The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • Tumblr

  • RSS

London Film Festival 2017

Stan & Ollie

London Film Festival 2018: Stan & Ollie | Review
22 October 2018
Will Almond
Will Almond
Avatar
Will Almond
22 October 2018
Public screenings
21st October 2018 7.45pm at Embankment Garden Cinema
21st October 2018 8.45pm at Curzon Mayfair

Movie and show review

Will Almond

Stan & Ollie

★★★★★

Release date

11th January 2019

Links

TwitterFacebook

Special event

Making a comedy about two icons of slapstick is a road so full of pitfalls that even the great men themselves would probably just have taken a different route – one marked “new tarmac” perhaps. And yet the film – like the marriage of a six-foot-one, 280-pound Georgian with a rake of a man from the north of England – just works.

Stan and Ollie follows the iconic Hollywood duo’s fortunes away from the silver screen as they tour the provincial theatres of 1950s England in the hope of securing funding for a Robin Hood picture. Sparsely populated venues are the least of their troubles though as their past, their wives and Hardy’s future in the face of deteriorating health all get in the way.

Even the greatest names rely on their supporting cast, and in this case, as the gloriously oleaginous and duplicitous tour manager Bernard Delfont (Rufus Jones) puts it, the audience get “two double acts for the price of one”. Ida Laurel (an inspired Nina Arianda) is a Hollywood diva dripping with diamonds and dismissal, lacking only the screen career to go with her attitude. Her foil Lucille Hardy (an equally masterful Shirley Henderson) is quietly determined to see her husband protected from both himself and his partner.

The film works because of the love, care and attention that shines out of every pore. Exactly as Stan Laurel spent hours fastidiously writing and choreographing each scene, it is clear that the team behind this film – especially stars Steve Coogan and John C Reilly – have a deep love for the comedy of the eponymous double-act and an absolute commitment to do it justice. Whether it’s Ollie fondling his necktie or Stan’s eyebrows, which move on strings entirely independent from the rest of his face, the mimicry is nigh on perfect. But it’s by getting beyond catchphrases and beneath mannerisms, into the minds and bodies of its subjects, that Stan and Ollie is able to deliver pathos as well as homage.

★★★★★

William Almond

Stan and Ollie is released nationwide on 11th January 2019.


Read more reviews and interviews from our London Film Festival 2018 coverage here
.

For further information about the festival visit the official BFI website here.

Watch the trailer for Stan and Ollie here:

Related Itemslondon film festivalreview

More in Film festivals

Blackbird premiere: On the red carpet with Roger Mitchell and the cast at London Film Festival 2019

Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

The Lighthouse premiere: On the red carpet with Willem Dafoe and Robert Eggers at London Film Festival 2019

Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

The Other Lamb

★★★★★
Ghazaleh Golpira
Read More

The Irishman: The jewel in Scorsese’s cinematic crown

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Ordinary Love

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Fanny Lye Deliver’d

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Give Me Liberty

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Official Secrets

★★★★★
Mary-Catherine Harvey
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Will Almond

Stan & Ollie

★★★★★

Release date

11th January 2019

Links

TwitterFacebook

Special event

Tickets

Theatre tickets

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Secret Cinema Presents Stranger Things: An uncanny, immersive delight
    Cinema
  • Three Sisters at the National Theatre
    Theatre
  • Five of the best Christmas afternoon teas in London
    Food & Drinks
  • IT London in Mayfair: Authentic and refined Italian dishes in a swanky restaurant
    ★★★★★
    Food & Drinks
  • The Duchess of Malfi at Almeida Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “Sting always makes me want to choreograph”: An interview with ZooNation director Kate Prince
    Theatre
  • A Kind of People at the Royal Court Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • IT London in Mayfair: Authentic and refined Italian dishes in a swanky restaurant
    ★★★★★
    Food & Drinks
  • Thriller Live at Lyric Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • IT London in Mayfair: Authentic and refined Italian dishes in a swanky restaurant
    ★★★★★
    Food & Drinks
  • The Snow Queen at Park Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Three Sisters at the National Theatre
    Theatre
  • A Taste of Honey at Trafalgar Studios
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2018 FL Media Ltd

Wildlife premiere: On the red carpet with Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan at London Film Festival 2018
London Film Festival 2018: A Private War | Review