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Reviews

There’s no stopping this snowman from melting

Director: Tomas Alfredson Starring: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, J.K. Simmons, Toby Jones, Val Kilmer Running time: 119 mins

Nordic noir is something that Hollywood has been trying to crack for many years. Although movies, novels and TV shows on this side of the pond have slashed their way to nordic noir notoriety, Hollywood’s attempts to produce this type of dark, urban-based crime fiction hasn’t produced many results.

Expectations were high, however, when news broke of The Snowman; a Jo Nesbø novel adaptation directed by Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy director Tomas Alfredson, starring Michael Fassbender and produced by none other than Martin Scorsese. On paper The Snowman should be a masterpiece. In reality, it couldn’t be further from one.

October 27, 2017
2017, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Chloë Sevigny, David Dencik, Drama, J.K. Simmons, Jo Nesbø, Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, The Snowman, Thriller, Toby Jones, Tomas Alfredson, Val Kilmer

Reviews

The Death of Stalin finds farcical comedy in grim reality

Director: Armando Iannucci Starring: Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jason Isaacs, Michael Palin Running Time: 107 minutes

For years with both The Thick of It and Veep, Armando Iannucci has brilliant and bitterly skewed the nature of politicians in the West, bumbling self-servingly from scandal to scandal, always better equipped at putting down each other than accomplishing anything on their own. Applying that style of satire to Soviet Russia seems like a recipe for great comedy, but the stakes are rather different in a political climate where no one is allowed to admit that scandals ever happened and putting down political rivals meant a few feet underground rather than a few creatively chosen swear words. Staging the aftermath of Josef Stalin’s death similarly to the events of an episode of one of those programmes results in a black comedy that’s frequently very funny, but the satire here has a somber note too. That the people in charge of a superpower could be as arrogant and incompetent as those shuffled off to The Thick of It‘s Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship has some fairly chilling implications. Thank Christ we don’t have to worry about anything like that these days.

Reviews

Brawl in Cell Block 99-Vince Vaughn: Skull Cruncher

Director: S Craig Zahler Starring: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Udo Kier Running time: 132 mins

Vince Vaughn: Skull Cruncher. Liberator of eyeballs, improvised body disposal expert. That isn’t the full extent of Vaughn’s MO in S Craig Zahler’s unflinchingly violent Brawl in Cell Block 99 but it’s a start.

October 23, 2017
2017, Don Johnson, Jennifer Carpenter, S Craig Zahler, Udo Kier, Vince Vaughn

Reviews

Head versus Heart in The Mountain Between Us

Director: Hany Abu-Assad Starring: Kate Winslet, Idris Elba, Austin the Dog, Raleigh the Dog Running time: 103 mins

The Mountain Between Us opens on Alex Martin (Kate Winslet) with a skilled American accent and an arsenal of questions, a complete contrast to Ben’s (Idris Elba) British stoic suave. They are total strangers, thrown together by bad weather and circumstance. They arrive at the airport to find out all flights to Denver are cancelled, but with Ben flying out to perform a surgery and Alex trying to make it to her wedding, they can’t wait until the next morning. Alex charters a plane, piloted by a sweet old man and his faithful dog, and having overheard his troubles, she invites Ben to tag along. Disaster ensues.

October 10, 2017
Action-adventure, Austin the Dog, Beau Bridges, Charles Martin, Dermot Mulroney, Hany Abu-Assad, Idris Elba, Kate Winslet, Raleigh the Dog, Renee Ehrlich Kalfus, Survival Films, Survival movie, The Mountain Between Us

Reviews

Blade Runner 2049 finds the tears in the rain in a stunning sequel

Director: Denis Villeneuve Starring: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, Jared Leto, Ana de Armas Running Time: 163 minutes

The advanced screening of Blade Runner 2049 and presumably, all advanced screenings of the film, began with a letter from the director, imploring those in attendance to keep tight lipped about the film’s various twists and turns, to “not spoil the magic”. And though there are plenty of spoilers that will, for the purposes of playing ball, be avoided in this review, Blade Runner and its sequel are not films about the plot details, not really. Despite the many story-changing cuts and decades of speculation and misleading trailers and advance screening advanced warnings, these are films whose true value lays not in the story beats but in the ideas and the images and everything else that a rogue tweet or a too-curious eye over a Wikipedia page cannot take away from you. From the outside, Blade Runner 2049 may look like yet another nostalgia cash-in, and an odd choice for one at that, but it’s no mere replicant of the original, providing a beautiful backdrop against which the series’ themes about identity, memory and autonomy are given further thought.

