There are certain 'immortals' in pop culture. Significant movies, albums, songs, art etc. Properties that shouldn't be touched, remixed, pastiched, reworked or reimagined. Trainspotting, for a long while, was one of these icons and, despite clamouring to release a sequel after the original was released in 1996, Danny Boyle resisted. Even with Irvine Welsh's subsequent follow up texts: prequel Skagboys and sequel Porno, there was no news on a film follow-up. It became the film

I've spoken glowingly in almost all of my reviews thus far in 2017 about the awards-worthy performances and career-best turns by this year’s actors and we’re treated to another virtuoso casting in Jackie. Taking a different angle on the well-trodden story of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Jackie presents itself as a semi-biopic (it only spans a week in the life) of the former President’s wife in the days after, and before, the shooting and how she came to terms with this de

It's great to see the cinema-going public both in the UK and Stateside flock to see Split and prove to any doubters and naysaying critics that M. Night Shyamalan is a great Director. Sure, he may not have quite topped his early triptych of movies but time does wonders to a Director's oeuvre and it is often their early features which are most heralded (my personal favourite auteur Quentin Tarantino still can't escape this particular fate in many people's opinion as well.) What

2017 is being all too kind to us movie-wise with January and February flooded with massive new releases and, almost without exception thus far, films delivering on the hype and being critically praised. Most of these have already been on screens Stateside last year and hoovering up awards and Manchester by the Sea is no exception. All you need to know going in is that Lee (Casey Affleck), a janitor in Boston with a potentially haunted past, moves back to Manchester (the titul

After squabbles, in-fighting and more shuffling than a Vegas casino I present the best films of 2016: 20. The Jungle Book 19. Captain...

Early awards buzz for La La Land has seen Damien Chazelle's second feature shoot to the top of a lot of 'must-watch' lists and, if it's not already one you've earmarked to see, you must dash to the nearest cinema to catch it. It seems odd for a film in these circumstances to achieve such hype, especially considering Chazelle's first film was a critically (but not commercially) adored indie about a jazz drummer, but it speaks volumes, perhaps, for the lack of musicals in the c

Martin Scorsese returns to his 'religious' strand of films with his latest Silence. Clearly a massive passion project for the great Director, and in production hell for years, his adaptation of the 1966 novel finally comes to screens. Set in 1600's Japan, where Christianity is outlawed on punishment of death, we focus on two young Priests smuggled into the country to find a former mentor thought lost. It's a quiet (no pun intended) and slow film, spread richly over a hefty...

Assassin's Creed is the latest film to try and fill the gaping void marked 'good video-game adaptation.' So many big hitters have tried and failed with last year's Warcraft the latest casualty. It's a shame to say that Assassin's Creed is also wide of the mark but more 'clipping the post' than shooting into row z. A brilliant core trio at the heart of the movie (Director Justin Kurzel and stars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, who all worked on 2015's Macbeth adaptati

So rounding off 2016 we have the hotly-anticipated and well-advertised Passengers. Brilliantly capitalising on our current obsession with space movies and the critical recognition they've been getting (Gravity, Interstellar, Arrival, The Martian) and casting probably the two biggest stars in Hollywood right now (no wonder there's hardly anyone else in the movie!) Morten Tyldum's film should be a resounding success and a nice way to end a somewhat hit and miss year. Luckily [d

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, along with last year's spectacular The Force Awakens, is setting a dangerous, if lovely, precedent for future Star Wars movies. Gone are the days of praying and hoping for the best. Now, stroll boldly into the multiplex knowing the latest in the expanding saga will blow your head off. Rogue One doesn't disappoint in these stakes. Perfectly contextualising some of the more frustrating and loose aspects of A New Hope as well as telling a brand new

Music; the great communicator as the Chili Peppers once sang. The media form able to bind our ever-dividing world. A year of turbulence,...

Amidst all the strife of 2016 we always have music to turn to. Chunks of life and artistic expression to take three of four minutes at a...