Film

By Stephen Mayne @finalreel  thefinalreel.co.uk   After the fast paced economic implosion of Margin Call and the remote terror of All Is Lost, J.C. Chandor’s third feature takes place in a dark and icy New York of 1981. This is a place in which protagonists walk a yellow tinged balancing act between principles and power. In look and feel, A Most Violent Year resembles an old newspaper rediscovered at the bottom of a drawer. A sense of familiarity hangs over...

Ryan Reynolds gets more than a few cuddles from his fury friends in this bizarre but brilliant looking dark comedy. This affable factory worker has a secret world where he hangs out and chats to his pets, namely his cat Mr Whiskers and his pet pooch Bosco leading him seemingly down a path of no return. The Voices: Starring Ryan Reynolds, Anna Kendrick, Gemma Arterton and Jacki Weaver Directed by Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKp-lDM5fus

By Sam Inglis @24FPSUK  @24fps.co.uk  Lourdes, Jessica Hausner's third film, was my film of the year in 2010. Austere and thought provoking, it can be read in many different ways, and continues to fascinate and challenge with every viewing. This, quite apart from everything else about it, is why Amour Fou is such a massive disappointment. Set in 1811, Amour Fou takes place in what appears to be an upper middle class home. where Henriette (Birte Schnoeink) and her husband...

 By Emma Silverthorn @HouseOf_Gazelle Jules Avery’s Son of a Gun is heavy on plot twists and pseudo-intellectual chess theory but disappointingly short on character development and depth. The film has an interesting enough heist-plot but only really gives us the characters barebones meaning that we care little about their various entangled fates. Ewan McGregor does what he can with the skimpy dialogue he’s allotted but considering he’s supposed to be playing some sort of ballsy, criminal mastermind, at one point...

By Sam Inglis  @24FPSUK  24fps.org.uk Beyond Clueless is not a documentary, rather it's an example of something that has lately become fashionable in film criticism; the video essay. Writer/director Charlie Lyne uses clips from every mid 90's to mid 00's teen movie you can think of (and several you can't) alongside narration, read by The Craft's Fairuza Balk, to advance his theories about how they depict teens and high school. Before I get into this review I should say I...

 By Stephen Mayne @finalreel  thefinalreel.co.uk  Your name’s Larry Sportello but they call you Doc. You live by the Californian beach in a community shrinking by the day. Work is for suckers but you do it from time to time. In the PI game you’re a pro, or at least you know enough to say you are. Really, you’re just high; often and always. Except your heart’s broken and not fixing fast. And then she walks in again with a job....

By Clarisse Loughrey  @Clarisselou  The cultural consensus has been slowly letting the bar drop on rom-coms for years now. In some strange parallel to Two Night Stand’s own recently dumped lead, whose all-consuming sexual frustration leads her to pursue the very first dude who doesn’t reply to her online dating messages with “sup girl?”, the very existence of a rom-com which doesn’t come across as outwardly offensive to our core ideals somehow feels like a cinematic triumph. That is to...

By Sam Inglis  @24FPSUK  24fps.org.uk I never met my great grandfather, he died some years before I was born, but watching I'm Alright Jack I wished I could have seen it or at least discussed it with him, because I'm sure it would have struck a chord with him. In some ways it did with me, but in other ways it has definitely become dated over the 56 years since its release. Set in the early 50's, before Britain had...

 By Stephen Mayne @finalreel It seems we are firmly in the season of Alan Turing. But while Benedict Cumberbatch is off picking up awards for his imitation of the man, Alex Garland’s directorial debut is interested in the ideas. Taking the famous Turing test that sets out what a machine has to do to demonstrate consciousness, Garland’s paranoid slice of future phobia is a slick and engaging thriller that can’t quite reach the cerebral heights it shoots for. Garland is...