Film Reviews

By Anna Power Tom Ford’s long awaited follow up to A Single Man is a tale of heartbreak and revenge on an epic scale. Opulent, toxic and devastatingly dark, Nocturnal Animals’ double narrative unfurls with the slow-drip bitterness of the broken enmeshed with Ford’s mesmerising style, underpinned with a caustic derision of wealth and meaningless materialism. Based on Austin Wright’s 1993 novel Tony and Susan, the film opens in the lavish world of art gallery owner Susan Morrow, played brilliantly...

Review by Leslie Byron Pitt/@Afrofilmviewer When Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson original left the WWE to become a movie star, it was easy to see him as a star in the same vein as Arnold Schwarzenegger: A heavyweight presence who may not have a decent set of thespian chops, and would do little else but wield large firearms with remarkable ease and walk away from explosions like the coolest guy around. Looking back at Johnson’s Career now that he’s been branded...

By Anna Power Based on the graphic novel by Raymond Briggs, Ethel and Ernest is a love song to his parents, to working class values and to a uniquely English way of life that belonged to a time now gone forever. Touching and deeply personal, the film follows the couple through their courtship in the 1920’s to their deaths in the 1970’s, with a backdrop of the tumultuous and rapidly transmogrifying twentieth century piercing through their suburban ebb and flow...

By Leslie Byron Pitt/@Afrofilmviewer A recreational documentary in a similar vein to The Arbour (2010) or Dreams of a Life (2011), Notes on Blindness details us of the grand upheaval taken of famed academic John Hull as he loses his sight days after the birth of his first son. Directors James Spinney, Peter Middleton carefully craft a delicate series of vignettes in which we are informed of Hull’s frank dealings with losing his sight. We trace Hull recruiting a team...

No stranger to controversy, Oliver Stone continues his exploration of personal conflict enmeshed with the political, in his latest film Snowden. Bringing fresh perspective on Edward Snowden - the man, and his whistleblowing on covert civilian data monitoring by the NSA (National Security Agency), the film casts a paranoiac shadow over labyrinthine, secretive government operations resulting in a tense, dramatisation of events. Building on Laura Poitras Oscar winning documentary Citizenfour, the film starts at the now infamous rendezvous at the...

Have you ever seen a film in which an excessively flatulent corpse falls in love? Unless you've already seen Swiss Army Man, I'm guessing you won't have done. It's almost as if someone in Hollywood has actually been listening to everyone complaining, “Every film is a sequel! There's nothing original anymore! Stop remaking things that are already good!”. At the absolute most you could compare Swiss Army Man to Castaway, in so much as it does involve a castaway. And...

“I’m not the girl I used to be - I think people can see that on my face,” confesses Emily Blunt’s character, Rachel, in the opening scene of The Girl on The Train. Finally, Paula Hawkins’ bestselling thriller has transferred to our screens - and it doesn’t disappoint. Refreshingly, the plot stays faithful to the book - bar ditching London for New York as the location. Rachel is the alcoholic narrator who is obsessed with her ex-husband Tom (Justin Theroux)...

Review by Leslie Byron Pitt/@Afrofilmviewer When we consider early Wes Craven films, it is Last House on the Left (1972) which often grabs the plaudits for the way it helped redefine the horror genre with its grimness. While this is true, in terms of craft, The Hills Have Eyes is far more accomplished in executing the same ideas. Last House’s grimness made it stand out, but The Hills Have Eyes’ central conflict is realised with far more confidence. Now with...

Review by Leslie Byron Pitt/@Afrofilmviewer It’s hard to say too much about Fight Valley. It’s very hard to say anything particularly pleasant. There’s nothing more painful for a film writer, than viewing a film that doesn’t emit any pleasure in any moment of its running time. You don’t watch a b-movie like this looking for a film that defines a generation, but you expect it to at least have a decent ass kicking. Using popular UFC stars to try and...