A western with prominent female characters? It's not unheard of but, by and large, the genre is foremost perceived as a boy's club, as much as the gung-ho WW2 flick or the all American baseball movie. Women in westerns are usually either prostitutes or nagging wives. A sorry state of affairs. So when one comes … Continue reading Review: The Homesman
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (there's a mouthful), directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Jennifer Lawrence, presents a rare problem to the casual movie reviewer, in that it's director and star share the same last name. It's customary in this sort of work to refer to everyone by their surnames after the first … Continue reading Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
This review may contain spoilers. Jennifer Kent's directorial debut The Babadook does for the mother/son relationship what Gone Girl did for the husband/wife dynamic; picks at it, stretches it to breaking point and wraps it up in an engrossing genre experience. In truth this summary is really quite lazy; there's a fair bit being discussed in Kent's … Continue reading Review: The Babadook
Year: 2009 Director: Gerard Johnson Stars: Peter Ferdinando (Tony Benson), Neil Maskell (Mike Hemmings). Genre: Thriller / Drama Nominated by: Bonnie Gilbert This, then, is the first in a potentially recurring series of essays on films suggested by other people. Whether this works out or not, I don't know, but for now here's a piece … Continue reading Reservations: Tony (2009)
Forging ahead because I feel like if I take any kind of significant break here, I'll simply give up and go back to sleep for the day, I've got three Twilight movies to squeeze in to the remainder of this hungover Sunday. Timewise, I'm well on track to get this done, but New Moon especially has dampened … Continue reading Pretty Vacancy: Watching The Entire Twilight Saga Back-To-Back Part 2
First there was Fast & Furious. Then there was Step Up. Now, for some stupid reason, I'm going to watch the entire Twilight saga back to back in a single day. 10 hours and 8 minutes of, well, whatever it is. Something about vampires and werewolves maybe? The truth is, as derided as these films are... I've never seen … Continue reading Pretty Vacancy: Watching The Entire Twilight Saga Back-To Back Part 1
My major criticism of recent Christopher Nolan films (the pretty-great Inception and the rather-lacking The Dark Knight Rises) has been their rigidity. Nolan is a supremely accomplished and endlessly talented filmmaker, but his strengths flourish in a technical sense. His recent works have felt more like architectural achievements than films; dense, complex, fastidiously crafted. But watching them … Continue reading Review: Interstellar
I'm going to have to start this one with a little first-world rant, okay, and it's going to sound bitterly middle class, so forgive me. I loathe multiplex cinemas. Despite their booming sound quality and abundance of choice (so long as its mainstream choice), you just can't guarantee a respectful audience. Unlike my local independent … Continue reading Review: Horns
Year: 1974 Director: Francis Ford Coppola Stars: Gene Hackman (Harry Caul), John Cazale (Stan), Allen Garfield (Bernie Moran), Frederic Forrest (Mark), Cindy Williams (Ann), Harrison Ford (Martin Stett). Genre: Drama / Thriller At the time of writing Dan Gilroy's slick Nightcrawler has just hit the cinemas, a new yet decidedly retro-feeling thriller that satirises shock-hungry 24 … Continue reading Why I Love… #72: The Conversation
