Oscar Nominations 2019: The Full Rundown Calum Baker January 22, 2019 Analysis, Features, One Off, Opinion 10 years ago, Bradley Cooper may as well have been nobody. Then he starred in The Hangover. Then... uh... The Hangover 2. But six brief years since his "serious film" breakout Silver Linings Playbook, the...
The Hand That Holds the Pen: The (Un)Importance of Cinematic Historical Accuracy Carmen Paddock January 14, 2019 Analysis, Features, Opinion Roughly a third of the way through Colette, currently in UK cinemas, Keira Knightley’s titular author muses that ‘the hand that holds the pen writes history.’ This line – featured prominently in the...
Seriously Funny: 10 Times Comedians Played it Straight Thom Denson January 10, 2019 Analysis, Features, Top 10 With the upcoming releases of both Stan & Ollie and Beautiful Boy, starring funnymen Steves Coogan and Carell respectively, it felt as good a time as any to shine the light on a selection of other...
Why Period Films Are So Underrated Sarah J January 9, 2019 Analysis, Features, Opinion It is the beginning of Pride and Prejudice. The protagonist, Elizabeth Bennett (Keira Knightley), is reading a book as she walks through the English countryside. The house comes alive not because it’s been...
Debate: Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, or Buster Keaton? Carmen Paddock January 8, 2019 Analysis, Debate, Features Stan & Ollie – a lovingly constructed biopic of an ageing Laurel and Hardy – hits cinemas this week. To celebrate, One Room with a View’s Naomi, Louise, and Tom have come together to argue the merits...
Short of the Month: O Matko! Henry Gatrell January 7, 2019 Features, Independent, Short of the Week https://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/304823620 Within the arena of the short film some filmmakers – perhaps free from large budgets and plot conventions – find the comfort to be more expressive and...
Marwencol Never Needed a Remake Calum Baker January 5, 2019 Analysis, Features, Spotlight Jeff Malmberg’s 2010 film Marwencol should be far more available than it is. The DVD is strangely hard to come by, at least in the UK, while digital copies can be rented or purchased from iTunes, but not...
Where Are They Now?: Peep Show Jack Blackwell January 1, 2019 Features, Nostalgia, Where Are They Now? In 2015, one of the great chapters of British comedy closed. The ninth series of Peep Show finished on a high and a low, keeping David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s Mark and Jeremy in the same bleak,...
ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2018: #1 – Phantom Thread J B Queree December 31, 2018 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Phantom Thread eludes being pinned down, with beguiling mastery. From the word go, you are never quite sure where it is heading, or exactly what sort of film you are watching, but – much like leading lady...
ORWAV’S Top 20 Films of 2018: #2 – The Shape of Water Josefine Algieri December 30, 2018 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Even nearly 12 months after its initial UK release, Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water has lost none of its magic. The film not only captured the hearts of critics, but also of cinemagoers worldwide,...
ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2018: #3 – You Were Never Really Here Jack Blackwell December 29, 2018 Analysis, Features, Top 10 What really separated You Were Never Really Here from other thrillers in 2018 – more so, even, than its impressionistic style and sparse dialogue – was its complete lack of hero. Lynne Ramsay’s fourth...
ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2018: #4 – Lady Bird Tom Bond December 28, 2018 Analysis, Features, Top 10 There’s a line in a song I think about a lot. I think it might be true. You can change your clothes/ Change your hairstyle, your friends, cities, continents/ But sooner or later your own self will always...
ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2018: #5 – Annihilation Thom Denson December 27, 2018 Analysis, Features, Top 10 After a somewhat turbulent development period, culminating in Paramount Pictures deeming it too much of a box-office risk for real cinemas outside of North America, the dizzingly cerebral Annihilation finally...
ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2018: #6 – Roma Eddie Falvey December 27, 2018 Analysis, Features, Top 10 CUT TO: Int. a nondescript seminar room in a middling-to-good university. The class: Screenwriting 101. The lesson: Show, don’t tell. It’s the simple but powerful lesson that all new writers are...
ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2018: #7 – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Tori Brazier December 27, 2018 Analysis, Features, Top 10 A lot has happened since Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri streaked onto cinema screens in early January. A bachelor brought his girlfriend home to meet a bunch of crazy rich Asians in Singapore...