After the success of both Weekend and 45 Years, British director Andrew Haigh now turns his attention to America, with Lean on Pete. To mark the film’s release we caught up with the talented young filmmaker to discuss this challenging adaptation, loneliness, and working with horses.
★★★☆☆ It’s not very often that you see a new UK release that’s already had a sequel made and circulated in its native country. Knowing that this is part one does cause concern that it will have an open-ended finale,...
★★★☆☆ If there’s one thing to be said of Harrison Ford, now one of the highest grossing Hollywood actors of all time, it’s that the man knows how to pick a project. Having starred in the likes of George Lucas’...
★★★★☆ Back in 2010, emerging Scottish director Paul Wright picked up a BAFTA for his short film Until the River Runs Red. Now, trying his hand at feature-length filmmaking, Wright returns with For Those in Peril (2013), a worthy debut...
★★★★☆ There’s something rather appealing about a feature centred around the friendship between an elderly man and his robot, and any enthusiastic expectations placed upon such a film are soon justified. Robot & Frank (2012) is a beautifully arranged debut...
★★★☆☆ Following on from the critical and commercial success of A Royal Affair (2012) and the Oscar-winning Anna Karenina (2012), it seems that the French are once again looking to tap into the allure of the period drama. In cinemas...
★★☆☆☆ With a stellar cast consisting of an incredible nine Academy Award-nominated performers, it’s safe to say that the expectations for Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep (2012) are suitably high. However, such anticipation results in severe disappointment as we’re...
★★★☆☆ The opening scene of Dragon (Wu xia, 2011) features a family eating together, uniting over a meal as they sit around the dinner table; it’s this coming together of family, and the intimacy of home life, that sets the...
★★★☆☆ Having languished on the festival circuit for the past few years – including a showing at the London Film Festival back in 2011 – Richard Linklater’s Bernie (2011) finally makes its way into UK cinemas this week, reuniting the...
Having burst onto the scene with the incendiary banlieue drama La Haine back in 1995, it’s fair to say that French filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz has never truly matched the raw, innovation of his sophomore project. That is until now, with...
★★★★☆ Following on from this year’s Academy Awards comes Mathieu Kassovitz’s Rebellion (L’ordre et la morale, 2011), a film certainly reminiscent of nominees Zero Dark Thirty and Argo, complete with themes of terrorism and and shot in a pensive, Bigelow-like...
★★★☆☆ Have you ever wondered what you might come up with if you dared to blend 1980’s thriller The Long Good Friday with High Fidelity (2000)? You probably haven’t, but rest assured that Good Vibrations (2012) would almost certainly be...
★★★☆☆ A degree of pressure has been placed upon director Eran Creevy, as his eagerly awaited second feature follows on from his BAFTA-nominated debut, Shifty (2008). Creevy now returns with a grander budget and bigger cast for Welcome to the...
★★★★☆ From the man who co-directed the first two entries in the [Rec] horror franchise, Spanish filmmaker Jaume Balagueró now tries his hand at something a little less frightening – yet equally as disturbing – as we enter the deranged world of...
One of the most pleasant surprises to be found in UK cinemas last year was arguably Benh Zeitlin’s superb Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012). Having received wide critical acclaim across the world, such sentiments have since been echoed by...