About Us
Your first stop for film reviews, movie news and opinion
Hello! Welcome, or welcome back, to Best For Film. Mel Gibson is very happy to see you here.
Best For Film is a cinema website. Nothing special about that, you’re thinking – there’s a film site on every cyber street corner these days, wearing a slightly inappropriate skirt and winking at passers-by (we know your game, Total Film). They’re certainly not thin on the ground, so why should you stick around here? Well, there are a few reasons.
First, we’ve been doing this for a while. Best For Film was launched in 2009, and swiftly came under the protection of ‘Don’ Natasha Hodgson, a literary mafiosa who built the site up from little more than a DVD collection and a bagful of cynical adjectives to the critical colossus you see before you. Somewhere along the line she moved on to manage her family’s olive oil importing business (which we’ve always suspected might be a front for something more sinister, to be honest), and her long-serving deputy John Underwood took the wheel of what’s becoming a quite unbelievably mixed metaphor. With the able assistance of more than sixty talented interns (not all at once, we’re not maniacs) and dozens of steely-eyed freelance scribblers, Best For Film has grown in critical weight as well as breadth, covering films from across the world and writing features that extend, or at least confuse, the boundaries of human endeavour.
Second, it’s a fair bet that we’ve already written whatever you feel like reading. Over the last few years we’ve covered thousands of up-to-the-minute News stories, bringing you the hottest trailers, the most surprising casting news (someone just hired Lindsay Lohan again; we can’t believe it either) and the cheapest, most prurient Hollywood gossip because at least it keeps you off the Daily Mail. Every day sees a new torrent of stories flood into the hallowed halls of Best For Film Towers, and before you can say “I wonder if Dolph Lundgren is still getting work” we’ll serve you up a steaming hot plate of NEWS.
Or maybe you’d rather head straight to the coalface of cinema with a brand spanking new review? Whether it’s the latest blockbuster or some mad Mongolian film about a shepherd with a passion for vintage motorcycles, we’ll have reviewed it – just check Film Reviews for more. Looking back a bit farther, or setting your sights lower? DVD Reviews is your friend; our bargain basement is filled with reviews of the horrors, thrillers and romances that don’t make it into cinemas but might just squeeze onto your list of personal forgotten gems.
Looking to take things down a notch and relax with a longer read that’s still got the BFF pizazz? Our Film Blog section is crammed full of first-class features, from regular offerings like the Cheat Sheet and Drinking Game to Top 10 blogs, retrospectives on classic films and interviews with all your favourite actors and directors. Except Nicolas Cage.
Still with us? Good, because your third reason to stick around might actually be the best – and it’s certainly not one you’ll find anywhere else. We’ve teamed up with ePoints, the revolutionary online points scheme, because we’re sick of having to jump through hoops to earn rewards online and we’re sure you are too. Our solution? To give you ePoints (redeemable in our store for oodles of brilliant stuff) for doing everything you’d normally do onsite – whether it’s tweeting an article, leaving a comment or watching a trailer, we’ll be lining your pocket with ePoints whenever you get involved. We think we’re the only film site in the world to reward its readers like this, and we hope you enjoy seeing your points rack up as much as we’ve enjoyed coming up with great redemption items for ePoints high-rollers.
Now, stop us if we’re getting a bit personal, but a few of you seem to be smiling through a mask of tears. “I’m so glad Best For Film exists,” your gaze mutely whispers, “but imagine how happy I would be if I could be a part of its happy band of writers!” Well, guess what – YOU CAN. Just get in touch via info@bestforfilm.com and we’ll see what we can do together. If you’re still mulling things over, sit tight – in a few weeks we’ll be launching a new contributor system which won’t only make it easier to write for us, it’ll also mean you’re rewarded for the great articles you write for the site! It’s all bloody exciting.
That’s about it from us – so, as Michael Bay has literally never said, we’ll be off before we become ridiculously overblown and awful. Don’t forget that you can register for BFF and ePoints here, check us out on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, or just gambol in the shining garden that’s spread out before you. No selfish giants, we promise.
Love,
Best For Film x
Kayleigh Dray
Kayleigh Dray studied at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry and specialised in Muggle Literature and Creative Writing. Since then, she has written for Cosmopolitan and The Film Pilgrim, perfecting her signature sarcastic tone (and dating advice) just in time for her arrival at Best For Film. She grew up on film sets and, looking at her eclectic selection of DVDs, it seems her dream film might be Killer Dinosaurs From Space: The Musical, starring Audrey Hepburn (complete with lightsaber and Scream mask), written by Tim Burton and directed by Steven Spielberg. Now THAT’S entertainment!
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Caroline O’Donoghue
Caroline O’Donoghue is a journalist, blogger and professional Irish person. Her special moves include romantic comedies of the mid to late nineties, Tekken 4 and shame. She has problems with Mad Men, and any other 40-minute TV show set in the past. She would like everyone to know that she gleefully quit a promising job in retail to be here, and that Cillian Murphy is from her hometown. So is Jonathan Rhys-Myers, but we don’t talk about that.
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Lydia Shellien-Walker
Having spent more time commanding my minions as the Film Section editor of Warwick University’s student paper than on my Philosophy and Literature degree I hope I have a thing or two to say about the world of film. And anyway, John will tell you the merits of a degree in philosophy. I like serious films. I also think most films would be better in animation. Do these two things harmonize? Probably not. But Homer Simpson is one of the most quoted ‘people’ of the 21st Century. Enough said.
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Beth Warin
After a childhood not mispent watching Disney classics she has been left with unrealstic romantic expectations and a rather annoying American twang. Evidently her vocal chords are very impressionable. Her loves include the less slimy forms of sushi, dangerous footwear and building a shrine devoted to Leonardo Dicaprio’s face. Life quests include ownership of the entire Stephen King back catalogue and finally winning a single glance of puppy dog love from her angry angry pooch.
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Nicola Marchant
Nicola is a Film Studies graduate, which means she is harbouring the somewhat deluded apprehension that she knows a lot about film. She’ll watch just about anything… but if it’s cult, camp and trashy she’ll be on it quicker than you can say ‘John Waters’. Next only to her love of film is her love of tiny toy dinosaurs.
