See cinema differently
Director: Elizabeth Banks Stars: Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Banks, Ella Balinska Brie. Edgar Bosley (Djimon Hounsou) - one of the handlers at the Townsend International Academy of Badassery (my name for it) - likes brie. We learn this some way into the movie. And its suitable, really. Actor/writer/producer/director Elizabeth Banks' rejuvenation of Charlie's Angels is the soft …
Director: Stanley Kubrick Stars: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack If being a cinephile is a form of addiction (and it often feels like it is) then the films of Stanley Kubrick are its gateway drugs. Not Kubrick alone, granted, but there are a clutch of 'great' directors whose work is easily available, who open …
Continue reading "Review: Eyes Wide Shut (20th anniversary)"
Director: Rian Johnson Stars: Ana de Armas, Daniel Craig, Toni Collette I had a disquieting experience going to see Knives Out which I think I want to talk about if you'll indulge me. Before the feature started, during the previews of coming attractions, the trailer for Taika Waititi's Nazi satire Jojo Rabbit played. A man - bald, …
Director: Martin Scorsese Stars: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci The futility of gangsterism is the subject of Martin Scorsese's late career epic, arriving via streaming giant Netflix following a limited - cursory - flirtation with cinematic release. The majority of people will experience its 209 minutes on the small screen. It's how I …
Director: Noah Hawley Stars: Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm, Dan Stevens What do you do when your head and your heart are in vastly different orbits, out of sync and liable to collide during some future rotation, causing chaos and sending debris flying everywhere? Such a state of erratic discombobulation is rife throughout Noah Hawley's feature …
Director: Brian Kirk Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Stephan James, Sienna Miller 21 - The number of bridges connecting Manhattan to the outside world that are shut down by maverick cop Andre Davis (Chadwick Boseman) in order to contain the fugitives of his latest case; a drug robbery gone horribly wrong. 2 - The number of suspects in …
Director: Kasi Lemmons Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom, Jr. Harriet Tubman is one of the great American heroes and a beacon of black history, having devoted much of her adult life to the freeing of slaves along the Underground Railroad in the mid 1800's. She was a lion. American cinema - particularly that …
Director: James Mangold Stars: Christian Bale, Matt Damon, Noah Jupe Having made it through his Wolverine obsession with Logan and, err, The Wolverine, James Mangold emerges out the other side, returning to the Ron Howard-aping middle ground of modern Hollywood's journeymen for what is actually - clearly - another passion project. Le Mans '66 (or Ford V Ferrari …
Director: Wash Westmoreland Stars: Alicia Vikander, Riley Keough, Naoki Kobayashi The spirit of the 80's erotic thriller is alive if not exactly thriving in Wash Westmoreland's second UK release of the year following January's cinematic release of Colette. Earthquake Bird arrives on the small screen, beaming straight out of Netflix and into your living room, which …
Director: Tom Harper Stars: Felicity Jones, Eddie Redmayne, Himesh Patel It's time to get giddy with vertigo as the moment we've all been waiting for finally arrives. That's right, BAFTA botherers Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne have been reunited for another thoroughly British dalliance. These are actors recognised for their abilities (not entirely unjustly) who …
Director: Bertrand BonelloStars: Wislanda Louimat, Mackenson Bijou, Louise Labeque, "Listen, white world... as our dead roar..."One of the more complacent - yet valid - truisms of western cinema might just be that the zombie movie has been "done to death". And if overexposure hasn't killed it on the big screen, The Walking Dead has left practically …
Director: Mike Flanagan Stars: Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Ewan McGregor Redefining for yourself what constitutes family is a large part of Doctor Sleep. the belated follow-up to both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Those two precursors are famously divergent. King hated Kubrick's film, which is widely regarded as one of the horror masterpieces. Kubrick altered the …
