The Life of Chuck review – unmoving Stephen King schmaltz

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Tom Hiddleston plays a man who might be the centre of the universe in a film of often effective parts that never really come together As prestigious as it might sound to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes or the Golden Lion at Venice, the surest indicator of Oscar recognition has become victory at the far less fancy, far more mainstream Toronto film festival. There isn’t a jury-based award, instead there’s one decided by an audience vote and, far more often than not, their picks have lined up with those of the Academy. Since 2008, only one People’s Choice award winner hasn’t then gone on to either take home or be nominated for the best picture Oscar, and while the picks haven’t always been the greatest (hello, Jojo Rabbit, Belfast and Three Billboards), they’ve indicated a broad, crowd-rousing appeal. Last year, despite predictions that Anora or Conclave might triumph, out of nowhere the far less buzzy, and, at that point, distribution-less Stephen King adaptation The Life of Chuck triu...
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Full Time review – school-run thriller turns into high-stakes motherhood drama

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Laure Calamy plays a woman forever racing between maternal and work duties in an acutely relatable story that grips

Anyone who has ever broken into a sweaty panicked run to make it in time for school pick-up will instantly get why the French Canadian director Eric Gravel has chosen to shoot this film about motherhood frazzle as a gripping thriller. I was on the edge of my seat in one scene, watching to see if a woman running to catch her commuter train home makes it. Her name is Julie, and she’s a divorced mum of two who’s feeling the grind: work, kids, mortgage arrears, crappy ex. It’s such an authentic and relatable film – so meticulously observed, in fact, that to be perfectly honest, I assumed it had been made by a woman.

Laure Calamy plays Julie; she’s in her early 40s, with a couple of children under eight. Every morning, Julie’s alarm clock goes off like a starting pistol. In the dark she walks her kids to the childminders, carrying her sleepy little boy. Then it’s a sprint from the suburbs into Paris where she works in a fancy hotel as head chambermaid. It’s a high-stress job. “The guests are demanding. They pay to be.” Then it’s back to the suburbs to pick up her kids in time for bed.

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