There is a lot of buzz around the Spanish drama La Bola Negra, especially after its directors, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, won the Best Director award at this year’s Cannes. Often, when this happens, you find yourself not connecting with a film or even going the opposite direction. Thankfully, the buzz is true, and…
Tag: movies
Wild Horse Nine
I was listening to an introduction to Wild Horse Nine, where the presenter discussed the connection between Martin McDonagh and The Coen Brothers. Having watched this excellent comedy thriller, I can understand what he was saying. McDonagh, who gave us the brilliant In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin, has…
I Love Booster
I often say that movies have become too routine and predictable. I certainly can’t say that about I Love Booster, a genre-bending, idea-driven film directed by Boots Riley, a filmmaker who refused to conform to the norm. His previous work was the brilliantly twisted Sorry to Bother You. With a colour palette that would make…
Street Fighter
Back in 1994, a memorably bad big-screen version of the video game Street Fighter starred Jean-Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue. It was an all-time low in adaptations that turned the arcade games we grew up with into movies. The major issue was that it didn’t look anything like the game, but more like a…
The Social Reckoning
Many regard The Social Network as one of the best films of the 21st century. The story of Facebook’s creation is respected for its performances, Aaron Sorkin’s first-rate script, and David Fincher’s cinematic direction. Now, 16 years later, Sorkin returns to Facebook and takes the reins as director, with a film that might not have…
Verity
There is a moment in Verity when a character says she doesn’t read books you can buy at an airport. I could just as easily say the same about movies based on books you can buy at an airport. These pulp thrillers based on bestsellers have become hugely popular over the years (The Housemaid, The…
Heart Of The Beast
Movies that involve dogs usually give me shivers. They are often sickly sentimental with an obvious full-on emotional ending, or just plain annoying. Cujo was an exception, but that was a dog with rabies, and Channing Tatum’s 2022 Dog managed to avoid the usual potholes. Now we have Heart of the Beast, a survival movie…
Shaun The Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom
50 years ago, Aardman Animations burst onto screens in 1976 when a plastacine character named Morph appeared on the art programme Take Hart. Since then, the studio has grown, not only in size but in reputation, with creations like Wallace and Gromit, winning Oscars and hitting the big screen with movies like Chicken Run. One…
Resident Evil
Since it burst onto the PlayStation back in 1996, we have had six movies, from the husband-and-wife team Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich, and a reboot back in 2021 subtitled Welcome to Raccoon City, which has been forgotten by almost everyone, as well as a short-lived TV series. Enough time has passed for another…
Pressure
Many movies have covered the D-Day landings on 6th June 1944, most notably The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan. Yet we have never had a movie about the seaborne invasion told from a weatherman’s point of view until now. Pressure is the true story of how General Dwight D. Eisenhower made the decision of…
The Dog Stars
Sir Ridley Scott has always been a highly respected director, and his films always generate a certain amount of excitement, although the quality of his movies has been, in the most polite way, hit-or-miss. Starting out strong with The Duellists, Alien, and Blade Runner, there are some films that equal those now classics (Gladiator, Thelma…
One Night Only
In Hollywood, a web platform lets writers submit their work for executives to vote on the best unproduced screenplays. In the past, films like Juno and The Imitation Game topped the site, so we are looking at quality work that eventually was made. I have a question. How did One Night Only get to be…
