Film Review: Panic
David Gyasi is one of a (thankfully) growing number of young black British actors beginning to make their way in Hollywood. Along with David Oyelowo and John Boyega, they’re following hot on the heels of Idris Elba. Gyasi starred in his first film in 2003, but spent many years working in TV before he finally …
Blu-Ray Review: Punch Drunk Love (Criterion Collection)
Amongst the film-going and critical intelligentsia, Paul Thomas Anderson is vying with Terrence Malick for the title of greatest living American auteur. During the late ‘90s, Boogie Nights and Magnolia defined contemporary film-making. Every new release seems like a media event, with Inherent Vice, The Master and There Will Be Blood all walking away with …
Incoming: Indignation
Based on Philip Roth’s late novel, Indignation takes place in 1951, as Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman), a brilliant working class Jewish boy from Newark, New Jersey, travels on scholarship to a small, conservative college in Ohio, thus exempting him from being drafted into the Korean War. Indignation is out in cinemas from Friday.
Film Review: Dog Eat Dog
Paul Schrader’s name will forever be part of Hollywood folklore. The American director, screenwriter and film critic has been a part of some of the greatest films of the twentieth century. He worked with Scorsese on Taxi Driver, The Last Temptation of Christ, Raging Bull and Bringing Out the Dead. As a director, he’s best …
Incoming: The Innocents
Mathilde is a young French doctor with the Red Cross on a mission to treat Second World War survivors in Poland in late 1945. When a nun appears at the clinic one night seeking her help, she is brought to a convent where 30 Benedictine nuns live cut off from the world. She discovers that …
TV Review: The Killing Season
With the success of the podcast Serial and the Netflix TV series Making a Murderer, documentary investigations into miscarriages of justice and crimes have never been more popular. Traditional confidence and belief in our law enforcement agencies and the court system has been shown time and again to be misplaced. The latest project from Executive …
Incoming: American Pastoral
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Phillip Roth novel, American Pastoral follows a family whose seemingly idyllic existence is shattered by the social and political turmoil of the 1960s. Ewan McGregor makes his directorial debut and stars as Seymour “Swede” Levov, a once legendary high school athlete who is now a successful businessman married to Dawn, …
Blu-ray Review: The Small World of Sammy Lee
London was a very different place in the early 1960s. No area more so than Soho. At the beginning of a decade which would put swinging London on the map, Soho had a reputation of being seedy and dangerous. Whilst tame by today’s standards, at the time many of the clubs and shops were considered …
Celluloid Screams Review: The Autopsy of Jane Doe
The mythos and terror surrounding ghosts, ghouls, demons and the occult has long fascinated film makers and cinema goers alike. Whether it’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, M.R. James’ ghost stories, fairy tales, Twilight or traditional folklore, people are seemingly transfixed by the unknown or supernatural. This is particularly the case in film, especially around Halloween where …
Incoming: Arrival
When mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team – led by expert linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) – is brought together to investigate. As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, Banks and the team race against time for answers – and to find them, she will take a chance that …