STEVE Is there any actor as consistently impressive as Cillian Murphy right now? Fresh from bagging a Best Actor Oscar for Christopher Nolan's ' Oppenheimer ' two years ago, he delivered one of his best performances last year in Tim Mielants' brilliantly understated Magdalene Laundries drama ' Small Things Like These '. However when you look at Danny Boyle's ' 28 Days Later ' and ' Sunshine ,' John Carney's ' On The Edge ,' John Crowley's ' Intermission ,' Neil Jordan's ' Breakfast On Pluto ,' Ken Loach's ' The Wind That Shakes The Barley ,' Nolan's ' Batman Begins ,' ' Inception ' and ' Dunkirk ,' Rufus Norris' ' Broken ,' John Krasinski's ' A Quiet Place, Part II ' and, of course, ' Peaky Blinders ,' you begin to realise the Corkman has been conjuring up authentic performances from the moment he started to grace our cinema and TV sc...
HIGHEST 2 LOWEST Rejoice! Denzel Washington is back working with Spike Lee. This time, their fifth movie collaboration is the thriller 'Highest 2 Lowest'. But is it up there with their best work like ' Malcolm X ' and ' Inside Man '? A remake of Akira Kurosawa's acclaimed 1963 Japanese police procedural ' High and Low ,' which was itself adapted from US crime writer Ed McBain's 'King's Ransom,' Lee's film locates the story in New York. His movie, in fact, begins like a true love letter to the Big Apple, with Matthew Libatique's camera capturing stunning early morning images of the city which Denzel Washington's music mogul David King surveys from his penthouse apartment balcony in Brooklyn. Married to Ilfenesh Hadera's glamorous Pam King, David is a legendary figure in the music industry but he is also at a professional crossroads, with his records label partner Michael Potts' Patrick Bethea keen for him to sell...