Tag: Four Stars
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A Simple Favour Review – Complicated exercise
In basically the first scene of A Simple Favour Anna Kendrick’s character explains that the sequence of events leading up to her best friend’s disappearance happened on their kids’ school’s World Food Day. We then cut to a flashback, the banner in the classroom reads Ethnic Food Day. And so it becomes clear that, even…
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Searching Review – Static action
Searching has got me thinking about how we interface with contemporary technology in the aesthetic properties of storytelling. Earlier this year we saw Soderbergh’s Unsane which used the burnt out visual quality of mobile phone footage to great effect in building up its unsettling and uncanny sense of place. This summer came Stephen Susco’s horror…
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Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again Review – A grown up feature
I write this review drinking a chilled glass of white wine at nine o’clock on a Tuesday evening because I am sure that this is the version of ‘best life’ that the characters of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again would want me to lead. It’s a pointless endeavour really, the only valid answer to…
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The Secret of Marrowbone Review – Not a twist movie
You’ll probably have figured out the secret of The Secret of Marrowbone pretty early on in the film’s running time. I mean, there’s a few going on through the running time the plot basically revolves around a circling series of reveals, who knows what, and who’s hiding it from them is the source of all…
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Hereditary Review – Sad times
There’s a lot of grief in Hereditary and none of its characters know where to put it. It opens on the funeral of this family’s matriarchal grandmother. Toni Collette’s Annie struggles through her speech at the alter, trying to reconcile her mother’s abusive personality with the weight of her loss. Like, when the feelings that…
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The Breadwinner Review – Concentrated melancholy
You expect children’s animated films to be a little sad don’t you? A little salt to balance out the sugar, enough melancholy to allow our spirits to be lifted later on. Nobody expects the death of Anna and Elsa’s parents to be the entire trade of Frozen, they’re just another dash of something in the…
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Beast Review – Just casually Gothic
You know when you’ve spent a couple of hours writing something and you’re pretty pleased with how it’s going and then your computer crashes and you lost the 800 or so words worth of work that you just spent your time on? Yeah, that happened when I was writing my review of Beast. I know,…
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Lean on Pete Review – Boy horse story
I guess after 45 Years Andrew Haigh could pretty much take on any project that he liked. It seems fitting that he’d reach for a story taking place at the other end of life. Of all the ages that the young protagonist of Lean on Pete gives the youngest is fifteen. I think that’s the…
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A Quiet Place Review – Subdued thrills
People online be getting all sniffy. ‘I wanna watch A Quiet Place in cinemas,’ they say, ‘but teens and phones and I can’t trust them to be quiet when the film’s on. So I won’t.’ Ah, suck it up, stop being so precious and go see the goddamn movie. It’s pretty good. For what it’s worth…
A Grand Quiet 