The Problem with Paranormal Activity
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR PARANORMAL ACTIVITY FOLLOW Welcomed as a returning hero this year by the horror genre, Paranormal Activity heralded the commercial arrival, or re-arrival, of the ‘found footage’ genre (we’ve already got James Marsh entering the fray). The Blair Witch Project, a film still entirely underrated, popularised the sub-genre in the late-90s, though without [...]
Producer John: Moon Review
***Spoiler warnings! This review discusses some of the finer points of Moon which do contain a few spoilers, read at your own risk!*** I love science fiction, a fact that has been established on our show a number of times. It’s fair to say that Primer changed the way I look at the genre in [...]
Review: Antichrist
Perversity amongst filmmakers can often be intensely offputting for audiences, that sense amongst some of the so-called enfant terribles of modern European cinema to poke fun at audiences in increasingly self-reflexive and judgemental ways. Last year’s most visible example of this came in the form of Michael Haneke’s US remake of his own Funny Games, [...]
Review: Public Enemies
There are certain films that you see announced, subsequently chronicled in their making and then given trailers prior to release that, when you actually see them, they are completely and totally what you had expected to see from start to finish. Public Enemies is, and note this is not wholly negative, exactly what you would [...]
Review: Observe and Report
Seth Rogen is fast-becoming a very interesting type of new movie star. Not typically handsome in a matinee idol sense, he does have a loafish aesthetic charm and, when scrubbed up, isn’t too bad to look at. Despite that potential lack of looks, Rogen has formed a position as one of the top names in [...]
Review: Bronson
Bronson Starring: Tom Hardy, Matt King, James Lance, Juliet Oldfield Writer: Brock Norman Brock and Nicholas Winding Refn Director: Nicholas Winding Refn Controversial subjects tend to provide controversial movies and Bronson on face-value provides a number of probing questions as to appropriate film subjects and whether making a biopic of a man whose life has [...]
Review: Watchmen
Anticipation for comic book adaptations come in very different forms. The Batman movies all suffer from a similar fate in that fans want darker every time, hence the widespread spurning given to Joel Schumacher’s Cyberpunk nightmares during the 1990s. Daredevil suffered a similar fate, although in both cases, little argument can be made for the [...]
Review: Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road Starring: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon, Dylan Baker, Richard Easton, David Harbour Writer: Justin Haythe Director: Sam Mendes Adapting truly great novels onto film has always been, will always be, a near impossible task. The best novels, no matter their genre, tend to use the form in a way which [...]
Review: Frost/Nixon
Frost/Nixon Starring: Michael Sheen, Frank Langella, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall, Matthew Macfadyen, Toby Jones Director: Ron Howard Writer: Peter Morgan Ron Howard has an ability to make engaging and entertaining films about fascinating subjects which end up being hollow, forgettable and ultimately short of the mark of being great. Howard is [...]
Review: Milk
Milk Starring: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco, Diego Luna, Emile Hirsch, Alison Pill, Victor Garber, Lucas Grabeel Director: Gus van Sant Writer: Dustin Lance Black While likely never by design, Milk comes to the wider filmmaking market at a startling prescient point in history which adds further weight to its message and attaches a [...]
Review: Rachel Getting Married
Rachel Getting Married Starring: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Debra Winger,Mather Zickel, Tunde Adebimpe, Anna Deavere Smith Director: Jonathan Demme Writer: Jenny Lumet Anne Hathaway has long seemed like she was seeking a breakout role to burst out of matinee status and into the accepted upper echelons of the film world. Her role here [...]
Review: Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire Starring: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Madhur Mittal Director: Danny Boyle (Loveleen Tandan, co-director) Writer: Simon Beaufoy, from the novel by Vikas Swarup Lauded prior to release on our side of the pond, Slumdog Millionaire is a pretty outstanding piece of British filmmaking, one of the fine times when Danny [...]
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