Film

Stage to Screen dramas are composed of powerful and heavy dialogue, focusing heavily on the commanding performances of actors and their ability to deliver lines. This enables the audience to decipher the messages that lay otherwise hidden within the dialogue and actions. August Wilson’s long awaited stage to screen adaptation of Fences will surely be next on the list of phenomenal films of this ilk. Coming to cinemas everywhere on 17th February, audience will witness the unforgettable performances of Denzel...

By Leslie Byron Pitt Troubled adolescent John Wayne Cleaver is surrounded by death. In his small quiet Midwestern hometown, he balances school with a part-time role working at his mother’s funeral home. Recently diagnosed as a sociopath, John spends his work life cracking dark jokes about the cadavers and freaking out the people at his school with his morbid essays. Not much happens in this ma and pa, middle American town, however, a spate of mysterious murders has recently plagued...

Michael McNulty Let’s be honest, how many times have you decided against a night in, instead opting for a night of heavy drinking and ear deafeningly loud chart topping tracks just to avoid flipping through endless TV channels, scrolling past countless Netflix programmes and trawling an infinite number of IMDB webpages. Finding the Friday night film sometimes seems like too daunting a task, so you make the easy choice and surrender yourself to a boozey night out, when really your...

By Linda Marric @linda_marric  House of Flying Daggers director Yimou Zhang new film The Great Wall is a spectacular behemoth of a film. A fantasy which centres around one of the many mythical stories surrounding the mystery of great wall of China. The film is to this date, the biggest ever co-production between China and Hollywood and features some of the most accomplished actors and martial-arts experts in the business. It is also Yimou Zhang’s first English speaking production. The...

By Stephen Mayne @finalreel The treatment of refugees is still an ignored problem. Whether the West is directly or indirectly involved - and given the long tentacles of history, it’s usually one of the two - the fate of those left to bear the brunt of chaotic violence and repression is rarely given attention. The Longest Road is an attempt to remedy this, and while repeatedly falling prey to muddled thinking, it gamely grapples with a complex subject. Clocking it...

By Leslie Byron Pitt The output of Platinum Dunes can often be considered questionable trash. The film company either offers shiny, toothless, re-treads of horrors gone by, or, with the matter of the purge series, they deliver tight yet awkward b-movies which could offer more if finely tuned. Ouija: Origin of Evil falls into the latter category. A contrived but enjoyable possession prequel, which builds greatly upon the sloppy first feature released in 2014. Set 50 years before the original...

It is easy to get caught up in the annual awards coverage and forget that entries are films, and not just news stories. Articles surrounding Hidden Figures have placed a large emphasis on its diverse cast and how it is somehow an antidote to the failings of last year’s nominations. All this attention seems rather unfair, as it ignores the merits and qualities that are on display in this film. Set in 1960s Virginia, where racism and sexism were generally...

By Wyndham Hacket Pain With a McDonald’s seemingly in every town centre and motorway service centre in the world it’s hard to imagine a time before the fast-food chain. Whether in the small island of Réunion off Madagascar or the Negev Desert in Israel you know the familiar burger and fries is never too far away. Over the last 60 years, McDonald’s has not just become one the world’s most recognisable and ironic products, but has also come to feed...

The representation of motherhood in cinema has through the years varied from the sublime to the sometimes ridiculous. We’ve had mothers to look up to, mothers to pity and even mothers who simply don’t fit the mould. To celebrate the release of Mike Mills' 20th Century Women which stars Annette Bening in one of her best roles to date, here’s a top 5 list of the best, and worst, mothers in film through the ages.  5- Mommie Dearest (1981) Faye...