A Monster Calls: The Power of Odd Couples in Kids’ Films Joni Blyth December 30, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 The release of A Monster Calls marks another entry into the familiar trope of kids' films featuring alien or 'other' creatures as their heroes, forming a lovable double-act with the child protagonist. Few are...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 3. Spotlight Bertie Archer December 29, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Sometimes it's easy to forget that we spend most of our time stumbling around the dark. Suddenly, a light gets turned on and there's a fair share of blame to go around. I can't speak to what happened before I...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 4. Room Daniel Orton December 28, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Not a day goes by that I don’t think about this film, but it isn’t a film I would like to watch again anytime soon. Room is the story of Jack, a five-year-old boy born and brought up in captivity; he is...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 5. The Nice Guys Phil W. Bayles December 27, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Shane Black has directed three films, and to some degree or another they’ve all poked fun at the clichés that hold the world together. His debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, was a whip-smart deconstruction of the...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 6. The Neon Demon Christopher Preston December 26, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 “Beauty isn’t everything. It's the only thing.” 2016 has been the year of the troll. Since ORWAV's last Top Ten, Britain has wrenched herself out of the European Union, Donald Trump has gone from...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 7. Paterson Calum Baker December 24, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Paterson lies in the valley under the Passaic Falls its spent waters forming the outline of his back. - William Carlos Williams, 'Paterson', 1926. In his first film, 1980's Permanent Vacation, Jim...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 8. Anomalisa Conor Morgan December 23, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Despite all of the numerous terrible things that have happened, 2016 has at least given us some truly original films. We’ve seen such leftfield ideas as a punk rock siege led by neo-Nazi Captain Picard,...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 9. Zootropolis Tori Brazier December 22, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Zootropolis, Zootopia... Despite the renaming malarkey for the European market – and the awkwardness that could have ensued – Zootropolis' release into the cinema wilderness this year was anything but...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 10. Everybody Wants Some!! Eddie Falvey December 21, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 It’s fair to say that 2016 has been a tough year. The stakes have been high on and off the screen and, suffice to say, we have been burdened with disappointing results in both arenas. After blockbusters...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 20 to 11 David Brake December 20, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 It’s here! The One Room With A View Top 20 films of 2016 has arrived. It’s been an extraordinary year of cinema - despite the troubling situations elsewhere. This was one of the closest years we’ve seen...
The Most Underappreciated Films of 2016 Tom Bond December 13, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 It’s a bit of a cliché to say it’s been a great year in cinema. Every year’s a great year if you’re watching the right films. What’s always certain is that every year, plenty of films don’t get...
10 Fictional Movie Languages We’d Love To Learn Phil W. Bayles November 10, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 The idea of visitors from other worlds is one of the oldest in all of science fiction, but Denis Villeneuve's new film Arrival is one of the very few that poses a genuinely thorny problem: how would we...
Top 10 Modern Westerns Jack Blackwell September 20, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 The Western was once one of Hollywood’s most important and bankable staple genres, but come the 1960s and the various changes that brought for the industry its popularity waned, never to recover save a few...
Top 10 Contemporary Female Directors Patrick Nabarro August 31, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Issues of gender inequality are becoming ever more prevalent in the film industry. First there was the famous pay discrepancy highlighted by Jennifer Lawrence last year. And in recent weeks, two of our own...
Top 10 TV-to-Film Adaptations Kambole Campbell August 18, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 For decades now there has been an increasing symbiosis between TV and film. In the past there was a strong temptation to go bigger, and adapt a show for the big screen to reach a wider audience, condensing...