August: Osage County is a film with one hell of a pedigree. Based on the Pulitzer-winning play by Tracy Letts (and adapted for the screen by Letts), produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, with attention-grabbing turns from the likes of (deep breath now) Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Juliette Lewis, Abigail Breslin, Benedict … Continue reading Review: August: Osage County
Year: 1979 Director: Walter Hill Stars: Michael Beck (Swan), James Remar (Ajax), Dorsey Wright (Cleon), Brian Tyler (Snow), David Harris (Cochise), Roger Hill (Cyrus), David Patrick Kelly (Luther), Deborah Van Valkenburgh (Mercy) Genre: Action / Thriller There term 'midnight movie' was coined and is still used to describe a certain subset of films which attained … Continue reading Why I Love… #62: The Warriors
At the time of writing Martin Scorsese is 71 years old. Not that you'd know it from watching his latest film - his twenty-somethingth feature - which careers out of the gate at top speed and barely pauses for breath once in its entire 180 minutes. After the delightful yet stuffy prestige puff-piece Hugo, one would've … Continue reading Review: The Wolf Of Wall Street
Steve McQueen, former Turner Prize-winning artist turned white-hot front-runner for British cinema, makes films about men in prisons. With his searing debut Hunger, detailing the last days of Bobby Sands in Maze Prison, this was approached literally. With his superb second film Shame, he turned inward, portraying a sex addict walled-up inside his own psychological labyrinth. For … Continue reading Review: 12 Years A Slave
As 2014 gets underway and the year's big hitters for awards season start rolling out the doors, there's still some mopping up of 2013 to be done. Short Term 12, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, first appeared on UK shores late last year in a sadly limited run. I was unable to catch it at … Continue reading Review: Short Term 12
Though praise has been high, it's not hard to see why All Is Lost has struggled to find a footing in the UK's consciousness this festive season. After three solid weeks of rainstorms and flooding, the prospect of spending 100+ minutes in the company of one man as he gets cold and wet and miserable … Continue reading Review: All Is Lost
