Twinsets, bonnets, women behaving appallingly who I’ll make endless excuses for, bearded men in chunky knitwear, spaceships, middle-aged sex, Santa and Satan. These are the ingredients I need in my own marshmallow movies. But a marshmallow movie can be any genre, from tear-stained family drama to zombies in space. They may be sweet but it’s more a… Marshmallow Movies – That Sinking Feeling, But In A Good Way Read More
Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool 4 stars
In any 1970s-set movie, it’s easy to rely on the obvious props (though actually wallpaper was hideous, kitchens were green Formica and TVs were fat boxes that you had to walk over to if you wanted to watch another of the three available channels). But often it’s tiny background details that most sum up a… Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool Read More
Paddington 2 5 stars
“What’s the worst that can happen?” says the eponymous bear in Paddington 2, recently jailed for 10 years for robbery and “grievous bobbly harm”, and now working in the prison laundry where he has accidentally thrown a red sock in with the whites. At this point just about every mum and granny in the cinema… Paddington 2 Read More
Sweet Virginia 4.5 stars
It’s rare to find such a perfectly poised thriller as Sweet Virginia, where every character is so beautifully frayed by the realities of life and relationships. Almost everyone is at least slightly broken, and makes stupid mistakes. There is no saviour riding into town to save the day, and right to the end the story… Sweet Virginia Read More
The Endless Summer 3.5 stars
Australia may have turned out to be a disappointment wave-wise, and a worry shark-wise for Mike and Robert, but though Endless Summer came out nearly a decade before Jaws, I had to laugh at the locals’ comment: “Jeez Mike, you should’ve been here yesterday. We had a bigger boat!” This is a movie that exists… The Endless Summer Read More
North By Northwest 4 stars
North By Northwest is nearly 60 years old, and is one of those films that demonstrates how much classic storytelling has been narrowed with new technology – I spent the first few minutes of this mistaken identity thriller thinking “Townsend could just google Roger Thornhill, then he’ll know it’s not really George Kaplan!”. But some… North By Northwest Read More
Killing Of A Sacred Deer 3 stars
The background sounds during key scenes in Killing Of A Sacred Deer – most of the time it isn’t really music – hugely reminded me of The Twilight Zone, and in many ways the film is like an extended, European cinema version of one of its episodes. This is certainly a movie that is hard… Killing Of A Sacred Deer Read More
Unseen, The 3.5 stars
I’m always surprised there aren’t more films set in the Lake District, particularly horror – that landscape of meres, tarns and rolling hills leading to grey jutting crags and high, lonely waterfalls can turn from benign to threatening in an instant. Factor in the area’s notoriously ropy mobile phone signal and the many isolated grey… Unseen, The Read More
Take Every Wave: The Life Of Laird Hamilton 3.5 stars
“I found equality in the ocean, that just drove me” says Laird Hamilton, who has overcome a troubled childhood to become the world’s best big wave surfer. “The ocean is where I could hide, get away from the land. That was where the trouble was”. I know nothing about surfing, bar what I learnt from… Take Every Wave: The Life Of Laird Hamilton Read More
Princess Cyd 5 stars
Once upon a time, aged 17, I went for an interview at one of our better redbrick universities – to study English, no less – and confidently told the don in front of me that I didn’t really rate Shakespeare. Reader, they rejected me. But if 16 year old Cyd were real, I hope it… Princess Cyd Read More
Is Horror Reanimating? Is IT It? Q&A With Shudder’s Colin Geddes
“I like to break the genre down into films that are terror-based (rooted in reality, such as serial killers, slashers, crime) in which the outcome is predictable in the sense that it’s bound by the rules of physics; and horror, which is uncanny or supernatural, and not rooted in any firm rules of our world.”… Is Horror Reanimating? Is IT It? Q&A With Shudder’s Colin Geddes Read More
Murder On The Orient Express 2.5 stars
It’s impossible to review this film without mentioning Poirot’s moustache. To be honest it most resembles the intimate topiary of a woman who has tried to do her own Hollywood wax and given up part way through because of the pain. But it is impressive nonetheless, and in 2017, Year Of The Movie Moustache, Branagh’s… Murder On The Orient Express Read More
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