Concrete Cowboy – Review Rory Steabler April 3, 2021 Reviews Concrete Cowboy stars Idris Elba and Stranger Things’ Caleb McLaughlin as an estranged father and son whose fraught reunion takes place in Philadelphia’s underground horse-riding scene. This setting –...
News of the World – Review Rory Steabler February 11, 2021 Reviews Like News of the World protagonist Jefferson Kidd (Tom Hanks), Paul Greengrass has made a career spinning headline news into info-tainment for paying audiences. However, Greengrass’ latest is no meditation...
Below Zero – Review Rory Steabler January 31, 2021 Reviews Below Zero is a mostly-solid action-thriller that knows how to steal from better movies, ratchet up the tension, and provide enough nasty twists to keep you invested. Its Con Air meets Assault on Precinct 13...
The Coen Brothers, Charles Portis, and True Grit Rory Steabler December 21, 2020 Features, Love Letter, Nostalgia Ten years on from its release, True Grit has settled firmly into the middle ground of Joel and Ethan Coen’s filmography. It's well-respected in the Coen canon but doesn’t seem to be many people’s...
County Lines – Review Rory Steabler December 3, 2020 Reviews This film was previously reviewed in October 2019 as part of our London Film Festival coverage. County Lines is an impressive feature debut for director Henry Blake, who based the story on real incidents...
Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Edgar Wright’s Perfect Adaptation Rory Steabler August 10, 2020 Analysis, By The Book, Features Ten years ago, Scott Pilgrim vs the World bombed at the box office. Director Edgar Wright had made a name for himself with his first two features: Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, a pair of gag-heavy genre...
Western Stars – LFF 2019 Review Rory Steabler October 14, 2019 Reviews Bruce Springsteen is a cowboy now. Please, nobody tell him any different. He seems happy. In the clips cut into Western Stars’ concert footage, the Boss tramps through the American desert in his dustiest...
Piranhas – LFF 2019 Review Rory Steabler October 13, 2019 Reviews Piranhas is at once a thoroughly conventional gangster movie and a fresh take on the genre. If you’ve seen a mob flick made since The Public Enemy you can guess most of the plot, but director Claudio...
I Am (Not) a Monster – LFF 2019 Review Rory Steabler October 12, 2019 Reviews Nelly Ben Hayoun has a Hannah Arendt fixation. The stated point of the charismatic designer/director’s new documentary is to use Arendt’s philosophy as a springboard to find “the origin of knowledge”....
Lingua Franca – LFF 2019 Review Rory Steabler October 12, 2019 Reviews The summary of Lingua Franca below could mislead you into expecting some sort of topical melodrama, featuring the big issues of today blown up to cinema scale. Instead, the film is a slow-paced, slice-of-life...
Le Mans ‘66 – LFF 2019 Review Rory Steabler October 10, 2019 Reviews It’s hard to think of a better recent example of dad-approved lazy-afternoon viewing than James Mangold’s Le Mans ‘66. Its combination of old-fashioned motorsports, tough-guy heroes, and loving...
By the Book: The Sisters Brothers Rory Steabler April 1, 2019 Analysis, By The Book, Features Patrick deWitt’s 2011 novel The Sisters Brothers is very funny. Jacques Audiard’s new film adaptation of that novel is significantly less funny. Despite (or really, because of) this, the film is a great...
The Kid Who Would Be King – Review Rory Steabler February 19, 2019 Reviews The long wait for writer-director Joe Cornish’s second feature is over, and The Kid Who Would Be King does not disappoint – though it may not be quite what fans of Attack the Block were expecting. While...
Scene Stealers: Linda Cardellini in A Simple Favor Rory Steabler February 1, 2019 Analysis, Features, Scene Stealers Peter Farrelly's Green Book may be a politically regressive movie directed by a onetime sex pest, but at least it also wastes three very talented actors. Viggo Mortensen has been a household name since his...
The Best Robin Hood Movie Turned 80 This Year Rory Steabler November 19, 2018 Features, Love Letter, Nostalgia The story of Robin Hood is a story of remakes. The character has evolved in countless ways since his origins in (maybe) 14th-century folk ballads. Familiar elements of the legend – Maid Marian, the Sheriff...