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Reviews
The Post
We’ve got to the stage where any historical event can be canonised in celluloid. Some strike as barrel-scraping but with certain films it’s amazing to think how it’s never been shot before. The Post is one to file under the latter category. With the Watergate scandal just around the corner (something brilliantly alluded to here) The Pentagon Papers are less discussed in the public eye, but these events lit the touch paper on the press calling out its officiators and are of va
Jan 25, 2018
Darkest Hour
There are certain stories, legends, morality tales etc. destined to be retold, reinterpreted and reimagined ad infinitum. Some have already been perfected and are only rehashed to satiate diminishing cinema audiences. Some haven’t got a definitive interpretation or are so worthy they should be brought regularly back to audiences and generations. Winston Churchill certainly falls into the latter category and Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour stakes a claim to giving us cinema’s defini
Jan 16, 2018
Downsizing
Every so often an idea comes along that’s so forehead-slappingly brilliant it’s difficult to fathom how it hasn’t been done before. Alexander Payne’s (Director and screenplay) Downsizing is one such example. A Black Mirror-esque vision of the future so scarily prescient and curiously relatable that it feels like an important comment on the modern world. In short (pun intended) a Norwegian company have invented a process of ‘cellular miniaturisation’, a process whereby people,
Jan 10, 2018
Hostiles
As with every genre, the Western is having a bit of a mini-revival at the moment with filmmakers using its desolate locales and wanton hostility to make a comment on current politics and international relations. We’ve seen Tarantino release two brilliant examples recently in Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, the spectacular The Revenant and HBO’s brilliant Westworld TV adaptation and Netflix’s Godless. You could argue that War for the Planet of the Apes picks up these t
Jan 8, 2018
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
January is THE month for the UK film connoisseur. Dark mornings and cold, rainy days be damned as we’re treated to an influx of films that the US got to enjoy last year. 2017 saw big hitters like La La Land, Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea come our way and we’re set in 2018 to enjoy The Shape of Water, Coco, Ladybird and Downsizing amongst others which have received rave reviews, awards and ‘best of year’ listings across the pond. Those aforementioned 2017 examples settle
Jan 3, 2018
Pitch Perfect 3
The first two Pitch Perfect films are exceedingly good, all-round entertainment which latched on to a growing trend and a gap in the market at the perfect time. A more mature look at university societies than High School Musical, actually funny and with a great soundtrack. The sequel was an inevitability and a clever way of moving the characters on from the events of the first film. A threequel, given the success of the first two, was also an inevitability but, unfortunately
Jan 1, 2018
The 2017 Albums Of The Year
2017 has been a particularly fine vintage for music. The less said about other things the better but there's nothing like political...
Jan 1, 2018
The 2017 Films Of The Year
After squabbles, in-fighting and more shuffling than a Vegas casino I present the best films of 2017: 20. Okja 19. Free Fire 18. The Lego...
Jan 1, 2018
The 2017 TV Of The Year
The small screen has been squabbling with the big in recent times and can certainly boast its own inimitable run of 'event' watching. For...
Jan 1, 2018
The 2017 Playlist: Tracks of the Year
Amidst all the strife of 2017 we always have music to turn to. Chunks of life and artistic expression to take three or four minutes at a...
Jan 1, 2018
New Artists for 2018
2017 has been an incredible year for music (as the Best Albums and Tracks lists will confirm) and 2018 is set for more brilliance. Here are some artists to look out for next year, all of whom have released some smashing singles or EP's this year but are yet to release a debut album. NB. There are plenty of new bands who've released great debuts this year but only those yet to release a full album are eligible for this particular list. No ranking here, just an alphabetical
Dec 18, 2017
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is not the nostalgia-fest that The Force Awakens and Rogue One were. It’s not The Empire Strikes Back to The Force Awakens' A New Hope either, or the pointless middle chapter that was Attack Of The Clones. It’s entirely its own beast and, for that, Rian Johnson deserves a lot of credit. Picking up the heavy baton from JJ Abram’s masterful last film (Abrams is now on producer duties) Johnson pulls more rugs here than a carpet salesman (terrible simile
Dec 15, 2017
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