Most comedians are famous in their home country, but few translate to other countries. So it was a huge surprise when it was announced that Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop was having a movie made based on the events that led to him becoming a comedian. Is This Thing On? is a movie directed by actor…
Author: Stuart Wren
Mercy
In a time when the debate over the good and the bad of artificial intelligence is raging, we need a movie to help with the arguments. Mercy, unfortunately, is not that movie. A silly, science fiction whodunnit in which two big-name stars are limited to being in one room, talking to each other while surrounded…
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
One of the big successes of last year was the return of Danny Boyle to the 28 Days Later films, 28 Years Later. The end of the film left many confused, but now we get the follow-up, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and as a middle film to a trilogy, it not only manages…
Rental Family
Rental families have been a huge business in Japan since the 80s. They are companies that hire actors to serve as family members or friends for events or to fill emotional gaps. This is something that I certainly haven’t heard about before, but now, with the arrival of Rental Family, a sweet, gentle comedy drama,…
The Voice of Hind Rajab
It’s not often you sit in a cinema with a packed audience in stunned silence during the end credits (unless there is some sequence you are expecting). Still, it happened with The Voice of Hind Rajab, a powerful, gut-wrenching drama based on actual events during the Israeli-Gaza war, that doesn’t need to be seen; it…
Hamnet
The awards season is upon us, and one of the front-runners for major awards is Hamnet, based on a best-selling book by Maggie O’Farrell and directed by Oscar-winning Chloe Zhao, returning to human drama after dabbling with the big-budget Marvel flop, Eternals. It has to be said that this isn’t a film if you are…
Marty Supreme
The thought of watching a movie about a man who wants to be the face of table tennis in the 1950s might not sound like the most exciting experience, but this is far more than just that. Marty Supreme is from director Josh Safdie, part of the Safdie brothers who brought us the intense Uncut…
Song Sung Blue
Trailers can be very deceiving. Take, for example, the one for The Holdovers. It doesn’t sell the film well, and yet it’s one of the best Christmas movies around. The same could be said of Song Sung Blue, a biopic of a married couple who became a Neil Diamond tribute act. It doesn’t do the…
Peter Hujar’s Day
There is never an issue if you see a film about someone you’ve never heard of before, as, if you become invested in the movie, you want to find out more about them. Peter Hujar was a gay photographer from the 70s, whom I didn’t know a thing about when entering Peter Hujar’s Day, and…
Anaconda
How do you reboot a series that was so bad, it was almost a parody of itself? You re-imagine it into a comedy-adventure. That is what has happened to Anaconda, the 1997 action monster movie starring Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, and an awful performance by Jon Voight. Instead of going for a remake, you approach…
Avatar: Fire And Ash
There aren’t many film franchises where I could say I don’t care. Some are bad but bearable, while others worsen progressively. Still, James Cameron’s Avatar films just don’t do anything for me, to the point that even though cinema is going through a terrible patch at the moment, I want the third entry, Fire and…
Fackham Hall
Earlier this year, we had the reboot of The Naked Gun, and while brimming with laughs, it wasn’t always successful, as there were far too many moments when the comedy was lacking. Now, the Brits are taking a chance at spoof comedies with Fackham Hall, which pokes fun at Downton Abbey, and while it might…
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