• The Disaster Artist

    December 7, 2017 - By 

    Oh, hi reader. You are quite possibly sick of hearing about The Room, marketed to irony-devouring film freaks as the ‘best bad movie ever made’. Released in 2007 and recouping practically zero of its — frankly unbelievable — $6 million budget, Tommy Wiseau’s great auteur debacle found resurrection as a quotable ‘so bad it’s amazing’ treasure. The catchphrases, rabid cult buzz and midnight screenings have clued a generation of fans in on the joke, and with saturation there is a dulling of the film’s weirdness. One of the pleasures of The Disaster Artist, the James Franco-directed origin story of The Room, is being offered a seat at…

  • Good Time

    November 30, 2017 - By 

    As titles go, it’s hard to think of one more misleading than Good Time since people went to see Eraserhead thinking it was about a teacher with a penchant for clean notebooks. No one is having a ‘good time’ in the Safdie brothers’ latest offering: not Robert Pattinson’s Connie; not his girlfriend Corey (Jennifer Jason Leigh); and certainly not the viewer. This is as intense a noir thriller as you’re likely to see. All the action takes place over a particularly manic 24 hours in New York. It starts with Connie and his mentally challenged brother Nick (Ben Safdie) attempting to…

  • Paddington 2

    November 30, 2017 - By 

    After a month when the media has been dominated by stories of bullies and predators, how refreshing it is to revel in a film whose central message is kindness, courtesy and respect for others. To some, the idea of an animated movie about an eternally polite and optimistic bear might sound cloying, the visual equivalent of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one’s mouth, yet Paddington 2, a rare instance of a warranted sequel, effortlessly strikes the right balance between gentle humour and warmhearted whimsy. The result is a film that not only recaptures the blithely anarchic spirit of the…

  • Battle of the Sexes

    November 24, 2017 - By 

    A gender wars back-and-forth with surprising emotional richness, Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris serve up an ace with Battle of the Sexes, a warm, solidly entertaining look at the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King, the top-ranked female player, and Bobby Riggs, an ex-World Champion hungry for the spotlight. Some of Little Miss Sunshine’s affection for misfits united by shared dysfunction is visible in Battle of the Sexes, Simon Beaufoy’s script framing Billie Jean (Emma Stone) and Bobby (Steve Carell) as a pair of almost-weirdos comparable in their compulsions. Billie Jean’s rebellion against tennis establishment…

  • Justice League

    November 21, 2017 - By 

    With a production plagued by many problems, including hugely expensive reshoots and, most notably, director Zack Snyder’s (Watchmen) departure due to personal tragedy, Justice League seemed to be fighting an uphill battle right from the get-go. But this is no excuse for this soulless abomination and the monumental waste of talent that has been churned out by DC/Warner Brothers; one that will more than likely set them back a lot after the success of the far superior Wonder Woman. After the death of Superman (Henry Cavill), Earth has been left vulnerable to an unknown evil that spurs Batman (Ben Affleck) into…

  • The Florida Project

    November 14, 2017 - By 

    When you’re a kid, almost anywhere can be the happiest place on earth. That’s the case for Moonee (Brooklyn Prince), the 6 year-old with weaponised precociousness at the centre of The Florida Project, enjoying a bright, aimless Orlando summer at the Magic Castle, a packed low-rent motel where she lives with her young, single mother Halley (Bria Vinaite). Perched on the fringes of Disneyland’s high-commerce funtopia— the helicopter blades of VIPs buzz overheard— the lurid purple paint of the Magic Castle could easily be mistaken for one of the resort’s attractions (Indeed, one Brazilian couple make the wrong booking for…

  • The Killing of a Sacred Deer

    November 13, 2017 - By 

    If an up close and personal view of a real open heart surgical procedure is rather off-putting, then you aren’t going to get off to a great start with the latest movie from Greek writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster). But as with all his previous work, like the dementedly clever Dogtooth, The Killing of a Sacred Deer will be an acquired taste for those that like to delve into the surreal and absurd. And while it doesn’t quite have the originality and socially-aware bite of his previous films, this is still a worthy addition to his repertoire that benefits greatly…

  • Conor McGregor: Notorious

    November 7, 2017 - By 

    Part of the fascination surrounding Conor McGregor is that so many people who claim not to care about the Dubliner spend so much time talking about him. The persona; the cars; the suits; the bravado – all gets discussed routinely around pub tables and all of it gets minutely dissected. Is he bringing shame on the nation or representing a sea change in what it means to be Irish? Is he a highly skilled sportsman or a street brawler participating in thinly-veiled barbarism? Is he a showman or a bigot? Is he both? Notorious offers little answers on the above.…

  • The Death of Stalin

    November 3, 2017 - By 

    Armando Iannucci is a writer/director better known for his groundbreaking and highly acclaimed work on television shows like I’m Alan Partridge and The Thick Of It. But, as shown with recent films like the razor-sharp political satire In The Loop and his latest, The Death Of Stalin, Iannucci can now be revered as one of the UK’s top filmmakers. And while his latest is a little light on historical accuracy, there is no doubt that this is a fine piece of absurdist satire, bolstered by an exceptional cast. On the 5th of March 1953, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin – one…

  • Thor: Ragnorok

    October 27, 2017 - By 

    In July I wrote that Spider-Man: Homecoming was the funniest Marvel movie so far, a distinction that has lasted all of, oh, three months. Actually, Thor: Ragnorok is the funniest one yet. The Marvel factory, whatever its faults, is pumping out plain old good times on overtime hours. Ragnorok, the third and presumably final solo outing for Chris Hemsworth’s Men’s Health Goldilocks, retains some of the studio’s familiar issues, but makes up for them by being — for long stretches — honest to goodness hilarious. The Lord — sorry, God — of thunder is front of house, but Kiwi film-maker Taiki Waititi is the man of the hour,…