While we'll still have to wait a few more months to get Christopher Nolan's take on the fateful evacuation of Dunkirk, we'll have this little British drama to tide us over.
Their Finest brings together Sam Clafin (Me Before You) and Gemma Arterton (The Girl with All the Gifts), playing two writers working on a script for a propaganda film to revive national morale in the thick of World War II. Their actor is the past-his-prime Ambrose Hillard, played by the incomparable Bill Nighy. Even with a serious topic, the movie appears to take a lighter approach. That's good, because we certainly don't need any additional depressing WWII dramas.
Lone Scherfig, whose 2009 film An Education was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, will direct the film from a script by Gaby Chiappe. This is her first screenplay, after years toiling in the writers rooms of British drama series. The film opens on April 7.
About Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about.
I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague.
Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work.
In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo.
I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.
