Harrison Cribbin

Witty, touching, not at all cheesy, poignant - nice balance of drama-romance-comedy. Left the cinema with a huge grin albeit with some mascara smudging!! I was anxious about this one, having loved the books decades ago, and the first movies were pretty good adaptations. Even the smallest details resonated - top marks for homework! Delighted to see original cast members and a fabulous representation of our diverse British talent. Rene, Hugh and Chiwetel absolutely delighted, but I feel Hugh has nailed his performances this time round with a new gravitas and surprising emotional warmth.

Beautiful, compelling, almost haunting - the feeling it drives stays with you long after it’s over. Delivered with sensuality and empathy, (never smutty despite the adult theme), this is a sensitive depiction of love-learned-and-lost that will appeal to anyone, regardless of your ‘orientation’. The father’s speech towards the end left me in pieces… Extraordinary casting: actors and cinematography perfectly capture the season, the era, the setting and the slow-build chemical tension, before plummeting emotion towards the inevitable ending. Can’t imagine anyone other than Charlamet depicting Elio with his beautiful, naive, transparent and conflicted emotions, or Armie Hammer nailing Oliver’s arrogant yet vulnerable charisma (in my opinion Hammer’s best performance ever). A must-see recommendation; for me this is an iconic classic.

Worth the longer duration, we were gripped from first minute to last - even in slower burning scenes, the tension is dialled up continuously - you’d be insane to consider sneaking out for comfort breaks! It’s evident that director and cast have utterly committed whole-heartedly to this dark and gritty interpretation of the internal struggle of Batman v Bruce Wayne, whilst simultaneously wiping the floor with vengeance and justice and sleuthing the trail of a serial psychopath. A fan of Pattinson, I wasn’t sure he could top the darkness that Chris Bale brought to Batman - but Pattinson delivered angst, sincerity and menace in spades. Kravitz fizzes & sizzles right out of the screen, bringing sophistication to the very Blade-runner-esque grim, but stunningly atmospheric, rainy-night atmosphere. A must see at the cinema for the additional dimension of ‘group tension’ atmospheric!