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Fences Review

Diversity has finally hit the Oscar’s this year with a number of exceptional films such as Moonlight, Hidden Figures and Fences all getting a spot in the limelight with their nominations. Fences for one is one of the strongest contenders for its powerhouse performances from its cast alone. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name – which...

Chi-Raq Review

It’s been a fair few years since Spike Lee has created anything of any note; a filmmaker who is known for his controversial social and political stance brings his filmmaking prowess in what is probably his finest piece of work in some time with Chi-Raq. Films don’t come much sexier, politically fierce and layered with feminism as much as Lee’s...

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...

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Review

The a-holes are back with a big bang of colour and euphoric family bickering that falters with a little whimper, riding the tails of the first in order to make Vol. 2 an eggtastic success with the scene-stealing baby Groot and an emotionally touching shocker that tugs lightly at the heart strings as well as taking you by surprise.If...

Bone Tomahawk Review – Strangely Compelling Hybrid Horror is a Delight.

Bone Tomahawk is certainly unique, on paper, a story set in the old west with a horror twist really shouldn’t work but you’ll find yourself sucked in by its deeply narrative script and dark comedy. You may go into this film expecting one thing only to come out stunned – in a good way. Bone Tomahawk see’s four men -...

Detroit Review

The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty’s Kathryn Bigelow has a certain type of skill in her arsenal to take human trauma and horror and evoke the deepest of emotions with such a subtle passion, her latest offering of Detroit only empowers that stockade with rich and powerful performances from a cast embroiled in respect for the retelling of...

Roman J Israel Esq Review

It’s hard to fathom Dan Gilroy’s awkwardly titled Roman J Israel Esq. is only his second stint as director, his first coming from the intense drama stylings of Nightcrawler starring Jake Gyllenhaal. The writer/director has kept to the intellectual script that’s doused in a characterisation study, bringing in another A-list name in Denzel Washington and extracting, as he did with Gyllenhaal, a career best with...

Mary Poppins Returns Review

If you are going to wait long enough for a sequel, over fifty years will just about do it. Disney has dug deep into their vaults to recreate some classic on-screen magic, bringing its 1964 favourite live-action/animation hybrid, Mary Poppins, back to life with eye-popping colour and emotive storytelling all whilst maintaining its loyalty to its original.Set some 20...

Lost Girls Review

According to the International Labor Organisation, 4.5 million people are victims of sex trafficking worldwide including the US’. This fact is part of the final words on screen of Julia Verdin's harrowing short film, Lost Girls. The British producer was inspired to write the script for this, her directorial debut, after volunteering at Children of the Night, a shelter for...

Yesterday Review

A foot-stomping joy that has a feel-good British film coursing through its veins. Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis are a dream filmmaking team, from Boyle, making the likes of Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting to Curtis’s Notting Hill and Love Actually (amongst many for both) the pair has great feel-good British film’s coursing through their veins. For their latest, the pair...

Once Upon A Time in Hollywood Review

Tarantino's love letter to Hollywood is rife with heady brilliance and controversy that will suck you in and spit you out. Ever since the announcement of Tarantino’s ninth and penultimate film, assumptions this would be focused on the infamous Manson Murders of the late 60’s early 70s’, where rife. It’s worth remembering this is a Tarantino fairytale, a love letter...

Coda Review

Coda movie

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....

Freeheld Review – A Tough and Highly Relevant Story.

Freeheld tell's Laurel Hester’s story when it grabbed the national headlines in the states back in 2005, when all this dying woman wanted was for her partner to receive her pension in order to remain financial stable after her death but because she was in a same sex relationship she was denied her dying wish. Laurel and her partner, Stacie’s story...

The Pass Review

It’s only been three years since playwright, John Donnelly’s The Pass opened on the stage to rave reviews, so it was only a matter of time that this socially topical play made it onto the big screen bringing with it 99% of its original stage cast. Russell Tovey takes up his role again as Jason, a closeted premier league footballer...

Boy Erased Review

Joel Edgerton delivers a wake-up call to those blinded by their faith with a gentle gut-punch. The second film within 6 months to address gay conversion therapy, the first being The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased is his next step into his filmmaking career. It’s a film where its focus lays on the misguided beliefs of Christian parents...

