When the trailer dropped for Detective Pikachu, the Pokémon franchise's first live action film, I nearly shed a tear. Never had I seen something that seemed to capture the fun, imagination and scale that this series deserved quite so well. Could Detective Pikachu finally be the first great video game film adaptation? If the first trailer dropping the same…
Mid90s has been something of a polygraph test for its first time director, Jonah Hill. The skateboarding world, ever critical of those who exploit it (particularly on financial grounds) has waited patiently to find out whether Hill is cashing in on a fashionable culture, or a genuine insider. The results would suggest Hill was indeed part…
Writer and Director Jordan Peele goes two for two in original modern horrors with black humour, dread and jump scares. Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o) and her husband Gabe (Winston Duke) are vacationing with their children Jason (Evan Alex) and Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) in Santa Cruz, alongside wealthier friends the Tylers (Elizabeth Moss and Tim…
There’s always been this idea, this child-like wonder of what it would be like to be a superhero. What it would be like to fly, to shoot lasers out of your eyes, to be bullet-proof, to have super strength and a strong heart. We’re in an age of comic book movies where we see that…
Illustration by Thomas Durham 1999’s Star Wars: The Phantom Menace once held the title as the most anticipated film of a generation. Sixteen long-awaited years after Return of the Jedi plus leaps and bounds in special effects, yet it was ravaged by critics upon release. But did it ever really stand a chance? The Phantom Menace is one…
Continue reading ➞ Feature // In Defence Of: The Phantom Menace
I don’t know what it is about Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, but it seems that they can do no wrong. After helming The Lego Movie back in 2014, they continue to make monster hits that have won fans over, time and time again. Even the Academy has finally come around to their talents as 2018's Spider-Man:…
Continue reading ➞ Review // The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
With a double header of Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor nominations at the upcoming BAFTAs and Oscars, Can You Ever Forgive Me? features a wonderful against-type Melissa McCarthy and a never better Richard E. Grant, thick as thieves in their shady dealings of forged celebrity correspondence. Based on Israel's 2008 memoir, Marielle Heller (Transparent) directs…
Mary Queen of Scots is a sumptuous period tale of marriages, murders and betrayals, dramatically pitting the Catholic Scottish Monarch Mary of the House of Stuart (Saoirse Ronan) against her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie), last of the Tudor monarchs of England. The film begins with Mary’s return to Scotland to assume her throne…
For a presidential sure-thing, Gary Hart is not a particularly well or fondly remembered name. In the race for democratic nomination in 1988, Hart spectacularly fell from grace - the true story of Jason Reitman’s new political thriller, The Front Runner. For those that don’t remember, Hart’s presidential run was cut short when The Miami…
Over the last few years, there have been a series of British film releases each January which achieve minor prospects in the awards season and which can be labelled as “shortbread tin cinema”, on account of their historical period aesthetic, lack of flashiness, and a sort of parochial attitude that only appeals to filmgoers over…
