Cats – Review Carmen Paddock December 22, 2019 Reviews Nothing quite like Cats has been attempted on the big screen – and one hopes nothing like it is attempted again. From the first trailer, Cats has been defined by the bafflement around its digital fur...
Patrick Wilson: The Everyman Scream King Katy Moon July 8, 2019 Analysis, Features, Spotlight There is a moment in The Conjuring 2 in which Patrick Wilson's ghostbuster Ed Warren, hoping to cheer a group of frightened kids, serenades them all with croony Elvis song 'Can’t Help Falling in Love'. With...
Yesterday and Cinema’s Best Jukebox Musicals Carmen Paddock June 26, 2019 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Yesterday, which opens in the UK this week, imagines a world where Sergeant Pepper, Eleanor Rigby, and a yellow submarine live only in the mind of Jack Malik – a street musician whose life changes when he is...
An Ode to Mary Poppins’ Element of Fun Calum Baker December 22, 2018 Features, Love Letter, Nostalgia By the end of Mary Poppins, it's easy to mistake its warmth for simplicity. As moving as it is, it's basic as all hell: two hours and 20 minutes just build up to George Banks learning a lesson and embracing...
Anna and the Apocalypse – Review Carmen Paddock December 17, 2018 Reviews A Christmas zombie musical comedy should not work. However, John McPhail’s second feature sells the hell out of this improbable combination. Anna and the Apocalypse’s scrappy lack of polish and the gusto...
Gotta Dance: The Top 10 Original Movie Musicals Carmen Paddock November 27, 2018 Analysis, Features, Top 10 This week sees the release of Anna and the Apocalypse, a Christmas zombie musical comedy set in small town Scotland. There is a lot to unpack in that description. Today, let’s celebrate the fact that the...
The Greatest Showman – Review Katy Moon December 26, 2017 Reviews In true Barnum spirit, director Michael Gracey’s dazzling musical The Greatest Showman embraces his subject’s famous proclivity for massaging the truth. The man who once paraded elderly ex-slave Joice Heth...
La La Land and the Question of Authorship in Film Sinead McCausland February 26, 2017 Analysis, Close-Up, Features Damien Chazelle's nostalgic musical La La Land puts its behind-the-scenes artists to full use, creating poetic and fanciful imagery and prompting the question of who the author of a film really is. It's a...
Team Talk – La La Land David Brake January 15, 2017 Reviews Winning a record 7 Golden Globes this year, La La Land is seemingly unstoppable. Adored by critics, lapped up by the public, it can seemingly do no wrong this golden child of 2017. Our Kambole saw this all...
Debbie Reynolds: Guardian of the Hollywood Galaxy Tori Brazier December 30, 2016 News The news of Debbie Reynolds' passing would be upsetting - especially in cinema circles - on any given day, but it has gained a particularly tragic quality for occurring just one day after the untimely death of...
Sing Street – Review Bertie Archer May 21, 2016 Reviews Sing Street is a touching and toe-tapping delight from start to finish. Like an Irish, musical Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Sing Street transposes the universal themes of youth and growth through pop...
A Love Letter To… Top Hat Tori Brazier September 11, 2015 Features, Love Letter, Nostalgia The great movie musical institution, otherwise known as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, sprinkled its box office gold dust over ten pictures, and that which arguably received the lion’s share was 1935’s...
Stories from the Set: Singin’ in the Rain Sophie Wing January 18, 2014 Behind The Curtain, Features, Stories from the Set Singin' In The Rain is rightly regarded as the greatest Hollywood musical of all time, and stories of its production have melted into movie legend, from Debbie Reynolds' remark that "Singin' in the Rain and...