Released: 1st December
Seen: 7th December
The 1965 novel Dune is one of those works of fiction that has permeated pop culture in ways that few other books have. Even if you haven’t read it, you probably know of the sandworms that turn the desert planet into a constant sea of danger, you might know about the drug Spice and that it’s been a notorious pain in the ass to try and adapt.
Continue reading “Dune (2021) – Spicy”
Released: 2nd December
Seen: 6th December
Last year the Christmas film Happiest Season came out to rave reviews, as it should. It was a simple, sweet, charming Christmas film that also broke boundaries by being a wide release Christmas film that featured a gay couple. Strangely, Christmas films focusing on members of the LGBT community either have to be little underground affairs that don’t get big releases by major companies… well, Netflix clearly wanted to try and correct that by making their own gay Christmas film, Single All The Way. I guess it’s nice to know that we’re getting to the point where gay Christmas films can just be as cliched as the straight ones.
Continue reading “Single All The Way (2021) – Merry and Gay”
Released: 1st December 2020
Seen: 6th December
Review copy provided
You know, around this time of year we all have a traditional Christmas special we might like to dig out. There are things like the classic Charlie Brown Christmas Special, maybe you’re a fan of some Rankin Bass classics or you like to go a little off the beaten track and pull out the Pee Wee Herman Christmas Special. These are all absolute classic choices that work great for every kind of child… but what about after you’ve grown up? What special works for the modern day jaded adult who only makes it through the Christmas season through a temporary dip into alcoholism and passive aggression? Well, that’s why we have drag queens to help provide us with the adult holiday special we didn’t know we needed.
Continue reading “The Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Special (2020) – Terminally Delightful”
Released: 30th October
Seen: 4th December
Glenn Close is hitting the point where eventually she’s going to get an Oscar as a “We’re sorry we forgot to give you this back in 1988” gift. She almost got it a few years ago for her role in The Wife, last year she was nominated for Hillbilly Elegy – though thankfully that wasn’t the movie that her work was honoured for – and now with Four Good Days we have another film that probably would be getting her a nomination but probably won’t since it hasn’t got that much press… oh well, maybe when that Sunset Boulevard movie gets out of development hell they’ll give it to her, cos sadly Four Good Days is just too average in general to get much notice.
Continue reading “Four Good Days (2021) – Four OK Days”
Released: 1st December
Seen: 4th December
It’s kind of strange to realise that Jane Campion hasn’t directed a feature film in over a decade. She’s one of those names that is on the shortlist of absolutely legendary directors even with only eight feature films to her name. She’s just one of those people who you expect a certain level of excellence from and with her first feature film in over a decade, The Power of the Dog, she reminds us why she is one of the great filmmakers of our time.
Continue reading “The Power Of The Dog (2021) – Powerful”
Released: 22nd July
Seen: 2nd December
The career of M. Night Shyamalan is certainly an interesting one, to say the least. He started with absolute bonafide smash hit The Sixth Sense and then onto critical acclaim with Unbreakable and Signs. He was heralded as a visionary, someone who would have a career worthy of envy… and then he had a decade straight of critical bombs. He’s never really made an actual financial bomb (except maybe Lady in the Water) but his name went from being a sign of potential to a red flag that you’re about to be greatly disappointed. Even when he had a mild comeback with The Visit and Split, people thought he would return to his form… and now after Glass and the film we’re talking about today, Old, I have to wonder if M. Night Shyamalan was ever actually the visionary that people claimed him to be or if he’s just a bad writer/director who got lucky with his early films.
Continue reading “Old (2021) – Aged Badly Already”
Released: 25th September
Seen: 30th November
In 2018, a little film called Venom came out and I’ll be honest, I didn’t think it was that good. I still don’t, it was badly edited and rushed with a tone that felt all over the place while also being incredibly restrained by the PG-13 rating that it was going for. It got a serious critical thrashing and was just kind of mediocre, and yet, audiences loved the thing. It made nearly $900 million at the box office and was guaranteed a sequel. I won’t lie, when I heard about a sequel, I let out an exasperated sigh because I was so sure we were going to get another bland film… and then Venom: Let There Be Carnage turns around and ends up being one of the most obscenely entertaining films of the year.
Continue reading “Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) – Love A Little Carnage”
Released: 1st October
Seen: 27th November
While some films have large elaborate casts, there are those that are designed specifically to focus on a single performance. When these are done right, they can lead to some genuinely fascinating films with incredible central performances, we had one earlier this year with Oxygen, which bore a lot of similarities to Buried. The trick is to somehow maintain an audience’s intrigue for an hour and a half with only one performer and one location. Joining that group of films is The Guilty, a film that gives Jake Gyllenhaal a chance to show off just what he can do… interesting choice to release it around the time we’re apparently meant to hate him because a song said so, but hey that’s how things happen sometimes.
Continue reading “The Guilty (2021) – All Too OK”
Released: 12th March
Seen: 24th November
You know, lately we’ve had a run of seriously bad sex dramas that are less sexy and dramatic and more like painful farces designed to make us pay for our sins. 50 Shades, After, 365 Days, all of them (and their terrible sequels) sexy dramatic films designed to titillate and intrigue that mostly just get on the thinking audience’s tits. They’re not good and not fun, what ever happened to fun sex dramas? Well, looks like Trust might be just barely good enough to show that there might still be some actual creativity left in this admittedly tawdry genre.
Continue reading “Trust (2021) – Intriguing”
Released: 29th October
Seen: 23rd November
In 2009, the movie Paranormal Activity was given a wide release and signalled a change in Horror movies that would almost dictate what the upcoming decade would look like. Before Paranormal Activity, the Horror genre was knee deep in so-called “Torture Porn” films that relied heavily on shock and incredibly over the top violence and gore.
Continue reading “Paranormal Activity: Next Of Kin (2021) – Dead Boring”independent and curious
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