Film

Where Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk looked at the British Army’s retreat from the European mainland almost exclusively from the perspective of the service men involved, Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour looks at the same events from the perspective of politicians behind it. Opening with Neville Chamberlain’s (Ronald Pickup) resignation as Prime Minister, the film covers Winston Churchill’s (Gary Oldman) first month in office. Generally mistrusted by his own party, but seen as the only person that Parliament at large will accept, Churchill’s...

It’s fortunate that 1993 was a great year for movies. I turned 12 that year, and was just starting to go from a kid who had an interest in films to developing the full blown obsession with movies that, eventually, led me to start writing about film and, I guess, to this series. Over the course of 2018 I’ll be spotlighting some of 1993’s best and most significant films for their 25th anniversaries. We’ll be going in release order and,...

Jonathan Levine’s sophomore feature, The Wackness, released two years after his easily dismissible All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and three years before 50/50, despite (or perhaps in spite of) winning the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, was met by a mixed critical reception.  But, this 90s’ set, weed fuelled coming of age story is a gem that should be treasured. Set across a hot summer in recently elected Giuliani’s New York, circa 1994, The Wackness is the...

Oil tycoon J. Paul Getty was the richest man in the world when his grandson was kidnapped on the streets of Rome in 1973. It is an intriguing episode that serves as inspiration for Ridley Scott’s latest feature, All the Money in the World. The film begins with the kidnapping and quickly details the events leading up to it, showing us how J. Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer) made his riches, as well as the breakdown of his son’s marriage. By...

The idea of Ben Stiller playing a self-pitying white dude is not a particularly original one, yet here he finds himself once again in this new film by School of Rock writer, Mike White. Essentially a comedy drama, Brad’s Status is a film that yearns to be thought-provoking and rewarding, but how much you buy into this is dependent on how much you care about Ben Stiller’s titular character. Stiller plays Brad Sloan, a 47 year old in the grips...

The Last Jedi is in a difficult spot in Star Wars history. The Force Awakens survived by cannibalising the beloved storyline of A New Hope and capitalising on nostalgia. Wisely, The Last Jedi focused less on legacy and more on forging its own path forward in its own small ways. Episode Eight was less of a shock to the system than Rogue One, but a decisive step towards a new vision for the Star Wars universe. Space casino maguffins aside,...

Marc J. Francis and Max Pugh’s documentary, Walk with Me, sets itself up as if it were to be an exploration of a truly interesting character. A title card introduces Thich Nhát Hanh, an exiled Zen Buddhist Monk from Vietnam, who, having relocated to France, has established the Plum Village Monastery. Instead, the film meanders through a slice of life portraiture of monastic living, while failing to offer the audience anything that feels particularly engaging or insightful. The footage, collected...

You can almost hear the faint chorus of “America, fuck yeah!” in the background of Steven Quale’s Bosnia-set, Navy SEALs action-adventure romp. Penned (in part) by Luc Besson, Renegades is a mash-up of Team America and Three Kings without any of the cynicism or irony, and played with the same straight faced, “America the Great” determination of Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper. A hardened group of all-American frogmen in Sarajevo, during the Bosnian War, learn from a local barmaid, Lara (Sylvia...

Perhaps unsurprisingly, refugees and migration have been popular topics with filmmakers in recent years. Indeed, over the last 12 months there have been a number of excellent projects, notably The Other Side of Hope and Human Flow, which have reflected upon the struggles and experiences of migrant travellers. With Jupiter’s Moon, Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó creatively attempts to add to this discourse. The film opens on the border between Serbia and Hungry, where a number of Syrian refugees are trying...