Imelda Staunton

[7] First off, know that I have never seen an episode of the Downton Abbey TV series. I went into the feature film completely cold, but despite having no history with these characters or their melodrama, I found the feature film surprisingly fast-paced and engaging, beautiful to look at, and irresistibly charming. The film centers around the King and Queen of England’s visit to Downton …

[7] Angelina Jolie headlines in this pleasantly surprising revisionist version of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. Jolie plays Maleficent, the dark fairy villain of the original fairytale. But in this new version of the story scripted by Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast), she’s both the villain and the hero — and Jolie is fantastic in the role. You see Maleficent as the glorious creature she once …