Film

By Anna Power, Film Editor @TLE_film Few films depict the real horror of war like Kajaki. The True Story. So realistic is the carnage that the film moves into trailblazer territory, taking the war film genre and catapulting it into brave new terrain. It’s a visceral and shockingly authentic portrayal of a British unit’s experience of the Afghanistan war. The film’s release too is a timely one, wedged between Remembrance Sunday and the WW1 Centenary, a poignant and fitting reminder...

By Philip Benton @paolobento Edward Snowden and his revelations about the NSA’s surveillance activities were one of (if not the) stories of 2013. The first meeting in Snowden’s Hong Kong hotel room with The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald was documented by filmmaker Laura Poitras, which provides the main backdrop for the film. The title ‘Citizenfour’ comes from the username chosen by Snowden to contact Poitras when he raises his initial concerns over what he perceives as the US government spying on...

“ I take it, I take it and I flip it.” James Brown Get On Up is a moving and suitably energetic homage to the legend that was James Brown, The Godfather of Soul. Much more than a rags-to-riches tale and avoiding the usual drab pitfalls that standard syrupy colour-by-number biopics fall into, Director Tate Taylor delivers a riveting portrait of a remarkable talent and an extraordinary life. A poor boy born in the rubble, extreme poverty, domestic violence, abandonment...

By Leigh Parsons @Cinimalist What We Do in the Shadows is a new mockumentary film about a group of vampires directed by and starring Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) and Taika Waititi. It is also a strong contender for the funniest film of the year. From its opening fake titles “The New Zealand Documentary Board” the tone of the film is set. Three old vampires, plus an ancient one, live in a flat share in Wellington and bicker about the...

By Anna Power, Film Editor @TLE_film Christopher Nolan fans will delight at the loopy, lustrous, pyrotechnic vision that is Interstellar but will the narrative hold up by comparison?   Set in the near future, in a period of post climate-change meltdown and pre-apocalyptic collapse, we find the inhabitants of Earth (those lucky enough to still be alive), surviving, all hands turned to farming in an attempt to cultivate soil that is well on its way to desertification. Dust storms are...

By Nick Figgis A seriously inconvenient truth, but it might be time we face it. Kuhn and Anderson's thrilling documentary is a rare gem in environmental film – it poses questions and actually answers them. I watched most of Cowspiracy muttering expletives under my breath. For a meat and dairy eater, whose girlfriend has been known to ask if I “want some toast with my butter,” it's an eye opener but not in the way you might expect. Fear not,...

By Anna Power @powersfilms Andrei Zvyagintsev's Leviathan is a tale of rot and corruption in modern day Russia that is as brittle and barren as the skeletal Whale carcass beached on the shore of this remote northwestern Russian town. Unforgiving and relentless, the film’s darkness is offset by exquisite raucous vodka-drenched banter of the kind that provokes laughter and blushes in equal measure. A rough re-working of the Old Testament’s Book of Job, it tells the story of Kolya (Alexei...

By Emma Silverthorn @HouseOf_Gazelle On paper the trajectory of novelist Phillip’s career is every writers dream. With the publication of his second book Philip (Jason Schwartzman) is put on The New Yorker’s five under thirty five list, is taken under the wing of his literary idol Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce) and is offered unlimited residence at Zimmerman’s summerhouse retreat. The films premise lying in Philip’s strong desire to eschew toxic, urban life in order to find creative solitude and peace...

By Anna Power @powersfilms Following on from his success with Dallas Buyers Club Jean-Marc Vallee directs Wild, a tale of grief, hurt and healing, literally one step at a time. Reece Witherspoon gives a striking performance as novice, lone-hiker Cheryl Strayed (based on her memoir) who undertook the precipitous 1,100 mile journey through the wilderness as the ill-thought-through solution to a car-crash rock bottom, resulting in the breakdown of her marriage and subsequent divorce. Donning freshly pressed hiking trousers and...