★★☆☆☆ Based on Alex Glynn’s 2001 novel The Dark Fields, Limitless (2011) tells the story of Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper), a down-and-out writer who’s suffering chronic writer’s block. Eddie believes his life is falling apart but this all changes when he bumps into a friend who introduces him to the Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Ballast opens with a wide panoramic view of a bleak, waterlogged, windswept landscape; birds taking off in the grey distance. But for the three lonely individuals at the heart of Lance Hammer’s astonishing debut film, escape is not an option. To survive is all they can hope for. Lawrence Continue Reading
★★★★★ Adapted from the Joe Dunthorne book of the same name, Submarine (2011) is the maiden voyage of writer, actor and director Richard Ayoade into the deep and murky waters of British cinema. Perhaps best know for his role as Maurice Moss in the long running Channel 4 sitcom The Continue Reading
★☆☆☆☆ What is there to say about Zonad (2009)? It’s a bizarre comedy from the shores of Ireland by writer and director brothers John and Kieran Carney, which tells the story of Liam Murphy – a recovering alcoholic who escapes from rehab to the local town of Ballymoran. While there, Continue Reading
What intrigued me about Altitude (2010) was that the film was being promoted to fans of Donnie Darko (2001) and classic sci-fi show The Twilight Zone. I may not be the biggest fan of Donnie Darko – though I do applaud it for its ingenious and intriguing storytelling, compelling characters and fantastic Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Roughly 50 minutes into Songs From the Second Floor (2000), director Roy Andersson decides to move the camera. Pulling slowly back, the shot moves only enough to accommodate the rather large figure of Kalle (Lars Nordh), who could very loosely be considered our protagonist, as Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ One of the most talked about horror films of last year was Let Me In (2010) an American restructuring of the flawless Swedish vampire smash Let the Right One (2009), which brought to life John Ajvide Lindqvist’s haunting, romantic novel to achingly beautiful effect.The story follows a bullied twelve Continue Reading
In 2009 the National Theatre launched NT Live, a project to broadcast their plays live to cinemas in the UK and around the world via satellite. The initiative has been a huge success, and next to reach cinemas is Academy Award winner Danny Boyle’s much-lauded production of Frankenstein, which is Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ During one scene from Frank Ripploh’s semi-autobiographical tale of a sex-obsessed, German school teacher Taxi Zum Klo (1980) we witness a man lying on a bed being sprayed in the face with urine. For ten, maybe fifteen seconds, all we are shown is the increasingly soaked and excited gent Continue Reading
★☆☆☆☆ Why can’t people make decent monster movies? There has been a recent trend towards making really cheap monster movies with ridiculous titles that are high on digital effects and low on pretty much everything else. I first encountered this phenomenon when viewing Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009); I Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ Continuing to reinvent himself as an ageing hard man, as witnessed in performances such as the wronged father in Taken (2008) and the cigar chomping Colonel Hannibal Smith in the recent big screen rehash of The A-Team (2010), Liam Neeson’s latest film Unknown (2011) sees the mature actioner subjected Continue Reading
★★★★★ Roy Andersson’s debut feature A Swedish Love Story (1970) is an atypically naturalistic piece, balancing the austerity of later films with a touching and beautifully realised romanticism that captures the first stirrings of young love with an honesty that no other film has impinged upon. Superficial comparison would place the Continue Reading
★★★★☆ A frequent topper of ‘goriest moments’ lists, Italian splatter merchant Lucio Fulci is rarely treated with much critical regard. Probably best known for eye-gouging Dawn of the Dead (1978) rip-off Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979), Fulci, often overlooked in favour of arch Giallo stylist Dario Argento, is seen as less of Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Adapted from a Philip K. Dick short story first published in the 1950s, screenwriter George Nolfi’s directorial debut The Adjustment Bureau (2011) is less sci-fi-thriller and more timeless romance than perhaps anyone may ever have expected from the writer of The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Carefully but never dutifully maintaining a Continue Reading
Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Antonioni and Steven Spielberg; what do they have in common? Well, quite obviously they are all extremely well-known directors. The other thing they have in common is that they are all male. How often when reading a newspaper, a magazine or watching a tv Continue Reading
