James McAvoy has established himself as a reliable actor, whose credits have included The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Atonement and Split. Now he’s taking on his next challenge, behind the camera as director of California Schemin’, based on the incredible true story of how two Dundee lads took on the record industry. Based…
Tag: comedy
The Drama
Could film-makers please stop making anxiety-ridden, packed movies, as my nerves cannot cope anymore. With films like Marty Supreme and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You out in the world, I often leave the cinema frazzled. Now we can add The Drama to the collection. It was certainly the worst of the group, starting…
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
You know that a film is in trouble when the most entertaining thing about it is the company ident at the beginning, where the Minions are playing a version of Super Mario Bros. to tell us this is an Illumination production. Yes, we are back with a sequel to the Super Mario Bros. Movie from…
The Magic Faraway Tree
Can we say all hail, Simon Farnaby? The performer and writer who started life in Horrible Histories and went on to co-write the BBC comedy Ghosts has taken the family film and breathed no life into it. Having co-written Paddington 2 and Wonka, he has now taken a beloved series of books by Enid Blyton,…
Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come
Ready or Not was a surprise hit in 2019 and took a very simple premise: a woman forced into playing a deadly game of hide and seek, and it was a blast as we watched the lead character, Grace, fight for her life against an overprivileged family who are hunting her down in a gothic…
Project Hail Mary
Sci-fi is a hard genre to crack. They can be just silly, as proven with this year’s Mercy, or far too cerebral, as with Interstellar. Thankfully, writer Andy Weir has found that balance of science and fun. His previous film outing for one of his novels, The Martian, turned out to be Ridley Scott’s lightest…
Mother’s Pride
If there is a sub-genre that we have become very good at, it’s the feel-good comedy/drama. A film that takes a traditionally British story, throws in a bunch of likeable characters, a sprinkle of issues and incidents, then stirs them up in a pot and sees what sticks. It started, I guess, with films like…
How To Make A Killing
The Coen Brothers made one massive misstep in their career: remaking the Ealing comedy The Ladykillers. Trying to capture the warmth and the darkness of the classic 1952 movie was impossible, even for experienced filmmakers. Which is why going into How To Make a Killing was done with trepidation, because even though this is not…
Hoppers
Pixar has had a troubled time over the past few years. Where they were once the masters of pitch-perfect animations, with hit after hit, they have fallen to the side. Not saying the quality hasn’t been there, but the storytelling has been lacking. Movies like Elemental and Elio just haven’t connected with audiences, and so…
The Secret Agent
Movies can deliver a straightforward plot with very little in terms of themes or storytelling experimentation, while others go all out to make the experience worthwhile. The Secret Agent, a near-on three hour Brazilian movie from writer and director Kleber Mendonça Filho, does the latter. You think it is one thing, then it throws in…
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
There seems to be a current trend in cinema of pushing the audience to experience anxiety and pain, being led by the lead character. Marty Supreme, for example, is an experience of angst in which every step Marty takes leaves you with a knot in your stomach. Now comes Oscar-nominated If I Had Legs I’d…
Nouvelle Vague
The French film Breathless is regarded as a milestone in cinema history. A French New Wave classic by controversial director Jean-Luc Godard, it was a film that threw the rulebook of storytelling and filmmaking out the window. It has since become an influential film for filmmakers and film students alike. Richard Linklater, the director of…
Stu Loves Film 