survival
Inside Llewyn Davis
The Coens tell a story of the man who would not be Bob Dylan with such relentless unapologetic deflation that it actually feels like something out of the end of the sixties, like Midnight Cowboy or Medium Cool or Easy Rider (all
Inside Llewyn Davis
The Coens tell a story of the man who would not be Bob Dylan with such relentless unapologetic deflation that it actually feels like something out of the end of the sixties, like Midnight Cowboy or Medium Cool or Easy Rider (all
Noah
God gets a bad rap in Noah, as Darren Aronofsky tries to construe a story that makes no physical, psychological or moral sense. A brood of hapless humans is disgorged out onto what looks like a barren coalfield with no recourse
Noah
God gets a bad rap in Noah, as Darren Aronofsky tries to construe a story that makes no physical, psychological or moral sense. A brood of hapless humans is disgorged out onto what looks like a barren coalfield with no recourse
Performance (1970)
An art movie, a drug movie, a Mick Jagger acting debut, Nicolas Roeg’s directing debut, a late, post-swinging 60’s bohemian manifesto, but underpinning all that one of the best British gangster flicks around. It features a foulmouthed, thuggish, head kicking
Performance (1970)
An art movie, a drug movie, a Mick Jagger acting debut, Nicolas Roeg’s directing debut, a late, post-swinging 60’s bohemian manifesto, but underpinning all that one of the best British gangster flicks around. It features a foulmouthed, thuggish, head kicking
Pandora’s Promise
This unabashedly pro-nuclear documentary makes a good case, or rather an already well established case, that we need to find, by yesterday, a viable alternative to fossil fuels given the current dangers to human survival presented by combustion power. The
Pandora’s Promise
This unabashedly pro-nuclear documentary makes a good case, or rather an already well established case, that we need to find, by yesterday, a viable alternative to fossil fuels given the current dangers to human survival presented by combustion power. The
The Purge
Extrapolated a few degrees sideways into a parallel future, America has undergone some kind of reboot. The ‘new founding fathers’ have reclaimed the night for freedom, the expression of which is an annual holiday where law and order are suspended
The Purge
Extrapolated a few degrees sideways into a parallel future, America has undergone some kind of reboot. The ‘new founding fathers’ have reclaimed the night for freedom, the expression of which is an annual holiday where law and order are suspended
Gravity
It’s rare for a movie to sustain a high level of tension for its entire running length. Gravity achieves this feat by playing in real time, or close to it, opening with a set piece that clocks in at 13
Blue Jasmine
It seems Woody Allen fans found Blue Jasmine to be the offering that did the most for quite some time to satisfy them, while doing the least to meet their expectations. It is one of the bleakest films in his
Blue Jasmine
It seems Woody Allen fans found Blue Jasmine to be the offering that did the most for quite some time to satisfy them, while doing the least to meet their expectations. It is one of the bleakest films in his
Frances Ha
Though brushed by Fame and bearing a translucent overlay of Manhattan and and its Parisian forebears, Frances Ha seems for the most part to have spilled out of Lena Dunham’s Girls-iverse, its female protagonist in an extended tragi-comic freefall toward
Frances Ha
Though brushed by Fame and bearing a translucent overlay of Manhattan and and its Parisian forebears, Frances Ha seems for the most part to have spilled out of Lena Dunham’s Girls-iverse, its female protagonist in an extended tragi-comic freefall toward
Les Miserables
With every line sung rather than spoken and much of it internal monologue rather than dialogue, Les Miserables and musicals like it redraw the rules of what is cinematically permissible. Melodrama flourishes while realism diminishes in value almost entirely. In
Les Miserables
With every line sung rather than spoken and much of it internal monologue rather than dialogue, Les Miserables and musicals like it redraw the rules of what is cinematically permissible. Melodrama flourishes while realism diminishes in value almost entirely. In
Argo
A useful writer’s lesson in how suspense is created. If you separate the true story from the invented fictional overlays you’ll find in one hand a finely crafted collection of reversals, all is lost moments, narrow escapes and races against
Argo
A useful writer’s lesson in how suspense is created. If you separate the true story from the invented fictional overlays you’ll find in one hand a finely crafted collection of reversals, all is lost moments, narrow escapes and races against
Lore
Cate Shortland reprises the themes of her previous feature Somersault with another tale about another girl who came down in the last shower, a hard rain that dumps her unarmed into a world corrupted. In Somersault, Abbie Cornish’s performance as
