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…
Revenge is at the heart of the dark fantasy romance, The Crow. This is a remake of Australian Alex Proyas’ 1994 film of the same name. Both movies are based on the comic book series by James O’Barr. This time, Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman) is in the director’s chair. Eric (Bill Skarsgård)…
Of all movie sub-genres, the music biopic seems particularly resistant to change. With perhaps a couple of exceptions, they all follow the same basic structure – humble beginnings, meteoric rise, success and inevitable decline (often with a dose of 12-step redemption). Midas Man – Joe Stephenson’s portrait of The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein – is…
Sensitive and affecting, Touch is a love story that spans the ages. The central characters meet at a Japanese restaurant in the UK. On principle, young Icelander Kristofer (Palmi Kormakur) gives up his place at the prestigious London School of Economics to work as a dishwasher at the busy eatery. He meets the restaurant owner’s…
Inspired by real life events, Take My Hand is a heart-wrenching love story that spans decades. Laura (Meg Fraser) is still a schoolgirl – whose father teaches history – when she meets and falls for Michael (Xavier Molyneux), the football-playing son of a Greek greengrocer. She loves riding horses on the family’s country property, but…
Writer and director JT Mollner (Outlaws and Angels) crafts a tightly wound, stylish, horror-thriller with Strange Darling. Shot entirely on 35 mm, it’s one of the most compelling movies I’ve seen in a long time. It concerns a serial killer with a kink who operated in the US between 2018 and 2020. More specifically, it…
I couldn’t help thinking about the warped Jeffrey Epstein while watching Zoe Kravitz’s psychological thriller Blink Twice. The film concerns billionaire tech mogul Slater King (Channing Tatum), who steps aside after a major error of judgment. He ups his philanthropy, buys a private island and makes a series of very public apologies for his actions….
Among Alien fandom there’s a broad consensus that the canonical films are the first two: Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) and James Cameron’s Aliens (1986). Fede Alvarez’s new instalment Alien: Romulus is perhaps ideally placed between the two. So it serves as a kind of sequel to Alien and a prequel to Aliens. For me at…
Iris and The Men is a comedy with distinctively French proclivities. Written and directed by Caroline Vignal, there is a sadness, yearning and yet joie de vivre about it. The film’s origins were in what Vignal heard from a 51-year-old friend who had embraced life after her husband suddenly left her. Another friend had encouraged…
Cinematic adaptations of video games have, for the most part, disappointed both gamers and movie goers; and the cinematic landscape is littered with failed adaptations. Borderlands follows the same inglorious footsteps of those that have come before it. Some of these failings can be attributed to studio interference and extensive rewrites and reshoots. Borderlands follows…
