Gus Van Sant’s intimate, graceful and nostalgic portrait of gay politician Harvey Milk resonates with honesty for the period, the man, and those around him – much of it due to Dustin Lance Black’s carefully researched screenplay which constrains Van Sant to offer up a more conventional film than previous work like Elephant, Paranoid Park […]
What does it mean to be a man? Since seeing Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, that question has been buzzing ceaselessly around my head. Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a Korean War vet who has worked on the Ford assembly line for 40 years. An unashamed racist, Walt is disappointed with the world at large, and with […]
It’s difficult to examine Bryan Singer’s World War Two thriller Valkyrie without placing actor Tom Cruise, and the entire mechanism of the Hollywood star system, under the microscope. Originally conceived as a lower budget, altogether smaller piece of cinema, Cruise’s involvement changed many aspects of the film’s development – most pointedly its budget. In the […]
Award winning plays don’t always make for great cinema – too much dialogue, too little motion and a certain tightness brought on by the story’s origins necessarily enclosing ideas and relationships in a small space. Doubt – playwright Patrick Shanley’s directorial debut - just about manages to escape these traps, thanks to Shanley’s own carefully […]
So, never work with children and animals, eh? First time feature director Thor Freudenthal doesn’t seem to mind – putting his background in visual effects on the Stuart Little mouse movies to good use in this family friendly, cute and cuddly tale of dogs and teens.
Andi (Emma Roberts) and her younger brother Bruce (Jake […]
There’s nothing quite so nostalgic as going back in time – remembering what could have been, where life’s turning points happened, recalling old loves and best days. The idea of someone starting life old and living life backwards – getting younger each day – seems a strong premise for a film, and it’s the core […]
Occasionally – far too occasionally – a film comes along that once again reminds you of the power of the cinematic experience: how movement, composition, light, colour and music can be stunningly shaped to create the most exquisite drama. Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Millions) is no stranger to style and has never […]
While writing criticism for Vanity Fair in the 1920s, the great Dorothy Parker famously wrote of the acting range of Katherine Hepburn that it ran the gamut from A to B. I only wish I could be that witty, and I only wish I could say anything better of the range of Keanu Reeves. His […]
Mad scientists on film - from Metropolis (1927) to Van Helsing (2004) - have traditionally relied upon a hunch-backed assistant to help in their evil schemes – someone to collect body parts, mix potions and finally pull the switch that might bring a hideous invention to life. Igor – an animated feature from new […]
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