Reviews in a nutshell
As wartime dramas go, one begins to feel very much like another. But what debut feature-film writer-director Amit Gupta has created is an alternative 1940s ‘reality’, based on a fascinating novel by Owen Sheers, about what if the Nazis had succeeded with their invasion plans of Old Blighty. Resistance actually reignites our interest in the …
As predicted, the next film in The Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn Part 1, breaks box office records for the ‘biggest non-3D’ opening Friday film of all time. Perhaps if it had been 3D, it could have topped even that feat – who knows? One thing is for certain, the love triangle that is Bella Swan, Edward …
Continue reading “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 **”
Believe the stories of disturbed audience members leaving various screenings – there were a few hurried departures when we saw this film at this year’s London Film Festival. Debut feature writer-director Justin Kurzel has co-penned a gripping, ‘car-crash’ account based on a true Australian crime story from the 1990s. However, it’s not necessarily the crime that …
No stranger to staging well-paced crime thrillers, like The Bank Job, The Recruit and No Way Out, director Roger Donaldson is about as qualified as any to bring this gritty story of crime and revenge to the screen – all set in one of the most exciting cities in the US, New Orleans. But although …
Remember last year’s The Way Back, starring Colin Farrell, Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris and rising Hanna star Saoirse Ronan, where Siberian gulag escapees seem to walk half the planet to reach a safe destination, and defy all of nature’s odds? Well, writer-director Stéphane Rybojad’s new French action drama Special Forces feels much the same, only …
Writer-director Nick Murphy’s first feature film, The Awakening, is a bold step into the well-trodden genre of horror. Thankfully, Murphy has mixed supernatural intrigue with historical fact to bolster his story’s significance, adopting an old-fashioned ghost-hunting theme to its investigative concept, without relying on modern-day effects for big scares. Set in 1921 England, there is …
Those expecting the delicate etiquette and burning passionate of Emily Brontë’s infamous 1847 doomed love affair, Wuthering Heights, set on the Yorkshire Moors, may find award-winning Fish Tank director Andrea Arnold’s film version a little rougher round the edges, but equally dramatic. Rather than the fluffy period drama brought to many screens over the years, …
Having excelled in all acting roles he has ever taken on, it is only fitting that Philip Seymour Hoffman should move behind the camera to continue his monopoly of the film industry. Thankfully, he also co-stars in his directorial debut, Jack Goes Boating, so as not to deprive us of his great talent. Hoffman plays …
Tinge Krishnan’s debut British feature was the toast of this year’s London Film Festival, with newcomer Candese Reid winning ‘Best British Newcomer’ for her portrayal of rougher sleeper Lynette. Junkhearts is a prime example of British independent filmmaking in grim motion, unsurprisingly falling into the gloomy, socio-political drama category that is so often prevalent at …
