Tag: Murder
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Wind River.
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O.J.: Made in America.
This time last year, I was hooked on HBO’s The People vs. O.J. Simpson, despite initially only tuning in to get a peek at John Travolta’s startling transformation for his role. Only vaguely familiar with the legendary trial, which happened when I was only three or four, I found this re-imagining entertaining and engaging but…
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Legend.
Famous for leading London’s East End underbelly for the best part of a decade, the Kray twins have been reasonably prominent in our nation’s cultural conscience ever since. Having already been resurrected for the purposes of the 1990 bio-flick, featuring Gary and Martin Kemp, the Krays once again appear before us in Brian Helgeland’s Legend,…
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Sightseers.
Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers fell between two very interesting pieces in the rest of his filmography. Kill List combined gritty British realism with terrifying retro horror whilst A Field in England echoed back to the folk horror genre and reminded me of Witchfinder General. Wheatley’s work is astutely British and combines dark comedy with the weird and surreal. Sightseers sits between each film both chronologically…
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Devil’s Knot.
There are many obstacles standing in the way of Devil’s Knot. Making a film about true events always draws extra attention to the matter of authenticity, accuracy and sincerity. Not only does Devil’s Knot use a historically real situation as the basis of its story, but it all revolves around a murder case that, over twenty years on,…
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Blue Ruin.
Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin is a story about revenge; pure, aggressive and passionate revenge. The need for revenge runs deep throughout this intense drama that focusses on very little else. Revenge remains the film’s only theme and focus, because that’s all it needs. We first meet the film’s protagonist, Dwight, whilst he takes a bath – a…
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The Act of Killing.
I have finally gotten around to watching Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing, only a few days ago. A lot of the film reviews I write are written hours after seeing the films; I like to capture my gut reaction as much as possible. Yet, The Act of Killing has taken a while to sink in. I felt…
Hannah McHaffie 