Although I have a wonderfully happy Christmas each year, there are of course those who dread the whole festive season. This nasty little shocker from 2008 should reassure them that, however painful one’s family Christmas can be, it should never get this bad. The people here really are hateful. Two families, one visiting the other,…
Set in the land of Halloween, this dark and creepy stop-motion animation from the mind of Tim Burton and James and the Giant Peach director Henry Selick has become something of a cult classic since its release in 1993. Jack Skellington, who bares the celebrity title “The Pumpkin King” (a skeletal creation many will be familiar with without evens seeing…
This nasty and offensive little horror film centres around a woman with postnatal depression. The depression gets worse, she has a psychotic breakdown, then tries to murder all her children. At one point we see her stab to death one of her little boys with the handle of a mirror, blood splashing onto her face.…
Private Peaceful is based on a novel by Michael Morpurgo. I read the book when I was very young – possibly eleven or twelve – and I found it extraordinarily affecting. It was told is such a simple but memorable way and the final few pages still haunt me to this day. This film adaptation doesn’t quite…
Nancy Meyer’s continues to spread her charming, joyful humour with this typically gentle romcom. As ever with her films, It’s Complicated features actors a little older than those you’d expect to find in a mainstream romantic comedy, and all the houses look enviably divine. Meryl Streep plays a divorced, posh-cafe owner who lives in a big…
Todd Haynes Velvet Goldmine is an absolute must-watch for anyone that enjoys a slightly over-the-top visual spectacle. Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor play two glam rock singers heavily modelled on the likes of David Bowie and Iggy Pop, with the story being told from the perspective of a very young Christian Bale as their…
Is it getting old if we say its going to be another busy week for Union Films? No? Good, cause it is going to be another busy week for Union Films! We’re showing brutal dark-comedy Killer Joe on Tuesday. Then Phoenix have wonderfully uplifting Fezeka’s Voice on Wednesday. Saturday is the day of our final…
The experience of the cinema is one becoming increasingly redundant in modern times. Why pay an unreasonable ticket price to sit through an hour of advertising preceding 90+ minutes of Hollywood banality – when there’s the option of remaining comfortable at home away from noisy popcorn munches with a Netflix stream of your choosing? Fortunately I was…
This low budget but high voltage Brit thriller contains unflinching depictions of strong sex and brutal, bloody violence. I thoroughly enjoyed it. When three Leeds girls, holidaying in Mallorca, decide to accompany a bunch of amiable young men to their posh yacht they happily join in with the recreational drug use and group sex that…
It may seem insufferably stupid and have a God-awfully mushy ending but don’t be mistaken, Con Air hides a witty and self-mocking side that distinguishes it from the regular crop of testosterone-fuelled action flicks. Director Simon West and his talented cast clearly understand the absurdity of the material that they are working with and tackle…
Suspiria has become Italian horror maestro Dario Argento’s best known work and it’s not hard to see why as, despite featuring some of the most brutal death scenes you are likely to see, it is also a visual treat for the eyes. The plot itself is relatively simple and perhaps rather sub-standard; Girl moves to ballet…
Tracking the exploits of high-school student Ferris and his two friends as they skip school to instead slack-off around Chicago, John Hughes’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off has become an archetypal teen movie with great comic set-pieces, an iconic car and an even more memorable title character. Performances are spot-on and characterisation is surprisingly rich for…
Anyone who saw Jacques Audiard’s internationally acclaimed 2009 feature A Prophet, will know how intense his particular brand of story-telling can be. While his work to date has spanned a variety of genres, they have always retained a hard hitting visceral impact that embeds the story in the mind long after the credits roll. Rust…
Love him or hate him, you’d be a fool to deny the ambition of Ben Affleck. Riding on the wave of stardom that came from his acting career and an Oscar-winning screenplay in the form of Good Will Hunting, he tried his hand at directing and with it found a brilliantly fresh new voice. Clearly…