Beyond Parasite: Can Bollywood go international?
Will only the South Korean filmmaking world enjoy newfound focus, or is India and the world's largest filmmaking industry also set to benefit from the seminal hit
Pedro Almodovar at BAFTA: The full talk
The legendary director of All About My Mother, Talk to Her and Pain and Glory spoke on the wonders of filmmaking and his own writing process.
The Irishman: Life is very, very long
A melancholic Martin Scorsese gangster flick, The Irishman veers dangerously between introspective character study and pure self indulgence.
Puerto Vallarta: A treasure of the Sierra Madre
Mexico is a place many Brits think about going, yet it’s not at the top of the bucket list. For others, cheap stereotypes fermented in politics north of the border put them off completely. Both groups are missing out big time.
Making Noise Quietly: A whisper
Making Noise Quietly is an exploration of three conversations in three distinct eras of the twentieth century, all related to those feeling the impact of wars being fought far away in time or space.
Product Review: Crash Bandicoot XL Cable Guy
Device holder in the form of iconic video game character
Diego Maradona: The first hand account
★★★★☆ This third documentary feature from Asif Kapadia in some ways combines themes from his first two; the sporting adulation of Ayrton Senna, and the drug fuelled descents of Amy Winehouse. Diego Maradona opens with a car chase, combining with a electro beat to ground the audience in the high...
Sundance London: Interview with Sam Bain and Patrick Brice
Peep Show co-creator Sam Bain joined director of Creep (2014) and The Overnight Patrick Brice to talk about their upcoming dark comedy, Corporate Animals.
Dirty God: Scars never heal
★★★☆☆ Jade (Vicky Knight) is released from hospital, bearing the disfigurement caused by an acid attack perpetrated by her former partner and father to her child. As might be expected by the logline, this film is a tough watch that forces the viewer every moment to face up to the...
Cannes 2019 Review: Deerskin
★★★★☆ With the festival over for another year, and the winner of the Palme D'or Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, I'm bringing some focus to a film I feel was one of the many hidden gems to be found at this year's festival (with quick shoutouts to My Brother's Love and the...
Cannes 2019 review: Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You
★★★★★ It all seems so simple; tired of horrible bosses and demeaning employment, Ricky (Kris Hitchen) decides to become a delivery driver under the oversight of ‘patron saint of nasty bastards’ Maloney (Ross Brewster). Quickly ensnared in a workaholic system of abuse and exploitation, Ricky and his wife Abbie (Debbie...
Cannes 2019 review: The Dead Don’t Die
★★☆☆☆ What makes Shaun of the Dead such an accomplished film is its combination of parody, comedy, and some genuinely well drawn characters. The Dead Don’t Die falls flat on all three fronts. This zombie comedy by Jim Jarmusch opened the Cannes Film Festival, but likely for its all star...
Cannes preview
A quarter of century after Pulp Fiction won the Canne's top prize, the Palme d’Or, Quentin Taratino is again showcasing the film with the most media attention. In this case it is the already controversial Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, a historical film centred around the Manson murders and...
Beats: Pulsating rave drama
★★★★☆ The 1994 Criminal Justice Act gave police officers the power to shut down events at which music “wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats” was being played, a clearly personal attack at rave culture. This fact opens Beats, and is referred to throughout...
Video review: Dumbo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpautDk-uMM Alenya Wood and Abu Ali of the Silver Screen Show discuss Tim Burton's live action remake of Disney classic Dumbo, in cinemas across the UK now.
Dragged Across Concrete: This sh*t is getting a little old
★★★☆☆ In Dragged Across Concrete, Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn play cops Brett and Anthony, suspended for six weeks without pay for an act of police brutality. This perceived injustice stirs something in Mad Mel, and he becomes of the opinion that he and Vince should rob some gangsters as...
Pet Sematary – Death is the next gruesome adventure
★★★★☆ Evil, posing not as a demon or vampire, but rising from within us, pitting family members against each other. While there is lots to be said for Jordan Peele’s Us, this same format followed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer’s Pet Sematary is another excellent feature that dares to delve within the...
Facing up to the need for diversity in the film industry: an interview with Stephen Frost
Stephen Frost is the founder of Frost Included, a company that has encouraged inclusion and diversity in the corporate world for companies including BP, McDonald’s and Microsoft. He’s now turning his decades of experience to addressing gender, race and sexuality disparities in the entertainment industry, working with production companies such...
Film Review: Green Book
The Copacabana nightclub, 1962. The rugged chief bouncer Tony 'The Lip' Vallelonga finds himself out of work while the club is refurbished, and agrees to drive concert pianist Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) across country for his upcoming tour. Snags to this arrangement are that not only is Don a...
Film Review: Ralph Breaks The Internet
Disclaimer: I had watched seven John Carpenter films in a row immediately prior to sitting down to this. I do not think this affected my judgement, but I don't know for sure. Wreck-It-Ralph is a hugely fun movie. A heartfelt nod to the arcade games of yonder, a protagonist echoing without...
