Category: Film
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Slow West.
John Maclean’s feature length debut is a road movie. A young Scottish man, determined to get across America to find the woman he loves, is joined by a mysterious, ruthless loner who takes on the role of his mentor, guide and protector. Nobody knows who to trust and everyone’s intentions are questionable. Slow West is about…
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Tomorrowland.
Set across several different times and spaces, Tomorrowland tells the story of a childlike android, a child inventor and a determined, scientific teenager as they attempt to save planet earth via another world, time and place. What begins as a family adventure film soon wilts into a poorly executed environmental flick with an admittedly sincere…
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Jurassic World.
About half way through Jurassic World, lead actors Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard kneel down beside an injured Brachiosaurus. A close-up encounter with the beast reminds us of what was so great about Spielberg’s original. Relying so heavily on CGI up until now, this moment in Jurassic World finally captures some of the magic of…
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Timbuktu.
Beautifully shot and hauntingly relevant, Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu is undoubtedly one of this year’s greatest triumphs. The tranquil lives of a cattle herding family are only occasionally disturbed by the Jihadist law they find themselves living under. That is until one unfortunate event threatens their peaceful existence. Sofian El Fani’s cinematography overwhelms – beautiful imagery…
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Mad Max: Fury Road.
I’ve allowed myself over a fortnight to digest George Miller’s re-invisioning of his original dystopian franchise. Time away from Mad Max: Fury Road has proved as crucial to my criticism as time spent with it. Nobody will forget their experience of watching Mad Max: Fury Road for the first time; mine having been slightly tainted by the light…
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A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.
Ana Lili Amirpour’s directorial debut feeds on an array of different influences and inspirations whilst experimenting with style and tone. Its playfulness is counteracted by its gothic undertones. Based on the director’s own graphic novel and described by her as “the first Iranian vampire spaghetti western”, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night has individuality…
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The Tribe.
Rarely does a debut feature reach the ambitious heights of Miroslav Slaboshpitsky’s The Tribe. With its bleak aesthetic and harrowing themes of abuse, sexual exploitation, violence and manipulation, this Ukrainian horror drama portrays the cruel happenings in a boarding school for deaf students. Despite the school setting, there are only two classroom scenes. The majority…
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Latest movies at your local cinema for February half-term
Originally posted on Primary Times Essex Blog: We welcome back Hannah McHaffie to Primary Times in Essex. Hannah (now 22) wrote for us back in 2001 about her experiences of leaving Braintree for a new life 8,000 miles away in the Falkland Islands. 14 years later, Hannah now works in the film industry and has her…
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Beyond Clueless.
The high school experience is cemented in all of our minds. Whether you loved it or hated it, whether you were the bully, the bullied or the lucky few who slipped under the radar, we all remember it vividly. For most, high school was about the social experience rather than the academic. It’s where puberty…
Hannah McHaffie 