Boiling Point: A ‘one-shot’ restaurant drama that makes you stand the heat January 7, 2022 The ‘one-shot’ movie has become more prevalent over the years, as digital film has made such endeavours less technically fraught. While the most famous examples have some trickery (Birdman and Hitchcock’s Rope had hidden edits), many filmmakers have taken on the arduous task of filming an entire movie in one take. The latest is British [...]
Best of 2021: Nomadland was the Best Picture winner for a reason January 1, 2022 Sometimes, being an Oscar favourite can be a set back for a movie. The branding of best picture implies that it must be all things to all people, leaving an inevitable disappointment in some when they find a movie that isn’t to their taste. This year is a bit different, with the nominees generally being [...]
Best of 2021: CODA is a moving coming-of-age drama January 1, 2022 Festival hype can be a double-edge sword, particularly at the Sundance Film Festival where success doesn’t always translate to box office. For every Napoleon Dynamite or Get Out, there are films that are bought for big money that flop spectacularly (see Steve Coogan comedy Hamlet 2, or teen weepie Me, Earl, and The Dying Girl). [...]
Best of 2021: Dune has masterful visuals and spellbinding performances December 31, 2021 It was never going to be easy for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. The director of Arrival and Sicario took on his dream project knowing full well that previous versions of Frank Herbert’s novel had infamously arduous journeys to the screen. Then came a pandemic, and Warner Bros’ decision to include this film as part of the [...]
The Best Movies of 2021: 10 films that blew us away this year December 30, 2021 It’s been another brutal year for the movies, but one in which the big screen has shown to be fighting back. As you read this, Spider-man is thwipping his way to a record box office run, while Bond, Ghostbusters, The Fast Saga, and Venom were all pleasing crowds after long delays. After our list of [...]
The worst movies of 2021: 10 films that made us cover our eyes December 28, 2021 Everyone focuses on best-of lists at the end of the year, but what about the ones that truly sucked? Hundreds of movies launched this year across cinemas and streaming services, and inevitably there are a few that fell well below expectation. Here are 2021’s worst movies that had me choking on my popcorn… Chaos Walking [...]
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain: A flawed but warm biopic December 25, 2021 It’s awards season, and thus it’s an inevitability that there’s a biopic of a tortured genius hoping for Oscar gold. The genius in question is Louis Wain, a Victorian artist famous for his surreal paintings of cats, the popularity of which went some way to making them more common as house pets. Fresh from Spider-Man: [...]
The Tragedy of Macbeth: Washington and McDormand on Oscar form December 24, 2021 A Shakespeare adaptation from The Coen Brothers would have been sure to spark excitement, but there’s a twist to The Tragedy of Macbeth that leaves a few questions in the air. That’s because, while Joel Coen is directing the film, Ethan is not involved, the first time the brothers haven’t worked together. Carter Burwell, The [...]
The Matrix Ressurections: Just take the Blue Pill and skip this one December 23, 2021 You might be wondering why the long-awaited return of The Matrix is being released midweek, a few days before Christmas, lost in the shadow of Spider-man. While people of a certain age will remember the 1999 original as a game changer, 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions ended the trilogy on a sour note, with a historically [...]
Join the yacht club: Why sailing around Croatia is the ultimate luxury break December 20, 2021 As out of office messages go, it was a good one. “I will be on a private yacht in Croatia for most of this week, I will get back to you as soon as possible”. Having not sailed on anything more exotic than the Isle of Wight ferry, I had no idea what to expect [...]