A Girl At My Door – LFF Review Danielle Davenport October 2, 2014 Reviews A Girl At My Door lingers in the mind. The film is intelligent and enigmatic as it charts shifting equilibriums, a beautiful landscape and its convincingly flawed inhabitants. The impact is heightened by an...
El Niño – LFF Review Danielle Davenport September 30, 2014 Reviews El Niño possesses all the ingredients for an efficacious and addictive thriller. The eye-catching start - exploiting transit sights and sounds - ratchets up the tension and is followed by some action-packed...
Camp X-Ray – LFF Review Danielle Davenport September 25, 2014 Reviews 1 Comment Camp X-Ray establishes its identity with a vividly kinetic start, adeptly unveiling the Guantanamo Bay locale where soldiers “defend freedom”. The film intrigues with its subtlety and style, conveying...
The Babadook – Review Tom Bond September 23, 2014 Reviews Even for the occasional horror fan, The Babadook feels far too full of the usual clichés: a troubled child, a distressed (bereaved) mother and - what’s that? A haunted house? Writer and director Jennifer...
The Citizen Kane of Awful: The Core Conor Morgan September 18, 2014 Features, Nostalgia, The Citizen Kane of Awful Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Stanley Tucci, Delroy Lindo, Richard Jenkins, DJ Squalls, Bruce Greenwood Director: Jon Amiel Writers: Cooper Layne, John Rogers Budget: $60 million Worldwide gross:...
A Most Wanted Man – Review Tom Bond September 13, 2014 Reviews Go into A Most Wanted Man expecting the familiar tone and pace of fellow John le Carré adaptation Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and you won’t be disappointed. Corbijn’s direction is a little more gruff and...
Life of Crime – Review Stephen O'Nion September 8, 2014 Reviews 1 Comment Life of Crime is fine. Characters are played gamely; costumes are pleasingly authentic; the story... proceeds. Really, this isn’t one for superlative adjectives. Fleetingly snappy - the minimum...
Sex Tape – Review Stephen O'Nion September 4, 2014 Reviews Annie had it all: two great kids, a loving marriage with radio producer husband Jay and a financially successful blog (?). Today though, her life’s about to turn upside down! After handing out half a...
CEL Mates: Sita Sings The Blues Conor Morgan August 31, 2014 CEL Mates, Features, Independent Sita Sings the Blues is a 2008 film written, produced and directed by Nina Paley, who also features in the film. In a rather unorthodox fashion, the entire film is created using the Adobe animation program...
Maybeland: Logan’s Run Madeline Joint August 25, 2014 Features, Independent, Maybeland Logan’s Run (1976), starring Michael York as the titular Logan-5 and Jenny Agutter as the titillating Jessica-6, is a sublime '70s disco-era false-utopia flick that is in turns terrific fun and troublingly...
Best Films Never Made #19: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Abel Cain and King Shot Conor Morgan August 22, 2014 Behind The Curtain, Best Films Never Made, Features 85 year old Chilean-French surrealist/mime/experimental playwright/author/comics writer/mystical therapist/artist/director/all-round fascinating guy Alejandro Jodorowsky recently premiered his first film in 23...
The Congress – Review Tom Bond August 5, 2014 Reviews 1 Comment The Congress looks at the state of modern Hollywood - actresses battling ageism, the cannibalising presence of CGI and mo-cap – and reflects back a metafictional gem. Folman’s adapted script is cynical...
Adults and Animation – The Growing Acceptance of Animation Amongst Grown Ups Conor Morgan August 3, 2014 CEL Mates, Features, Independent Without a doubt, you will have heard the song Let It Go from Disney's animated film Frozen in the past few months. If you're saying you haven't, then you're lying - since its release in December, it's been...
Making It Big: Godzilla Heritage David Brake July 24, 2014 Features, Independent, Making It Big Whether you loved or loathed Gareth Edwards' latest Godzilla entry has put the giant lizard back in vogue. Whether it's a fond look towards the classic Gojira (1954) or a hearty laugh at Roland Emmerich's...
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Review Tom Bond July 19, 2014 Reviews 1 Comment The most astonishing achievement of Dawn is that within seconds you forget that every ape, from chimpan-A to chimpan-Z, is played by a man in a skin-tight bodysuit. The dynamics of their new civilisation...