DVD & VOD

Review by Ben Holliday After a two-week hiatus, Preacher makes an explosive return to our screens with Episode 2 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in the UK. Similarly, to the first episode, this was a slow burner, tentatively building the suspense surrounding our main cast of characters. However, episode 2 makes use of its cable home, with incredibly graphic and impressive action scenes truly upping the ante. Now that isn’t to say that character building is foregone in the name of...

Review by Leslie Byron Pitt Gabriel Ripstein’s minimalist 600 Miles has a naïve, young gun runner (Kristyan Ferrer) deciding that the best thing to do with an injured ATF agent (Tim Roth) is to take him hostage. It’s a novice mistake and one that many could only see happening in the fictional world that certain crime films inhabit. That said, one thing Ripstein’s feature does well, it is illustrating just how green the young lead of the story is.  It’s...

Review by Ben New There are two basic types of proper rubbish films; ones that know they are rubbish and ones that don’t. The perfect example of the latter would be Tommy Wiseau’s The Room which, although could be described as the Kruger-Dunning effect 24 times a second, becomes almost an extra-terrestrial meditation on what a film is. I am Wrath, however, is closer to the former. It is safe to assume director Chuck Russell, whose credits include The Mask,...

Review By Michael McNulty You may find it difficult to decide how to feel about Youth, Paolo Sorrentino’s most recent cinematic offering.  Set in a luxury spa hotel in the Swiss Alps, the film has a quiet melancholy about it with an undercurrent of comedy flowing beneath the surface. Youth’s rich visuals are beautifully stylised, but the film feels indulgent and overly sentimental and lacks a forward movement that limits its emotional engagement. It’s about two old, successful friends reflecting...

Reviewed by Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada Mavis! explores the life and career of Mavis Staples, from her beginnings as a young girl performing gospel songs with her dad Pops and her siblings as the Staples Singers, through their transition to soul, some of her most important collaborations, and the ups and downs of a career in a changing musical industry. With interview footage from herself, prominent collaborators and friends, and ample concert footage, it's an engaging portrait of a never-tired singer...

Review by Leslie Byron Pitt/@Afrofilmviewer Carl Bernstein: All these neat, little houses and all these nice, little streets... It's hard to believe that something's wrong with some of those little houses. Bob Woodward: No, it isn't.    - All The President Men, 1976, Alan J. Pakula. Like so many recent Oscar Winners. It’s easy to feel, much like the #OscarSoWhite hubbub, that Spotlight has already seemed to be forgotten. The likes of Mad Max: Fury Road and its director is still...

Review by Leslie Byron Pitt Note: This review contains what could be considered mild spoilers Twenty four year old Joy (Brie Larson) and her son Jack (Jacob Trembley) live as hostages inside a squalid shed in Ohio, which they describe as Room. They eat, sleep and exercise all within this tiny space as captives of a man they name “Old Nick” who routinely abuses Joy. Jack (a product of abuse) is often hidden from Nick by Joy, who does her...

Review by Leslie Byron Pitt Arabian Nights – The Restless One is the type of film in which you can easily imagine certain cliques chomping at the bit to discuss and lavish praise upon. However, if the film doesn’t hit the same sweet spot, you can easily see the same cliques instantly dismissed as some sort of Philistine. At one private joke. Almost as if they’re laughing at you. It’s hard not to think this. You just spent a good...

Review by Leslie Byron Pitt Scandinavian fiction has gained a significant amount of attention over the last few years. With good reason too. Whether it's film or television, there’s been an abundance of mature, adult drama. Be it critiques on masculinity such as the 2014 feature Force Majeure, or the power play politics that feature in the likes of Adam Prices’ well received TV Drama series Borgen. As primarily a film writer, I often don’t have the time to venture...