Far from the Madding Crowd – Review Rachel Brook May 2, 2015 Reviews Vinterberg’s adaptation easily ticks the required boxes of a successful period drama. The sets are ready to be stepped onto, and there’s artistry and homeliness to the costuming. Moreover, Vinterberg...
Stonehearst Asylum – Review Stephen O'Nion April 26, 2015 Reviews This is not a horror film. To say more would spoil the surprise(s). Instead, know that Stonehearst Asylum is frequently fantastic, utterly assured, and fully committed to pulling one genre switcheroo after...
A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence – Review Tom Bond April 25, 2015 Reviews Andersson finds meaning in the mundanity of everyday life in this interlocking series of tragicomic vignettes. His reliance on an earthy pastel palette and fixed frames of bland offices and homes grows...
Avengers: Age of Ultron – Review Christopher Preston April 21, 2015 Reviews Age of Ultron moonwalks assuredly past Second Album Syndrome, but doesn’t get to be the Avengers’ The Empire Strikes Back. It’s a barnstorming cyclone of spectacle, yet never manages to recapture how...
Child 44 – Review Phil W. Bayles April 18, 2015 Reviews "Then they came for me," bemoans the end of Martin Niemöller's poem, "and there was no one left to speak for me." In Child 44 Daniel Espinosa has crafted an interesting drama about the bureaucracy of...
Last Knights – Review Stephen O'Nion April 18, 2015 Reviews Looking like a rather drab Meatloaf video (think candles and chambers) played on half-speed with a perma-frowned Clive Owen solemnly plodding about, Last Knights struggles to engage from the off. As its...
The Last Five Years – Review David Brake April 18, 2015 Reviews Broadway and musicals are a perfect couple. However, problems arise when you decide to add another to the relationship: the medium of film. On stage, energy is easy to sustain - and that is likely where The...
Hot Tub Time Machine 2 – Review David Brake April 12, 2015 Reviews Life has a balance and if you break this equilibrium, bad things happen. In this case, the result is Hot Tub Time Machine 2. In the first outing, the balance between puerile humour and nostalgia was just...
Cobain: Montage of Heck – Review Nick Evan-Cook April 11, 2015 Reviews Somewhat overlong and not as incisive as it could be, Cobain: Montage of Heck is nonetheless a satisfying portrait of a troubled genius. Cobain's turbulent story is told mostly through a collage of...
Lost River – Review Rachel Brook April 11, 2015 Reviews Virtually plotless, Lost River is a lurid technicolour nightmare featuring a senseless mishmash of shot types, a warped Miss Havisham and a caricaturish Matt Smith. There’s no subtlety here; the sparse...
Jauja – Review Tom Bond April 10, 2015 Reviews Jauja* would work much better as a short film. Framing the vivid Argentinian landscape in a 4:3 ratio is a provocative choice that pays off far better for Alonso than his bloody-minded insistence on static...
Good Kill – Review Bertie Archer April 9, 2015 Reviews From their portacabin of death, all-American jocks get to blow shit up with only RSI to fear; the lady cries yet complies; Ethan Hawke has a moral crisis whilst remaining utterly immoral; Betty Draper makes an...
John Wick – Review Phil W. Bayles April 8, 2015 Reviews It's fitting that the seemingly ageless Keanu Reeves should play John Wick. Like its leading man, the film feels unstuck in time; a forgotten '80s classic that would have starred the likes of Stallone or...
Kidnapping Freddy Heineken – Review Stephen O'Nion April 5, 2015 Reviews Heineken’s protagonists are just "a bunch of local jerkoffs" hit hard by the recession, unfairly losing their business and their purpose. So why not kidnap a billionaire? So crazy, so true?! Well, it...
Fast & Furious 7 – Review Phil W. Bayles April 4, 2015 Reviews 1 Comment Fast & Furious 7 feels like it was written by a 13 year-old on a sugar bender, which is entirely a good thing. James Wan directs glorious action sequences with the manic energy of a Saturday morning...