News / Entertainment
Call Me By Your Name Review
Love is love no matter what gender it befalls; Luca Guadagino states this fact boldly and without repercussion in such a delightfully tender composition, elegantly sneaking up on the audience with a warmth that sings out with operatic audacity. Brokeback Mountain, this is not, the brashness of the relationship between the two men there was laden heavy with bigotry,...
Coco Review
Disney team up yet again with Pixar for their latest cultural offering with a tremendous amount of heart and vibrancy. Director Lee Unkrich’s vision of spectacular colour embodies the Disney template spicing up the picture with humour, sprinkling with a melancholic learning experience of cultural traditions and grief and filling its very core with catchy musical tinklings - especially with a touching ditto...
Journey’s End Review
RC’ Sheriff’s poignant war story has been adapted for the stage and film on numerous occasions over the years. In Saul Dibbs latest adaptation for the big screen, we are engulfed in a deeply affecting era of hope and despair on a personal and emotionally charged level. Stripping back to just the essentials and delving deep into the souls of those forced onto the front...
Phantom Thread Review
It’s almost criminal that Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread is Daniel Day-Lewis’s swansong. The award winning actor has taken method to levels of extremity and immersed himself into character after character with a passionate realism that embroils audiences to his pictures. In his final bow, Lewis brings to life Reynolds Woodcock’s 1950’s style and grace with an artist’s flair of confidence and disdain; giving a master class in believability in...
A Star is Born Review
Now on its fourth remake, A Star is Born heads into a new generation with Bradley Cooper not just at the helm of this gut-wrenchingly emotional and epic version but also having a hand in co-writing the script and taking a rough and mentally damaged role. The history of this story goes as far back as 1937, it later...
The Favourite Review
Olivia Colman puts in an award-winning performance in this hilarious bat-shit crazy picture which is by far Lanthimos at his uninhabited finest. Not one to stick to the norm, Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos follow’s up the cold and muted territory of The Killing of a Sacred Deer with a step back in time to the Royal Court of Queen Anne. A...
Mangrove Review – London Film Festival 2020
Steve McQueen kicks of his Small Axe Anthology with a whirlwind force of nature, a poignant, eloquent and electrically charged hotbed of British stark reality of racial tension. As the hotbed of racial tensions bubble over in the US and UK, filmmaker Steve McQueen’s first feature in the Small Axe anthology – which consists of five films – couldn’t feel...
Review – Oblix Restaurant at the Shard
Twas a dark and windy night walking through London Bridge, my destination wasn't that much further but the chill on the wind had made my pace increase from leisurely to hurried. I looked up at the night sky and towering above me was my destination, Oblix Restaurant in the Shard in all it's glory. The rooftop lighting up the skyline and the impressive design that...
The Ivory Game Review
The Ivory Game is a groundbreaking documentary that tracks wildlife activists as they take on poachers in an effort to end the illegal ivory trade in Africa. It is a harrowing globe-trotting affair as we meet the people who put their lives on the line –entrenched in the deep heart of darkness fighting for the survival of the elephants. As...
Love/Me/Do Review
An unofficial but commonly agreed upon measure of how good a film is, is if it stays with you after the credits. Do you think about the characters, the story, a particular image? In some instances, you’ll tell people you know because it’s on your mind and you want to discuss it with someone. Even more so if there’s...
Embrace Review
With the phenomena of social media and the internet at the centre of global culture, it seems crucial that the discussion of body image is addressed. The conversation has actually been happening for a very long time, but without ever really managing to break the surface of the blanket of mass media that surrounds and dictates our lives every day....
John Wick Chapter 2 Review
John Wick is the type of action hero that cinema needs and deserves, which was demonstrated superbly in the original John Wick film. John Wick Chapter 2 solidifies this idea and provides a new standard of high-octane, gripping, gut-punching action. Any action film aims to create hair-raising thrills and blood-pumping combat scenes, though many feel flat and flashy. The world...
Birthday Review
Birthdays are generally synonymous with joy, celebration, and high spirits. And while writer and director, Chris King, titled his short film ‘Birthday’, the emotions at play are rather contrasting initially. Focusing on a young marine who gets severely wounded in combat, the 12 minute run time explores the immediate next steps in his life from hospital bed to physiotherapy with...
Us Review
Freakishly fun but ultimately clunky and frightening, Lupita Nyong'o is a complete a badass. After the stand-out success of Get Out, audiences have been waiting with bated breath to experience what else lies in Jordan Peele’s arsenal and his latest Us proves the actor turned director was not a one-hit wonder. A thinking person’s horror that doesn’t flow as smoothly...
You Were Never Really Here Review
Since 2017’s Cannes film festival, acclaimed director Lynne Ramsey’s You Were Never Really Here has bounced off the lips of many a cinephile with riotous respect. It’s a psycho-drama that evokes the splendour of Martin Scorsese’ Taxi Driver with a broodingly paced plot, relying heavily on suggestion than any real brutality and an eerily haunting and atmospheric score from...
