Sean Baker is an intriguing filmmaker who doesn’t repeat himself, although most of his films follow characters who are marginalised. His breakthrough film was 2015’s Tangerine, a low budget independent drama about a transgender prostitute looking for her pimp – it was entirely shot on a mobile phone. He followed that film in 2017 with…
Hugh Grant was once the affable if slightly awkward star of romantic comedies like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill. But since Guy Ritchie cast him against type in a couple of his gritty thrillers, Grant has carved out a niche for himself in playing villainous types. He was great as the main…
I must confess that I haven’t seen the first two films in the Terrifier series. But I was drawn to check out the third film in the slasher franchise out of curiosity due to news reports from the US about people fainting, vomiting and fleeing from the cinema due to the intense level of graphic…
Greedy People is a blackly comic and atmospheric low budget crime-drama from director Potsy Ponciroli (Old Henry) and writer Mike Vukadinovich (TV series Runaways). Set in a picturesque coastal town in Rhode Island, it very much has a similar vibe to the Coen brothers. Ponciroli juggles a great cast of eccentric and amoral characters, all…
Michael Keaton both stars in and directs this slow-burn crime drama about a contract hitman suffering from rapidly developing dementia. This marks Keaton’s second effort behind the camera, following 2007’s little-seen The Merry Gentlemen, a dark drama about another hitman undergoing a crisis. There are a number of superficial similarities between that film and this…
Donald Trump is one of the most controversial and divisive figures in contemporary American politics at the moment. And he has dominated the political landscape for the better part of a decade. In the lead-up to the 2024 election it’s easy to see why he and his campaign have tried to ban this drama. The…
A moderately engaging Australian drama set in the 1970s, Kid Snow is set against the backdrop of circus troupes of tent boxers that travelled through the outback. This is a tale of outsiders on the fringes of society fighting for survival; and also something of a comeback story and a redemption tale. The film centres…
School holidays are once again upon us, and there are plenty of options for some family friendly films to enjoy with Harold and the Purple Crayon, the Australian film Runt, and the animated origin story of Transformers One. However, easily the best of the bunch is the superb animated The Wild Robot, which has been…
Like Alan Parker’s fantastic 1991 drama The Commitments, Kneecap tells the story of an Irish band from humble working-class beginnings. But unlike that film, which was based on a Roddy Doyle novel, Kneecap is drawn from a real-life story. Kneecap is a profane, hyperenergetic drama about an Irish hip-hop trio who found themselves at the…
Bookworm is the sophomore directorial feature from New Zealand filmmaker Ant Timpson, who is better known as a writer and producer on a number of weird and often gory horror film such as The Greasy Strangler and The ABCs of Death. Bookworm is more of a family friendly adventure and marks something of a change…