Lore
Cate Shortland reprises the themes of her previous feature Somersault with another tale about another girl who came down in the last shower, a hard rain that dumps her unarmed into a world corrupted. In Somersault, Abbie Cornish’s performance as
Life of Pi
The future of 3D cinema depends upon its exploration as an artform unique to itself – something closer to theatre or sculpture than to traditional cinema. Otherwise it seems to do little but offer novelty and a problematic highlighting of
Life of Pi
The future of 3D cinema depends upon its exploration as an artform unique to itself – something closer to theatre or sculpture than to traditional cinema. Otherwise it seems to do little but offer novelty and a problematic highlighting of
Beasts of the Southern Wild
A slight, sometimes imperceptible tale nevertheless remarkable and rewarding for its sheer lack of convention. It’s disorienting enough to leave us wondering whether we are watching an apocalyptic sci-fi, a myth retold, or just a minor extrapolation of events surrounding
Beasts of the Southern Wild
A slight, sometimes imperceptible tale nevertheless remarkable and rewarding for its sheer lack of convention. It’s disorienting enough to leave us wondering whether we are watching an apocalyptic sci-fi, a myth retold, or just a minor extrapolation of events surrounding
Attack The Block
Ewokish chavs on bicycles save their corner of the world from something toothy and belligerent out of Ben10. Like many movies about wayward youth it resolves with the protagonists’ reintegration into society, but in doing so discounts any special vision
Attack The Block
Ewokish chavs on bicycles save their corner of the world from something toothy and belligerent out of Ben10. Like many movies about wayward youth it resolves with the protagonists’ reintegration into society, but in doing so discounts any special vision
Safe House
The trilogy of this, Training Day and Man on Fire (let’s overlook The Book of Eli) mounts a strong case for Denzel Washington being today’s front running hollywood BAMF and you didn’t even notice. Maybe a cage match with Vincent
Safe House
The trilogy of this, Training Day and Man on Fire (let’s overlook The Book of Eli) mounts a strong case for Denzel Washington being today’s front running hollywood BAMF and you didn’t even notice. Maybe a cage match with Vincent
Source Code
Up until it starts trying to justify it’s underlying science, Source Code looks for all the world like a classy, economical sci-fi thriller. But it’s unclear whether it’s us or the writers who never quite grasp what they’re talking about,
Source Code
Up until it starts trying to justify it’s underlying science, Source Code looks for all the world like a classy, economical sci-fi thriller. But it’s unclear whether it’s us or the writers who never quite grasp what they’re talking about,
Margin Call
Still wondering where all the money went? A lot of it was never really there. And then there weren’t enough chairs when the music stopped. It’s a story that deserves half a dozen tellings and probably the first movie I’ve
Margin Call
Still wondering where all the money went? A lot of it was never really there. And then there weren’t enough chairs when the music stopped. It’s a story that deserves half a dozen tellings and probably the first movie I’ve
The Hunger Games
This best selling US tweeny book franchise gets a lot less love than Harry Potter did. Other than the cast there’s little to distinguish it from a sci-fi channel production. Nevertheless, the Survivor/Big Brother/Battle Royale template proves an enduring recipe
The Hunger Games
This best selling US tweeny book franchise gets a lot less love than Harry Potter did. Other than the cast there’s little to distinguish it from a sci-fi channel production. Nevertheless, the Survivor/Big Brother/Battle Royale template proves an enduring recipe
The Dark Knight Rises
Don’t know what all the fuss was about, seems like pretty decent entertainment to me. That’s what I thought two hours in. But the last long hour sees the darkness groan and splinter under the weight of it’s ambitions. It
The Dark Knight Rises
Don’t know what all the fuss was about, seems like pretty decent entertainment to me. That’s what I thought two hours in. But the last long hour sees the darkness groan and splinter under the weight of it’s ambitions. It
Haywire
Soderbergh has a stab at affected genre in this revisitation of Nikita without the bondage, or Bourne without the amnesia. You know the story, and once again the moral is… maybe don’t double cross your highly trained martial arts super
Haywire
Soderbergh has a stab at affected genre in this revisitation of Nikita without the bondage, or Bourne without the amnesia. You know the story, and once again the moral is… maybe don’t double cross your highly trained martial arts super