All Eyez on Me (15)
Two stars
Dir: Benny Boom
With: Demetrius Shipp Jr, Jamal Woolard
Runtime: 139 minutes
THE life and death of the rapper Tupac Shakur is covered in Benny Boom’s more miss than hit biopic. Overlong, fawning, and with a straightforward narrative style that makes the story of Shakur’s life plod along, All Eyez on Me (the title coming from one of his albums) is for the most dedicated fan only. Shakur was a controversial figure, with a lot to say, but little of that is touched on in any meaningful way here as the glamorisation of the rapper lifestyle takes over. Boom is clearly a fan, and on the evidence of this he never met a scene packed with women in skimpies he did not like either.
Okja (15)
Four stars
Dir: Bong Joon-ho
With: Tilda Swinton, Shirley Henderson
Runtime: 125 minutes
A FIRST here for The Herald’s movie reviews page, and for Cannes, where Bong Joon-ho’s superb satire made its controversial debut. Controversial because it is a film made by the streaming service Netflix, and one making its debut on both small and big screens this week. Never mind all that, though: this South Korea and New York-set take of a girl and her giant pig, Okja, taking on the forces of Big Food (represented by Tilda Swinton in spectacularly villainous form) is a belter. Funny, inventive, deeply moving (and yes, at times distressing), the screenplay by Joon-ho and Jon Ronson roars like a lion when it comes to putting the case for animal rights.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here