Split

When one man has twenty three personalities living inside him, it’s not surprising that things get a little weird.

Kevin (James McAvoy) is a man with an army of personalities within him, and each one is as eager to reach the surface as the next. Despite his efforts to conceal these alter-egos, eventually the most powerful of the personalities are brought forward, leading him to discover a very dark side of this traumatic ‘illness’.

The premise of the film is one befitting to the horror genre; it’s just a shame that director M. Night Shyamalan didn’t fulfil its potential. The very idea of twenty-three personalities residing in one body is thought-provoking in itself and enough to entice any audience. But what starts out as an interesting concept soon spirals out of control as the screenwriters get carried away with themselves with the inclusion of an animalistic twenty-fourth personality, which quite frankly does nothing but cheapen this film’s potential brilliance.

Whilst the story does lose itself in a ridiculous turn of events, there is one saving grace that makes this film almost worthwhile a watch and that is the acting. James McAvoy, as you may expect is more than perplexing in his role, or should I say roles. Not only does he step into each character with ease, but he owns each one as though they are completely different entities.

Hidden Figures

Three remarkable women struggle to get their voices and more importantly, their minds, heard in an era where everything is against them, including the colour of their skin.

In 1962 John Glenn was the first man to orbit the earth, but that wasn’t the only first for NASA or indeed the USA that year. Three African-American women, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson also made history by achieving the impossible; they were allowed to use their brains to accelerate the space race and break the stigma surrounding the civil rights movement in America.

True stories are often the hardest to depict on the big screen, for the simple reason that you must do the story the justice it deserves. Hidden Figures is not only a fitting immortalization of an awe-inspiring story, it is quite possibly one of the most powerful cinematic experiences one can behold, it is just a shame it was not in existence at the time it was needed.

No film can be a success without the triumph of its actors, and this film is no exception. It is rare that you find an actor that can fill a room with their presence alone, it is near impossible to find three in the same film. But Taraji P. Henson (Katherine), Octavia Spencer (Dorothy) and Janelle Monae (Mary) all perform with such ease that they send shivers down the spine.

1960s America is not the easiest of sets to compose and yet the production team have managed to create authenticity throughout. From intricately detailed costumes to cars that cast the mind back, every detail of this film has been thought of and executed to perfection.