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4,176 articles
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Antiviral
18 Jan 2013
Brandon Cronenberg finds sadness and squalor of celebrity obsession in impressive surreal debut
It would be nice, and respectful, to review this impressive debut by Brandon Cronenberg without making reference to the director’s parentage, but it’s near-impossible. When David Lynch met Isabella Rossellini, he supposedly told her that she could be…
Wreck It Ralph
18 Jan 2013
Witty and cleverly-targeted family romp from Disney with video game theme
Number one with a bullet on its recent American release, this cleverly-targeted family romp marks a step up both commercially and artistically for the non-Pixar side of Disney’s animation offering. Indeed, on a script level it’s substantially superior…
Lincoln
18 Jan 2013
Absorbing and unassuming film eschews trademark Spielberg sentimentality
Lincoln has been a lengthy labour of love for Steven Spielberg. Screenwriters and a lead actor have come and gone over more than a decade spent striving to tunnel out a cohesive drama from within the life of such a monumental and seemingly familiar…
Bullet to the Head
18 Jan 2013
Commendable attempt to reset Stallone persona in more down-to-earth cop thriller
Returning as the prodigal son of the hard-boiled thriller, director Walter Hill’s first film in ten years is a tough-guy vehicle for Sylvester Stallone. While the star’s recent output has been verging on self-parody in the Rocky, Rambo and Expendables…
This is 40
18 Jan 2013
Judd Apatow’s self-seeking self-analysis aims for blunt honesty, but is simply dull
Writer/director Judd Apatow’s reign as the modern king of comedy comes to an abrupt end with the bland miscalculation of *3This is 40*2, a self-seeking slice of self-analysis which verges on self-abuse. Setting itself up as a ‘sort-of sequel’ to Knocked…
FrightFest 2013 programme highlights
17 Jan 2013
The directors of the horror film festival talk us though 2013’s Glasgow Film Festival line-up
FrightFest has rapidly become one of the most popular events at the Glasgow Film Festival, selling out way in advance. This year will be no exception especially when you take a look at the line-up of horror they have prepared. Plus the small fact that a…
Glasgow Film Festival 2013 programme announced
17 Jan 2013
Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing and Henry Coombes' Entre Chien et Loup among highlights
The Glasgow Film Festival looks set to light up the silver screen with a programme that's bigger and (arguably) better than ever before. A stonking 368 events will be showcased in 27 venues across the city, with 57 UK premieres and 6 world premieres…
Profile: Ben Lewin, director of The Sessions
15 Jan 2013
The film is inspired by poet and journalist Mark O'Brien's experiences with a sex surrogate
Born Poland, 1946. Raised in Melbourne, Australia. Background In 1971 Lewin quit his job as a barrister to study filmmaking at the National Film and Television School in England. Lewin’s work to date includes Ally McBeal and the films Georgia and…
Hitchcock
15 Jan 2013
A simplistic, judgemental and smug portrayal of the legendary director, starring Anthony Hopkins
A master of cinematic surprise and misdirection is here subjected to a portrait that tells its audience what’s going on at every turn. One might suppose the man to be turning in his grave, had prurient pathologisation of him and his relationships with…
Zero Dark Thirty
15 Jan 2013
A gripping, authentic-feeling account of the dark side of the war on terror from Kathryn Bigelow
If Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq-set bomb disposal unit drama The Hurt Locker caught everyone by surprise, the anticipation for her follow-up is tangible. An exacting procedural about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, it’s been in development long before the…
Flight
15 Jan 2013
Some great effects and an intriguing moral quandry are sold short by a self-righteous finale
This action flick/courtroom drama/morality tale from the director of Back to the Future and Forrest Gump boasts a fine performance from Denzel Washington, a pivotal effects set piece of nail-biting intensity, and a third act so crushingly pious…
Hyde Park on Hudson
15 Jan 2013
A witty, civilised country house drama, featuring Bill Murray as President Roosevelt
Speculation on the private moments of public figures has become a fashionable mini-genre in the wake of The Queen and The King’s Speech. 2013 holds the promise of Naomi Watts as Princess Diana and Nicole Kidman as Princess Grace of Monaco. The sweetly…
No
15 Jan 2013
