ORWAV’s Top 20 Of 2014: 5. The Wolf Of Wall Street Tom Bond December 26, 2014 Analysis, Features, Top 10 2 Comments Do you want to be Jordan Belfort? Do you want what he has? The money, the drugs, the women, the power? You’re not alone. You’re only human. Debates raged with the manic energy of coked-up stockbrokers...
ORWAV’s Top 20 of 2014: 10. Gone Girl David Brake December 20, 2014 Analysis, Features, Top 10 9 Comments “What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other? What will we do?” From the opening line, Gone Girl opens its stall to become a fascinating vivisection of marriage, a...
One Room With A View’s Top 20 Films of 2014: 20-11 David Brake December 19, 2014 Analysis, Features, Top 10 3 Comments So here we go. Based on UK release dates, the team at One Room With A View have voted, and we can now reveal our Top 20 Films of 2014. What a great year of film it has been. X-Men: Days of Future Past...
Scene Stealers: Fred Willard in Best In Show Conor Morgan December 4, 2014 Analysis, Features, Scene Stealers A mockumentary by the undisputed master of the genre, Christopher Guest (of This Is Spinal Tap fame), Best In Show follows five pairs of owners and handlers of dogs competing in the prestigious Mayflower...
Maybeland: Equilibrium Madeline Joint November 27, 2014 Features, Independent, Maybeland As is customary in dystopian cinema, it is hard to figure out what Kurt Wimmer’s Equilibrium (2002) is in favour of as opposed to what it condemns. Starring Christian Bale as John Preston (most likely no...
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Review Christopher Preston November 24, 2014 Reviews The Hunger Games hasn’t given birth to twins. Instead, it has stretched out the limbs of its concluding chapter to the point of cracking dislocation. The bite of the adaptation’s first instalments has...
Horrible Bosses 2 – Review Tom Bond November 22, 2014 Reviews For better or worse, if you’ve watched a mainstream US comedy in the last five years, it’s going to be riddled with improv. Horrible Bosses 2 is no different and Bateman, Day and Sudeikis offer nothing...
CEL Mates: The Secret of Kells Conor Morgan November 19, 2014 CEL Mates, Features, Independent The Secret of Kells is a 2009 Irish-French-Belgian animated film starring Brendan Gleeson, Evan McGuire and Christen Mooney, directed by first-time Irish director Tomm Moore, for which he received an Academy...
Nightcrawler – Review Christopher Preston November 2, 2014 Reviews Jake Gyllenhaal unfurls creepy wings as Lou Bloom, a determined vulture ready to feather his own nest in the shade of the American Dream. Lou’s maniac eyes share the same greedy glint as his hungry camera....
Interstellar – Review Christopher Preston October 31, 2014 Reviews Interstellar is magnificently ambitious. It is just a shame that narrative appears to be the stubbiest finger upon the grasping palm of its lofty aspirations. Nolan’s space odyssey detonates some of the...
The Book of Life – Review Tom Bond October 26, 2014 Reviews The Book of Life makes an intriguing attempt at exploring gender stereotypes, but often ends up reinforcing them. Maria (Saldana) ticks a few painfully clichéd feminist heroine boxes, but mostly she is never...
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night – LFF Review David Brake October 22, 2014 Reviews 1 Comment Beguilingly cryptic and supernatural yet intrinsically personal and human, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a triumph. Each shot tops the last, defined by Lyle Vincent’s bewitching cinematography which...
Son of a Gun – LFF Review Tom Bond October 22, 2014 Reviews There are few logical explanations for Son of a Gun. The most probable is that writer/director Avery is getting paid by the cliché, each one more laughable and obvious than the last. It’s a shame because...
A Little Chaos – LFF Review Tom Bond October 22, 2014 Reviews ‘Landscape gardener charms all she meets with fresh approaches to shrubbery’ is a synopsis that will set few pulses racing. Rickman’s first directorial effort since 1997, however, is a solid piece of...
Foxcatcher – LFF Review Tom Bond October 21, 2014 Reviews 1 Comment Foxcatcher is a fascinating study of dedication, loneliness and power. In many ways it’s a tonally opposite companion to Whiplash. Sadly, it’s also nowhere near as good. Fry and Futterman’s script...