Golda

Helen Mirren's make-up distracted me at first, but her always reliable acting was thankfully not lost underneath. Moreover, Golda is a biopic made the way I like it, as the ever-so-slightly controversial personality is represented not from childhood to old age, but during the Yom Kippur War, when perhaps all of her positive and not-quite-so-positive qualities are on full display. The script copes skilfully with a large cast of characters that I had no trouble telling apart, thanks to the excellently chosen and, with the exception of the impeccable Liev Schreiber, also not entirely familiar actors. It resorts to cliché only very rarely indeed, and doesn't even need to show sweeping battle scenes to tell us what a terrible thing war is. A surprisingly good film. And with great music! (2023.10.09)