Prick Up Your Ears

Movie about gay London playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman) who was killed by his lover Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina) in 1967. It's done with Vanessa Regrave as Orton's agent and Wallace Shawn as an investigative reporter (I think) piecing together... Full review

I don't usually enjoy biopics, but PRICK UP YOUR EARS is a glorious exception. Many biopics don't have strong narrative arcs (simply because people's lives generally don't), but this one does -- primarily because it focuses on the rapid deterioration... Full review

Although in some ways more theatrical/televisual than cinematic, this is one of the best British films of the 80's, and is probably Alan Bennett's most successful screenplay. Bennett and Orton have a number of things in common - a love... Full review

A TRUE STORY SET IN SIXTIES ISLINGTONBASED ON THE Joe Orton DiariesThis cleverly edited Comedy Drama/Bio of JOE (Loot) ORTON concentrates mainly on his plethora of talents - both lyrical and libidinal.A very touching film that has the ability by... Full review

One of Gary Oldman's first films and need I say, one of the best? Based on the biography by John Lahr, this film tells the true story of British playwright Joe Orton and his "friend" Kenneth Halliwell.This film is sad... Full review

Gary Oldman is absolutely brilliant as the tortured sexually promiscuous playwright Joe Orton, looking at pictures of the real Joe one is left in awe at not only physical resemblance but at the closeness that Oldman gets to Joe. The... Full review

I never heard of Joe Orton before I saw this, but now I want to know more. Performances here are flawless, Molina and Oldman take risks very few actors would take. I wish the filmmakers had spent a little more... Full review

The single best biographical film I've ever seen. Gary Oldman, Alfred Molina, and Vanessa Redgrave are all brilliant. (Check out Simon Callow's book "Love Is Where It Falls" for more information on the Vanessa Redgrave character.) Much of the last... Full review

Its films like these that make you wonder why stars like Gary Oldman(Immortal Beloved) and Alfred Molina(Boogie Nights) aren't noticed as much as the awful actors that plague our screens(see Mark Wahlberg or Ray Liotta).Prick Up Your Ears is a... Full review

This movie is very painful to watch, if you're in this kind of relationship or if you've observed it. It's not as uncommon as you may like to believe, though it's usually more conventional, i.e. a man and a woman.... Full review

Prick Up Your Ears, while amusing and finally poignant, lacks real emotional punch.....he is an actor capable of fierce intensity....it is hard to find his performance sympathetic.... ... Full Review

Alan Bennett's insightful script.... ... Full Review

Oldman is brilliant; Molina's Halliwell less subtle (though a pleasingly haughty failure against his lover's quiet, cheeky success, with shades of 'Withnail and I'); and the film's dissection of cottaging quaintly amusing. Its intensity and humour are punctuated unnecessarily by scenes of Lahr ( Wallace Shawn ) researching his book with the help of Orton's agent, ( Vanessa Redgrave ). ... Full Review

Matt Lucas having left the show after the death of his former civil partner, the reliably excellent Con O'Neill has taken over the role of Kenneth Halliwell, the killer of his one-time lover Joe Orton . ... Full Article

Matt Lucas has announced that he will not return to his role in the West End stage show, Prick Up Your Ears, after the death of his ex-partner. ... Full Article

Whether or not they've seen Stephen Frears's film on the same subject, just about every theatregoer will know how Simon Bent's play must end. So don't blame me for telling or retelling you that in 1967 Joe Orton became the... ... Full Article

The awful story of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell would probably have taken a very different turn today. The outrageous young playwright would not have been bludgeoned to death by his jealous older lover in the North London bedsit they... ... Full Article

The Movie: Joe Orton is one of the more fascinating figures in modern British theatre.His plays were as brilliant as his personal life was controversial, being an out homosexual in the mid-to-late-1960s. ... Full Article

"Prick Up Your Ears," the new film biography of the incendiary British farceur Joe Orton, leaves a very sour taste in your mouth. Based on John Lahr's biography from a script by Alan Bennett, the movie follows his rise from... ... Full Article