Alex B Cann Film Column - 19/03/20260

My two picks for Best Picture at the Cann Film Festival would have been I Swear and The Ballad Of Wallis Island, but since my festival is somewhat overshadowed by the Oscars, the Academy's votes went to One Thing After Another. I like Leonardo DiCaprio's passion for the cinema experience, and share his hope that it won't become a niche pastime, like collecting vinyl, or using the correct version of 'your'.

Sadly, audience numbers for two of the films I've watched this week don't fill me with much optimism. I made up the entire audience for my screening of Mother's Pride, and award it four stars. Martin Clunes is on excellent form as the landlord of the Drovers Arms, which is fast running out of money and has to enlist the local morris dancers to ward off the bailiffs from taking the pub's jukebox. In short, they come up with a plan to use an old family recipe to brew their own real ale, and try to save the pub from closure. It's rather twee, predictable, and very British, but it was exactly the sort of film I needed this week. WIth all the nonsense going on in the world, it felt like a comforting hug, or at the very least a nice pint of Black Sheep served with some bar snacks (not a microwaved cottage pie, which the Drovers inadvertantly serve up to Camra members writing a review about them!). It won't change the world, but it's a love letter to pubs which desperately need more help from the government. We lose them at our peril (366 closed permanently in England and Wales in 2025, an average of one a day).

York-born Mark Addy is on fine comic form as the leader of the disco-infused morris dancers who strut their stuff to Boney M's Daddy Cool rather better than the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey. I also liked James Buckley's character Jake, and whilst it wasn't mould-breaking. Fun, heartfelt, and easy watching.

Pixar's Hoppers (I was a third of the audience!) reminded me a bit of the simulation technology in 1999's The Matrix, as it explores what would happen if humans could 'hop' into a robotic animal and talk to other species. It looks beautiful on the big screen, as animal lover Mabel fights to stop the scheming town mayor Jerry from building a new road through a nature reserve which she visited daily with her grandma whilst growing up. Like a lot of Pixar films, it deals with some weighty themes like grief and climate destruction, but also contains plentiful laughs and fab characters. Top tier stuff.

Reminders Of Him in a few words finally. Hammy acting, felt a bit like a bad soap opera in places, tried to make me cry but failed, and one of the main characters really annoyed me. I'm not sure if that was intentional. Perhaps the Colleen Hoover book is better. I won't remind you to go and see it.