The phrase ‘cancer comedy’ sounds distasteful, but writer Will Reisner has managed to turn his own personal cancer story into a bromantic comedy-drama with character-driven wit and charm. My apprehensions were met as 50/50 features Seth Rogen on typical crude, mildly offensive, weed-smoking form. This may all sound too familiar, yes, but in a crucially…
Firstly, can I make it quite clear that I don’t overreact when it comes to these torture-porn films, and most of the time I see an audience and even sometimes artistic credit to them: Saw, Hostel, and I managed to sit through the majority A Serbian Film (2010). Even in The Human Centipede (First Sequence)…
This is a wonderfully creepy and very intelligent ghost story from first-time feature film director Nick Murphy. Backed by the BBC and French film giants StudioCanal, it’s yet another example of how exciting, vibrant and varied British filmmaking is at this moment in time. The story is reminiscent of other similar chillers, such as The…
Biopics are always dangerous territory for any film director; the fact is that real life is actually quite dull, thus biographical films are often prone to being over-dramatised, sentimentalised, and even completely fabricated. Control, which focuses on the life of Ian Curtis and his band Joy Division, manages to steer clear of these pitfalls. The…
As the holiday season fast approaches can Saint (Sint), a Dutch horror film which turns Saint Nicholas into a murderous zombie, liven people’s spirits? The film’s basic premise is intriguing: every time there’s a full moon on the fifth of December, which apparently occurs every 25 years or so, Saint Nicholas (aka the Dutch version of Santa…
The first part of the final chapter of the sickening vampire love story series is both pointless and boring.
This is a rather unsuccessful adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel by Hunter S. Thompson, a fictionalised account of his experience as a writer trying to make his mark in the world of journalism and publishing. Our protagonist’s name is Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp), a struggling author who arrives in Puerto Rico to work as an…
Clint Eastwood’s back-catalogue alone is enough to show that when actors try their hand at directing the results can be impressive. When Gary Oldman wrote and directed Nil By Mouth however, the results were outstanding: BAFTA adjudged it one of the 100 best films of all-time, and awarded it the Best Screenplay and Best British…
If you’ve seen cult phenomenon A Serbian Film, then you’ll know what to expect from this review. If you haven’t seen it, then this review will do one of two things: either it will intrigue you into watching it, or it will disgust you and warn you away from ever setting eyes upon it. Either…
Union Films confuse the audience with laughable ‘horror’ films, in addition to an incredible gorefest, at their Halloween all-nighter.
This year has been a great year for good, high quality cinema. The Ides of March is one of 2011’s best. It’s directed by George Clooney (who also takes a supporting role) and stars Ryan Gosling, the hottest – both talent-wise and looks-wise – young actor on the planet right now. It’s a twisty and…
Paedophobic cinema has become a fairly classic staple of the horror genre. The Omen, The Exorcist and The Shining have all helped cultivate, or perhaps manipulate, our very potent fear of witnessing something so innocent display traces of evil. To some extent We Need to Talk About Kevin is a horror movie. First and foremost…
Let me get something essential out of the way: if you are going to see this film expecting a dramatic remake of Outbreak, a movie with the same moody bleakness as Children of Men, or in fact anything resembling a post-apocalyptic disaster movie, then you may be slightly disappointed. Contagion is filmed like a documentary, has…
My life in halls of residence isn’t the most eventful. Hardly anyone had much reason to be interested in my tastes, in films or otherwise. However, this began to change when I picked up a copy of Peter Weir’s 1998 satirical dramedy flick The Truman Show. It was at that moment that people were interested…