Panos Cosmatos’s homage to 60s & 70s psychedelic horror is a hell of a ride. With it’s saturated palette (it’s all red or all green or all blue), dreamy dialogue (“what’s your favourite planet?”), Carpenteresque brooding, menacing soundtrack it is the heir to those Ken Russell, Jodorowsky, Bava and Argenti… Continue reading
Winter’s Bone director Debra Granik’s new film follows survivalist father Will & his 13 yr old daughter Tom. They live in a vibrant green forest national park outside Portland, in a makeshift camp. We follow them going about their tasks of preparing food, fixing the camp and growing provisions with… Continue reading
In the 80s there was a clutch of VHS tapes which performed the function of “films to put on when we’ve come back from the pub”: Robocop, Spinal Tap, Quadrophenia, Blade Runner, and Predator. The requirements for these films is that they appeal across tastes, had quotable dialogue, some cool… Continue reading
In Klansman Spike Lee combines the razor sharp dissection of racial politics of Do The Right Thing with the crowdpleasing thriller narrative of Inside Man, to produce his finest work for a long time, and possibly the film of the year. It relates the incredible but true story of black… Continue reading
After Black Panther and Infinity War, the second AntMan outing returns to more mediocre form. It has our hero coming to the end of his house arrest after the Captain America: Civil War shenanigans. Inevitably his resolution to see it out is tested when Hope Van Dyne requires him to… Continue reading
Given the title of this blog, and my ongoing obsession with Jaws, I was always going to give this latest shark-fest an outing. Let me count the ways in which the two are not alike. Jaws isn’t really about the shark – it’s really about three aspects of masculinity (the… Continue reading
I’ll confess, sometimes I want to shake Wes Anderson and yell “Stop being so bloody Wes Anderson!” So twee and cool and hipster and symmetrically framed and deadpan. In the hipster bar of the boutique cinema after you seen Isle of Dogs you are likely to overhear some guy called… Continue reading
Let’s get it sorted all the things this film isn’t. It isn’t an effective neo-noir thriller, despite some well constructed shots and a love of neon. It isn’t a complex, multi-layered narrative that demands the viewer to construct the pieces. It isn’t a beautiful evocation of cityscapes. So it’s not… Continue reading
Every year there seems to be one film that features a child in a dysfunctional family operating at the edge of fantasy and reality. See for example, A Monster Calls and Beasts of the Southern Wild. Giants follows young Barbara, who struggling to deal with her mother’s terminal illness, has… Continue reading
This film is all bags full of problematic. Perhaps more than any other recent actress Lawrence epitomises the new wave of strong women in cinema. Other are better actors (Blanchett) or more prominently feminist (Chastain), but none have the iconic role that was Katniss. I admire her willingness to take… Continue reading
