Not since Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity have I felt such palpable stress in a cinema auditorium, and this is to the credit of Daniel Espinosa’s sci-fi thriller, Life. His unimaginatively-titled offering to the genre is a nightmare for the blood pressure but, sadly, not quite so stimulating on the brain. The premise is simple: cell samples […]
Barry Jenkin’s Moonlight is to film what poems are to novels; it’s light on dialogue, under two hours long, and contains (to the horror of some reviewers) very little in the way of plot. It is, quite frankly, a masterpiece. Many film theorists and critics have waxed lyrical over the years about the greatness of […]
Alice Lowe’s new feature film, Prevenge, follows the pregnant, vengeance-seeking Ruth, as she gruesomely murders those she feels have wronged her. When I meet her in the dining area of a New Town hotel, Lowe is almost unrecognisable from her on-screen character: she is relaxed, charming, and carries a gleeful baby on her hip. To […]
After co-writing and starring in the indie hit that was 2012’s Sightseers, and going on to charm audiences in the strange and lovely Black Mountain Poets (2015), it seems fair to say that Alice Lowe’s directorial debut would meet with high expectations. Fans of her zany, surreal and hilariously gory work will be glad to […]
Our film team enters into a roundtable discussion to describe their highlights from 2016.
October marked the beginning of the UK’s 29th annual Black History Month, a month dedicated to celebrating the achievements and contributions of the Black community in all spheres of art, politics, history and science. In the world of film, Black History Month is an opportunity for Black artists and audiences to perhaps look to the […]
On leaving the cinema, I received a text from my horror fanatic younger brother: “Well? Was it good or just scary?” and without knowing it, he’d somehow hit the nail on the head for Adam Wingard’s reboot of the Blair Witch franchise. Maybe that was Wingard’s goal; the plot of Blair Witch is so similar […]
You would really have to be living in an ice cave on Hoth for the Star Wars: The Force Awakens hype train to have passed you by. The fans of George Lucas’ sci-fi saga are some of the most loyal in the galaxy, and after the general disappointment of the last three films, we have […]