Film

By Stephen Mayne There’s a grand ambition to Clash that belies its closeted setting. The entire film takes place in the back of a riot van. The van might move but the camera never leaves the confined metal space. Yet by throwing in a broad spectrum of Egyptian society, writer/director Mohamed Diab manages a near perfect distillation of the problems facing a country wracked by uncertainty and division. The action takes place in 2013 in Egypt after the elected President...

Wyndham Hacket Pain @WyndhamHP Their Finest is set at the height of the Second World War and away from the front line. The British government turns to propaganda films as a way of boosting moral and convincing the America to join the war. They realise that the female parts are underwritten and hire Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) to work as a scriptwriter on an upcoming Dunkirk picture and give it a “woman’s touch”. As bombs land on London Catrin and...

By Wyndham Hacket Pain @WyndhamHP In the last couple of years, almost as a reaction to the overproduced and sickly Twilight franchise, there have been a number of vampire films that have reimagined the genre in a more realistic and creative way. With Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lover’s Left Alive and the more recent A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night the real potential of vampire tales has really been shown. Made on a low budget with relatively unknown actors, it...

By Michael McNulty Why not Celebrate Good Friday with a good film? Here’s this Friday’s Forgotten Film. Written, edited and produced by Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin and Ray Ashley, Little Fugitive is a stalwart of American independent cinema. Using only their experience in photography and a miniscule budget they produced a film that was welcomed by audiences, enjoyed financial success, won a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival and picked up an Oscar nomination, ultimately proving that films could...

By Linda Marric Film adaptation of well loved books haven't always had a good reaction from fans of the original source material. However, when an adaption is well crafted, it can sometimes add a whole other layer to the story and might even motivate those unfamiliar with the books to delve deeper into the writer’s other work. To celebrate the release of Ritesh Batra's brilliant adaptation of Julian Barnes’ Man Booker Prize winning novel The Sense Of An Ending, here’s...

By Linda Marric Last week I had the chance to meet with Billy Howle, star of a new film adapted from Julian Barnes’ Booker Prize winning novel The Sense of An Ending. The film is directed by the brilliant Ritesh Batra and stars Billy as the younger version of Tony, who also played by Jim Broadbent in later years. We spoke about the casting process Billy went through and a number of other things relating to his character in the...

By Linda Marric After the success of highly acclaimed 2013 film The Lunchbox, and the accolades showered on him from film fans and critics alike, Indian director Ritesh Batra is back, this time with this brilliantly accurate and honest adaptation of Julian barnes’ novel The Sense of An Ending. This long awaited production, which stars amongst others, Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling and the excellent Harriet Walter is released this week. The film is sure to attract the attention of fans...

As inevitable as getting old and paying taxes, there is another instalment in the Fast and Furious franchise. Seemingly unstoppable, the latest adventure represents the eighth outing in 16 years, with a sense that after years of trying the series had finally hit its groove. The last three films have not just created excitement at the box office but also garnered some surprisingly good reviews. Impossible as it may have seemed a few years ago, Fast and Furious 8 opens...

By James McAllister If Stoker served to showcase how devilish director Park Chan-wook could be, his new film, The Handmaiden, proves he’s equally as devious. It’s a heated, and handsomely mounted period potboiler that has been adapted by the Korean wunderkind with a gleeful sense of stylised excess, from British author Sarah Waters’ 2002 novel Fingersmith. Transplanting the story from Victorian England to 1930s Korea, when the country was still under Japanese rule, Chan-wook – working with his regular co-writer...