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Why Him?
It takes a certain kind of bullishness to program your Christmas film through January. Even worse when, for the most part it’s set in sunny, sunny LA. I imagine it came out last week when I wasn’t paying attention but, in January, Christmas feels as further off then ever. Then you hear a festive jingle…
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A Monster Calls
Whether or not this film is going to work on you or not depends on your reaction to one moment. That in which the monster calls. Beacuse the first time it does so, it’s rough. Like real rough. The film packs a lot into it’s first fifteen minutes, it deftly creates a world, fleshes out…
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A United Kingdom
I don’t usually notice technical editing in a film. I know technicals are the wrong word for this, there’s artistry to be found in colour and compositing and audio mixing. But for want of a better term, we’ll stick with that. A United Kingdom has some of the most distracting choices in the regard I’ve…
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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Would that the title were more accurate. The only ‘Fantastic Beast’ to be found in the film is Colin Farrell. Because damn; there exists a theoretical point in time where that man starts becoming less handsome. Or a time when he goes for a look so stupid it ruins him forever. Like when Ethan Hawke…
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Doc Appointment: My Scientology Movie, Francofonia
My Scientology Movie Is it possible not to love Louis Theroux? It’s easy from the audience, we got that distance, but his subjects though, they have to deal with that. He can be pretty invasive at times, probing, he can play these people something fierce. Then they turn around and forgive him, there something about…
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Some Cold Takes: A Goddamn Month Ago
I, Daniel Blake What is there to be said about I, Daniel Blake that hasn’t been already. It’s a film that defies being judged on conventional merits, so naked is its ambition as a political document. Thank God Ken Loach is such a good filmmaker, it makes it so much easier to write about the…
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Some Cold Takes October 14-20
The Girl on the Train Maybe there’s some enjoyment to be found in other people’s misery. You know, if your life is happy and easy and blessed enough there’s something to be gotten from others’ struggles. And if laughing at real people’s too much for you here’s some suffering we just made up. Not once…
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A Glass Darkly: Black Mirror, Season 3 Episode 2. Playtest
Until now episodes of Black Mirror have felt like they have had something to say about us. It ain’t always been profound, and its arguments haven’t always been well constructed, but it’s always tried. It’s like playtest doesn’t even try, it’s too much in love with itself to create a working story. Too much in…
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Thoughts on ten minutes with a virtual reality
I remember watching the opening cutscene to Halo ODST on my stepbrother’s Xbox. I had never been a huge fan of the series and indeed this was during a period of time during which I had been forbidden to touch the thing. I think they were out. The game starts in spaceship as half of…
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Some Cold Takes: Oct 7 – Oct 13
Swiss Army Man Okay, so I was always gonna love this one. I mean, Daniels work over the past few years has let us see these great visual stylists gradually adopt this unifying philosophy in their work, even their commercial stuff. It seemed like a feature was the obvious next step and here’s they’ve done…
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A Grand Quiet 