a lot like the pod race scene in "The Phantom Menace" -- irrelevant but spirited -- although with 1/10th the special effects budget. (Oh, that blatant blue-screening!)

Continue reading: Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone Review