RICHARD’S BLOG

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I became a playwright in 1996, having been an avid theatregoer throughout my life (averaging around 120 plays a year – watching, not writing!) I semi-retired from my day job shortly thereafter and for the next 25 years I worked only part-time, allowing me time to write. I ventured briefly into the world of television and wrote a couple of screenplays, although this pretty much came to nothing, except for TAPS making a short film of one of my scripts starring (a virtually unknown) Benedict Cumberbatch and Georgia Mackenzie, which was cool, and sufficient to get me BAFTA membership. Since the pandemic, theatre in the UK has never really found its way back to what it used to be, and so my attention has drifted more towards film. I am now fully retired from my day job and whilst I still visit the theatre two or three times a month, I now watch upwards of 500 films a year (crazy, but true!) Since I watch so many films and can write, I decided to create a blog – it seemed a very 21st-Century thing to do.
  • REVIEW: The last One for the Road ★★★★☆

    REVIEW: The last One for the Road ★★★★☆

    The last One for the Road is a 2025 comedy-drama road movie directed by Francesco Sossai, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Adriano Candiago. It had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 and was released in the UK on 10 July 2026.

    You know that moment when you arrive at the pub only to find that all your friends have been drinking for three hours and you are sober and on a completely different wavelength? That is how this film hit me. However, twenty minutes later I was hooked – it has an infectious quality.

    Carlobianchi (Sergio Romano) and Doriano (Pierpaolo Capovilla) are two broke men in their fifties obsessed with the constant search for one more drink. Some time ago they made a lot of money fraudulently with their pal Genio (Andrea Pennacchi), who buried his share and ran away to Argentina when the going got tough. Our two chancers invested their share in a quality car, in which they now drive around, from drink to drink. They head to Venice to meet Genio on his return from his self-imposed exile, but go to the wrong airport by mistake. However, in Venice they meet up with shy, young, love-sick Architecture student Guilio (Filippo Scotti) and take him with them on their alcoholic odyssey.

    That is not the plot, it is the set-up. I am not going to make any attempt to summarise the plot, as it would be a little like trying to summarise the plot in Waiting for Godot, and indeed there are echoes of Samuel Beckett here, albeit Beckett seen through an alcoholic haze. Whilst Beckett’s pair wait for Godot, these two chancers are waiting for the last drink; Godot never comes, and nor of course does the last drink, because there is always another one around the corner.

    The trio work remarkably well together, with Guilio adding a more serious and down-to-earth dimension to the boozy duo. Amongst other things he takes them on a detour to Carlo Scarpa’s Brion Tomb in San Vito d’Altivole near Treviso – an awesome monument.

    The last One for the Road is fun. It does not take itself too seriously. So long as you are happy to go along for the ride then this is a very pleasant way to spend 100 minutes, or so.

  • REVIEW: Effi o Blaenau ★★★★☆

    REVIEW: Effi o Blaenau ★★★★☆

    Effi o Blaenau is a 2026 Welsh drama film directed by Marc Evans from a screenplay by Branwen Cennard. It is an adaptation of Gary Owen’s 2015 play Iphigenia in Splott. It had its world premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival in March and was released in the UK on 19 June.

    Effi (Leisa Gwenllian), is a young unemployed woman (in fact a teenager), who anaesthetises herself against her humdrum hopeless existence in run-down hopeless Blaenau Ffestiniog by drinking heavily, in fact ludicrously heavily, with her best mate Leanne (Nel Rhys Lewis) and her ‘friend-with-benefits’, the somewhat hapless Kev (Owen Alun). Her grandmother (Carys Gwilym) attempts to look out for her but the drunk/hungover (depending on the time of day) Effi is far from grateful, berating her for her kindness, and abusing her curtain-twitching neighbour into the bargain.

    A chance encounter in a Llandudno nightclub with injured soldier Lee (Tom Rhys Harries) potentially changes everything and provides some hope. However, for Lee it was not love at first sight and he ignores her many attempts to get in touch with him following their one night together. Then the inevitable happens – there are consequences of their night together – and a heartbreaking sequence of tragic events is set in motion.

    I understand that the film is an adaptation of Iphigenia in Splott which in turn, I believe is loosely based on the Greek myth relating to the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s eldest daughter, however I am not quite getting the links. The fate of the mythical Iphigenia is facilitated by Agamemnon’s lie, promising Iphigenia that she is to marry Achilles; maybe Effi’s belief that Lee is ‘the one’ for her is the link here, and I guess just as Effi can be distilled from Iphigenia, so Lee is there in Achilles. Just about. (Thanks, Alex, for the suggestion.)

