‘John Cranko’ Review: Sam Riley Gives a Bravura Performance in Accomplished Ballet Biopic

variety.com:

Dennis Harvey Film Critic There have been relatively few biopics about choreographers, but it’s hard to think of a better one than “John Cranko,” about the late South African who made his name in England and Germany.

Steering well clear of “Eureka!” moments and other clichés within the portrait-of-an-artist genre, Joachim A. Lang’s feature finds unusually vivid means of conveying how a driven creator’s mind works by having the dance ideas in his head constantly integrated into the everyday life depicted.

With a terrific performance by Sam Riley in the title role, this handsome production — with no end of first-rate terpsichorean performance onscreen — should reignite interest in a figure whose rising international stature got curtailed by his abrupt demise in 1973, at age 45.

Lang limits himself to the years of Cranko’s finding a mature career berth with the Stuttgart Ballet. He wound up there through circumstances just briefly referred to: After moving to London to further his training and prospects in 1946, he rose to prominence with great speed, becoming resident choreographer for Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet (later the Royal Ballet) at just age 23.