Adam Lowes

★☆☆☆☆ After catching the eye as lovable caner and Star Wars conspiracy theorist Moff in 1999’s Human Traffic, Danny Dyer’s subsequent filmography has largely been a case of diminishing returns. Recent years have seen him working almost exclusively within the realms of DTV, endlessly regurgitating his crudely-drawn geezer persona which now feels a good decade…

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★★★★☆ Walter Hill’s rock ‘n’ roll fable Streets of Fire (1984) is thirty next year and unsurprisingly the film’s rain-swept streets, which bring to vivid, glimmering life the neon-strewn façades, look terrific in this new transfer. Streets of Fire’s hyperreal quality remains as intoxicating as ever, despite the inherent lack of narrative drive and simplistic…

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★★★★☆ The outrageous exploits and antics of Hollywood filmmaker John Milius has been the stuff of Hollywood legend for years now, creating an almost mythical-like impression of the Apocalypse Now scribe and Big Wednesday director (The Big Lebowski’s mentally-unstable Vietnam vet Walter Sobchak was said to be loosely based on him.) An in-depth portrait of…

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★★★☆☆ A relative flop upon its initial release in the States, the growing popularity and sizeable fanbase cultivated through the years for Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) has this week led to an Arrow Video rerelease. Time has indeed been kind to this sequel, which proves to be darkly entertaining in its…

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★★☆☆☆ The second adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ cult 1993 novel Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (the first starred a young Angelina Jolie), this time from Palme d’Or winner Laurent Cantet (The Class), returns the tale of a proto-feminist girl’s club which goes horribly awry, back to its original fifties setting. It’s convincingly-acted and…

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★★★☆☆ Wedged in between Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur’s two English-language, action-driven popcorn flicks – 2012’s Contraband and 2013’s 2 Guns – The Deep (2012) sees the roving director back on home soil for a downbeat but engrossing tale which is about as far removed from his glossy, disposable State-side fare as you can get. Coming…

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★★★★☆ 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 a yearning for female attention…

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★★☆☆☆ Roman Coppola, the oldest heir to the family filmmaking dynasty, ventures back into the directing chair, following his debut from over a decade back (2001’s little-seen kitsch sci-fi homage, CQ). Unfortunately, on the strength of this follow-up, little sister Sofia has little to fear in being surpassed in the directing stakes. If her films…

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★★☆☆☆ Jean-Luc Godard once remarked that “all you need for a movie is a gun and a girl”, and the director of this tired grindhouse pastiche seems to have taken that advice on board verbatim, offering a sketchy, lifeless shoot ’em up. Like Deathproof and Planet Terror before it, Bring Me the Head of the…

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★★★☆☆ A swift glance at the UK poster for Brad Furman thriller Runner Runner (2013) – with its triumvirate of ridiculously good-looking stars, air-brushed to glimmering perfection – offers the perfect summary of the film itself. It’s a glossy, well-shot potboiler which is occasionally preposterous (the initial narrative drive hinges on some pretty stupid choices…

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