Reviews

Sometimes you can go Home Again – Review

Director: Hallie Meyers-Shyer Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Candice Bergen, Nico Alexander, Nat Wolff, Jon Rudnitsky Running Time: 97 minutes

First off, Home Again is not a rom-com. Don’t listen to what the critics want to tell you. It follows Alice, played with aplomb by Reese Witherspoon, who has recently left her man-child husband (Michael Sheen) in New York and returned to the restorative comforts of Los Angeles. With the help of her mother, she reclaims her identity and finds fulfilment.

Reviews

Stephen Burke’s Maze is Mature and Ethical Filmmaking

Director: Stephen Burke Starring: Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Barry Ward, Martin McCann Running Time: 92 minutes

Maze tells the story of the mass breakout of 38 IRA prisoners from the HMP Maze prison, which was built specifically for them, in 1983.

Maze‘s efforts to humanise all sides of the Troubles, including those suffering on the side lines, make it a compelling watch. Stephen Rennick’s gentle soundtrack and the cool blues of the prison are sublime.

September 22, 2017
Barry Ward, HMP Maze, Irish Film, Martin McCann, Maze, Northern Ireland, Stephen Burke, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor

Reviews

Mother, mother who’s that knocking at our door?

Director: Darren Aronofsky Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer Running Time: 121 minutes

Lurching out of a screening of mother! I had the chance to ask someone what they thought to which I was informed: “Eh, I kind of hated it”. It’s as good a line as any to begin on the Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky’s divisive latest, an allegorical horror very loosely about a married couple under siege.Read more…

September 22, 2017
Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky, Ed Harris, Javier Bardem, Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Pfieffer, mother!, Noah, Requiem for a Dream

Reviews

Stephen King horror floats back onto the big screen with IT

Director: Andy Muschietti Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Sophia Lillis, Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff Running Time: 135 minutes

Somewhere in the recesses of my memory a spectre of Tim Curry lurks, a cackling lunatic in clown make up who probably contributed to some lost hours of sleep. 27 years on from Tommy Lee Wallace’s TV miniseries, Stephen King’s grizzly, shapeshifting child killer is back, this time played by Bill Skarsgård and ably assisted by special effects a world removed from the 1990 miniseries.

Working from one of King’s most formidable books (1400 pages depending on the edition) this modern update, from Mama director Andy Muschietti, covers the first half of the novel, where a band of American children face off against a shape-shifting demon, predominantly appearing as a gleefully murderous clown named Pennywise.

September 9, 2017
Andy Muschietti, Bill Skarsgård, Chosen Jacobs, Finn Wolfhard, Horror, It, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Stephen King, Wyatt Oleff

Reviews

Wind River, white and in denial, I’m discussing you with bile today

Director: Taylor Sheridan Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Gil Birmingham, Graham Greene Running Time: 111 minutes

It would maybe be unfair to say that Wind River, the directorial debut of Sicario and Hell or High Water writer Taylor Sheridan, has bad intentions. A title card shown in the film’s final moments, which damningly reveals that the FBI does not keep statistics on missing Native American women, whose numbers remain unknown, aims to highlight the dismissive treatment of Native Americans by the US government. Which is probably evidence that the intentions here are good, but we all know where paths paved with good intentions tend to lead. Wind River occasionally taps into the same weary, dying heart of America melancholy that made Hell or High Water one of last year’s best films, but it’s difficult not to see its story as using the death of a young Native American woman to explore the pain and emotional redemption of Jeremy Renner, rather than the victims the film positions itself as having sympathy for. What this film wants to take a look at is certainly worth seeing it, but this is a story about a murdered Native American woman that looks down on women and sidelines Native Americans.

September 8, 2017
2017, Elizabeth Olsen, Gil Bermingham, Graham Greene, Jeremy Renner, Jon Bernthal, Taylor Sheridan, Wind River

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