Between his Hostel features, Cabin Fever and his minor role in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, Eli Roth has secured himself the position of modern horror cinema's troublesome, occasionally deplorable, but overall harmless fratboy. A cheeky prankster who trades away subtlety for gleeful rolls in the dirt, encouraging us to pat his belly as we drop our manners and … Continue reading Review: Knock Knock
Few directorial debuts in recent memory leave quite such a stark impression as Ukrainian newcomer Miroslav Slaboshpitsky's bleak, daring and resonant The Tribe. Set at a boarding school for deaf-mute children, the film follows a group of youths who have taken to fending for themselves in a manner both feral (as the title suggests) and ruthlessly … Continue reading Review: The Tribe
The Look Of Silence follows Joshua Oppenheimer's 2012 documentary The Act Of Killing, behaving as a sister piece. It begins with the exact same text advising the viewer of the immense crimes committed in Indonesia in 1965 - a period of revolution in which the government sanctioned the massacre of a million people labelled 'communists' - … Continue reading Review: The Look Of Silence
Kevin Smith's latest film Tusk has landed here in the UK with little fanfare. It's out on DVD and I'm sure you can download it also. It stars Justin Long as a shitty little podcaster who gets turned into a human walrus by Michael Parks' reclusive old loon. Smith was evidently trolled into turning this idea … Continue reading Review: Tusk
Jurassic Park wasn't the first film I saw at the cinema, but it's the first one I have vivid memories of. And while for anecdotal purposes I most often recall being told off by the usher for laughing too much when the kid gets blown off of the electric fence, the reality is that Spielberg's … Continue reading Review: Jurassic World
Andrew Bujalski's latest, Results, is his most conspicuously 'mainstream' offering yet, following the warm critical reception to 2013's sublime Computer Chess. But the caveat here is that these things are all relative. It boasts bigger stars than he's worked with before (the dependable and versatile Guy Pearce, the Marvel fan-favourite Cobie Smulders and the in-everything-eventually Giovanni Ribisi) … Continue reading Review: Results
With James Wan trading carnivalesque bumps in The Further for the ludicrous spinning wheels of the Fast & Furious franchise, it's up to prior writer/co-star Leigh Whannell to take the reigns of the Insidious franchise for this third installment, faithfully subtitled Chapter 3 yet a prequel to the first two films. Corkscrewing timelines are nothing new to Whannell, … Continue reading Review: Insidious Chapter 3
Few films that have appeared on the 2015 UK release sheet have piqued my interest as much as Ana Lily Amirpour's deliciously mysterious A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. First of all in and of itself is that title, which is filled with potential threat while also being guilelessly matter-of-fact. Then there's the rough sell … Continue reading Review: A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
