De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

- “The Revenant” = gripping, enthralling, beautifully shot, Di Caprio totally convincing, but… should it really get all the big Oscars?? Shout outs to the young Brit Will (“Son Of Rambow”) Poulter who is fast becoming a bit of a star and Domhnall Gleeson (“About Time”, “Frank”, “Ex Machina”, “SW:TFA”…) as the dignified, morally upstanding Captain Henry. SPOILER ALERT….. The key fight, a woozy, almost slow motion combat between Di Caprio and Tom Hardy, is a brutal, unflinching showdown between two wounded stags, each already on the point of exhaustion and death. I love this comment from Robbie Colin in “The Guardian” - “The whole project is a bizarre blend of arthouse and frat-house: an episode of Jackass as envisioned by Terrence Malick.” - “Room” = tough, tough subject matter but dealt with incredibly sensitively, brilliantly acted + written, a beautifully moving, at times overwhelming film, though totally unmanipulative and without a hint of mawkishness. Final scene = just a perfect,...

I've just seen a second film in a week in which there is a beautiful relationship between a mother and her son. Last weekend it was "Room", starring the quite wonderful Brie Larsen and Jacob Tremblay as a mother and son in a film which is quite rightly garnering rave reviews and awards buzz. Tonight it was the less high-profile but equally interesting and moving 2014 British movie "X and Y", starring the wonderful British quartet of Sally Hawkins, Rafe Spall, Eddie Marsan and as the lead character, an autistic boy genius, Asa Butterfield ("The Boy With The Striped Pyjamas", "Hugo" and the underrated "Ender's Game").  Each film puts centre stage a mother/son relationship where the two characters' circumstances have led to the biological father not being able to fulfil that role for his son. Though the narratives are very different, each is held together by the purity and selflessness of the mother's love for her chi...