Director: Agnieszka Smoczynska Stars: Michalina Olszanska, Marta Marzurek, Kinga Preis The prospect of an independent horror movie being seriously about mermaids is a lure in and of itself. Make it Polish and also a musical and curiosity goes into overdrive, especially with the striking artwork that accompanied promotion of Agnieszka Smoczynska's 2015 debut feature. And … Continue reading Review: The Lure (2015)
This Christmas, going back home, I found myself staying in my old childhood bedroom. While it hasn't been kept as an eerie museum piece, some accoutrements of my early years still remain. Largely the books. Among these, I was pleased to discover, where a few editions of Peanuts. Flicking through these, sat cross-legged in the corner … Continue reading Review: The Peanuts Movie
While we wait with varying levels of impatience for Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, another western starring Kurt Russell has crept its way onto UK shores with little fanfare. Writer / director S Craig Zahler's Bone Tomahawk is a rich find in the present cinematic landscape, though you may be hard pressed to locate it. That's a shame. Because it … Continue reading Review: Bone Tomahawk
This is one of the toughest reviews I've chosen to write for this blog. How to position my stance on the hugely hyped and already widely loved latest entry in the Goliath Star Wars franchise? A film which, for a while there, didn't seem likely to exist at all. Reviewing The Force Awakens requires being cagey … Continue reading Review: Star Wars – The Force Awakens
The top ten Inside OutInherent ViceCarolIt FollowsMad Max: Fury RoadGirlhoodSelmaKumiko, The Treasure HunterPhoenixThe Look Of Silence Film Of The YearInside Out "Inside Out runs headlong into talking about the consequences and reasons behind early-onset depression, yet wraps this conversation up in the dressing of an adventure story… There’s a wonderful lesson here about self-acceptance which raises the … Continue reading The Best of 2015
You know how it is. It's Christmas Eve, you're a transgender prostitute fresh out of lock-up and looking to turn a trick out where Santa Monica meets Highland, when all of a sudden your girlfriend (who's playing a show tonight singing at some dive or other) lets slip that your boyfriend and pimp has been … Continue reading Review: Tangerine
Oh man, it is good to be able to write one of these on a laptop again. Everything posted since the Crimson Peak review has been done on a Sony Xperia phone. Up to the job, patience permitting, but I've banked a whole load of finger cramping in the process. Anyway, on to the matter at … Continue reading Review: Love (2015)
"Nothing can prepare you for the end". So says the poster tagline for (deep breath) The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 2; a tagline evidently written by someone miraculously unaware that these movies are based on a series of bestselling novels, making preparing for the end actually quite easy. I haven't read these books, but, … Continue reading Review: The Hunger Games – Mockingjay Part 2
Earlier this year I wrote a somewhat critical appraisal of Charlie Lyne's documentary on high school movies Beyond Clueless, bemoaning what I felt was a lack of depth. However, in the months since I've found myself revisiting the feature on more than one occasion. While I still find some of the insights lacking, the technique … Continue reading Review: Fear Itself
How is a man undone by his own will when determined to dominate or control either other beings or the Earth itself? This seems to be one of the (many) significant questions at the heart of Jauja (pronounced 'How-Ha'), the latest film from minimalist auteur Lisandro Alonso. Set, one assumes (you can never be too … Continue reading Review: Jauja
For one reason or another I missed Céline Sciamma's superb Girlhood (aka Bande De Filles in its native France) when it hit UK cinemas on a far too limited release a few months back. So now, as mediocre box office Goliath Spectre stalls releases from smaller distributors afraid of getting lost in competition, it seems … Continue reading Review: Girlhood (Bande de Filles)
How important is having a partner? We live in a society that puts great value in the notion that we must all pair off for life. Any deviation from this is somewhat stigmatised. If you haven't found a partner by a certain age, there is a view that you've failed in some way, or are … Continue reading Review: The Lobster
Much has been made, since he took up the mantle, of how Daniel Craig has rejuvenated Bond, bringing Ian Fleming's super spy kicking and scowling into the 21st century. And, yes, the series has felt fresher. It was there in the hot-blooded callousness of (the underrated) Quantum Of Solace, and in the more engrossing, personal … Continue reading Review: Spectre
Two grown men emerge from some undergrowth, ambling in a simian manner. They rest at a fallen tree. The dark-haired man, Keith (Tom Meeten), massages the knees of the more dominant Smith (writer / director Steve Oram). Smith fetches a framed photograph of a woman in a bridal gown from his pocket, a look of lamentation in … Continue reading Review: Aaaaaaaah!
Meta horror is always in vogue. Few if any other genres have the capacity for so much self-reflection and self-deprecation. Horror folds in on itself every few years, acknowledging it's icons, celebrating them and lambasting its own repetitions. Hell, you could argue it does so like clockwork once a year, with October 31st as it's accepted … Continue reading Review: The Final Girls
