May issue - Magazine - Page 31
Glenside
News
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ENTERTAINMENT/COMMUNITY
CINEMA & TV FILM REVIEWS
Continued
Obsession (Cert 18) is out in cinemas
Another film to put a graphic twist on an old premise is Obsession,
which takes The Monkey's Paw, author WW Jacobs' cautionary tale
about wish fulfillment, and lifts it to gloriously excessive extremes.
Michael Johnston plays a lovelorn doofus who uses a dime store
gimmick called One Wish Willow to make his sweet-natured
colleague (Inde Navarette) fall in love with him, only to realise that
unflagging devotion isn't what it's cracked up to be. The film
wouldn't really be anything at all without Navarette's absolute
commitment to taking her demented performance as far as it can
possibly go. She and the film are both deliriously unhinged and
grotesquely hilarious.
Events at
Witham Hall
School
The Wizard of the Kremlin (Cert 15) is out in cinemas
Jude Law might not be the first name to jump to mind when you are
thinking about actors to play Vladimir Putin, but he's surprisingly
effective in this satirical drama centring on the spin doctor (Paul
Dano) who helped elevate the former KGB head to power. Based on
the bestselling novel by Giuliano Da Empoli, it covers more than
three decades of political chicanery from the fall of the Berlin Wall
to the invasion of Ukraine, but even clocking in at 152 minutes it
feels rushed and tries desperately to Sellotape together what is little
more than a checklist of key events with huge great wodges of
voiceover exposition. Most of that narration is taken virtually
verbatim from the novel, only shorn of the more reflective passages
that might have given the satire more bite. The only point at which
the screenplay deviates sharply from the text is towards the end,
which in the film comes across as abrupt and ultimately meaningless.
Exit 8 (Cert 15) is out in cinemas
You'll just have to take my word that this repetitive Japanese puzzle
of a thriller is way more engrossing than it might sound. A hapless
commuter (Kazunari Ninomiya) attempts to exit the Tokyo subway
system, but finds himself trapped in a möbius strip of anonymous
white-tiled corridors with the only way to break free being to follow a
set of strict rules that will lead him to – you guessed it – Exit 8. The
main trick is that every time you encounter an anomaly – changes in
the pattern of the endless loop, some of which are blatantly obvious
while others are fiendishly well hidden – you have to reverse
direction until you encounter another anomaly; fail to do this and you
go back to the beginning and start again. Lots of frustrating fun.
WITHAM HALL FUN RUN –
MAKING EVERY SPLASH
COUNT
The Witham Hall Fun Run on May Day was
another lovely a ernoon this year, with
pupils, staff and families all ge ng involved
(and ge ng very wet!). Organised by the
Friends of Witham, the event raised money
for The Willoughby Founda on in Bourne,
which supports children at a local school
with complex SEND needs – learning
difficul es, medical, behavioural and
physical challenges.
There was music, sunshine, lots of
cheering, and plenty of water pistols
wai ng at the finish line - not many people
managed to stay dry for long.
A huge thank you to everyone who ran,
donated, or just came along to support. The
funds help provide Willoughby Academy
with addi onal resources which cannot be
provided by educa onal funding.
Witham Hall has raised over half its Fun
Run target so far. For those who would like
to help us reach our goal of £2,260, the
JustGiving page is s ll open at
www.justgiving.com/page/witham-hallschool-willoughby-fun-run-2026 for anyone
who would s ll like to support.
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