• Manchester By The Sea

    January 17, 2017 - By 

    Kenneth Lonergan makes films about the things that don’t go away. In 2000’s You Can Count On Me, the sudden orphaning of young siblings helps fashion an unsolvable divide between the two in adult life, while in Margaret, which lingered undistributed for years while director and studio fought over the final cut, witnessing a fatal accident sends Anna Paquin’s carefree teenage life spiralling in new, frustrating directions. His third feature as writer-director, Manchester by the Sea, part of Amazon Studios’ effort to chase indie respectability, is Lonergan’s most refined work yet, a restrained but movingly complex portrait of tragedy’s never-ending…

  • Live By Night

    January 15, 2017 - By 

    Ben Affleck wants you to take him seriously. He’s sorry about the whole Gigli thing. He’s sorry about Daredevil. He’s done his penance and channelled his humiliation into a professional second act, growing a prestige beard and directing safe but highly competent book treatments. They even gave him an Oscar for one of them! When a film journo presented him with Batman v Superman‘s damning reviews and the internet glimpsed the emptiness behind the eyes, the implicit logic was that he was supposed to be above this shit. But even reliably workmanlike directors can make mistakes. Dennis Lehane’s writing has provided several film-makers…

  • Silence

    January 14, 2017 - By 

    Martin Scorsese has to be commended for taking on the adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s 1966 book of the same name, as Silence requires a deep understanding of Japan, its history and its people. And while what he achieves is impressive with the overall outlook and feel of the film, I have to admit that I felt there was problems with the representation of the Japanese Christians for the first half, along with some of the more grim scenes of violence and torture later on. If you are familiar with some of the many classic Japanese films of this era like Rashomon…

  • Collateral Beauty

    December 21, 2016 - By 

    Like a sharp boot to the arse on your way out the door, David Frankel’s Collateral Beauty closes a miserable, baffling year with a miserable, baffling Christmas Carol, a clump of holiday treacle so toxic they should hand out hazmat suits with the tickets. Will Smith stars as Howard, one of those charismatic marketing guru types who misinterprets selling products as a noble creative calling. It’s been two years since the death of his daughter, and he hangs around the office in a solemn, silent funk, ignoring important company business and building elaborate domino displays, only to dramatically topple them…

  • Allied

    December 20, 2016 - By 

    Allied is one of those films that defies logic. It has all the ingredients needed to make a potential classic, as it has Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future) on directing duties, Steven Knight (Locke) on the script and Brad Pitt (Fight Club) and Marion Cotillard (Macbeth) in starring roles. So how they managed to create a load of over-stylised nonsense is mindbogglingly frustrating, but the usually reliable director has pulled it off. The story kicks off with an introduction to Pitt’s character – a Canadian spy working for the British army – as he is air dropped into the…

  • Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

    December 14, 2016 - By 

    Rogue One: A Star Wars Story feels like the highest budget fan film you’ve ever seen. You might think that sounds like an insult, but I mean it as the highest of compliments. It’s the spirit of Star Wars channelled through the lens of a World War 2 film. Rogue One takes place before A New Hope, referencing events mentioned in the opening crawl of the first film. A squad of rebels are tasked with swiping the plans for the Death Star to help the Rebel Alliance destroy the Empire’s most deadly weapon. The story fills in some of the gaps…

  • One More Time With Feeling

    December 3, 2016 - By 

    As the credits roll on Andrew Dominik’s latest film, a documentary charting the first performance of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds’ album Skeleton Tree, the words stunning, unique, heartbreaking, profound, tragic, funny, melancholy, raw, honest and awesome all come to mind. But that would sell this remarkable film short, as its devastatingly intrusive climax is softened by a mature and respectful depiction of what has to be an incredibly hard period for Cave, as he deals with the accidental death of one of his twin sons. One More Time With Feeling kicks off with candid interviews of long-time Bad…

  • The Accountant

    November 21, 2016 - By 

    If there was an award for the most ludicrous film of the year, then Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant would surely win, hands down. But there is a certain, self-aware charm to the film that has grown on me like a virus, as there is no doubt that the director is having fun when the main protagonist is basically an autistic Batman – minus the suit – who works as a gifted accountant while having a knack for killing people. And he partakes in the practice of killing rather a lot… The Accountant tells the story of a mysterious man with…

  • Arrival

    November 14, 2016 - By 

    Most people may not know the name yet, but they soon will. Denis Villeneuve, with films like Prisoners, Enemy and Sicario, has quickly established himself as one of the most gifted visual storytellers working today – this generation’s Ridley Scott. Ironically enough, he will step into Scott’s shoes next year as the director of a new Blade Runner movie. His latest film, Arrival, tells the story of first contact between humans and an unknown alien race, offering Villeneuve a dry run at the sci-fi genre and blockbuster filmmaking on a whole other scale, although Arrival is much more than just…

  • Nocturnal Animals

    November 14, 2016 - By 

    With an opening that has to be one of the most unforgettable movie experiences that you’ll ever see, writer/director Tom Ford (A Single Man) has created a dark, complex and thought-provoking drama, that transcends genres in a stylishly original fashion, while touching on some hard-hitting issues that are highly relevant in today’s image and success-obsessed society. Amy Adams (The Master) stars as an accomplished artist, who has just received a book manuscript in the post from her ex-husband, Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), who is an aspiring novelist. With a dedication to her at the beginning, Adam’s character immediately starts to…