Film Reviews

Whether it is the overtly racist Birth of a Nation – a film that President Woodrow Wilson screened at the White House – or Gone with the Wind which denies the truth about slavery,cinema for a long time failed in its depictions of race. 1989 was a monumental year on the global stage but it also saw a young black director called Spike Lee cover the topic of race with the intricacies and understanding that it deserved. Do the Right...

Best known for her editing work on the long-running television documentary series Panorama and Dispatches, Renee Edwards takes the director’s seat for the first time with her underwhelming documentary, One Note at a Time, an examination of New Orleans’ music scene post-hurricane Katrina. In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, which devastated the city and claimed the lives of over 1,800 residents, many residents chose to leave.  Amongst them were the stalwarts of the Crescent City’s music scene, a number...

When George Osborne initiated sweeping austerity cuts in the wake of the financial collapse it soon became apparent that the arts would be the first on the chopping board. Unlike hospitals, policing and defence the creative sectors don’t have the immediacy or even the public sensitivity boasted by their counterparts, and so with relatively little fuss cash spent on museums, libraries, dance and music was taken away. It’s hard to quantify the effect that has had on communities. Where we...

In 2014, Antoine Fuqua’s screen adaptation of the popular 1980s series The Equalizer took the box office by storm and went on to break more records by making almost 4 times more than it cost to make, not least thanks to the star power of its lead actor and all around Hollywood nice guy Denzel Washington. Now back for a second outing with the unimaginatively titled Equalizer 2, Fuqua offers up pretty much more of the same action-packed vigilante themed...

In Christopher Robin, director Marc Forster presents a nostalgia-laden adaptation of A.A Milne’s cherished children’s classic, in a film that is as heartwarming in its intent, as it is a little lacklustre in its delivery. Starring Ewan McGregor as the titular character, the film introduces a clever twist on the original story by offering Christopher as an adult in the midsts of a depressive midlife crisis, attempting to reconnect with his beloved Hundred Acre Wood, where along with his friends...

When I first saw Heathers I was in hospital. It was, perhaps, an unusual choice; a blackly comic satire about a popular girl (Winona Ryder’s Veronica) who has come to hate the clique she’s a part of (the titular Heathers, played by Kim Walker, Shannen Doherty and Lisanne Falk). Veronica gets roped into murder when her new boyfriend JD (Christian Slater) serves one of the Heathers a ‘hangover cure’ that is actually drain cleaner. The two of them make this,...

A tree sparks a spat between neighbours in Haffstein Gunnar Sigurðsson black comedy Under the Tree. When Atli (Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson), husband to Agnes (Lára Jóhanna Jónsdóttir) and father of young daughter Asa (Sigrídur Sigurpálsdóttir Scheving), is caught by his wife having a crafty wank early one morning to a video of him and an ex-girlfriend having sex, he is thrown out on the street.  With nowhere to go, but home, Atli heads for his parent’s place where an altogether...

Filmmakers have a strange habit of allowing the most horrific events to take place in the most beautiful of surroundings. This is most certainly the case with Sicilian Ghost Story, which is set in the woodlands and lakes that border one of the titular island’s small towns. The film centres around Giuseppe (Gaetano Fernandez), a 13 year old boy, and Luna (Julia Jedlikowska), a spirited girl in his class who has taken a liking to him. Giuseppe is sensitive and...

Dominic Savage delivers a noble if somewhat tepid character study of a desperate housewife in The Escape. Tara (Gemma Arterton) is a married mother of two.  She lives in the quiet, dull rabbit hutches of suburban London.  It is a lonely existence, and despite her family, she is isolated.  Her husband, Mark (Dominic Cooper), is the self-absorbed breadwinner, a man blind to his partner’s immeasurable unhappiness.  For Tara, life is a cycle of monotonous routine, the school run, the weekly...