FIlm Review
Film Review: The Survivalist
We’re used to experiencing the post-apocalyptic world: explorations on both big and small screens have taken us through countless interpretations. But as I began to watch The Survivalist, playing at this year’s London Film Festival, I struggled to recall to mind one that combined a verdant environment and isolation. What we have become used to …
Film Review: They Will Have To Kill Us First
Mali has been a rich and relatively unknown hotbed of music for some time now. The northern tribes, in particular, have their own individual rich musical traditions. Things have changed in recent times due to the heightened exposure for African music triggered by African Express and also the conflict taking place in the North between …
Film Review: Tales of Halloween
Horror anthologies are a bit of a mixed bag and toyed with extinction when the popularity of genre films dissipated after the boom of the ’80s. In recent years they’ve made somewhat of a comeback with the success of V/H/S and the ABCs of Death, but it’s Trick ‘r Treat which really set the standard. …
Film Review: Estranged
Our brains can be fickle, such complex and intricate organs but when they go wrong they can destroy our world. If we lose our memory we lose the most vital part of ourselves. Not knowing where we come from or our upbringing makes us unsure of our present. Adam Levin’s new film, Estranged, plays on …
London Film Festival: What We Become
Fu*k. I’m on the London overground heading home from Rich Mix cinema where I’ve been brutalised by Danish zombie horror “What We Become”, part of the Cult strand at this year’s London Film Festival. I think I feel worse than I did when walking out of the “Dawn of the Dead” remake, and I was …
Film Review: Dear White People
Authentic Black (Afro-American/Black Minority Ethnic etc) voices are often hard to find in mainstream popular cinema. Events in America over the last year have highlighted that racism has never gone away and the dark shadow of institutionalised racism. Justin Simien sets his début feature, Dear White People, in the privileged halls of a prestigious Ivy …
Film Review: Night of the Living Deb
Horror and comedy mix well when there’s the required care and attention to genre needs. Most famously realised by Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi, it’s a combination which can work brilliantly (Tucker and Dale vs. Evil) but more often ends up failing on both the humour and jumps (Life After Beth). In Night of the …
Film Review: Aaaaaaaah!
There have been many twisted works of genius produced by British comedy over the years. The Monty Python crew, Peter Sellers, Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, Chris Morris, Steve Coogan and a host of others have pushed boundaries and reinvented and revitalised the genre. Steve Oram will be familiar to some for his starring role …
Film Review: Red Army
It’s often said that sport and politics don’t mix but all too often they become uncomfortable bedfellows. Whether it be boycotting of Olympic Games or rebel tours to apartheid South Africa, money and politics are never far away. A country’s hopes and national pride are all too often staked on one of their sports teams. …
Film Review: Unbreakable: The Mark Pollock Story
It’s easy to get wrapped up in your own life and personal problems. From cooking quinoa to finding a good school for little John Snow Smith, the internet is full of first world problems. It’s only when we come face to face with someone who has strived so hard to overcome unimaginable difficulties that we …