Reviews
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Film Review: ‘Rough Cut’
★★☆☆☆ The essence of certain films are captured perfectly in their name. Take Rough Cut (2013), a pseudo-documentary about the making of a fictional horror movie (Hiker Meat) which is disappointing mainly because it seems just that – an unfinished mock-up of the movie the filmmakers would have liked to have made. As a result,…
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Film Review: ‘Powder Room’
★★☆☆☆ In recent years we’ve seen British actress Sheridan Smith step away from the image she crafted for herself in the Beeb’s Two Pints of Larger and a Packet of Crisps, making headway with an impressive – not to mention award-winning – career in theatre, most notably in the West End adaptation of Legally Blonde.…
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Film Review: ‘Nebraska’
★★★★☆ Back from his Hawaiian Island odyssey with George Clooney and The Descendants (2011), US filmmaker Alexander Payne (Election) returns to the American heartland for Nebraska (2013), a stripped-down family drama set within the sparsely populated state. Shot in colour digital to facilitate international television sales before reverting back to an intended monochrome aesthetic for…
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Film Review: ‘Klown’
★★★★☆ Based on the long-running Danish television series of the same name, Mikkel Nørgaard’s outrageously juvenile comedy of errors, Klown (Klovn, 2010), is nothing if not crude, vulgar and inappropriate; and it’s also the funniest film of this year. Having been released in the US late last year, it now gets a cinematic release in…
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Film Review: ‘Kill Your Darlings’
★★★☆☆ Beat literature and its purveyors have had a long and varied relationship with the silver screen which has seen no less than three films about them in the last few years. James Franco accepted the challenge of the lead in Allen Ginsberg pseudo-biopic Howl (2010), whilst Walter Salles took on the unenviable task of…
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Film Review: ‘Homefront’
★★☆☆☆ The first movie penned by Sylvester ‘Sly’ Stallone that he hasn’t acted in and featuring the possibility of Jason Statham beating up James Franco, there are lots of reasons to be excited about Gary Fleder’s Homefront (2013). Unfortunately, this formulaic retro action throwback doesn’t deliver on any front. All the B-movie tropes are plentifully…
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Film Review: ‘Frozen’
★★★★☆ Whether it be Bambi (1942), The Jungle Book (1967) or The Lion King (1994), almost everyone has a favourite Disney animation from their childhood that still holds up on repeat watches. A terrific combination of a heartwarming story, effervescent animation and memorable musical numbers, Frozen (2013) has the potential to be that film for…
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Film Review: ‘Floating Skyscrapers’
★★★★☆ An ornate, clinical study of gay identity in a predominantly Catholic Poland, Tomasz Wasilewski’s Floating Skyscrapers (2013) pulsates with vitality and sexual repression. A belligerent statement about contemporary attitudes towards LGBT culture, this confident sophomore feature appropriates arthouse aesthetics in a daringly barbed fashion. Kuba (Mateusz Banasiuk) is a young professional swimmer with an…
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Film Review: ‘Black Nativity’
★★☆☆☆ Towering pieces of work, be they literary, theatrical or cinematic, are often subject to reincarnation in a variety of mediums, such is their enduring quality. Originally a stage play created by Harlem Renaissance figure Langston Hughes, Black Nativity (2013) is the latest example of this frequent occurrence. Whilst writer and director Kasi Lemmons should…
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Film Review: ‘Big Bad Wolves’
★★★★☆ Directing duo Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado came bursting onto the genre scene with their debut feature and 2011 FrightFest favourite Rabies (2010). Ostensibly a teen slasher, it subverted conventions to craft a dexterous, satirical portrait of the social and civic landscape in their native Israel. They now return to UK cinemas with their…