Tag: Science Fiction
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How to Talk to Girls at Parties.
Based on the Neil Gaiman’s graphic short, How to Talk to Girls at Parties has been adapted to the screen by American indie and underground favourite, John Cameron Mitchell. Probably best known for his stunning and surreal debut feature, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Mitchell seems out of place to direct a film based around a group of teenage…
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Blade Runner 2049.
Nobody with a Blade Runner tattoo on his or her ankle goes into Blade Runner 2049 feeling completely at ease. Two such people, my partner and I, entered a packed screening, thirty-five years after Ridley Scott’s original film was released. Here, a visionary hands over the sequel to Director Denis Villeneuve, who has built up…
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Colossal.
Booted out of her New York apartment by her exasperated partner, Gloria finds herself back in her childhood town, sleeping on the floor of her now empty family home. Having been out of work for over a year Gloria’s life has become a toxic cycle of heavy late night drinking and sleeping through the day…
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Alien: Covenant.
Alien is undoubtedly a near-perfect film which continues to dazzle and impress me each time I return to it. Ridley Scott’s bold aesthetic choices and simplistic approach to both the film’s story and visuals results in something altogether cinematically extraordinary. Although many believe an argument can be made for James Cameron’s Aliens, I see little greatness…
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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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Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
I have my cousin and uncle to thank for my personal relationship with Star Wars. Every August, my brothers and I would incorporate my cousin’s latest movie obsession into a family movie, usually all shot on location in my grandparent’s garden. Our debut was Godzilla in 1998 and this was followed a year later by…
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The Lobster.
Following the end of his marriage, a new singleton checks into a hotel; a hotel located somewhere between Anderson’s The Grand Budapest and Kubrick’s nightmarish The Overlook. The Lobster welcomes us into a surreal dystopian world in which all individuals are forced to aspire to become part of a couple. David’s twelve year marriage has ended…
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The Martian.
Nobody has mastered science fiction cinema like Ridley Scott. No other director has repeatedly created such striking visions of space. He’s arguably the first director to capture the same space voyage authenticity first found in Kubrick’s timeless 2001: A Space Odyssey. Despite mishaps such as Prometheus which lacked the artistry, intelligence and focus of its…
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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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Avengers: Age of Ultron.
In the penultimate film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s second phase we are reunited with our six avenging heroes – Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Thor. Following on from plot lines set up in Avengers Assemble and each individual character’s solo movie sequels, Avengers: Age of…
Hannah McHaffie 