A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Fred (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover narcotics agent. He is also Bob Arctor, who lives with his drug-addled friends, all under the influence of Substance D – a highly addictive and dangerous drug, also known as ‘Death’. This film explores the implications of drug taking and portrays events...

March 25th, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

The Birds (1963)

Based on the story by Daphne Du Maurier, The Birds introduces Tippi Hedren as another of Hitchcock’s blond leading ladies. She plays Melanie Daniels, a rich, confident young woman who starts the film in a pet shop buying a bird and ends it never wanting to see a bird again, after a traumatising series...

March 25th, 2012 | Feature, Film Reviews | Read More

The Kid with the Bike (2011)

An 11-year-old on the edge In The Kid with a Bike/Le gamin au vélo the Dardenne brothers are on strong familiar ground depicting a troubled boy struggling to get attention from his derelict, immature dad and tempted to a life of crime by an older boy who exploits him. The actor who plays the boy is...

March 24th, 2012 | Feature, Film Reviews | Read More

Rampart (2011)

During his twenty-plus year career, which includes the role of Woody Boyd from Cheers, his Oscar-nominated turn as Larry Flynt and fighting the undead in Zombieland, Woody Harrelson has always been an actor at the top of his game, even given a few missteps (playing a transvestite prostitute in Anger...

March 24th, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

The Help (2011)

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. The Help isn’t what you would call a BAD film – the script and direction from Tate Taylor is dependable and completely predictable while the performances from all of the cast members really elevate every scene – but in many ways I couldn’t help...

March 21st, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

The Hunger Games (2012)

Lionsgate’s Easter blockbuster is a lengthy, high-octane dramatisation of The Hunger Games, a “young adult” novel by Suzanne Collins. It is the first in a series about which I’d heard nothing before this screening. My eleven-year-old son tells me it is quite the thing at the...

March 21st, 2012 | Feature, Film Reviews | Read More

21 Jump Street (2012)

Buddy team, just for laughs The latest Hollywood recycling from the Eighties is 21 Jump Street, based on the 1987-1991 TV series that gave Johnny Depp his start. The original concerned a group of cool, multicultural young cops who went undercover at high schools. This version stars just two white guys,...

March 20th, 2012 | Feature, Film Reviews | Read More

Trishna (2011)

Very much like the works of Steven Soderbergh, acclaimed British director Michael Winterbottom could not have a more expansive CV, from collaborating with Steve Coogan on 24 Hour Party People and A Cock and Bull Story, to tackling controversial subject matters with The Killer Inside Me. As a man who...

March 19th, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

A Horrible Way To Die (2010)

Sitting in the same area of discomfort as Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer and Snowtown, A Horrible Way To Die may not quite work as well as those two movies but it’s still an impressive, unsettling work that shows the mindset of a serial killer and the impact he can have on the lives [...]

March 19th, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

Lake Mungo (2008)

If you want to find out how to make a movie absolutely drenched in a dark, foreboding atmosphere then you could do a hell of a lot worse than using Lake Mungo as your study guide. Written and directed by Joel Anderson, this faux-documentary has one or two jump scares in the mix but tends [...]

March 18th, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

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