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★★★★★ Rewatched 22 Oct 2021
9.5
Blu Ray
Rewatch (2nd viewing)
What does it mean to be human? David Cronenberg's Frankenstein-esque cautionary tale stars Jeff Goldblum as a nerdy scientist who accidentally fuses his DNA with a fly, gradually becoming more and more insectile in nature until he literally falls apart.
My personal favourite Cronenberg film, this has everything: the purest expression of his obsession with the malleability and spongy, liquidy grossness, but also the beauty, of the human body; a brilliant lead performance from…
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★★★★★ Watched 05 Sep 2021
9.5
Amazon Prime Video (Rental)
* SPOILERS *
A knowing deconstruction of the revenge thriller, as typified in recent years by the John Wick and Taken franchises (amongst many others), Pig tees up a classic genre scenario: the mysterious loner who has something precious taken from him (in this case, an adorable truffle pig named Apple) and goes on a mission to get it back. The filmmakers then go even further into this territory by casting Nicholas Cage (who as…
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★★★★★ Rewatched 29 Aug 2021
9.5
NowTV
Rewatch (2nd viewing)
On rewatch, there are a couple of things that bugged me slightly: Jack's descent into madness seems to happen extremely suddenly and without making it very clear that he is falling under the spell of the hotel (apparently Kubrick removed some scenes that were shot which seemingly would have made this transition a little less jarring); and Danny's "shining" abilities actually don't play as big of a role in the story as we are initially…
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4
Film4
Despite featuring a number of things I normally really like- a film by Mike Leigh, starring the wonderful David Thewlis in his breakout role, explorations of dark themes- this just didn't work for me at all.
I think the main issue I had wasn't the film's nihilism or even its nastiness (although this is a very, very nasty film), but rather the fact that Leigh doesn't really have anything interesting to say here. Thewlis' unemployed, homeless Johnny spends…
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8
Apple TV+
CODA, writer-director Sian Heder's second feature and a big awards winner at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, is a coming of age story told with genuine, crowd-pleasing heart, buckets of empathy and zero pretentiousness. It does at times lean on cliché and sentimentality, and the character arcs and story beats are recognisable a mile off, but this is one of those rare indie dramas where everything aligns perfectly: the acting is top notch, the writing consistently sharp…
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6
Film4
Apparently this mid-50s adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm was the first ever British feature-length animation, and also was commissioned by the CIA as a Cold War-era propaganda piece.
Animal Farm retains the core story and themes of the novella, with most of the broad strokes remaining the same- albeit I think that there is, inevitably, a degree of simplification and a general toning down for the sake of it being, ultimately, a film for children. The novella…
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7.5
DVD
On the strength of Jackie Brown, Tarantino should do adapted screenplays more often. Elmore Leonard's twisty-turny crime dramas are a good fit for Tarantino's style and aesthetic, and, I suspect as a result of the material he was adapting from, Jackie Brown has, arguably, the strongest, clearest plotting, some of the best characters and the most genuine emotion in his entire filmography. It has both style and substance.
As always, the direction is superb from start to finish:…
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8
Cinema
Spencer isn’t a period piece or even a biopic in the traditional sense- it’s a horror film, both of the psychological and haunted house variety, more Get Out than The Crown. Be prepared for a tale of claustrophobia, gaslighting and despair set in a cold, dank, depressing series of grand rooms and poorly-lit corridors. A fictionalised (very fictionalised) account- a “fable from a true story”, as the title card has it- the film covers three miserable, tense, lonely…
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★★★★★ Watched 28 Jun 2021
9.5
Amazon Prime Video (Purchase)
There are some films, rare though they may be, that transcend our usual methods and metrics of measuring and conveying our feelings about the artform. Reviews, star ratings, hearts, Letterboxd "Likes" all feel strangely redundant when considering the enormity and yet intimacy of a film like writer/director Jasmila Žbanić's Quo Vadis, Aida?, which to my mind is one of the most gut-wrenchingly traumatic, agonising and anger-inducing war films I have ever seen. I didn't "like"…
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6.5
Cinema
Free Guy is a bright, breezy and delightfully upbeat popcorn romp through gaming culture that leverages the star wattage of Ryan Reynolds as well as a very strong breakthrough performance by Jodie Comer to entertaining effect. It is hard not to come out of the movie with a smile on your face and a song (specifically a certain Mariah Carey song) in your heart.
That said, it is a mess. A well-intentioned and very sweet mess, yes, but…
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★★★★★ Rewatched 13 Oct 2021
9
Netflix
Rewatch (3rd viewing)
Series: Ghibliotheque
It has taken me three viewings to truly appreciate the simple, beautiful, intimate ode to childhood that is My Neighbour Totoro, Studio Ghibli’s (and Hayao Miyazaki’s) second official feature (on a double bill alongside, of all things, Grave of the Fireflies). Completely different in terms of tone and scale to both that film and the earlier epics Nauiscaa and Castle in the Sky, Totoro is still unmistakably a Miyazaki film, with its young…
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★★★★½ Watched 13 Jun 2021
9
Cinema
Written and directed by Florian Zeller and based upon his original play, The Father derives its significant emotional heft from placing the audience directly into the mindset of its protagonist, who has been diagnosed with advanced dementia. The Father sits alongside other recent films which have sought to deal with this most terrible, distressing of illnesses in a variety of divergent, cinematic ways: from the crumbling house metaphor at the centre of British horror Relic to the empathetic,…
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