    However, the link is not important. What matters is that this is a terrific story. All the elements are first rate, from the screenplay and direction through to the performance, but the star of the show in every way is Leisa Gwenllian: she tackles the role like an absolute force of nature, taking you with her every step of the way. We are going to see a lot more from this exciting young talent over the coming years.

    Effi o Blaenau is an excellent film and, if you get the chance to see it, you really should!

  • REVIEW: Cactus Pears ★★★★☆

    REVIEW: Cactus Pears ★★★★☆

    Cactus Pears (Sabar Bonda in Marathi) is a 2025 romantic drama film written and directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, in his feature directorial debut. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025, where it won the Grand Jury Prize, and was given a limited UK release on 19 June.

    Following the death of his father, Anand (Bhushaan Manoj) and his mother Suman (Jayshri Jagtap) return to their hometown with his body. They are expected to stay for the full 10-day mourning period, following a complex series of societal rules and undertaking a number of traditional rituals.

    Anand is a 30-year-old call-centre worker living as a gay man in Mumbai. Whilst this is possible in the city, he cannot own this openly in rural Maharashtra, in the tiny village from which his family originate. Consequently, he has to suffer a continual barrage of questions from his relatives as to why he has not yet found a wife. However, he finds a kindred spirit in his childhood friend Balya (Suraaj Suman) and together they embark on a very gentle love affair away from the prying eyes of the villagers.

    This is a very well-observed piece of writing, probing Anand’s grief for his father, and contrasting it with his initial discomfort in the rituals he must undertake, but with which he gradually comes to terms. The pace is gentle throughout: we accompany Anand’s through his grief for his father, his loving relationship with his mother and his blossoming love for Balya.

    His father’s dying words were that he wished his wife to cook a ‘really nice’ meal for Anand, and the poignancy of this request is revealed in a later scene in which Anand’s maternal grandfather tells Amand about why his father had chosen to marry the ‘lowly and uneducated’ Suman in the first place.

    Cactus Pears is a very gentle tale of grief and love. It is an extremely accomplished directorial debut from Kanawade and, if you get the opportunity in the limited number of screenings remaining, I would strongly recommend it.

  • REVIEW: The Invite ★★★★☆

    REVIEW: The Invite ★★★★☆

    The Invite is a 2026 American comedy film directed by Olivia Wilde from a screenplay by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones. It is an English-language remake of the 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs (Sp. Sentimental) by Cesc Gay, which in turn was an adaptation of his own stage play Los Vecinos de Arriba. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January and was released in the UK on 3 July.

    In San Francisco, Joe (Seth Rogan) cycles home from work – not his idea but that of his wife Angela (Olivia Wilde), presumably in a vain attempt to try to improve his health and fitness. Once he arrives home, we never leave – the whole film takes place within their apartment. Joe and Angela are a couple struggling to keep their marriage alive: they bicker constantly, most recently over the loud sex sounds they hear coming from the flat above. Angela has invited their upstairs neighbours, the source of these noises, for dinner. Pína (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) duly arrive and, whilst Joe is sarcastic and unfriendly, Angela does her best to make her guests feel welcome. Despite Angela’s protestations, Joe has decided to tackle Pina and Hawk over the nightly noises, but they get in there first, apologising for the loud sex but saying sometimes a woman just cannot be quiet during such mind-blowing orgasms. Whilst agreeing, it is clear that Angela has no personal experience upon which to base her agreement. Then Pina and Hawk explain that it is not just the two of them anyway: they are into sharing their bed with others and often host sex parties in their flat. Then comes the invite referred to in the film’s title.

    I may seem to have given quite a lot of plot here, but actually I haven’t really – all of this was pretty clear from the trailer. In any case, this is not really about the plot. It is the sharpness of the dialogue and how well-drawn the characters are. And let me say right now, it is an absolute delight! Rogan is hilariously funny right up until the moment when he isn’t. Wilde understands the desperate longing within her character, as well as the terrible insecurity which holds her back. As for Cruz and Norton, they are both excellent – they clearly love the roles they are inhabiting and get the most out of every line.

    However, there is a serious side to this film. Whilst it is genuinely laugh-out-loud for much of its running time, there is a brief period when Pína, who is a ‘psychologist and sexologist’, dissects the problems of tired marriages (basically: ‘first you stop having sex, then you stop talking, then you start hating’, or something like that).

