It's hard to feel charitable towards Belfast when it's such obvious awards bait. Clearly positioned as 'Branagh's Roma', this autobiographically inspired portrait of Belfast in the late '60s feels every inch a pale imitation. It says a lot about a film when its most resonant moment is the final moment, one that only hits at … Continue reading Belfast (Review)
Category: Films
Spider-Man: No Way Home (Review)
There is something to be said for a film which entertains during its runtime, even if it leaves you with little afterwards. When No Way Home comes it its conclusion, it does all feel a bit pointless. It is one one hand far too self contained and on the other hand far too reliant on … Continue reading Spider-Man: No Way Home (Review)
Encanto (Review)
Charm can get you a long way, and Encanto is certainly charming. It brims with life, love and family and goes down exceptionally easily. It is also incredibly beautiful, matching clear technical proficiency with imaginative art design and consistent creativity. It is light, though: light hearted, light on story (which is mainly a positive) and … Continue reading Encanto (Review)
Memoria(Review)
In a previous house, I heard a drip. At first, I couldn't locate it, I could just hear it. A persistent, irritating, anxiety inducing drip. Eventually, I tracked the drip down (it was a pipe above a ceiling that was ever so slightly leaking). But, from that point onwards, I was ultra-aware. The silent house … Continue reading Memoria(Review)
The Humans (Review)
With stage to screen adaptations, there is always a fear of staginess. Fundamentally, The Humans (which falls in this category, and is brought to the screen by its playwright, Stephen Karam) does not look like a play. The film employs a muted horror syntax throughout, despite being a straightforward family drama (in which the only … Continue reading The Humans (Review)
The Beta Test (Review)
A satisfying thriller with enough smarts always goes down well. The Beta Test is just that, there's enough being said to make it worth listening to and the plotting is thrilling enough (if muddled). Both elements feed into each other nicely and the finale cements the message nicely while feeling cathartic. The whole thing is … Continue reading The Beta Test (Review)
Don’t Look Up (Review)
If Don't Look Up is about anything, and I'm already being charitable, it is how we as a society are blind to the issues around us and are complicit in their progression. It is therefore ridiculous that this film doesn't actually deal with an actual issue, instead it just conjures up straw man caricature after … Continue reading Don’t Look Up (Review)
C’mon C’mon (Review)
Every inch of C'mon C'mon wishes to be universal and transcendent. It's in the intrusive musicality, it's in the black and white photography, it's in the frequent cutaways to serious interviews with children about weighty topics, it's in the conversations (every conversation) which dance around issues and invoke large themes. For so many, this has … Continue reading C’mon C’mon (Review)
The Matrix Resurrections (Review)
How do you make a sequel to the Matrix? Well, it was always going to happen. In our current and consistent culture of everything old is new again, the time would always come when the 1999 gamechanger would be trotted out for a bold re-imagining. Therefore, why not get ahead of it. The Matrix Resurrections … Continue reading The Matrix Resurrections (Review)
The Card Counter (Review)
At a certain point in Schrader's latest, a character flatly makes a joke about how he's read the book Poker for Dummies. Schrader has seemingly also read this book and has adapted it into a feature film, and then shoved in a subplot about US government run torture facilities. Clearly, he thinks he has created … Continue reading The Card Counter (Review)
Assorted Opinions 