TV advertising is a powerful thing, exerting the kind of influence in our lives that we'd probably be loath to fully admit. At Christmas a great number of people I know were delighted by a Coca-Cola publicity stunt that had rolled into town. The truck from that advert was parked up in a local shopping precinct. … Continue reading Review: No
The Tree Of Life, Terrence Malick's audience-splitting 2011 Palme D'Or winner, was the man's fifth film in a 40 year career. For those watching who look forward to seeing what he comes up with next, patience is a prerequisite. Inevitably then, the arrival of To The Wonder a short 18 months on has led many to approach … Continue reading Review: To The Wonder
Year: 1997 Director: Hayao Miyazaki Genre: Animation / Fantasy I've been slacking. These pages have been a little sparse on new content the past couple of weeks compared to the usual stream of updates and waffle. The cause is not a lack of enthusiasm. The gamer inside me, buried for the best part of a … Continue reading Why I Love… #43: Princess Mononoke
Biopics of recent figures, especially celebrities or people of notable fame, tend to fall into one of two camps. There are those that attempt to encompass the whole life, bullet-pointing the key moments, fretfully hoping to build a strong narrative out of the patchy weave of genuine circumstances. Then there are those that narrow their … Continue reading Review: Hitchcock
I'll admit it, Wreck-It Ralph was my second choice of movie this evening. Work commitments kept me from a one-off screening of Pablo Larraín's No. Not to be deprived of entertainment of some kind, and with a blog to keep updated an' all, I decided to give Disney's latest a go, hoping that it would tap into … Continue reading Review: Wreck-It Ralph
Year: 2002 Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Stars: Adam Sandler (Barry Egan), Emily Watson (Lena Leonard), Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Dean Trumbell), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Elizabeth), Luis Guzmán (Lance) Genre: Romance / Comedy It begins with a man in a blue suit sat at a desk in a seemingly vast space. Barry Egan, a nervous, twitchy entrepeneur … Continue reading Why I Love… #42: Punch-Drunk Love
Fuck you, Paranormal Activity. Seriously, the phenomenal success of Oren Peli's dismal micro-budget found footage movie in 2007 has opened the floodgates for a slew of creatively moribund shaky-cam horror flicks, each more abysmal than the last. Not to mention that movie's own exasperating perpetuation (another sequel is on its way, obviously). And whilst Peli … Continue reading Review: V/H/S
The prospect of Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to the big screen full-time has been a joy to behold, there's no denying that, but let's not play this like I've been waiting for him to come home from a war or something. Cinema, even action cinema, has survived without his wooden acting, one-liners and increasingly-jowly presence these … Continue reading Review: The Last Stand
