I did giggle at Vinnie Jones’s menacingly growly voiceover in this new trailer for The Big Ugly (a title with room for myriad tweaks and variations) – an action revenge thriller that sees a London mobster transplanted to the US for a money-laundering oil deal. Neelyn (Jones), an enforcer for UK gang boss Harris (Malcolm… The Big Ugly trailer: Vinnie Jones’s gangland enforcer strikes oil, but has he met his match? Read More
Blow The Man Down 4 stars
Teenage sisters Mary Beth and Priscilla Connolly, who have recently lost their mother, attempt to cover up a gruesome run-in with a dangerous man. To conceal their crime, they must go deeper into Easter Cove’s underbelly and uncover the town matriarchs’ darkest secrets. In this clever, layered thriller, the three older ladies of Easter Cove… Blow The Man Down Read More
Don’t Let Go 2.5 stars
I’m sure most of us would like to alter our past to improve on our present. If I could, you’d be reading this in The Guardian, a paper that would no longer, once I’d gone back far enough with my red pen, be susceptible to typos. That’s assuming it all went to plan and my… Don’t Let Go Read More
The Vanishing 4 stars
There’s a brutal scene half-way through The Vanishing, director Kristoffer Nyholm’s “what if?” take on the Flannan Isle mystery. It’s a fight between lighthouse keepers James Ducat (Gerard Butler) and Thomas Marshall (Peter Mullan), and two violent Scandinavian men who’ve appeared looking for their missing chest of gold. James, dark-haired and bearded, big and brawny, takes… The Vanishing Read More
Out Of Blue 3 stars
“Observation changes the result” we find out in Carol Morley’s timely thriller Out Of Blue. It’s a theory in physics, but it’s also interesting because of what it says about art and its audience. This is, the opening titles state, “a Carol Morley film”. Though maybe it isn’t any more? That’s a side issue though,… Out Of Blue Read More
Serenity (2019) 2 stars
WARNING: Serenity has some big issues as a movie but most of them relate to the bonkers twist. And as I want to talk about those issues I’m going to have to spoiler it. Maybe watch the movie then come back afterwards! Tuna and Dill. It could be a BBC Sunday night detective serial, about… Serenity (2019) Read More
Polar 1.5 stars
I hate to admit this but the only time I laughed out loud during John Wick 3: Parky Bottom, I mean Polar, was when something terrible happened to the cute dog. Based on the comic series of the same name, Polar mixes dark brooding and methodical kills with trashy, flashy, searingly bright gunfests to weird… Polar Read More
A Friend In Need (Short Film) Short Film 3.5 stars
A Friend In Need brought to mind that (probably apocryphal) Mark Twain quote: “I once sent a dozen of my friends a telegram saying ‘flee at once – all is discovered.’ They all left town immediately.” Here it’s affairs, drugs, crimes against fashion (I’m looking at you, Patrick), and being rude to a pole dancer… A Friend In Need (Short Film) Read More
Mandy (London Film Festival) 4 stars
“Weird shit” says Caruthers, who lives in an isolated forest caravan, of the activities of a terrifying near-demonic biker gang that his friend Red is planning to track down and kill. It’s a good description of both the gang and gleefully bloodthirsty action-horror Mandy, though it doesn’t go far enough. To be honest I had no… Mandy (London Film Festival) Read More
Massacre At Central High 3 stars
A new student starts at a high school and discovers it’s ruled by a clique of bullies. Luckily he finds a near-kindred spirit in a sweet female classmate. Soon a series of horrific deaths rock the school, but no one realises they are actually murders. And then new bullies move up to fill the vacancies…. Massacre At Central High Read More
Heathers 4.5 stars
The 80s was a blunt decade, designed to disrupt – oversized, brash and brightly-coloured, where the brave and bullish could succeed. In a time defined by red lipstick, shrinking violets need not apply. Everything is over-oversized in Heathers. It’s even bigger, brasher, brighter and more vicious than the decade it satirises. Unsurprisingly in this live-action,… Heathers Read More
Winter Ridge 3 stars
*** My interview with Winter Ridge director Dom Lenoir *** “As the sun dims so too can consciousness” says Joanne Hill (Game Of Thrones‘ Hannah Waddingham), dementia specialist and host of a group for local sufferers, talking about that time when dusk falls. It’s an evolutionary trait we all have but it is heightened in… Winter Ridge Read More