Tagged 2015

If films are to be believed, then it appears that most of us have basically gone celibate these days. Take a look at the BBFC’s classifications for the last few years and you’ll find a swift decline in the...

This article contains spoilers... What does the word ‘witch’ mean to you? I think of cauldrons, Terry Pratchett’s novels, Sabrina and her cat Salem. Of course, there’s also the real-life Salem, the...

https://vimeo.com/203126235 The Bigger Picture, a National Film and Television School production, reached far more than the course markers – it won the 2014 Annecy Cristal for a Graduation Film, the...

With powerful performances, gorgeous cinematography and a score to make you weep, The Daughter is independent drama at its finest. Picking a highlight from the uniformly excellent cast is no mean feat,...

Green Room has a decent concept compared to what one might expect of a thriller/slasher flick: an unsigned band (all very credibly acted) plays a last-minute gig at a seedy, backwater venue, leading to...

How do you face death? On your own terms or scrapping every step of the way? It’s a question we have to face more and more often as an ageing population, and one that Truman answers brilliantly. Despite...

High-Rise is quite the experience: weird, twisted, debauched – and sometimes downright confusing in its meanderings between multiple characters and bizarre scenarios.  The claustrophobic atmosphere of the...

Hitchcock/Truffaut is a gentle but revealing documentary, 50 years on from the exhaustive interviews conducted by François Truffaut. Concentrating on re-evaluating Hitchcock’s work and the context...

The Survivalist’s plot of a man living in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic world after its oil runs out feels deceptively new, but it ends up treading the same ground as countless other films, books and TV...

The Assassin is undeniably one of the most beautiful-looking films to come out all year - however fans of interesting characters, cinematic thrills and coherent narratives should look elsewhere. A...

“What happens to me if I fail your test?” What indeed. The year’s most interesting film? You’d be hard pressed to find a rival with the same scientific clout as this, Alex Garland’s directorial...

If you aren’t a fan of having sex in public places then seeing The Martian was probably the most fun you could have had in a cinema in 2015. The Martian is the story of the eponymous Mark Watney (Matt...

Back in the mid noughties, Amy Winehouse was more than just a name. Through a meteoric rise to fame, followed by a descent into drugs, she became the punchline to your jokes. A shorthand description of someone...

Every now and then a film makes you fall in love with cinema all over again. Often it’s hard to explain why. Maybe it’s the glimmering, burnished beauty of the cinematography. Maybe it’s the guiding...

Ryoo Seung-wan returns after a two year break with his hilarious box office smash Veteran. Following police inspector Seo Do-cheal (Hwang Jung-min) cracking smuggling rings and taking down big money...