Directed by Antoine Fuqua and produced, pointedly, by the executors of the Michael Jackson estate, John Branca and John McClain, this is a biopic that arrives with a seating plan already arranged and a guest list that has been very deliberately curated. The question the film can't quite escape, no matter how spectacular the staging or how extraordinary the central performance, is: are we watching someone's life story, or someone's preferred version of it?

There's something both tender and faintly unhinged about the premise of Alphabet Lane . A couple, marooned in the open silence of rural New South Wales, begin writing letters to imaginary friends. Not as therapy. Not as a creative exercise. Just because what else are you going to do out there? It's a genuinely great idea. And James Litchfield, in his debut feature, knows it is. Anna (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) and Jack (Nicholas Denton) have just moved from Sydney to a remote corne

For years “The Quiet Man” stood in Flemington as a beacon to the old world of familiar Irish comforts, but now it’s evolved into two sublime venues under one roof and very much under the one flag....