ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2020: #5 – The Lighthouse Louise Burrell December 29, 2020 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Mermaids, one-eyed seagulls, and glimpses of sea monsters; Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse is anything but a mainstream horror. This undeniably weird film landed in the UK in the “normal” part of 2020,...
ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2020: #8 – 1917 Bertie Archer December 28, 2020 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Everyone should see 1917. Whatever your film taste, whatever your interest in World War One films in particular, 1917 bridges the divide. Winner of Best Film and Best Director at the 2020 Baftas (among many,...
ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2020: #10 – Mangrove Rhys Handley December 27, 2020 Analysis, Features, Top 10 We’ve had a lot of time to reflect in 2020, whether we wanted it or not. That means time to look into ourselves, our culture, our society – our history. It’s not a passive process, though that’s an...
ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2019: #7 – Us Katy Moon December 30, 2019 Analysis, Features, Top 10 The doppelgänger is an age-old figure of dread. A portent of doom or impending misfortune, they’re often hellbent on eliminating and supplanting the ‘original’. They represent the uniquely horrific...
ORWAV’s Top 20 Films of 2019: #9 – Can You Ever Forgive Me? Carmen Paddock December 29, 2019 Analysis, Features, Top 10 At the end of the decade, media seems to be moving further away from the noughties’ nihilism. Perhaps audiences need a break from the relentless inhumanity highlighted in 24/7 news cycles. Perhaps a...
Top 20 Films of 2017: #3 – Star Wars: The Last Jedi Matt Whittle December 29, 2017 Analysis, Features, Top 10 *Spoilers within this article* Star Wars has reinvigorated the event blockbuster. In a time of cinematic universes and sequels scrambling for space on a crowded schedule, audiences are spoilt for choice; no...
Top 20 Films of 2017: #6 – La La Land Tom Bond December 26, 2017 Analysis, Features, Top 10 “People love what other people are passionate about. You remind them of what they’ve forgotten.” – Mia (Emma Stone) What’s in a dream? It’s the gap between fantasy and reality. It’s what makes...
Top 20 Films of 2017: #8 – Toni Erdmann Calum Baker December 23, 2017 Analysis, Features, Top 10 You've no doubt heard the old Italian joke (well, the joke quoted in Watchmen at least) about the depressed man who, passing through a small town, decides enough is enough and he needs help. "Dottore," he...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 4. Room Daniel Orton December 28, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Not a day goes by that I don’t think about this film, but it isn’t a film I would like to watch again anytime soon. Room is the story of Jack, a five-year-old boy born and brought up in captivity; he is...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 5. The Nice Guys Phil W. Bayles December 27, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Shane Black has directed three films, and to some degree or another they’ve all poked fun at the clichés that hold the world together. His debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, was a whip-smart deconstruction of the...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 7. Paterson Calum Baker December 24, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 Paterson lies in the valley under the Passaic Falls its spent waters forming the outline of his back. - William Carlos Williams, 'Paterson', 1926. In his first film, 1980's Permanent Vacation, Jim...
Top 20 Films of 2016: 20 to 11 David Brake December 20, 2016 Analysis, Features, Top 10 It’s here! The One Room With A View Top 20 films of 2016 has arrived. It’s been an extraordinary year of cinema - despite the troubling situations elsewhere. This was one of the closest years we’ve seen...
Top 20 Films of 2015: 7. Ex Machina Patrick Taylor December 25, 2015 Analysis, Features, Top 10 “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...
Top 20 Films of 2015: 8. The Martian Daniel Orton December 24, 2015 Analysis, Features, Top 10 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...
Top 20 Films of 2015: 9. The Look of Silence Calum Baker December 23, 2015 Analysis, Features, Top 10 "If I came to you like this during the military dictatorship - what would you have done to me?" "You can't imagine what would have happened." I'll start by pointing out something fortuitous: the focus of...