Vanguard review: Jackie Chan plays the hits January 7, 2021 The current climate is exactly the right moment for a classic action movie, a genre that can provide us with escapism and some vicarious victories at a time when so much seems out of our control. Vanguard would seem to fit the bill – legend Jackie Chan reunites with Stanley Tong, his collaborator on two [...]
Pieces of A Woman review: The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby excels in harrowing drama January 6, 2021 The coming awards season sees a number of challenging subjects covered by contenders – civil rights abuse in Da 5 Bloods, Nomadland’s portrayal of a broken economy, and depictions of dementia in The Father and Supernova. This week’s drama Pieces of A Woman looks at an equally difficult topic, but one not often explored. Vanessa [...]
Nicolas Cage’s The History Of Swear Words is flippin’ average January 6, 2021 First, a warning. As you might have guessed, this review will contain some very adult language. Netflix’s latest series offering seems irresistible. Nicolas Cage, Oscar winning star turned living meme, presents a show about the history of naughty words. In the age of the endless scroll, that’s more than enough to entice most browsers to press [...]
Shirley film review: Elizabeth Moss chills again in strange horror December 28, 2020 Having chilled us earlier this year with breakout hit The Invisible Man, Elisabeth Moss plays American horror author Shirley Jackson in an interesting non-biopic. Odessa Young and Logan Lerman play Rose and Fred, a young couple expecting a baby who come to live with Jackson and her husband Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg), an academic and [...]
The top films of 2020, from Parasite to Mank December 27, 2020 The absence of cinema releases for much of 2020 gives this year’s ‘best of’ film list a strange new context, as the industry shifts from reliance on the opening week box office and cinema fans focus on what they miss about the big screen. Here’s our pick of this year’s best movies, comprised of titles [...]
The best films to watch on a Tier 4 Christmas day December 25, 2020 As many adverts have told us, Christmas will be a bit different this year. There will be people we won’t be able to see, and celebrations we won’t be able to have. However, one thing that 2020 can’t take from us is our favourite Christmas films. Whether you like them as sentimental, dramatic, funny, or [...]
The Midnight Sky review: George Clooney’s sci-fi flop December 24, 2020 George Clooney’s latest effort The Midnight Sky is a no-lose scenario for the star. Its release on Netflix means it won’t risk the ignominy of box office failure, a fate that befell his most recent film Suburbicon, and 2015 mega-bomb Tomorrowland. As well as lower stakes, the streamer has given him a broader canvas, with [...]
Chadwick Boseman’s captivating farewell in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a career best December 21, 2020 It’s hard to write about Netflix’s new musical drama without reflecting on the passing of its star. The death of Chadwick Boseman was felt around the world, such was his impact in the seven short years since his breakthrough in sporting biopic 42. While the quality of a movie seems trivial when compared to the [...]
The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 8 – S2E8 finale is pure Star Wars brilliance December 18, 2020 *** SPOILERS AHEAD: If you haven’t watched the most recent episodes of The Mandalorian Season 2, look away now*** So here we are at the end of season two, with The Mandalorian having been largely successful in its second season efforts. The show has managed to raise the stakes while not losing the episodic nature [...]
Pixar’s Soul is another existential gem from Pixar December 17, 2020 The release of Pixar’s Soul is a bittersweet experience for many movie fans. Anything that comes from the production line of the animation powerhouse feels like an event, and event movies should arrive in a cinema, not just another block of content alongside murder documentaries and Bake Off boxsets. Nonetheless, Pixar’s 23rd feature arrives on [...]