Reviews in a nutshell
The Greengrass-Damon brigade was always on the ready to sniff at this latest film in the Bourne franchise and dismiss – as they see it – its dissemination of the personal path to self-preservation and discovery that Jason Bourne was determined to follow. The fact is Legacy is about the wider picture: just how wide …
Gotham City is once more set as an unsettling place to live with its future in the balance, allowing visionary film-maker Christopher Nolan the opportunity to propel us into the depths of human despair and depravity in his latest dark saga, The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR). But with this film, which completes the story arc …
Setting the end of the world as a romcom backdrop may seem like an original bittersweet idea, and in the hands of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist writer Lorene Scafaria who directs for the first time here, it has so much dark, quirky potential. Indeed, Scafaria’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World …
Continue reading “Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World ***”
General consensus is Marc Webb (of 500 Days of Summer fame) has delivered a reboot of the original Spider-Man (2002). That much is true. However, he has taken a lot of the wit and sensitivity of his hit rom-com and added it to the superhero genre, effectively making a superhero reboot should appeal to a …
Writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait – he of whiny, high-pitched and inane Zed of Police Academy fame – does not hold back on trampling taboos in his aim to despair of the contemporary demise of social interaction and insatiable appetite for gossipy tripe. As in World’s Greatest Dad (2009), he makes you sit up and pay attention …
The title of Julia Leigh’s novel is a very appropriate double entendre for the main character of this haunting film adaptation, representing more one man’s fascinating and harrowing journey of self discovery that forever challenges expectations than the literal sense and job title of the protagonist. Director Daniel Nettheim only had one actor in mind …
The promise of a musical number with Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah in it may cause some to stuff cheese in their ears and run for the proverbial hills for cover. Others may welcome the idea as a chance for some vocal chemistry and sparkle on screen. Add in the gospel-singing aspect, and there should …
Teaming up with writer Tracy Letts of Bug again, The Exorcist and The French Connection director William Friedkin decides to go down the depressingly claustrophobic route of his 2006 film, trapping us with his characters in a seemingly hopeless spiral of existence in Killer Joe. However, there is some depraved glee that this filmmaker takes …
Emily Blunt is having a field day at present, career-wise, dabbling in an assortment of film styles and character relationships. But perhaps her best work is when she is being completely natural and subtly funny, as in Humpday writer-director Lynn Shelton’s Your Sister’s Sister as Iris. The film’s strength is in its realistic improvisation, like …
