Film Reviews

Bird Box, Netflix’s new apocalyptic thriller, jumps between two timelines in an uncompromisingly dark narrative. Based on the 2014 novel by Josh Malerman, this adaption is stacked with talent and the premise seemed like a sure winner: it’s set around a mysterious force that compels people to commit suicide once they see it. The film works for a while, but unfortunately becomes undone by genre clichés and lapses in logic. Sandra Bullock stars as Malorie, an expectant mother who only...

Growing up, my understanding of Robert Rodriguez films consisted solely of Spy Kids. I did not watch Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn or subsequently Sin City or Machete. I suppose his work is a cultural blind spot for me but in truth I felt let down by Spy Kids, the less than impressed 10-year-old I was. So upon viewing Alita: Battle Angel, I did so with some trepidation. Was Rodriguez going to let me down again as he has 18 years ago...

Dean DeBlois has done it again! One of the most noticeable and remarkable things about the How to train your Dragon franchise is its ability to make adults realise their inner child and come into touch with those feelings once again. Furthermore, the animation captivatingly brings to life a world where dragons actually exist, and leaves us dreaming we were Berkians living in the village of Berk. Let’s face it, with dragons as adorable as Toothless, who wouldn’t want to be a...

The Copacabana nightclub, 1962. The rugged chief bouncer Tony 'The Lip' Vallelonga finds himself out of work while the club is refurbished, and agrees to drive concert pianist Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) across country for his upcoming tour. Snags to this arrangement are that not only is Don a genteel, particular man, he is also an African-American who will be travelling through the American Deep South. Tony must rely on the Green Book for Negro Travellers to get Don...

Vice opens not in an office of government but with the sight of a young Dick Cheney being called over by the police for drink driving. Having already dropped out of Yale, he spent most of his early twenties drinking and working as an electricity maintenance worker. Fearful that his life was going nowhere, his wife Lynne (Amy Adams) demands that he cleans up his act and by 1969 he was interning in the White House. Initially under the tutelage...

There's something rather troubling about Glass Most of the film is set in a lunatic asylum where our 'heroes', convinced they're of the super variety, are being treated for various forms of mental illness. The psychiatrist in charge, played by Sarah Paulson, is trying to achieve a breakthrough in record time by curing them of their delusions. But are they delusions? The inmates, Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) and David Dunn (Bruce Willis) seem to...

Beautiful Boy is an affecting drama about a father coping with his son’s drug addiction that is equally intriguing as it is frustrating. It stars Steve Carrell as David Sheff, a successful journalist living in rural California. His son Nic (Timothée Chalamet) is a seemingly normal teenager who is getting ready to go to university but it becomes apparent that he is not just consuming alcohol and cannabisbut also cocaine, ecstasy, and crystal meth. A short stink in rehab appears to have positive results but, in a...

KinDir: Josh and Jonathan BakerI talk about the way films are marketed, or rather mis-marketed, a lot. Outside the cinemas, UK distribution is awash with films you might never notice have been released. Some you might have heard of, except they got released with new titles. Others, like Kin, have DVD art that makes them look like something completely different. At its heart, Kin is about brothers. 14 year old Eli (Myles Truitt) is adopted, and his older ex-con adoptive...

Stan Laurel and Ollie Hardy had been performing together for almost 30 years when they arrived in the UK in 1954 for a theatre tour. Their glory days were clearly behind them but they put on a string of admirable performances despite their advanced years and failing health. They may no longer have been at the cutting edge of comedy but there was an undeniable spark that remained between them. Stan & Ollie follows them on this bittersweet tour as they try...