★★☆☆☆ Messy, disorganised and far from an ideal way to start a film festival – this statement could as easily be applied to the scenes of furious construction currently taking place in London’s Leicester square as it can to the 55th BFI London Film Festival’s Opening Night Gala film, Fernando Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ This week sees the cinematic rerelease (ahead of its Blu-ray release on 17 Oct) of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s modern day fairytale Amélie (2001), the film that launched the career of Audrey Tautou in the role of the eponymous Parisian waitress, Amélie Poulain, a Nutella-eyed innocent with puckish charm who was soon Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Niall MacCormick’s British coming of age drama Albatross (2011) eloquently portays the collision between Emelia, a charming wayward teen played by Jessica Brown Findlay and the dysfunctional Fischer family, headed up by Julia Ormond and Sebastian Koch. The film also stars rising British actress Felicity Jones. LOVEFiLM hosted a Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ Ami Canaan Mann’s (daughter of Michael Mann) debut film Texas Killing Fields (2011) is a run-of-the-mill police procedural, which really has no place this year’s Venice Film Festival. Detectives Souder (Sam Worthington) and Heigh (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) are investigating a series of abductions and murders of young women. The Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Winner of the Best Debut Feature award at this year’s Raindance Film Festival, Viktor Chouchkov’s Tilt (2011) may well be flawed and occasionally cringe-worthy, but it’s also fantastically fun and formally assured. Set in the late 1980s as Bulgaria’s political landscape was in a state of flux, the film Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ Firstly, don’t be fooled by the UK quad poster (adorned with biohazard insignia) and casting of Cillian Murphy – for better or worse, Carl Tibbetts’ debut feature Retreat (2011) is in no shape or form a suitable partner piece to Danny Boyles’ infected horror 28 Days Later (2002). Starring Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011) is the latest documentary from Morgan Spurlock, whose previous films include the light-hearted Super Size Me (2004) and Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (2008). Spurlock now focuses on the world of advertising, accepting sponsorship financing in exchange for satisfying a Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ This week sees 1984 musical drama Footlose return to the big screen, in a brand new adaptation. Directed by Craig Brewer, this modern remake features the dancing talents of newcomers Kenny Wormald and Julianne Hough alongside well-known stars Dennis Quaid and Andie MacDowell.As fans of the original will notice, Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ Like the life of Nick Halsey (Will Ferrell), the central character round whose mid-life crises Everything Must Go (2010) revolves, the directorial debut from Dan Rush ambles about with no real direction. Even solid – all be it brief – support from Laura Dern and a sympathetic performance from Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Everything about Real Steel (2011) reeks of epic failure. The trailer is horrific, Hugh Jackman hasn’t made a decent film since Christopher Nolan’s supremely underrated The Prestige (2006) and as for director Shawn Levy, his CV is stained by the likes of The Pink Panther (2006) and Night at Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Prepare to swash your buckles, or whatever dashing matinee idols do these days. Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson – and starring Orlando Bloom, Milla Jovovich, Luke Evans, Ray Stevenson, Matthew MacFayden and Logan Lerman – The Three Musketeers 3D (2011) gives France’s most famous rogues a CGI makeover.Power-hungry Continue Reading