Film Review: A Star Is Born
1937. 1954. 1976. 2018. A Star Is Born has had a version for almost every generation of cinema, and the pull of its story can travel across eras with ease. In Bradley Cooper's latest version, he takes the '76 approach of transferring the story to purely music: self-destructive star Jackson Maine (Cooper)...
Film Review: The Rider
After a horrific accident at a rodeo competition, Brady Blackburn (Brady Jandreau) must deal with his brain injuries and a life of mediocrity in rural South Dakota. I had the pleasure of speaking with Brady Jandreau prior to seeing The Rider, and it was a relief that director and writer Chloé Zhao...
Film Review: King of Thieves
There are three things that King of Thieves has to figure out before it’s getting a tan in Margate: First, you’ve got a story that most people watching already know the basic facts to, the 2015 Hatton Gardens robbery. An audience knowing the resolutions can sap the drama if you’re not being alert (also...
Why the Best Popular Film category is the rebirth the Academy needs.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its first new Oscars category since 2001: Best Popular Film. The award will honour those films which have had huge mass appeal, yet typically not the artistic reverence necessary to take the standard Best Picture gong. The runaway favourite for the...
Film Review: Whitney
I was too young for Whitney-mania ('I Will Always Love You' finished its streak at No.1 the week I was born), but to my generation also she is always known as a massively talented individual. She is engrained as a purveyor of 'legacy' music, a voice and a performer that...
Film Review: Adrift
Part-time sailor and full time wandering bum Tami Oldham (Shailene Woodley) runs across rugged older man Richard Sharp (Sam Claflin) while moving through Tahiti. The pair hit it off, and after some happy years together find themselves alone on a boat crossing the Pacific from Tahiti to San Diego. Hurricane...
Film Review: Zama
In a colonial-era South America, bureaucrat Don Diego de Zama (Daniel Giménez Cacho) is trapped in Asunción, continuously rejected transfer by his bosses. In an attempt to break out of his Kafkaesque existence Zama takes part in a dangerous mission to capture bandit Vicuña Porto (Matheus Nachtergaele), on the promise...
Film Review: That Good Night
An audience will have a more involving experience watching That Good Night going in knowing that this was the last film of legendary actor John Hurt. Death is on the horizon throughout the film, as Hurt plays terminally ill screenwriter Ralph looking to reconcile with his estranged son (Max Brown)...
Film Review: Tully
Ever since Juno blew me away at the cinema I've been fascinated by Diablo Cody's work as a screenwriter. She's always worked best delving into the dramas playing out in suburban homes across America, transforming what may be mundane into the witty and heartfelt. While Juno dealt with the impact...
Film Review: Beast
Described as a 'fairy tale for adults', Michael Pearce's debut feature film is able to capture his home island of Jersey with a brilliant yet terrifying blend of natural beauty and chilling sub-urbanity. The story at the core of Beast is deliberately simple: in a suffocating family atmosphere, a young...
Film Review: Custody
French drama Custody (original title Jusqu'à la garde) opens with mother Miriam (Léa Drucker) and father Antoine (Denis Ménochet) arguing over Antoine's rights to see his two children. Initially there is a level of sympathy for Antoine, and an audience can question whether he is being unfairly maligned by a...
Film Review: Ready Player One
2045 AD. The deceased James Halliday (Mark Rylance) has left his massive fortune inside his defining creation: OASIS, the massive virtual universe people use to escape from the crumbling real world. Halliday left clues on how to inherit his worth that are related to his own insular upbringing, so only...
Film Review: Tomb Raider
Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) has forsaken her family fortune to become a London bicycle courier and amateur MMA fighter. After receiving an item from her missing (presumed dead) father, Lara goes in search of a cursed island in Japan carrying ancient treasure and an awful secret. After many of years...
Film Review: Bombshell – The Hedy Lamarr Story
In 1941 amateur inventor Hedy Lamarr worked with composer George Antheil to create and patent 'frequency hopping', which when applied in naval warfare could prevent enemy jamming of communications with torpedos and move the battle for the seas in the favour of the Allies. Although not put into use by...
Film Review: Red Sparrow
Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) is a famous and respected dancer for the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) is a CIA agent in Russia who botches a meeting with a mole. After a horrific leg break, Dominika must retire, and is persuaded by her nefarious uncle in the SVR,...
Film Review: Game Night
Coming off a string of Daddy's Home 2, Bad Moms' Christmas and The House, a Febraury release "WASPs in a pickle" comedy was a sign of oncoming dread to me. As it happens, Game Night is unashamedly huge fun that drags the American middle-class comedy from the gutter. It's love...
Satire, Sundance and Stalin: An Interview With Composer Christopher Willis
Christopher Willis is a film composer known for his work on children’s animation such as Mickey Mouse short films, and his collaborations with British satirist Armando Iannucci on Veep and most recently The Death of Stalin. This film has been described as a ‘comedy of terrors’ for its farcical depiction...