    The direction is spot on throughout and the claustrophobic atmosphere generated by the single location serves the story well. There are a lot of shades of Woody Allen here – it could be retitled A Midsummer Night’s (Group) Sex Comedy! I know, I should have resisted that, but I just couldn’t.

    The Invite is great fun but may hit a little too close to home if your marriage is a bit shaky. Even so, go and see it anyway – it may provide you with the impetus to make more effort and, regardless, you will definitely find plenty to laugh at.

  • REVIEW: The Last Viking ★★★★☆

    REVIEW: The Last Viking ★★★★☆

    The Last Viking is a 2025 Danish black comedy, written and directed by Anders Thomas Jensen. It had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival last August and was released in the UK on 26 June.

    Cornered bank robber, Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) entrusts his brother, Manfred (Mads Mikkelsen), to take the money stolen in a robbery and bury it in the forest near to their mother’s house. Fifteen years later, upon his release from prison, he discovers that Manfred has mental-health issues: he thinks he is John Lennon; if he is addressed as Manfred, rather than John, he attempts to harm himself in a violent manner. In addition, he cannot remember exactly where the money is buried. So, Anker takes Manfred (John) – no, John (Manfred) – to their mother’s house in a bid to jog his memory. The house is now occupied by Werner (Søren Malling) and his wife Margrethe (Sofie Gråbøl), who have their own issues. Add to the mix Lothar, a psychiatrist (perhaps); Hamdan who thinks he is variously Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Bjorn from Abba and Heinrich Himmler, amongst others; Anton, a deaf drummer who thinks he is Ringo Starr; and Flemming, a dangerous psychopath who was Anka’s partner in the robbery.

    I cannot really go any deeper into the plot as it is confused/contrived and utterly hilarious in equal parts. I should add though that, as with all good comedy, there is a serious undercurrent, here relating to delusion generally and specifically to how traumatic events are processed and the long-term damage which can ensue from failing to process them properly.

    Anders Thomas Jensen is a class act, both as a director and more particularly as a writer. He was responsible for screenplays of many of the early Dogme ’95 films, including Mifune, The King is Alive, and Open Hearts. His work as a director has a dark comic streak, somewhat reminiscent of the early plays and films of Martin McDonagh, so he is well-suited to this material.

    The Last Viking is a very funny film indeed, but one where the principal characters are well fleshed-out and command our sympathy. In any case, with a cast including Mikkelson, Gråbøl, Malling and Kaas it would be hard to go too far wrong.

    There is a strange, animated framing mechanism involving a tale of old Vikings (a saga?) which relates a story of the importance of equality at all costs. It is really rather disturbing and leaves me wondering if Jensen is poking fun at the lack of competitive sports in modern primary schools (but maybe that’s just me!)

    The Last Viking is a very enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours. I heartily recommend it!

  • REVIEW: Blue Heron ★★★☆☆

    REVIEW: Blue Heron ★★★☆☆

    Blue Heron is a 2025 Canadian ‘memory drama’, written and directed by Sophy Romvari in her first full-length feature. It is semi-autobiographical, loosely based on her own childhood and her previous short film Still Processing. It had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland last August and was released in the UK on 26 June.

    Blue Heron tells the story of a family torn apart by the behaviour of the eldest son, Jeremy (Edik Beddoes) whose behaviour is at best extremely disruptive to family life and at worst potentially dangerous to himself and those around him. Originally from Hungary, his Father (Ádám Tompa) and Mother (Iringó Réti), neither named, have recently relocated their family to Vancouver Island. Jeremy is the son of Mother from a previous relationship; they have three other children: Henry, Felix and Sasha (Eylul Guven).

    For the first half of the film, we watch the family in the 1990s getting to know their new surroundings and trying to cope with the ever more disturbing behaviour of Jeremy. It is rather wonderful in its attention to detail and its focus on the ordinariness of the world around them, although it has a certain dreamlike quality, neatly implying the fallibility of memory. One particular touch I liked was that the parents revert to speaking Hungarian when they do not want the children to understand what they are saying. What comes across terrifyingly is the power which Jeremy (perhaps unwittingly) wields and the total impotence of the parents.

    I think I would have liked the film to carry on in the same vein, however it doesn’t. Half-way through there is a disconnect, and we begin to see the story from the perspective of the older Sasha (Amy Zimmer) as she tries to come to terms with her memories of what happened and tries to process how she feels about these memories. I have heard the term guilt used here, and personally I cannot see how the pre-teen Sasha should feel any guilt, nor any of the family for that matter however, perhaps that is the nature of guilt: it is an emotional response, not a rational one. Whilst I understand that this process is vital to Romvari in coming to terms with her feelings relating to her own childhood, particularly the failure of the support mechanisms in place thirty years ago, I think it detracts slightly from the power of the storytelling. I wanted to see a little more and be told a little less.

