Adam Lowes

★★★☆☆ Eschewing the swinging sixties espionage vibe of Matthew Vaughn’s predecessor, returning director Bryan Singer has crafted an altogether darker, dystopian and decidedly more adult vision, complete with scenes of intravenous drug-taking, (almost) full-frontal nudity and a well-placed f-bomb that would turn Mystique blue. And whilst X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) is a solid…

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★★★☆☆ Younger generations will undoubtedly associate the music of celebrated American jazz performer Nat King Cole with the annual, high-end department store Christmas adverts it usually crops up in. There’s much more to the man and his music than turkey and mistletoe, however, and aside from being a colossal talent, Cole was a true trailblazer…

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★★★☆☆ The fast-track to rock superstardom is an alluring proposition for the fame-hungry X Factor generation, and the trajectory of Ramona S. Diaz’s entertaining Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey (2012) feels like it’s been ripped from a Hollywood narrative feature. The publicised search for a replacement singer certainly isn’t new. The surviving members of INXS…

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★★☆☆☆ One of the of the most intensely scrutinised films to emerge out of Hollywood for some time, The Canyons (2013) finally arrives in the UK for a brief sojourn on the big screen before hitting DVD next Monday (12 May). The level of notoriety attached to the project is undoubtedly a draw for the…

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★★★★☆ The Discovery Channel have staked their claim in the world of big budget television with the handsome and well-acted historical adventure Klondike (2014) – the channel’s first scripted production. Under the welcome supervision of executive producer Ridley Scott and veteran small-screen director Simon Cellan Jones, this is an immensely enjoyable ride, easily overcoming the…

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★★★★☆ Following on from the recent rerelease of his 1979 debut That Sinking Feeling, Bill Forsyth’s teen rom-com Gregory’s Girl (1981) has also undergone a similar digital upgrade to its predecessor. However, underneath the (admittedly) outstanding transfer, Gregory’s Girl remains that same delightful and hugely appealing coming-of-age tale which managed to transcend its parochial setting…

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★★☆☆☆ Quentin Tarantino last year lauded Big Bad Wolves (2013), the second feature from Israeli filmmakers Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado (following on from their well-received 2010 debut, Rabies), as his favourite film of 2013 and it’s easy to see why he embraced it so resoundingly. The directing duo have been schooled in the Hitchcockian,…

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★★★☆☆ The debut feature from beloved Scottish writer and director Bill Forsyth (best known for such classic regional offerings as Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero), That Sinking Feeling may not have aged particularly well since its 1979 release, but it still has a rough-around-the edges, lo-fi charm that’s largely absent in contemporary indie cinema. In…

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★★★★☆ Cinematic fanaticism has been tackled in factual form before, perhaps most notably in Xan Cassavetes’ Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (a title which would equally befit this film). But while the subject of that feature, Jerry Harvey, proved to be a dark and ultimately tragic personality, the legendary lead figure in director Shivendra Singh…

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★★★☆☆ Pit Stop, a 1969 collaboration between B-movie king Roger Corman and director Jack Hill (renown primarily for his work across a number of Blaxploitation titles), represents something of a dream pairing for trash cinema aficionados. With its intriguing Faustian-like plot, stunning stock car racing footage and memorable performances, including a young, very beautiful Ellen…

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