When it comes to recipes for success, Marvel would doubtless resent the suggestion that they need advice - they're billions of dollars into their grand cinematic project, with few signs of letup. However, their films are undeniably homogenising, the distinctions between them blurring. In giving Thor Ragnarok to director Taika Waititi they have taken a bold step … Continue reading Thor Ragnarok
It is a truth universally acknowledged that giving historical figures deliberately unsuitable English regional accents is a reliably amusing idea. A cockney Stalin, a Yorkshire Zhukov, a New Yorkian Khrushchev; these are jokes that keep on giving, and sustain Armando Iannucci’s new film at times. The film portrays the final moments of the titular dictator, … Continue reading The Death of Stalin
Having a niche is no crime. Noah Baumbach has made an impressive career thus far from sharply-written tragi-comedies of American upper class angst, and he shows no signs of letting up. The Meyerowitz Stories is another addition to this oeuvre, and is an enjoyable and affecting, if familiar, entry. Replying loosely to the broken-home scenario … Continue reading The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Blade Runner 2049 is a multifaceted surprise; that this picture was made at all is an unlikeliness to rival its improbable quality. A sequel to a complex and then-underappreciated box office flop, its subtlety and patience are testament to a film-making enterprise which may not have been purely motivated by financial gain, for once. Denis Villeneuve … Continue reading Blade Runner 2049
The recent and deserved controversy over Felix Kjellberg's questionable content and moral standards has made for depressing viewing and reading. To be clear, it is a man named Felix Kjellberg who is in question; to continually refer to his stage name of 'Pewdiepie' is to already grant his fame undue influence on the debate at hand. … Continue reading A teacup, but no storm
Classic crime sprees films are often characterised by sociopathy, as characters we identify with spiral out of control and into deeper and deeper trouble. Badlands is a stunning example of this trope, as a debutant Terence Malick shows us the madness of a rootless man through the guileless eyes of a young woman he has dragged into … Continue reading Badlands (1973)