    Blue Heron is a strange blur of reality and memory, a deeply personal experience for the filmmaker but also a relatable yet devastating drama. I have no hesitation in recommending this film. I think Romvari is clearly a talent to watch and I believe that, once relieved of the constraints of her own story, she will blossom as a filmmaker.

  • REVIEW: Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day ★★☆☆☆

    REVIEW: Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day ★★☆☆☆

    Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day is a 2026 romantic drama film, directed by Tina Gharavi from a screenplay by Justine Waddell, adapted from Virginia Woolf’s 1919 novel. The film had its world premiere at the South by Southwest London Festival on 1 June and was released generally in the UK on 19 June. (SXSW London is apparently a music, film and technology festival hosted in the Shoreditch and Hoxton areas of London – I can’t say I wasn’t warned!)

    In London in 1910, young headstrong female astronomer Katharine Hilbery (Haley Bennett) tries to sidestep her parents’ plans for her to marry into society, in order to pursue her dream of studying astronomy at Cambridge University. Her ultra controlling father, Terence Hilbery (Timothy Spall) pushes her into an engagement with her oldest friend William (Jack Whitehall) who is also a long-time friend of the family. Meanwhile her mother, Jess Hilbury (Jennifer Saunders) is writing some kind of biography relating to her family. Then Katharine (who likes to be called Kit) befriends spirited suffragette Mary Datchet (Lily Allen), who encourages her to stand up for herself, as if she needed encouragement. And on it goes, rather relentlessly and totally uninterestingly.

    I do not know Virginia Woolf’s novel; however, I am told this is only very loosely based on it anyway, and has been “modernised”, whatever that means. I am guessing that Mrs Woolf would barely recognise any of the caricatures presented here, for there are no properly drawn characters, and she would be utterly appalled at this cliché-ridden nonsense. This is not good writing.

    I do not understand why they had to use an American actress in her late thirties to play an English girl in her early twenties and can only assume that all the available English girls of the right age had read the script in advance and called-in sick. Even the ever-reliable Timothy Spall could make nothing of the blustering cliché he had been given to inhabit, and Jack Whitehall looked extremely uncomfortable in his role as the fiancé, although that could be because he is a stand-up comedian and not an actor. Somewhere along the line blame must be apportioned (because I want my £11.95 back) and I suppose this must go to Tina Gharavi as the director who failed to get anything from her cast, along with Justine Waddell, who gave her very little to work with.

    The only bright note? Lily Allen was surprisingly good in the role of Mary, a real breath of fresh air. She single-handedly took this from one star to two.

    Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day is very bad indeed – don’t waste your money!

  • REVIEW: 500 Miles ★★☆☆☆

    REVIEW: 500 Miles ★★☆☆☆

    500 Miles is a 2026 drama film, directed by Morgan Matthews from a screenplay by Malcolm Campbell, adapted from the novel Charlie and Me by Mark Lowery. The film had its world premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival in February and was released in the UK last Friday, 26 June.

    There has been a family bust-up. Grandad John (Bill Nighy), who lives on the Dingle peninsula in southwest Ireland, is estranged from his daughter (Clare Dunne), her husband (Michael Socha) and his two grandchildren. The eldest child Finn (Roman Griffin Davis) overhears his parents arguing and preparing to separate. He decides to run away to Ireland with younger brother Charlie (Dexter Sol Ansell), because Grandad always knows what to do. And so begins an epic 500-mile journey from Sheffield to Dingle, primarily by public transport. During the journey we discover in flashback that the family were at their happiest when holidaying with Grandad in Dingle … until something happened.

    Eventually we find out what happened, and it is quite a twist which I didn’t see coming, however it was too late because by then I was desperately bored. This is twee over-sentimental pap, and I feel like a real heel saying this, but when you have hit the ‘I couldn’t care less’ point, it is too late for tears.

    Bill Nighy is good, of course he is, and the little kid playing Charlie is full of cheeky promise but that was about it. The storytelling is pedestrian in the extreme and, whilst the cinematography is stunning in parts, one has to say that if you can’t make the Dingle peninsular look good, you should probably put away your box-brownie anyway.

