Reviews
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DVD Review: ‘Tyrannosaur’
★★★★☆ In 2007, actor Paddy Considine made his directorial debut with short film Dog Altogether, garnering numerous awards including Best Short Film at the Baftas Starring Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman, Dog Altogether told the story of a man consumed by aggression who searches for redemption. Four years later, Considine has adapted the story to…
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Film Review: ‘Bombay Beach’
★★★★☆ Scooping the award for Best International Documentary at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, Bombay Beach (2011) is the kind of refreshing, palate-cleansing experience a film aficionado needs to wash away the taste of greasy blockbusters and unctuous arthouse. Israeli director Alma Har’el’s portrait of an impoverished community residing in a dilapidated settlement on the…
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Film Review: ‘Don’t Think’
★★★☆☆ Filmed with 20 cameras at a headline show at Japan’s wildly popular Fujirock Festival, long-term visuals collaborator and director Adam Smith’s Don’t Think (2011) is a full-length concert movie that attempts to fully capture the audiovisual spectacle of a live show courtesy of Manchester electronic duo The Chemical Brothers. However, whilst undeniably a feast…
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Film Review: ‘Journey 2: The Mysterious Island’
★★☆☆☆ Directed by Brad Peyton and starring Dwayne Johnson (AKA The Rock), Vanessa Hudgens and Michael Caine, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) is a high octane, stereoscopic 3D adaptation of Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island – which despite giving little consideration towards its literary source, is undeniably an exhilarating family friendly, action adventure that’ll…
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Film Review: ‘Man on a Ledge’
★★★☆☆ Starring Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell and Kyra Sedgwick, Asger Leth’s Man on a Ledge (2012) is a thriller with a twist. High above Manhattan’s mid morning traffic, Nick Cassidy (Worthington) is a man on the edge – literally, as he is about to throw himself from a 200ft ledge to the street…
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Film Review: ‘Carnage’
★★★★☆ It would be fair to say that 2011 wasn’t exactly a vintage year for comedies. The Inbetweeners Movie may have set the UK box office alight, whilst John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard and Richard Ayoade’s Submarine also raised a smile, but the majority of US efforts left audience’s resoundingly stony-faced. Thankfully, Roman Polanski’s cringeworthy…
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Film Review: ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’
★★★★★ On the face of it, a relatively simple tale, Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) turns out to be one of the most accomplished debuts of recent years. Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) is a damaged young woman who is reunited with her sister after having disappeared for two years. Their relationship has, it seems,…
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Film Review: ‘Young Adult’
★★★★☆ Meryl Streep’s uncanny performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011) is almost certainly going to secure the US star a third Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards, but award-winner Charlize Theron will have every right to feel aggrieved after missing out on a Best Actress nod for her superb turn in Jason…
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Film Review: ‘Chronicle’
★★☆☆☆ The found footage formula – much like the recent trend of big budget, 3D filmmaking – appears to have just as many detractors as it does enthusiasts. The Paranormal Activity money train keeps trundling mercilessly on, and the occasional exorcist mockumentary will still manage to take the US box office off-guard, but the horror…
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DVD Review: ‘Cash’
★★★☆☆ It’s Oscar season and the film on everyone’s mind is Michel Hazanavicius’ directorial triumph The Artist (2011), starring Jean Dujardin in the lead role. The exciting buzz around Dujardin may explain the delayed DVD release date of Éric Besnard’s Cash, which originally hit cinemas in 2008 and also featured Dujardin as the lead, but…