Film

By Stephen Mayne  @finalreel By my count Robert Altman made five clear-cut masterpieces, of which one – McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) – is about as perfect as is possible in the medium. Ask other people and you’ll get different lists and different favourites. He was that kind of artist. He didn’t so much tell stories as create worlds that would subsume viewers until at least the credits, and often a long time afterwards. Ron Mann’s documentary reveals very little...

By Emily Wight Filmmaking is a crucial tool in the Human Rights Watch mission to investigate and expose rights violations around the world, and its annual film festival is an excellent way for the organisation to present the kind of issues it works so hard to push onto the agenda. Each year its programme showcases films from a range of countries, followed by talks and Q&A sessions with experts. This year’s festival, which closed in London on Friday, documented, among...

By Anna Power TLE Film Editor @TLE_Film After last year’s “Let’s put a roof on this house” Labor Day debacle, Jason Reitman’s back with Men, Women and Children, following in the footsteps of Spike Jonze’ fascinating futuristic film Her, Reitman seeks to explore our very ‘new’ relationship with technology and its impact on how we relate both to ourselves and each other in its wake. It’s a brave new world, with big brother watching us and us watching each other....

The first glimpse of Sam Mendes' new Bond film arrives in the form of a teaser trailer for the much anticipated SPECTRE - the 24th official Bond film to be released. View it here for a taste of things to come. https://panther4.dmsukltd.com/sony/material/ViewVideo/fd22ca01-4454-4e1f-b61f-a46900758690

By Emma Silverthorn @HouseOf_Gazelle I have to admit my penchant for Noah Baumbach straight off, having been enamoured with, in varying degrees, everything he’s made so far, and thankfully While We’re Young has not shattered that faith. Like much of his other work (particularly my favourite of the bunch, The Squid and The Whale), WWY is funny, semi-intellectual and hip, yet underpinning all this cool-ness there is a tender-heart. The film follows the mid-life crisis of couple Josh, or Yoshy,...

by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada James King (Will Ferrell), millionaire hedge fund manager, is convicted for fraud and embezzlement. He is quite obviously innocent and merely used as a tool in the game by his boss and “ex-future father-in-law” – his hot fiancée leaves him soon after she hears the verdict: Ten years in a maximum security prison. This being the sort of 'bloke' comedy it is, his greatest fear facing ten years of incarceration is to be raped by other...

By Matt Keay @mattadamkeay  The media circus surrounding Amanda Knox’s circumventing perambulation of the justice system was very difficult to ignore. Back in 2009, and beyond, the details of the case were pored over in the tabloid press. It was inevitable that a cinematic adaptation would eventually transpire. The Face of an Angel is that film, albeit with names changed and details fudged. Michael Winterbottom, (24 Hour Party People, The Trip), directs what he refers to as a ‘tribute to...

By Corrina Antrobus, film reviewer @corrinacorrina Paul King’s theatrical adaptation of Michael Bond’s 1985 Paddington is not just a teddy bear’s picnic, it’s a big warm bear hug to London as a melting-pot. However you can banish any fears of saccharine soaked naffness. It obviates tokenism with its insistence on painting our capital with kaleidoscope colours and fond cultural salutes; Mum wears African prints, daughter is bilingual and the nautical nods from dad and Mrs Bird can’t be a coincidence....

By Stephen Mayne  @finalreel Revenge, traditionally a dish best served cold, proves anything but in Damián Szifrón’s Oscar nominated Argentinian anthology. Featuring six instalments of absurd vengeance, Wild Tales is jammed full of over the top characters, rash actions, malicious intent and rage. So much rage. Evidently, life in present day Argentina has left everyone on the verge of explosion as otherwise normal people are pushed too far. This is comedy of the darkest variety, often straying close to psychological...