Film

By Stephen Mayne @finalreel Amy Poehler is on the up. She’s already emerged as a comedy superstar in America off the back of a number of high profile gigs including Saturday Night Live, the lead role in hit sitcom Parks and Recreation, and as a highly lauded host, along with friend and fellow comedy superstar Tina Fey, of the Golden Globes. In the UK, her profile is lower, though this is not likely to remain the case for long. At...

By Stephen Mayne @finalreel At least Ruth & Alex knows its strengths, opening with a patented Morgan Freeman voiceover, before offering the gentle pleasures of Freeman and Diane Keaton hanging out together in New York. It hardly makes up for the mess on display elsewhere as a tangle of sub-plots generate an awful lot of noise without saying very much at all. Keaton and Freeman are the title’s Ruth and Alex, a happily married couple living in a beautiful New...

By Stephen Mayne @finalreel With Pixar’s quite brilliant back catalogue comes great expectation. When they’ve raised the bar and leapt over it so many times before, each new release has to approach masterpiece status just to avoid disappointment. After a fallow half decade since Toy Story 3 (2010), a period that saw two entertaining, yet bland sequels (Cars 2 & Monsters University), and a pretty good original piece (Brave), the studio has come roaring back with Inside Out, once again reaching...

By Ellery Nick @Ellery_Nick With the eyebrow-raising presence of Caitlyn Jenner in our mainstream news, it would seem a timely moment to hear the story of a transgender parent wrestling with her identity. But, away from the snapping of courageous photos and din of mass trolling, it is a work of fiction, 52 Tuesdays, that provides a refreshing and understated look at what that might actually mean. Winning a Sundance award for her directing, Sophie Hyde’s debut follows sixteen-year-old Billie,...

By Toby Venables @TobyVenables There’s a great moment in Dead Rising: Watchtower when the hero Chase attempts to dispatch a zombified cop in an trash-strewn alleyway. At one end, zombie hordes are moments away from bursting through the gates. At the other, a hideous zombie clown shuffles towards him, dragging an axe. Chase smacks the zom-cop with the first thing to hand: a bag of garbage – but it’s a poor choice of weapon. The cop draws his gun and...

Stephen Mayne interviewing Max Barron, one half of British Director Collective Jones. The sun is shining through the window on a warm July day as I sit hunched over the phone. On the other end of the line is Max Barron, half of the film making duo Jones, who have just seen their debut feature, Everyone’s Going to Die, launch in the UK to much acclaim. Refreshingly, it’s a British film that avoids feeling like a stereotypical British film. Max...

By Michael McNulty For many Taiwanese director Yee Chih-Yen’s latest film since Blue Gate Crossing (2002) may go unnoticed, when it shouldn’t. A charming film with socio-economic undertones Salute! Sun Yat-Sen finds itself firmly grounded as a coming of age dramedy. When Lefty, a young man brimming with charm and a smile capable of melting ice caps, finds himself struggling to pay high school tuition fees, he concocts a plan to steal, with the help of his friends, and sell...

By Ellery Nick @Ellery_Nick Ant-Man is here, riding on the back of ants to rid the planet of those who would seek to miniaturise themselves for all the wrong reasons. And so we meet Scott Lang, a soft-hearted criminal in the mould of Edward Snowden. Released from jail, Scott comes to the attention of retired hero Dr. Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas, who’s been watching him through his teeny bug cameras and thinks he’s got what it takes become...

By Stephen Mayne @finalreel If it wasn’t for the severed penis in a box, Barney Thomson’s amiable voiceover might signal the start of a relaxed jaunt through the life of a working class stiff in Glasgow. Alas, there is that severed penis in a box. And an arm, and a foot, and pretty much every other part all coming through Royal Mail delivery. I don’t know if their rules expressly forbid the posting of body parts from murder victims; if...