    500 Miles is twee in the extreme. If you like road movies and don’t need any edge, this may work for you, but I spent much of the first hour and a bit trying to invent better stories (what if Charlie was a haemophiliac…). When the twist comes it does give pause for thought, but not enough for me to recommend a cinema visit.

  • REVIEW: A Private Life ★★☆☆☆

    REVIEW: A Private Life ★★☆☆☆

    A Private Life is a 2025 French comic mystery thriller, directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, who co-wrote the screenplay with Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé. The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 but was not released in the UK until last Friday, 26 June, 2026.

    Dr. Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster) is a Jewish-American psychiatrist, working from her Paris home. The film focuses on two of her patients: Paula (Virginie Efira) who we see only in flashback, as she has (apparently) committed suicide immediately prior to the beginning of the film, using pills prescribed by Dr Steiner; and Pierre (Noam Morgensztern) who after ten years of sessions with Dr Steiner trying to quit smoking, has moved to another psychiatrist and managed to quit after just one session. So, Paula’s husband (Mathieu Amalric) and Pierre both have professional issues with Dr Steiner.

    However, she gets it into her head that there is something not quite right about Paula’s death – perhaps it was murder (shock, horror). With the assistance of her ex-husband (Daniel Auteuil) she sets about trying to prove her theory, and as she does so events start happening (her car is vandalised, her flat is burgled) which lead her to think that she must be right.

    I must come clean and confess that I added the word ‘comic’ into the above description: Wikipedia had it down as a mystery thriller. However, it is definitely comic; it is darkly comic. Because if you take this too seriously it is so full of plot holes that it will drive you to distraction. It is also quite confused and would have been better with some of the loose ends either being followed through to some kind of conclusion or being eliminated altogether.

    There are some really good things about this film: Jodie Foster proves that she can act just as well in French as she can in English; and Daniel Auteuil is excellent, but then he generally is. So, what went wrong? To begin with, I had been looking forward to seeing this film since I first heard about it some fourteen months ago, so my expectations were high; secondly, I was told by Wikipedia that it is a mystery thriller (not a comedy). So perhaps the problem I had with it was partly that my own expectations of the film were inappropriate to the film I saw. However, on balance it is too confused and at times very silly. The plot needs to be at some level credible, and it just isn’t.

    A Private Life is worth seeing if you are a bit of a ‘collector’ and want to see Jodie Foster speaking fluent French in her first French film. However, it is not a good enough film otherwise, so I cannot honestly recommend it.

  • REVIEW: Köln 75★★★☆☆

    REVIEW: Köln 75★★★☆☆

    Köln 75 is a 2025 German music-drama film written and directed by Ido Fluk, a director who is entirely new to me and does not have much of a track-record (or indeed a Wikipedia page). The film had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2025 and was released in Germany shortly thereafter but was not released in the UK until last Friday, 5 June.

    The film is based on the early years of real-life German concert promoter Vera Brandes (Mala Emde). At the age of just sixteen she met jazz-legend Ronnie Scott (Daniel Betts) who was playing a concert in Köln, or Cologne as it is known to the English-speaking world. Scott asked her to organise a German tour for his trio and so, whilst still officially at school, she began her life as a concert promoter.  

    A year or so later she saw Keith Jarrett (John Magaro) in concert playing his free-jazz and decided on the spot that she would bring him to play a concert in Köln. In order to achieve this, she had to navigate a path through many obstacles, including an overbearing father (who wanted her to become a dentist), an obnoxious brother (who was jealous of her success), and a heap of venue managers who just didn’t want to know. In the end it was agreed that the concert would go ahead at 11pm in the 1300 seat Köln Opera House, immediately following a performance of an opera, but only after Brandes had made a significant downpayment, which she had to borrow. On the day, there were more obstacles placed in her way and the concert almost did not happen, but somehow she overcame the difficulties, and Jarrett played.

    All of this is true. Not only did he play, but the concert was recorded and released on a double-album, going on to become both the best-selling solo album in jazz history and the best-selling piano album.

    The film almost works, primarily because Emde plays the part with tremendous guts and enthusiasm. However, it is not really very interesting dramatically – more the material for an article in a Sunday supplement than a 115-minute film.

    Köln 75 is unashamedly a feelgood film. It is straight from the heart, and you are on Vera’s side from the word go, although from time-to-time it does get rather self-indulgent. If you are a jazz fan, and especially if you are a fan of Jarrett, that just might make it interesting enough for you, although I suspect you might find a little of the ‘explanation’ somewhat condescending.