Gael Garcia Bernal stars in this indecisive historical drama about Chile under Pinochet
With elements of Mad Men and Wag the Dog accompanying its diligent examination of a country in the throes of change, this fact-based Chilean drama focuses upon the role played by marketeers in the 1988 referendum that heralded the end of the 15-year…
Django Unchained
14 Jan 2013
Fine performances and moments of sudden brutality outshine Tarantino's over-indulgent running time
There are two major films about slavery this season. At one end of the spectrum is Steven Spielberg’s po-faced, self-important abolition drama Lincoln. And the other? Quentin Tarantino’s giddily violent, shockingly profane spaghetti western, Django…
Texas Chainsaw 3D
11 Jan 2013
Disappointing return for Leatherface
The trend for quickie remakes has drawn plenty of ire from the horror community, bemoaning the lack of originality and often shoddy cash-in movies trading on brand recognition and little else. Of course there are exceptions John Carpenter’s The Thing…
American Mary
11 Jan 2013
A shocking, memorable body horror, let down by a weak third act
American Mary marks the second feature-length film by Jen and Sylvia Soska, following Dead Hooker In A Trunk (a film that began life as a faux trailer – inspired by the Tarantino/Rodriguez project Grindhouse). Like the twisted sister of an early David…
Midnight Son
11 Jan 2013
A confident but minor addition to the vampire-addict horror subgenre
Since directing breakout hit The Blair Witch Project, Eduardo Sanchez has continued milking the low-budget horror market, executive producing this low-key tale of LA vampires for debutant writer/director Scott Leberecht. As Leberecht’s visual effects…
May I Kill U?
11 Jan 2013
Blackly comic satire that lacks laughs, despite starring UK comedian Kevin Bishop
‘Assisted dying’ is the phrase used by disgruntled copper Baz (Kevin Bishop) to describe the brand of polite street-justice he invents in the aftermath of the London riots. Writer/director Stuart Urban’s black comedy revolves around the inverted moral…
Silver Linings Playbook leads the pack in 2013 Oscar nomination
10 Jan 2013
Lincoln, Amour and Les Miserables also nominated
The nominations for the 2013 Academy Awards have been announced, with Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln and Amour leading the pack of those films who stand a chance of winning at the awards ceremony on Sunday 24 February. Silver Linings Playbook, a…
Gangster Squad
9 Jan 2013
The Ryan Gosling-starring LA noir has great performances but a nasty violent streak
As stylish as Ruben Fleischer's Gangster Squad is, it lacks the substance of similar genre films such as The Untouchables and LA Confidential and contains a nasty, even exploitative streak. Inspired by the true story of a group of cops who sought to…
Les Misérables
7 Jan 2013
A strong cast with good singing voices lift up Tom Hooper's French Revolution musical adap
The musical is a taste that, once acquired, tends to stick. Fall for South Pacific or Evita or The Rocky Horror Picture Show at an impressionable age, and your crush is likely to outlast far more credible affiliations. Conversely, if you never got your…
West of Memphis
3 Jan 2013
A diligent, complex and justly indignant documentary about a grisly triple murder case
The triple murder of Christopher Byers, Steven Branch and Michael Moore in Arkansas in 1993 was one of those crimes that’s liable to make you lose the will to be part of the human race if you dwell on it too much – and that’s before you even get to the…
Dabangg 2
3 Jan 2013
Enjoyable Bollywood action sequel starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor
Dabangg, released in 2010, introduced us to hyper-macho super-cop Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan), a sharply dressed unorthodox policeman living and working in rural northern India. The sequel, produced and directed by Arbaaz Khan (who also stars in both…
Confession of a Child of the Century
21 Dec 2012
Pete Doherty's acting derails this 19th century period drama
The former pop star and tabloid fixation Pete Doherty has always seemed like such an unstable, needy construction – a walking set of influences lacking the supporting structure of a personality – that it’s not impossible to see how he might have seemed…
Grabbers
21 Dec 2012
A contrived, one-note sci-fi horror comedy in which a community stays drunk to repel an alien attack
In Grabbers, an interplanetary invasion of earth can potentially be foiled, not by the fighting spirit of the human race, but due to the aversion of the aliens to drinking blood contaminated by alcohol. It’s a situation which forces the inhabitants of a…
