Tag: Movie
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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
This review must begin with a confession: I am a Potter-head; an old school one at that. Over the last 18 years I have revisited all 7 books and 8 films multiple times and spent many a car journey and restless night with Stephen Fry perfectly delivering each story from cassette (later CD) to my…
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Arrival.
Sequels and remakes dominate our cinemas, with the likes of Harry Potter, Captain America and James Bond returning again and again for their guaranteed financial success. Sequels start to worry me once we venture outside of the franchise format. With Ridley Scott’s Prometheus having lacked the charm and intelligence of Alien, the announcement of Blade…
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Nocturnal Animals.
Various film posters adorn the walls of my bedroom and have done for the last ten years. I currently have seven framed prints in my room and back at my parent’s house my previous bedroom still features colossal framed images of Rear Window, Sleeper, Blade Runner and Raise the Red Lantern. Next to my expansive…
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Train to Busan.
An explosive debut feature from Yeon Sang-Ho, Train to Busan joins the likes of A Girl Who Walks Home Alone at Night and Maggie as one of several recent and refreshing additions to the overcrowded zombie movie vault – here to rejuvenate the genre and breath new life into the un-dead. It’s the first zombie…
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Ethel & Ernest.
The cinematic adaptation of Raymond Briggs’ graphic novel, Ethel & Ernest tells the story of the artist’s parents – their marriage, their lives, their triumphs and tragedies. It opens with a brief interview with Briggs where he briefly describes how he remembers his parents and their relatively undramatic relationship. What follows is the tale of…
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American Honey.
Andrea Arnold has a deserved reputation as a filmmaker who tackles the grimmest and most distressing of scenarios through her work; never shying away from the violence, neglect and reality that might be involved. From the dread that builds in her short film Wasp, to the bleak visual nastiness of Red Road to the frank sexual…
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Imperium.
From Donny Brasco to Point Break, there is something totally intoxicating about undercover cop movies. Director Daniel Ragussis’s feature debut centres around such activity. The plot: young and lonely FBI desk worker Nate Foster is asked to go undercover to infiltrate several neo-nazi organisations to determine and confirm their potential terrorist activities. Imperium shares many…
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The Girl with All the Gifts.
TV director Colm McCarthy has turned his hand to cinema with his debut feature The Girl with All the Gifts. Evidently inspired by Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, and other such Brit-zombie re-imaginings that have gone before it, The Girl with All the Gifts is a violent and sombre affair. We are introduced to a…
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Captain Fantastic.
Peter Bradshaw gave Captain Fantastic one star in the Guardian; describing its protagonist as “essentially a cross between Charles Manson and Captain von Trapp.” Although my reaction to the film completely opposes Bradshaw’s, I adore his description of Ben, the father of 6 children whom he is raising, educating and training in the wild, using…
Hannah McHaffie 