Review: The Place Beyond the Pines

April 14, 2013 By 2 Comments
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After seeing the first trailer and image stills for The Place Beyond the Pines, there was a general consensus amongst critics and Baby Goose naysayers that this was just 'Drive on a motorcycle'. Which on the surface of what had been presented, didn't seem too distant a possibility. All the cues from Drive were there: The effortlessly cool Steve Mcqueen-esque loner protagonist who uses his skills in automotive speed for criminal gain, but has a heart of gold hidden beneath a murderous rage. I … [Read more...]

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Review: Spring Breakers

April 8, 2013 By 2 Comments
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I can’t say Harmony Korine’s surname without breaking up the syllables and delivering it in a southern drawl, like I’m a hill-billy greeting an out-of-towner. (*Whaa yaw say yaaw name be…ko-reeen?) Which makes it seem all too fitting that Korine has made Spring Breakers, a neon-lit youthful getaway fantasy, set on Florida’s southern coastline. Spring Break, for y’all foreigners out there, is an American traditional college semester break which has become known for its boozed up … [Read more...]

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Review: Cloud Atlas

February 13, 2013 By 1 Comment
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If you don’t know anything about the book, or the film, you might be tempted into thinking it’s going to be decent with high flyers like Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Hugo Weaving. A film by The Wachowskis you say? What mind-blowing technological feats of SFX have they dreamt up now? Cloud Atlas is by no means a stereotypical Tom Hanks or, for that matter, Halle Berry film. But their collaborative effort alongside the superb ensemble cast makes this a good film. The CG-created sets, for the … [Read more...]

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Review: Django Unchained

January 30, 2013 By 4 Comments
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A note on the ‘controversy’; there’s is no controversy. It’s bullshit, written because shitty journalists are full of horse shiiiet and need a story. The use of the word ‘nigger’ is entirely appropriate in the context of the film, and it’s ridiculous to try and expunge a word like that from a work of fiction. The usage in the film isn’t even gratuitous - the characters would probably talk like that. It would be painfully sanitized if they’d said some modern equivalent. So, on … [Read more...]

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Review: Killing Them Softly

January 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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Killing them Softly is a gritty crime thriller - gritty in the sense that every character has palpable dirt underneath their fingernails.  It’s almost perfectly paced - the violence is brutal and enthralling, although oddly, the scenes of dialogue can be more tense and harrowing than the murders and beatings.  Thematically, the film is clearly about corruption and is played over a background of the 2008 election and financial crisis.  If someone were to demand a doctrine from the film, … [Read more...]

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Top 10 Films of 2012

December 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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So I decided to have a look back at all the films I saw in 2012; get them listed in a spreadsheet with corresponding cinema scores and determine what the top 10 would be. I'd never looked back at a year of cinema watching before and so I was quite shocked to find that I'd watched 44 of the films released in 2012. This top 10 list is a little premature as I've still not seen Spielberg's Lincoln, Kathryn Bigelow & Mark Boal's Zero Dark Thirty, Tarintino's Django Unchained, Les Misérables, … [Read more...]

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Review: Safety Not Guaranteed

December 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Safety Not Guaranteed is an “indie-spirited” romantic comedy with a background in time travel. And it blows chunks. It’s not funny, not interesting, the characters aren’t endearing, the dialogue is not engaging and the one tiny moment of utter brilliance is wasted. I’ll discuss the morsel of (potential) genius at the end for some spoilertastic fun. Summary; must try harder. The plot is mostly irrelevant - it exists as a background to give the characters a reason to interact. This is … [Read more...]

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Review: Life of Pi

December 20, 2012 By 2 Comments
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Ang Lee must be one of the most diverse directors of his generation. If he were playing genre bingo, he’d be a winner many times over. And in one sense he has, having raked in eight Oscars for three of his films: Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and the socially impacting Brokeback Mountain. The only predictable aspect of Lee’s career is that he’ll be unpredictable in what he tackles next. Life of Pi is Lee’s first 3D feature film, and for someone new to the … [Read more...]

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Review: Room 237

November 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Do you like being scared? Watch The Shining*. If watched late at night, in a creeky house with the wind blowing and your imagination engaged, it would be difficult not to become caught up in the film and subsequently have to change your gruts. Do you like being bored? Watch Room 237. This plodding documentary film explores a variety of fan theories about The Shining. Some of the theories are credible, some are dreary, others are entertainly insane. The primary issue with the film isn’t the … [Read more...]

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Review: The Master

November 6, 2012 By 2 Comments
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Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film The Master is by far my favourite film of the year. It is the only film, so far, that has managed to exceed my expectations after watching the trailers and hearing the hype. There are so many great things about this master piece, no pun intended, that I felt like writing a longer review to cover it all. PTA is clearly the best director out there now. And like his ever moving camera shots, he's constantly moving forward with interesting ways to shoot his films. … [Read more...]

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LFF Review: Silver Linings Playbook (Surprise Film)

October 22, 2012 By 3 Comments
Silver Linings Playbook - BFI London Film Festival

While the awards night was being held on Saturday, another event was being run for the press and public to see a surprise film - A tradition of most film festivals around the world. For which the mystery title is kept a secret, right up until the first flicker of the film through the projector. Speculation was that it would be down to PTA's The Master or Cloud Atlas, so as soon as we heard Bradley Cooper's voice-over we knew it was Silver Linings Playbook. I'd suspected it was Silver Linings as … [Read more...]

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LFF Review: Beasts of the Southern Wild

October 22, 2012 By 1 Comment
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Beasts of the Southern Wild has been hailed as a ground breaking film, winning rave reviews from this years Sundance and won the Camera d'Or at Cannes, but after watching it myself, at the London Film Festival, I'm not sure I agree. The film focuses on a father and daughter who are part of a bayou alternative community, living an isolated existence, in a one horse town called “The Bathtub”. The bayou theme of the story brings in elements of New Orleans and the Bathtub community, mirrors the … [Read more...]

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LFF Review: The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology

October 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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I had no idea Slavo Zizek was working on a follow-up to his, intellectual and philosophically humorous, break-out film The Pervert's Guide to Cinema - which is a must see for any true cinephile. So when I arrived at the festival and noticed a film called The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, I knew I had to see it. Zizek's spit-driven monologues are as beautiful to listen to as any lengthy Bob Dylan song. In Guide to Ideology, Zizek uses the same cinematic backdrop to juxtapose himself into the … [Read more...]

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LFF Review: Seven Psychopaths

October 20, 2012 By 1 Comment
BFI London Film Festival - Seven Psycopaths

I really loved Martin McDonagh's last film In Bruges, so it was a no-brainer picking, his follow-up, Seven Psychopaths on my must-see list for this year's London Film Festival. I hadn't watched any trailers for it, or read about the plot, so I had no expectations whatsoever - which I'm starting to think is the best policy these days, with most trailers giving away almost all the plot (I've just had a look at the trailer now, and it doesn't give anything away...so you're safe this time). Trailers … [Read more...]

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LFF Review: The Sessions

October 19, 2012 By 1 Comment
the sessions - bfi london film festival 2012

I'd heard a lot of other film critics across the pond raving about this, saying it was probably the best film they'd seen at Sundance, this year. So it was marked high on my list of things to see, while covering the London Film Festival. I can confirm that I really enjoyed The Sessions. It's not a ground breaking film, by any means, but the ensemble performances are superb. Every small role is given ample opportunity to shine. The film also marks the rising star that is John Hawks, who's rapidly … [Read more...]

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