Film

By Corrina Antrobus @corrinacorrina There are twists in Foxcatcher that go beyond what we know of the true story of Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz and his relationship with millionaire coach John du Pont. Steve Carell with a huge prosthetic nose puppeteering Channing Tatum in a leotard and a face like a rucksack, sounds like a recipe for a naff comedy. However Foxcatcher, directed by Bennett Miller, is a tender, rich and incredibly sad drama with a throbbing sinister vein. If...

By Stephen Mayne  @finalreel On 28th November 1979, Air New Zealand sightseeing flight 901 crashed into Mount Erebus in Antarctica killing all 257 people on board. The fourth deadliest crash in history at the time, the subsequent retrieval mission set the template for the grisly job of air crash recovery. Erebus: Into the Unknown focusses on this operation, offering an occasionally interesting account hampered by a SparkNotes approach and half-hearted forays into conspiracy territory. Director Charlotte Purdy’s documentary is interested...

 Review by Stephen Mayne @finalreel For all the celebrities walking the Lido at the Venice Film Festival last year, it was (then) 84 year old documentary maker Frederick Wiseman who received the biggest applause. Heading in to collect his lifetime achievement award, he was met by a spontaneous standing ovation from usually flinty critics standing along the way. National Gallery, his latest film, demonstrates for the umpteenth time in a career stretching back half a century just why it was...

By Sam Inglis  @24FPSUK  The only interesting thing about Dying of the Light is its production history. Initially the screenplay by Paul Schrader was to be directed by Nicholas Winding Refn and star Harrison Ford and Channing Tatum. Some years later, the project has come to fruition with Nicolas Cage and Anton Yelchin, which feels like more than a small step down. The delay and change in casting appears to have been only the start of behind the scenes ructions....

By Anna Power  Film Editor @Tle_Film @KittKino Not since Nicholas Ray’s Bigger than Life has there been a more palpable portrayal of a mental breakdown than Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman. It’s a film with wings that soars, thunders and ultimately roars as an unapologetic assault on the senses. Michael Keaton plays faded star Riggan in this sharp, blackest of black comedies that finds him attempting to rekindle his career by putting on a Broadway play. Some people have a monkey...

By Stephen Mayne  @finalreel Once upon a time, a new Tim Burton film was an event worth paying attention to. Then, after a string of disappointing gothic tinged fantasies that began to border on parodying his earlier work, they became something best ignored. Big Eyes, an admirable attempt to try something different, doesn’t end the rut. Demonstrating restraint to the point of dullness, barring a woefully misjudged performance from Christoph Waltz, it’s a lifeless and overly simplistic biopic of artist...

By Stephen Mayne  @finalreel  Now in his 70’s, Stephen Hawking has spent half a century defying expectations. For a man given no more than a two year prognosis following diagnosis of motor neurone disease in 1963, he’s lived a life of astonishing achievement. It’s disheartening then, that The Theory of Everything chooses such a safely conventional route, never straying close to the boundaries Hawking continually pushes past. As much as it feels like a box ticking exercise though, James Marsh’s...

By Emma Silverthorn @HouseOf_Gazelle The cast and crew of Unbroken couldn’t be much more stellar; with Angela Jolie directing, the Coen brothers adapting Lauren Hilldenbrand’s memoir of Louis Zamperini’s life into the screenplay, and the exceptional Jack O’Connell in lead. O’Connell lives up to the hype that’s been surrounding him of late, and though he’s received some critical acknowledgement since 2007’s Skins, this is surely his breakthrough role. The film doesn’t disappoint in terms of delivering a gripping, emotive and...

By Anna Power  TLE Film Editor An effortlessly cool, funny, truly timeless film from Hollywood’s golden age of musicals; Guys and Dolls is the kind of film that plants a sloppy smile on your face and fills your head with snappy songs you'll catch yourself singing in the shower for weeks to come. So here are my top five reasons why you should see it: 1, Brando in a musical and he sings!: Arguably at the height of his considerable beauty,...