★★★★☆ Loosely based upon the real-life exploits of a physically-impaired Brit searching for intimacy, Come as You Are (2011) is a heartfelt comedy about disability and sexuality, topics sensitively-handled without tiptoeing around the more thought-provoking issues they inspire. Three twentysomething friends from Belgium with a penchant for fine wine and Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Writer and director Drake Doremus’ excellent Like Crazy (2011) hinted at fresh and sincere filmmaking style, seeking to explore the intricacies of young love by conveying feelings of longing, heartache and isolation in a natural yet sophisticated manner. In Breathe In (2013), a story of forbidden love set against Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Having followed in the pioneering wake of Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England with a day and date cross-platform theatrical/digital-only UK release, Leslye Headland’s gloriously catty Bachelorette (2012) was predictably marketed as a Bridesmaids-style, female-centric comedy. However, whilst the latter is certainly true, this is a far edgier offering Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Julian Assange must have wept with joy when news broke about Edward Snowden’s controversial NSA security leak. Or perhaps he was green-eyed at how Snowden’s disclosure truly characterised the poisoned chalice that the internet has become – as equally free and open as it is mass-monitored. Alex Gibney, veteran Continue Reading
★★☆☆☆ John Malkovich plays a menacing Russian kingpin in Oscar-winning director Gabriele Salvatores’ Siberian Education (2013). Based on the memoirs of gangster turned gallery-owner Nicolai Lilin, this English-language, Russian-based crime drama sadly fails to break down the ideological barriers of nation, culminating in an anodyne potpourri of genre clichés and Continue Reading
★★★★☆ A parade of familiar faces from the television work of Joss Whedon – including the long-running success Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its patchy spin-off Angel, the short-lived Firefly and the controversial Dollhouse – fill out the cast of Whedon’s big screen adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Continue Reading
★☆☆☆☆ Following its world premiere appearance at this year’s Film4 FrightFest, Steven R. Monroe’s I Spit on Your Grave 2 comes to DVD and Blu-ray this week. This blood-spattered sequel to the 2010 remake stars British actress Jemma Dallender as Katie, an ambitious young model whose dream is to make Continue Reading