An easy going tale of a 1960s eye-opening affair between 16-year-old middle class and Oxford bound smart aleck Jenny and flash 30-something working class Jack set in the glorious suburb of Twickenham.
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AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS (1987)
CertificationPG Our Rating
In a Catholic boarding school during the Nazi occupation of France, Julien Quietin, played by Gaspard Manesse as the character based around Malle, is no ordinary student, he is intelligent and different from the others. A new student arrives at the school one day and becomes a sort of intellectual rival to Julien, but, after some early hostilities, the boys begin to connect and eventually become good friends. Malle does not rely on overly dramatic sequences where not necessary as a way to build
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EMPIRE OF THE SUN (1987)
CertificationPG Our Rating
A carefully constructed epic telling the story of a rich young English boy whose privileged life is upturned by the Japanese invasion of Shanghai. Separated from his parents he is eventually captured and taken to Soo Chow confinement camp next to a captured Chinese airfield. As he and the other civilians are gradually starved, he turns from a child to an adolescent while learning the art of survival. When the war ends, the boy attempts to find his parents. Based on JG Ballard's autobiographical
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FATELESS (2005)
Certification12 Our Rating
1943; Hungary is one of the last nations to have its Jewish population rounded up and sent to the Nazi death and labour camps. This is the semi-autobiographical story of one 14-year-old boy and his tale of survival from deportation to Buchenwald and on through liberation and the culture shock of his return to Budapest. Told without resort to emotion we follow our hero and others cling on to what scraps of humanity that they can against the total horror surrounding them. Lajos Koltai's film ranks
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GIRL, INTERRUPTED (2000)
Certification15 Our Rating
Based on a true story we follow the fortunes of Susanna who has been dubiously diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, trapped in a state of self-loathing she rebels against the authorities within her psychiatric hospital and finds solace with her fellow inmates, in particular the hypnotically charismatic Lisa, a grade 'A' sociopath. Girl Interrupted is a cracking drama, with all the ingredients of a fine story; humour, pathos and passion, sensitively directed and with an absolutely com
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MACHUCA (2004)
Certification15 Our Rating
Andres Wood's semi-autobiographical film is set in Chile in 1973, when General Pinochet's military coup seized power from President Allende's democratically elected government. It follows the unexpected friendship of two 11-year-old boys - Gonzalo, who comes from a wealthy middle class neighbourhood, and Pedro Machuca, who lives in a nearby shanty town. They meet when an idealistic priest admits children from poor families to an elite private school and, as they learn about each other's very dif
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PERSEPOLIS (2008)
Certification12 Our Rating
A wonderful tale of a girl's passage from childhood to adulthood, a time that coincided with the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and his replacement by the tyranny of a fundamentalist theocracy.
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THIS BOY'S LIFE (1993)
Certification15 Our Rating
Powerful adaptation of Tobias Wolff's autobiographical story about growing up in backwoods Washington state under a tyrannical step-father. Teenage Toby (DiCaprio, fine throughout) and mom (Barkin) leave dad and big bro' back East and motor West with high hopes of a new life. First stop Utah offers evidence of mom's unerring eye for male suitors, which is confirmed when they hightail to Washington, where she accepts some old-fashioned courting from Dwight (De Niro). She marries only to discover,
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