Eleanor Reviews

*** A former secretary joins the government's team of propaganda film makers in creating a morale-boosting movie about a heroic Dunkirk rescue mission.   Being a self-confessed sucker for war films, it was inevitable that I would find myself taking in a screening of Their Finest - a tale of a female screenwriter taking on a heroic story in the midst of bombed out London. It is with regret, therefore, that this addition to the World War archive that I found this film a little disappointing. With a promising central trio at the helm (Bill Nighy steals the show as the cantankerous ageing actor Hilliard), the film begins with promise. Peppering scenes of the Blitz with moments of humour, the film acts as a showcase of Great British talent, with walk-on, walk-off roles for Richard E. Grant, Eddie Marsan and Jeremy Irons providing intrigue for the first act. However, the script soon flounders...   It seems strange that a film about screenwriting should suffer from such a po

**** When an arms deal goes wrong in an abandoned warehouse, gang allegiances and friendships are tested in a shoot out for survival.   How often does the gunfight in the finale of a film end up being the best bit? Well, pretty often actually. So director Ben Wheatley (and long-time writing partner Amy Jump) decided to create a film where the gun fight was the story - a stripped back 'shoot 'em up' with a host of untrustworthy characters at the centre. And it works! For the best part of ninety minutes, a strange set of individuals take aim at one another in what is a gory, funny, engaging movie about an arms deal that goes terribly wrong.   The premise and tensions are quickly established (from Sharlto Copley's Vernon bringing the wrong guns to Sam Riley's Stevo and Jack Reynor's Harry violent hatred of one another), and then the first bullet is fired. All hell quickly breaks loose as it becomes apparent that each participant has bought their own w