Spies in Disguise Review
Pure, honest to god entertainment oozes out of every feel-good moment. Who knew Will Smith as a pigeon would be a winning formula? Troy Quane and Nick Bruno make their directorial debut with an animated Bond gone wrong. Pairing together the voices of big Willy himself, Will Smith, and the newest Spider-Man, Tom Holland for the long in development fun-sized...
Bohemian Rhapsody Review
Marred by creative differences and challenges, Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody has taken a few knocks to its iconic status. More a respectful nod to the Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury, than a band biopic, the anthem epic soaring renditions and the frivolous birth of iconic songs play out like a playful puppy than hard-hitting, in-depth drama. This one is unashamedly...
Coda Review
Writer/director Sian Heder’s Sundance award-winning film gives a voice to the hearing impaired in this charmingly quaint movie of one girl's plight of juggling life with her deaf family and the desire to spread her wings and fly the nest.Emilia Jones takes on the role of 17-year-old Ruby, a teenager with the weight of the world on her shoulders....
Hidden Figures Review
Whilst most may be aware of the role of importance men played in sending a man into space to lay his feet firmly on the moon, not so many know of the tremendous work of the African-American Women who played an equally important role in achieving it. Hidden Figures delves, with a delicate touch, into the story of three...
Shazam Review
A popcorn frenzy, it has bundles of fun, entertainment and charm, it’s a welcome way forward if you are suffering from Superhero fatigue. Warner Bros. DCEU has taken a battering over the last few years, never quite living up to the hype of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, it’s struggled to hit the right cord that goes head to head...
Tully Review
Post-natal depression is no laughing matter. Even in 2018 we hardly hear the cries of those mothers finding it a struggle to cope with day to day life after the birth of their bundle of joy. It’s a struggle many men dismiss as poppy-cock (as experienced from a fellow male critic at this particular screening); as they turn a blind eye to carry on with their conventional lives without the upheaval to their...
The Invisible Man Review
Leigh Whannell kicks off the re-envisioned Monster Universe with a hyper-intense modern-twist on a classic story. These days it’s not hard to trip over a reimagining, remake or whatever you want to call it at your local cinema. Universal Pictures are taking advantage of their catalogue of classic monster movies and sprucing them up for modern-day audiences, the latest to...
Widows Review
Acclaimed director, Steve McQueen may have had a five-year hiatus from the silver screen but his stylised eye for a gripping drama has in no way waned. Bringing together a crackling cast for his Lynda La Plante remake of Widow’s and setting it in a modern-day America makes for an explosive heist that will knock you flat on your...
Minamata Review
Filmmaker Andrew Levitas delves into the perils and righteous fight of famed photojournalist W. Eugene Smith with a furiously calming depiction of a fascinating and compelling narrative. It’s a drama that highlights the evils of big corporate companies polluting innocent towns and their residents and their lack of scruples when big money is respected more than the lives of...
We Go On Review
As we become more spoilt with methods of watching films, the act of actually choosing anything to watch is quite unbearable.New streaming service Shudder aims to cut through the noise and reach those on the hunt for the best of a wide range of horror films, consisting of platform exclusives as well as general releases. Unable to see anywhere...
Wild Rose Review
Drenched in realism, unconventional turns and a wee belter in its leading lady, Jessie Buckley. Just rip the lyrics out of the heart of this film and you’d be on to a country winner. Is it a path worth taking? That country road to stardom, to live out your dreams with no regard to the life you’ve reluctantly been lumbered...
The Rape of Recy Taylor Review
American history is shrouded in hateful racist issues, for years many minorities were subjected to brutality that is off-the-charts unfathomable. Yet, in 2018, the so-called great, progressive nation is seeing a revival in its narrow thinking bubbling to the surface like an acidic bail. Nancy Buirski’s documentary, The Rape of Recy Taylor, couldn’t be any timelier as the director...
Onward Review
Tom Holland and Chris Pratt make for a killer combo in Pixar's latest tear-jerking animation that will have you ugly crying. Pixar’s fascination with death has certainly been a winner for the animation studio after its success of Coco and Inside Out. If it isn’t broken don’t fix it seems to be the order of the day as Tom Holland...
Ralph Breaks The Internet Review
Five years after Ralph wrecked all animations in its path, Disney has returned the muscular meathead head and his best friend Vanellope for an overstuffed exploration inside the internet with smile-inducing humour and heart with a dash of social relevance.John C. Reilly returns as the voice of bad-guy turned good, Ralph, along with Sarah Silverman’s Vanellope. Where Ralph is...
Candyman Review
Bernard Rose’s 1992 adaptation of Clive Barker’s novella gave birth to a frightening legend amongst a whole generation that preys on our fears to this very day. Nia DaCosta’s follow-up to that film injects the legend firmly in this telling with fantastical cinematography, sturdy links to the 1992 version, social commentary and a touch of tongue in cheek comedy,...