A mesmerising dramatisation of one of the kings, Ray Charles. Unsurprisingly the soundtrack is pure bliss, but it is Jamie Foxx in the title role that pulls everything together, an hypnotic performance of a music legend, through all his highs and lows, and one of those increasingly rare examples of a leading actor Oscar that actually makes sense. find out more...

Tony is an uneducated Brooklyn teenager. The highlight of his week is going to the local disco, where he is the king of the dancefloor. Tony meets Stephanie at the disco and they agree to dance together in a competition. A disco movie for people who don't go to discos, this is really about Growing Up - which the movie interprets as Growing Out of a Disco Mentality and into Personal Relationships. The relationship between Tony (Travolta) and Stephanie (Gorney) is at least as angst-ridden as anyth find out more...

A wonderful portrait of Ian Dury - he the polio crippled lyricist and front man for punk icons The Blockheads and a self-pitying, class conscious, angry, supremely talented loud mouth - struggling to relate to his pre-teen son and familial duties.
'Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll' is a top notch drama about a real life person, warts, foul language and all, and you neither need to love his music, punk generally nor, indeed, any form of music to appreciate this gem of a film. find out more...

Revolving around a group of teenagers, as they get to grips with the issues of race, religion, sexuality, drugs, food disorders and what constitutes a really good party, "Skins" is a well received British drama which, despite the young cast, has a distinctly raunchy and adult theme. find out more...

Malick is back with a waltz of a movie that wants to sweep you off your feet and drag you around from broody relationship to broody motif. Whimsy is dialed up to eleven in this intersecting love triangle tangle. If you're a die hard Malick fan you might still enjoy it but, if he's been slowly (or rapidly) losing you in recent years, then this will just have you scoffing into a motif of billowing curtains or an agency-less girlfriend with expensive if scanty clothes a find out more...

It's all sweetness and light in this moving music biopic classic of Glen Miller's impressive rise to fame with June Allyson playing his childhood sweetheart and James Stewart outstanding as the man himself. It's got all the great arrangements from 'Pensylvania 6-500' to 'Moonlight Serenade', all scored by Henry Mancini in homage to Miller's style, plus Louis Armstrong makes an appearance playing 'Basin Street Blues' and Frances Langford does 'Chattanooga Choo-Choo'. find out more...

This is it, the movie that kicked it all off, the first commercially released full length (with synchronized dialogue) talkie... although that's not the only reason to watch this musical story of a Jewish man breaking with his traditionalist father in order to pursue a career as a Jazz singer. 'The Jazz Singer' later became a template for other musical biopics and highly influenced the direction talkies would take. One of the most notable features of the film is the unusual use of 'blackface', find out more...

A journalist in search of a story meets a mentally ill musician, Nathaniel Ayers, on the streets of LA and, through a succession of stories, attempts to better his and all the homeless community's lot. This isn't just a sincere movie about community politics and the need to help the less fortunate, it's a vibrant telling of the basic insanity of city life adapted from the memoirs of LA Times columnist Steve Lopez. find out more...

A true character drama, Whiplash is well crafted in every way. The tone is spot on with nail-biter tension from start to finish. Teller plays a young hopeful who's finally got his break at an elite music school. Simmons is the abusive, sociopathic teacher. The dynamic between the two is electric and the music's not far off. The limits of just how far one might go to discover, nurture and harness greatness have been re-set. And approaching them is one helluva ride.

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