Uncle Frank Review

Uncle Frank

A drama full of mental turmoil, whilst having a bucket load of charm, threatened to drown in a subject just tad water-downed for mainstream audiences. Paul Bettany gets to flex his non-marvel acting chops in a coming-out drama during a time where anything other than heterosexuality in certain US states was more than frowned upon.Told via the narrative of Sophia...

Sorry We Missed You Review

Ken Loach is back on his socialist horse three years after I, Daniel Blake hit right at the heart of austerity Britain. Once again he shouts loud for the working class grafters hit hard by poverty, trying to earn a living in a battered and divided country with relentless passion.The story focuses on one young family in a docu-soap...

The Girl on the Train Review

Director Tate Taylor – who directed the powerfully emotional ‘The Help’ seems to have an affinity with female lead film; The Girl on the Train is no exception with three very different female personalities taking the limelight in this thrillingly tense film adaptation. Only a year ago Paula Hawkin’s novel, ‘The Girl on the Train’, was a bestselling sensation, so...

The Pyramid Texts Review

Stripped back and laid bare, the film adaptation of BAFTA award-winning writer Geoff Thompson’s stage play, The Pyramid Texts, is nothing less of a powerhouse of raw human emotion with an exceptional performance from its lone front man, James Cosmo.The Pyramid Texts is laced beautifully together with bouts of poetic dialogue that tear deep into a single man’s soul...

Victoria and Abdul Review

It’s not very often we see an actor reprise a role they so dutiful thrived in twenty years previous, except Dame Judy Dench, who excelled as the cantankerous Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown only to regally accept Stephen Frears offer to return to clad the black mourning dress for the comedic and delightful final twilight years of the formidable...

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...

Doctor Strange Review

Marvel have pulled another corker out the bag with Doctor Strange, this time entering the world of the spiritual and supernatural with mind-bending and spectacular visuals which see’s buildings and cities rotating and folding in on themselves with jaw-dropping excellence. It’s their most visually ambitious, eye-popping outing. Doctor Strange is very much an origin story; we are introduced to the...

Ghostbusters: Afterlife Review

Ghostbusters Afterlife review

When mentioning Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbusters, audiences of a certain age no doubt look back on a time filled with childhood nostalgia. Skip forward 37 years and insert Reitman’s offspring Jason – who directs and co-wrote the latest in the franchise instalment – and that nostalgic feeling comes rushing to the surface with the joyous and heartfelt next chapter that pays...

The Hard Stop Review

Back in 2011, the young life of Mark Duggan was taken at the hands of the police after a Hard Stop on the London roads of Tottenham, North London. This killing caused one of the biggest riots in British History fuelled by racist tension which dates back to at least 1985 after PC Blakelock was murdered on the Broadwater...

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...

Black Panther Review

Since Ryan Coogler burst onto the scene with his debut, Fruitvale Station he has set the precedence in his affecting and hard-hitting storytelling; cementing his name as one to watch in delivering films that communicate to audiences who have rarely been given the chance to shine. It’s been a long time coming but Coogler’s POC cinematic revolution is finally upon us in Marvel’s Black Panther. Not just a celebration of black excellence in an arena...

Doctor Sleep Review

Stands on its own merits with a balancing act that stays faithful to the madness of The Shining but injects an air of horror mastery. Almost 40 years after Stanley Kubrick gave us his adaptation of Stephen King novel The Shining, filmmaker Mike Flanagan unleashes his sequel to the much–loved classic with Doctor Sleep.  Apprehension and expectation lay heavy amongst...

A Private War Review

Transfixing, uncompromisingly visceral and tonally raw, Heineman’s A Private War is a powerfully traumatic memoir. There comes a time we all need a little reminder exactly what it takes for reporters to report from the war-ravaged countries of our world, to deliver the news of heartbreaking atrocities some would rather keep quiet. Matthew Heineman’s latest delves into that very subject...

Moana Review

Disney seems to have struck gold with the diverse and empowering Moana, shining a light not only on Polynesian culture but also portraying its female protagonist as a feisty, adventurous and inquisitive girl that doesn’t fall under the stereotypical princess persona. Who better to capture the Disney magic than veteran  legendary directors John Musker and Ron Clements, the men behind...

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...